Friday, April 11, 2025

Basketball, Less Is More

"Less is more." One of the great challenges in coaching is letting go of the familiar. We need a strategy. 

Let's start with a consultation to Marie Kondo. 

Love the "less is more" vibe. Marie Kondo’s philosophy fits that perfectly. Her method, the KonMari Method, is about more than tidying — it’s about intentional living. Here are her top three principles:

1. Keep Only What Sparks Joy
This is her signature idea. You physically handle each item and ask yourself, "Does this spark joy?" If it does, you keep it. If it doesn’t, you thank it for its service and let it go.

  • Coaching parallel: Evaluate drills, routines, and habits. Keep only those that energize your athletes or serve a clear purpose.

2. Tidy by Category, Not Location
Instead of cleaning one room at a time, you organize by category (e.g., clothes, books, papers) across the entire space.

  • Coaching parallel: Focus training by skill category (e.g., serve receive, blocking, transition offense) rather than "today we’re doing a little of everything." Concentrated work creates clarity and momentum.

3. Follow the Right Order
Marie Kondo insists on a specific order: clothes → books → papers → komono (miscellaneous) → sentimental items. Starting with easier decisions builds the decision-making muscle for harder ones later.

  • Coaching parallel: Build confidence and rhythm by tackling easier concepts first, then layering complexity. Early wins matter.

The value comes from the "effectiveness" or something else - an association or a memory. For example, I don't find 'yelling' as particularly helpful, so it was easy to eliminate. 

Make our metaphorical 'possessions' serve us instead of us serving them. 

What can we remove? Brian McCormick has the "no lines, no laps, no lectures" mantra. Don Kelbick simplifies the initial thought to "think shot first." Teach kids not to play in traffic. "Win in space." 

If we choose category, would it be drill, offense, defense, something else? A few defensive don'ts might include "don't help off the three" and "help across, not up." For many young offensive players, "don't put the ball on the deck as soon as you get it." 

What's the right order? Eliminate selfishness. "Fight for your culture every day." Nobody can get rid of everything, all at once. 

Lagniappe. Don't traffic in excuses. Be a champion of preparation. "Excuses hold us back from accomplishing our mission. Don’t make them. Instead, focus on your preparation. If you win, continue to prepare knowing that there is someone out there who is working r right now to beat you. If you lose, be that someone." - Eric Kapitulik in The Program

Lagniappe 2. Ready for your interview? 

Lagniappe 3. Can an outside observer reduce our system to its core?  

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Thursday, April 10, 2025

Why You Shouldn't Read This Basketball Blog

Think backwards. In "Originals" Adam Grant shares how entrepreneur Rufus Griscom presented a slide show why investors shouldn't buy his startup, Babble.  

Grant argues that explaining limitations "disarms" evaluators who may reappraise their purchase options. 

Many readers have vast knowledge of basketball. They might not learn something every day from strictly within the basketball domain. 


Analogies teach. Van Gogh sold one picture during his life. I don't sell anything from blog posts and not many copies of my e-book, "The Simple Guide to Girls' Basketball." 

Best recent piece of advice. "Don't put in the time. Put in the work."


Don't be a "get off my lawn" guy. You don't have to live analytics to find some statistical measures that help - shooting percentage, turnovers, fouls and foul shooting. We can't pick and choose, saying analytics are useless, except for the ones we like. 

Old guys know nothing. Ask Geno Auriemma (71 years young). 


On average there are 500-1000 readers a day. The blog is over ten years old. The "social proof" is Feedspot's recommendation as a top 100 global basketball blog. 

Best offensive advice? "Space, cut, and move the ball. Take high percentage shots for your team." Don't apply NBA stats to high schoolers.  


There are over 4,000 posts and a 'storehouse' of over 1,200 drafts. In an 'open source' domain, there are always new questions needing new answers. 


Never confuse self-worth with readership. 

As of 7 PM today (4/10/25) here are recent Google stats. 

Joe's right. Each of us decides what to care about. 

Legitimate experts can be wrong. Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos both thought the Segway personal transport system would be the next new thing. 

Domain expertise varies. Even if we're "experts," we're not experts on everything. 

Hubris exposes "experts" to error because they believe they're "the smartest guy in the room." 

Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm can cause judgment errors. 

