The margin for error shrinks during every round in the postseason. Excellent teams don't beat themselves with poor decisions and mental mistakes.
Tell your players what you're going to say, say it, and repeat it.
1. "Mental mistakes will beat us." Everyone needs to be on the same page. Knowing your assignment, their strengths and weaknesses, and opponent strategy counts.
2. "Don't trust; verify." What's your assignment? If this happens, you do what?
3. "There's no time for selfishness." The number one statistical factor in winning is effective field goal percentage. The quickest path to improvement is better shot selection. As Coach Auriemma would say, "if it were up to me, I'd let you shoot. Your teammates don't want you to." Forget about hero ball.
4. "Turnovers kill dreams." If you don't value the ball then you have to sit.
5. "Every second counts." Don't take plays off. Every second of every possession matters. "Play harder for longer."
6. "Know the time, score, and situation." About a third of games are decided by two or fewer possessions. That can distill down to "two-for-one" shots at the end of quarters. It can occur with a shot taken too soon at the end-of-quarter that turns into an opponent hoop.
7. "There are no 50-50 balls." it has to be ours. Back to those two possession games...win more possessions via rebounds, saved balls, and loose ball retrievals.
8. Free throw efficiency. Target better. Bill Bradley aimed for the center of the four bolts attaching the goal to the backboard. They're gone. But you can aim for the middle of the connecting plate underneath the goal. Sometimes it has writing such as "SPAULDING." It can make a difference. "Teams that can't shoot free throws last as long in the playoffs as dogs that chase cars."
Bonus: forget about multitasking. In The One Thing, Gary Keller points out that multitasking is a myth. Even computers rapidly sequence between tasks. Distracted driving (texting) accounts for 16 percent of all driving fatalities and half a million injuries annually. Players need full focus on the task at hand.
Lagniappe. Tatum separation for shots...
Aggressive coverages aren't good because of the aggressive coverage itself.
— Chris Steed (@steeder10) March 7, 2025
Teams that blitz, trap, press, etc. all understand 1 SIMPLE CONCEPT:
'Two good passes will beat ANY aggressive defense'- they take THAT away FIRST.
HAVOC from Shaka Smart and VCU was very effective… pic.twitter.com/xXTUZz3mNe
Lagniappe 3. Do our players know that value comes from making others better?
THE BEST PLAYER
— Steve Dagostino (@DagsBasketball) March 7, 2025
We often mistake the role of the best player on a team for the leading scorer. No doubt, a team’s best player needs to be a high producer. But, on winning teams, the best player also sets the tone for the team’s ‘presence’ and raises the level of other players… pic.twitter.com/Oq9qyADZ3o
