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Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Basketball: Failure Is not an Option

“A man of genius makes no mistakes,” wrote James Joyce. “His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.”

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Everyone fails. The person who accepts no responsibility and disavows ever failing deceives himself not the world. 

It's worth developing a catalog of failure turned success stories.

In his MasterClass, Wolfgang Puck said that at one point he stood on a bridge for an hour, contemplating jumping. 

Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner toiled in obscurity in the Arena Football League before making the NFL. 

Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln had a poor election track record before becoming president. 

Vincent Van Gogh moved from job to job and sold only one painting during his lifetime. His paintings sell for millions now.
 

Hans Zimmer lived in a cheap London flat before he was "discovered" as a master composer for movie scores. 

It took Edison a thousand tries to invent the lightbulb. He explained that he learned, "999 ways not to make a lightbulb." 

Many 'overnight success' stories overlook the years of work that underpinned recognition. 

John Maxwell wrote "Failing Forward" in which he describes numerous stories of failure turned into success. 

Do. Not. Quit. 

Lagniappe. Invest the four minutes to watch.
 

Lagniappe 2. Keep going.

  

Lagniappe 3. Overload. 


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Monday, November 20, 2023

Basketball: Red Teaming and the UFMCS

"It's what you learn after you know everything that counts."

In Red Team, Micah Zenko discusses the UFMCS, the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies. Students learn how others think. 

"The foundational assumption for all incoming students - regardless of their their background, education, or professional experience - is that they do not know how to think."

Lifelong learners understand they don't know everything about anything and that they often know less than they think. They also learn that some of their knowledge is wrong.  

Conversely, smart, experienced, powerful people don't want to take criticism from either peers or outsiders. "Who the hell do you think you are to tell me how to do my job better?"

"The four pillars that UFMCS curricula are based upon are - critical thinking, groupthink mitigation, cultural empathy, and self-awareness."

Some of the course material is available online in the Red Team Handbook. Here are two brief excerpts:

"Contrarian Techniques Devil’s Advocacy Challenging a single, strongly held view or consensus by building the best possible case for an alternative explanation. When to Use Devil’s Advocacy is used to consider whether stated beliefs or assertions have been formed prematurely, without first considering alternative perspectives. It is a technique designed to help expose implicit assumptions and faulty reasoning. According to Morgan Jones in The Thinker’s Toolkit, it is believed to have originated in the Roman Catholic Church to critically examine a deceased person’s qualification for sainthood. Before approving sainthood, select individuals were given the task of advocating for the Devil by researching and surfacing any reasons why that person should not become a saint.

The logic behind Devil’s Advocacy stems from the cognitive challenges of decision making discussed by Richards Heuer (The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis) and Morgan D. Jones (The Thinkers Toolkit): 

  • We commonly solve problems by first forming a conclusion, and then using available evidence to support it. “[We tend to] favor a particular outcome or solution early on in the analytic process...long before we can objectively analyze the evidence and reach a conclusion.” (This is the cognitive bias known as confirmation bias.) 
  • We tend to perceive what we expect to perceive
  • We tend to value information that is consistent with our views, and reject or overlook information that is not
  • We can easily become wedded to a pre-existing plan, person’s reputation, etc., which precludes us from continuing to think critically about that plan, person, etc. 

Imagine that we attend a coaching clinic given by experts in and whose career arc depended upon Spread or Princeton Offense or 2-3 Zone defense or Packline defense. They educate but also proselytize attendees. "I won with these approaches and you might, too." 

None of these might be right for your players or your team based on your ability to teach and implement. 

If you were attacking your team, how would you do it based on your insider knowledge? 

Lagniappe. Discipline is how you live your life. 

Lagniappe 2. I'd encourage caution with this move. The high "rip through" exposes your elbows to an opponent's face. 

 

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Sunday, November 19, 2023

Basketball: Practicing Situations

Do we practicing 'situational basketball' often enough? Because about a third of games are decided by two possessions or fewer, practicing 'close and late' situations seems obvious.

All of us have experienced bad beats, heartbreaking losses because of plays made, decisions made or not made. 

Players must understand time, score, and situation. Depending on each, the priority might be inbounding safely, scoring, avoiding fouls, fouling to stop the clock, and so forth.

I won't discuss offensive or defensive delay games or deciding whether to foul up three late. 

Key points: 

1) Define the goal of each close and late possession. It might mean running clock, not scoring. 

2) Raise the stakes. One coach saw players uncommitted to knowing the plays. He told them to study because if you failed the written test, you wouldn't play. They learned. 

3) Practice special situations regularly. We finished each practice with 15 minutes of special situation practice, called "specials," with three possession games starting with BOB, SLOB, free throw, or ATO. 

4a. Plan, don't presume. You won't always have a timeout to set up the play and matchups you want. 

4b. Timeouts can be golden for substitution, rest, or coaching. Dean Smith wanted to save three for the final four minutes. If it's good enough for Dean...

5) Cultivate an inbounder whom you trust to get the ball in safely and with the patience to wait for plays to develop. 