Lagniappe. You can't live off of "don't do that." "Discuss what you need to stop doing, but spend the great majority of your time communicating what to do." - from Kapitulik, The Program

Lagniappe 2. What matters is getting things done. "To understand the barriers that Carmen Medina (creator of DoD Intellipedia) encountered, we need to tease apart two major dimensions of social hierarchy that are often lumped together: power and status. Power involves exercising control or authority over others; status is being respected and admired." - From Originals, Adam Grant

Lagniappe 3. Repetitions and more. 



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Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Lessons from High School Basketball

Driving a country road, a coach saw a sign "Talking Dog $25." Curious, he asks the owner, can I talk with him? He asks the dog, "can you tell me your story?" "Sure. Early on, my master learned I had the gift of speech. Naturally, he sent me to the CIA, as I could go where other operators couldn't. I was legendary. But I got old, so they retired me." The coach said, "That's incredible. You're selling him for nothing? The owner said, "he's such a liar. He never did any of that."

Readers include former professionals, a National Player of the Year, state championship coaches, shooting champions, basketball savants. I never did any of that. 

What does high school sports teach? 

  • Keep priorities straight - home, school, sports.
  • Take care of business. Work before play. 
  • Be coachable. Coach said, "If I stop yelling at you. I've given up." Embrace the coaching and even the yelling. 
  • Surround yourself with great people.
  • Be positive. Nobody gets a positive life from a negative attitude. 
  • Be a great teammate. We're on many teams - home, school, sports, communities. Coaches see everything. 
  • Invest in yourself. Nothing brings a higher return on investment. 
  • Find a mentor. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." As Mr. Rogers said, "Look for the helpers." 
  • Move the ball. "Movement kills defenses." 
  • Take care of yourself. Hats and gloves. "You're no good to us if you're sick." Coach Wooden taught players the right way to don socks and shoes to avoid blisters. 
  • Sacrifice. Teamwork matters. Make the extra pass and make three people happy - the shooter, the coach, and yourself. 
  • "The ball is gold." Taking care of the ball earns minutes.
  • Never quit. Extra effort makes miracles. Be "The Cardiac Kids."
Lagniappe. "Leaders make leaders." 
Lagniappe 2. Study drop coverage reads and escapes. 

Lagniappe 3. A way to run Zoom Action from horns. 

Find balance. Yesterday my wife and I went to see the musical "Moulin Rouge" on Broadway. Appreciate the talent others have in different domains. Here's a youtube.com clip of the encore. 




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Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Basketball - Teaching Video, Five Plays That Made the Difference

Florida topped Houston for the NCAA National Basketball Championship in a one-possession game. "Every possession counts." Failed transition defense in the first few minutes counts as much as a missed shot at the end.

Film study shows you what to do and what not to do. What lessons were taught? 

1) Transition defense failures, early or late are critical. Protect the basket, beat your man downcourt, slow the ball, "shape up." 


2) When fronting the post, ball pressure and backside help are critical. Make the entry pass tough. Have a defensive call when fronting, "Red" or "Fire." 


3) Hard cutting wins. In 1986 it was Bird and Walton. 


Last night Florida used HORNS give-and-cut action multiple times. 

4) Use hard-to-defend actions. Florida uses a complex screen (stagger) to open up a late three. 

5) Win in space. Your parent tells you "don't play in the traffic." The spacing is poor and Houston drives into traffic. 

Lagniappe. "Nobody would fault Sam for making excuses. Instead of making them, though, he makes commitments - to be the best teammate and best team leader that he can be, on, and for, all of the teams of which he is a part." - The Program, Erik Kapitulik... Team member Sam Cila lost a hand in combat and required hospitalization at Walter Reed for over a year. 

Lagniappe 2. The magic is in the work. 

Lagniappe 3. Urgent cutting is a hard-to-defend action.  

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Monday, April 7, 2025

Check the Offseason Basketball Boxes

Are you checking the boxes for excellence?

Not an all-inclusive list...

1) Skill-building

  • Work on fundamentals (cellphone video monitor, track personal bests)
  • Play basketball (read the game, superior conditioning)
  • Review your progress (self-assessment)
2) Strategy 
  • Study game video
  • Study excellent players, coaches, and teams 
  • "Look under the hood" at what produces success/failure (analytics)
3) Physicality
  • Strength, quickness, conditioning
  • Plyometrics 
  • Optimize sleep, nutrition, hydration, recovery
4) Resilience

“The key is to let go of two things: grasping and aversion. Grasping is when the mind desperately holds on to something and refuses to let it go. Aversion is when the mind desperately keeps something away and refuses to let it come. These two qualities are flip sides of each other. Grasping and aversion together account for a huge percentage of the suffering we experience, perhaps 90 percent, maybe even 100 percent.”―Chade-Meng Tan, Search Inside Yourself

Nobody checks all the boxes every day. Choose to check some of them.

