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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Basketball - Enduring Lessons (10 Years Past)

"It's a 'make or miss' league." Keen sense of the obvious.

Take pride in having a team that punches above its weight. We were mostly small but those kids battled (lesson 1, compete). Ask them to do something and they did it to the best of their ability (lesson 2, be coachable). 

Everyone makes the playoffs and we drew a stronger team with three big girls from a stronger division. The kids didn't know that. They just played.

We trailed by a few in the second half and put in a wrinkle. 

Favorite action, double downscreens sets up curls, flare lifts, or a drive for proficient point guards (lesson 3, be versatile). 


The team scored seven points on the ensuing five possessions (lesson 4, figure it out). 

The opponent took a timeout and switched to zone defense. Somehow, we hung on for a three-point win. 

In the handshake line, the opposing coach said, "if we made any shots we would have won." I said nothing. (lesson 5, show and teach sportsmanship). 

Work to put our teams in the best position to succeed. Whatever happens, adopt the Fourth Agreement (lesson 6, "always do your best"). I'm probably the only one who even remembers the game. 

Lagniappe. Do our players know what are good shots? 

Lagniappe 2. This reminds me of something Coach K told USA Olympians before playing the Gold Medal game. When you're standing out there as a team before the game, think about the one person in your life who helped make this possible for you. 

 

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