Coaches are coffee makers.
Coaches don't grow the beans. We find and refine them - grinding and filtering. Some excel at grinding and others at filtering.
What beans can you harvest?
How do you roast and grind them?
How does the refined, filtered, and presented product taste?
Some coaches have special expertise at finding the beans (Jerry Tarkanian).
Others excel at the roasting and grinding (e.g. Drew Hanlen, Chris Brickley, Don Kelbick).
Filters foster a different skill - ones often celebrated - Bee, McLendon, Wooden, Newell, Auerbach, Smith, Knight, Auriemma, Summitt, Krzyzewski, Jackson, and more.
Authors can describe the entirety of the process yet cannot do so without attribution to the history of the game.
- Sometimes we focus on the beans
- Sometimes we focus on the grind
- Sometimes we focus on the filtration
If you want a great cup of coffee, you need to understand and standardize the process.
Everyone won't agree on the quality of the beans, the grind, or the refinement. But most relish a great cup of coffee.
Imagining that "any idiot" can find a bean, roast and grind it, and prepare it to perfection makes as much sense as "any idiot with a whistle can coach."
Lagniappe. Protect your kings. Understand and promote pieces working together. Know that a pawn can become a queen. Love and learn from our losses.
View on Threads