Lagniappe. Simplify transition. 

Lagniappe 2. A bit older and still want some plyometrics?  

Lagniappe 3. You're 'yes' and your 'no'? 

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Sunday, April 6, 2025

Basketball - “Cred Pack” Less Important than Credible Actions

Crime novel enthusiasts hear about the protagonist’s cred pack (credentials pack), credentials such as agency ID, photograph, and badge.

Writers have cred packs, too. Instead of credentials, it’s credibility. Mine is thin compared with many readers'.

  • Over 20 years coaching Middle School basketball (final six as head coach)
  • Helped develop two D1 scholarship athletes out of 25 coached as head coach
  • Author The Simple Guide to Girls Basketball
  • Over 4300 basketball blog posts, Top 50 among Feedspot basketball bloggers
  • Coached multiple players earning All-Scholastics, valedictorians
  • Captain, Massachusetts Division 1 sectional high school basketball champion 1973
  • Wakefield High School Hall of Fame 
  • Wakefield High School valedictorian, Scholar-Athlete Award
  • Board of Directors, Melrose High School Athletic Hall of Fame
  • National Merit Scholar
  • Retired physician, formerly Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine
None of these add value to your program. That's my daily goal. What can we transmit to players and coaches to add value? Specificity  adds credibility. 

1) Commitment to preparation. Although Bob Knight has received credit for this quote, it's from Fielding Yost in 1930:

"The will to win. We hear a lot about that. The will and the wish to win, but there isn’t a chance for either one of them to be gratified or to have any value unless there has been a will to prepare to win."

Pick it (Write it down). Stick with it. Check it. 

2) The best teams play "harder for longer" according to Dave Smart. That requires focus and fitness. Enhance focus with mindfulness and fitness with jumping rope and sprinting.

3) Toughness is a skill which can be acquired. ChatGPT suggests ideas from Erik Kapitulik's The Program: 

Here are the main ideas he offers about building toughness:

  1. Embrace Hardship on Purpose
    Toughness is built by choosing to do hard things regularly. Kapitulik stresses voluntarily embracing adversity — not waiting for life to throw challenges at you, but seeking them out. This might mean physically demanding workouts, difficult conversations, or leadership challenges that test your resilience.

  2. The Standard is the Standard
    Teams (and individuals) must establish clear standards of behavior and performance — and never lower them, no matter the circumstance. Consistently holding yourself and your teammates accountable to high standards breeds both toughness and trust.

  3. Team Toughness > Individual Toughness
    While personal grit matters, The Program highlights that the toughest teams are those that sacrifice for one another. Toughness means consistently putting the team's needs ahead of your own comfort, ego, or excuses.

  4. Mental Discipline in Small Things
    Daily habits build mental toughness. Kapitulik talks about the importance of discipline in everyday life — being on time, making your bed, finishing what you start. These small acts prepare you mentally for bigger challenges.

  5. Earn Your Role Every Day
    Toughness requires an attitude of constant earning, not entitlement. Whether you're a captain or a rookie, you earn your spot on the team and your influence through daily effort and commitment.

  6. "We Before Me"
    True toughness, especially on a team, requires shifting your mindset from self-centeredness to team-centeredness. Being "tough" isn’t just how much you can endure; it's how much you’re willing to give up for others.

  7. Leadership Through Example
    Leaders must model toughness: doing the hardest tasks, holding themselves to the highest standard, and showing vulnerability when appropriate. Kapitulik calls for "leaders who eat last and serve first."

A few examples:

Celtics' coach Joe Mazzulla starts the day in the cold tub, because nothing will be harder than that over the day. 

When climbers ascend Everest, they acclimate at base camps at elevations over 15,000 feet as altitude subjects them to severe physical challenges - cold, lower oxygen, dramatic rise in metabolism burning calories

At the UNC Women's soccer program, the "competitive cauldron" includes daily scoring and ranking individual performance. 

Jay Bilas's Toughness is a must read for basketball toughness. 

4) "Be a tracker." Darren Hardy writes, "Winners are trackers" in The Compound Effect. Measure athleticism and skill development, continually seeking to improve our personal best. Whether it's the classroom, the weight room, or in the gym, "measure twice, cut once." 

5) Promote competition. "Make practice hard so games are easier." Adding practice constraints (e.g. makes in a given time, scores in the paint, consecutive defensive stops, etc.) creates internal competition. 

Summary: 
  • Commit to preparation.
  • Play harder for longer.
  • Foster toughness.
  • Be a tracker.
  • Promote competition. 
Lagniappe. Meyer rules. 
Lagniappe 2. Shorting the pick-and-roll 


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Saturday, April 5, 2025

Why Coach? Impact the Game, Players, and Our Broader Community

View on Threads

Professor Adam Grant explains happiness versus contribution.

Our gratitude journal (three items daily) reviews what we are thankful for. Grant advises us to keep a "Contribution Journal."

What three things did we do for others today? 

  • Write to inform and share actionable items. 
  • Make others around us better through actions and words.
  • Be a "justice warrior."
These mimic the qualities of exceptional players. 
  • The best players impact the game. They give the game what it needs at that time. 
  • The best players make everyone around them better. 
  • Exceptional players lead. They impact society in a meaningful way as role models and positive influences on society. 
These apply to coaches. 
  • The best coaches impact the game through maximizing the roles of people, strategies, and operations (execution). 
  • The best coaches foster development of character and competence. 
  • Top coaches understand they serve a variety of communities. 
Lagniappe. Kelvin Sampson shares. "Touching every line is a metaphor for life." 
Lagniappe 2. Most people do not have a realistic assessment of our situation. "High school seniors: 70 percent report that they have “above average” leadership skills, compared with 2 percent “below average”; in the ability to get along with others, 25 percent rate themselves in the top 1 percent, and 60 percent put themselves in the top 10 percent." - From "Originals" by Adam Grant

Lagniappe 3. Stay under control even when you don't want to. 




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Friday, April 4, 2025

Improve Our Basketball and Other Presentations

"Presentations should cover no more than three aspects in fifteen minutes." - Talk Like Ted, Carmine Gallo 

People tune out boring coaches. 

The Greeks said three factors influenced others - ethos (character), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion). The best talks rely on pathos manifesting as passion. Tell great stories. Paint mental pictures. Engage audiences. 

Quality presentations had three prominent qualities - novelty, emotion, and memorable stories. 

Be original. Everyone can be more creative, more influential. Business leaders were shocked when they heard that introverts were often the most creative people in the room. They assumed their loudest voice was the smartest. You know the saying, "An empty barrel makes the most noise." 

Learn across domains. Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Chuck Daly said, "I'm a salesman." Think how you can sell yourself. 

The last song Doug Collins heard before the 1972 Olympic game against Russia? "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?" He's not a fan. But he could begin a talk with that.

Bring emotion. Big events leave big marks, indelible mental ink. That's literally "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." 

An Athletic Director's parent told me that a parent came to the AD irate about the softball coach. "The coach doesn't know what he's doing." The AD answered, "Well, he's 21-1." The coach stayed as the parent's complained got dismissed.

Be memorable. Geno Auriemma took questions after a UCONN practice. Someone asked, "were you nice because you had an audience?" "No, I was nice because they're babies. If I yell, they think, "Coach hates me.""

Bill Gates gives a lecture on infections. 

 

What leaves the greatest impact on people? Belief. When you hear, "I believe in you" or tell a player, "you're the best player I've ever coached," they never forget that moment.

Style and content both matter. 

Use eye contact and an occasional gesture. 

Vary our voice. Alter the volume. Alter the pitch. Sometime silence can work. 

Add humor. Add graphics. Combine them. 


You see the local baseball field and the football field behind it. 


The longest homer ever in Melrose helped launch Craig's professional baseball and Hall of Fame career. It landed halfway down the goal post down the left field line. It had a crew of four and a hot meal on it. I served that up. I was part of engineering history.

Know your stuff. Be direct. Be memorable. 

Summary: 

  • Make it original.
  • Make it emotional.
  • Make it memorable. 

Lagniappe. Control the narrative. 

Lagniappe 2. Jim Rohn said, "suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret." 

Lagniappe 3. Can't scout original. 

View on Threads






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Thursday, April 3, 2025

We Teach Basketball...and Leadership

Acquire and share accumulated wisdom over your lifetime. Webster's definition of curator includes: "a person at a museum, zoo, etc. who is in charge of a specific collection or subject area."

Here's an excellent collection of concepts from Dave Kline: 

Several particularly resonated:

1) Set high standards. Believe your team will meet them.

2) Reasonable people will draw different conclusions without a shared picture of excellence. (Making a team is not enough...chasing excellence is a shared vision)

3) Small feedback given regularly is coaching. (Coaching is not criticism. Coaches mentor players and teams to translate process into excellence.)

4) Subtracting is 10x harder than adding. Which is what makes it 10x more valuable. (Do more of what works and less of what doesn't).

5) Your culture is the sum of everything you celebrate minus everything you tolerate. (What we tolerate sets the floor of achievement.) 

6) Trust people with the truth. (Coaching advances players and teams toward the truth.) 

7) Your team will mimic your actions before they follow your words. ("Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear a word you say.")

8) It's not real unless it's written down. (Be clear and concise. Share.)

Benjamin Franklin informed these in seven words. "Well done is better than well said." 

When you find someone who shares productive content, check in. There may be more than one nugget in that stream. 

Lagniappe. Loaded jumps will increase your block touch.

Lagniappe 2. A process for grading video. 

Lagniappe 3. Basketball actions are more than perimeter passing to take a three. You see it and I know you see it. 

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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

"No Cure for Curiosity"

 


Image from James O'Shaughnessy "Two Thoughts" (also author of the iconic, What Works on Wall Street)

Players get in trouble when they say they are bored, that there is nothing here for them. As children we heard this a lot, "bored people are boring."

Can we create an assessment tool? It's the Internet. Impossible becomes I'm Possible.

Make learning THE GAME a game. You can create your own Socratic method tool. Drill down within an area (individual defense) and create subheadings like STANCE, OFF BALL DEFENSE, HELP, COMMUNICATION, and so forth.

Go to "Wheel Decide." Preparing for a job interview, a media session, a performance review? You can create your own uncertainty or training opportunity.

Choose a topic and a piece of paper. Write down whatever you know about the topic and then distill that to the most important elements on an index card. 

Or choose what you consider more important topics - "basketball separation" or "hard to defend actions" or "toughness." Or choose a fun assignment like "the wit and wisdom of Abe Lemons." 


Make learning fun. Make learning a game. And remember there is no cure for curiosity. 

Lagniappe. A lack of standards or standards applied inconsistently is a sure way to lose. 


Lagniappe 2. Kelbick with the absolute truth about defense. 

Lagniappe 3. Because you love basketball... 



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Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Update on Basketball Cutting

"Basketball is a game of __________ ." Everyone fills in the blank differently, in multiple ways. Focus today on separation via cutting. Never presume that our players know what we think they should know. Turnovers and presumption kill dreams. 

"Movement kills defense." Cutting is underrated. Cutting moves players into spots to drive, shoot, screen, or be unobtrusive. Cutting and pivoting are two vital offensive skills that create separation that get too little time. 

1) "Set up your cut." Direct from the Bilas "Toughness" criteria. This applies with or without a screen. 

2) Cut urgently. Offense fails without 'intentional cutting'. How many times have you seen teams try to run UCLA cuts with the cutter not setting up the cut and not cutting hard? Urgency is a word players should live.

3) Read the defender. Punish head turners by cutting behind them. 

4) Be aware of the ball handler. If they're not looking at you or for you, they can't deliver the ball and your cut is wasted. 

5) "The ball is a camera." If you want it to find you, then you have to find or create a passing lane. 

6) Walk to run. Walking into a cut can catch lackadaisical defenders unaware. 

7) "Go to, to go away." Cutting directly at a defender can put them at a disadvantage. 

8) Inside foot cut. I call this the Edelman cut. You don't see this much because most cuts arise off the outside foot. Edelman cuts off the inside foot (maybe with some push off) and scores. Not for regular use.  

9) Types of cuts. Access great video like Coach Nick's here on Bball Breakdown. UCLA, Flex, Zipper, Shuffle. 


10) The screener is the second cutter. Kid stuff. Zipper cut entry from SLOB with return pass to inbounder and then entry to rolling screener for the layup. Teach the screeners that "scut work" is opportunity.
 

11) Great offense is multiple actions. Staggered screen (Iverson cut) ices the game in a postseason high school tournament sectional semifinals. 


Lagniappe. Exceptional presentation via Basketball Immersion on weakside (helpside) cutting with focus on corner cut, 45 cuts, and dives with baseline drive. Extended video worth showing your players. 

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