What more could we do? 

  • Brad Stevens watched the end of more than a thousand NBA games, evaluating what worked and what didn't. 
  • Consider showing players your game film of what went well and what failed and why. 
  • Bobby Knight sometimes drew up a play during a "timeout" during practice and handed out pen and paper, expecting players to know the answer on 'the test'. 
"Luck is the residue of design." - John Milton

Lagniappe. Actions that work in the NBA don't mean they'll work for middle schoolers. Study concepts and see what works for your team. 

 

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What Resonates for You?

In an era of high parental oversight (helicopter parents, snowplow parents), what messages can resonate for your teams and you? 

Sharpen the axe. "If I had eight hours to cut down a tree, I'd spend the first six sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln  The ongoing debate about practice versus games seldom includes this advice. Writers outline, directors use a storyboard, and great players hone their craft before plying it. 

Don't punch down. Although Erik Spoelstra reminds us, "there is always a pecking order," the best at the top don't punch down. Jayson Tatum remarked this week about Al Horford's value not only as a player but as his favorite teammate. 

“He was somebody who really took me under their wing and I just always remembered he would periodically and at random times throughout my first year ask me how I am doing, how I am adjusting. He was somebody I really respected in the way that he went about his work. He was never late, always getting in his work at the gym, always taking care of his body.”

Be the tortoise. Everyone knows Aesop's fable about the metaphorical race between the speedy hare and the plodding tortoise. "Slow and steady wins the race." This excerpt from a 2019 post illustrates:

Lagniappe: The race may go to the most persistent not the fastest. 61 year-old ultramarathoner Cliff Young won the Sydney to Melbourne 543 mile race not by running faster but by running while others slept. 



"You just gotta keep going." 

"The movie is made in the editing room." - Ron Howard  How we create, assemble, and revise our material is what the audience judges. How we do that gets measured for artistic, emotional, and technical excellence. 

"Be the Man in the Arena." It's easier to be the critic, the outsider, the chorus. 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Coaching is never easy. Neither is inspiring. After a Celtics win over Toronto recently, Coach Joe Mazzulla said, "we weren't the best version of ourselves." Statistically and practically, we can't be at our absolute best every day. But we can "show up" and "give our best." That's a choice. 

Lagniappe. It's hard to carve out time during the season. 

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Lagniappe 2. Kobe. 
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Saturday, November 18, 2023

Work Out without an Expensive Gym Membership

Just as you develop your study habits, you develop your workouts. 

Here's a link to an older New York Times article on 'body weight exercises'.

Nothing works unless you do. 

Get your personal calendar and put a big 'X' through every day you work out. It won't be hard to see who gets more court time. 

 

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Friday, November 17, 2023

Basketball, Fast Five: Avoid Unforced Errors

Don't find fifty ways to lose games. 

Every game coaches see and lament 'unforced errors'. Often, they arise not from lack of skill but lack of focus.

In The Bear, Uncle Jimmy explains how Steve Bartman didn't lose the game for the Cubs, but a cascade of errors starting with Alex Gonzalez. "You don't want to be unfocused. You wan't to be the guy, be the #$%*ing guy. Unforced errors are contagious."

The best teams don't give games away. You have to beat them because they don't give games away. 

What causes unforced errors and what are some of them? 

1. Everyone is not on the same page. This shows up in a variety of ways, like miscommunication about defenses/assignments. Blown assignments allowing one or more easy baskets leave indelible pain, especially in the postseason. "Readback" diminishes mistakes. Give and get feedback. 

2. Mental mistakes. Turnovers come in two flavors, decision-making and execution. Great players and teams win in space. Poorer ones fail to space and drive and pass into traffic. "Your parents early lessons include 'do not play in traffic'. 

3. Lack of discipline. Undisciplined play shows up in many ways. 

  • Poor shot selection (I like Doc Rivers' term shot turnovers)
  • Bad fouling like reaching in, fouling perimeter shots, swatting down on shot blocking, and fouling low percentage shots...
  • Bad transition defense often stems from lack of awareness combined with insufficient effort.
4. Poor situational basketball. Give yourself a chance with well-designed BOBs, SLOBs, and ATOs with dedicated inbounding, solid screening with urgent cutting, and understanding of time, score, and situation. Improper end-of-quarter time management, fouling the wrong shooter, and unintelligent offensive and defensive delay games are 'losers'. 

5. "Make a new plan, Stan." One of my pet peeves is 'lack of intent'. How do we play smarter, harder, and longer than our opponent? If it looks as though there is no plan, there probably is no plan. Coaches should tell players "this is how we create advantage" and "that is how we prevent opponents from creating advantage." 

Lagniappe. "Bigs away come back into play." 

Lagniappe 2. Sports rewards explosiveness.   

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Thursday, November 16, 2023

Basketball: Hustle Plays


We know 'hustle plays' when we see them. They won't always ignite rallies or convey emotion to a club. But they're tangible, measure inputs to winning basketball. Depending on your offensive efficiency, a player generating an additional three to five possessions with hustle plays could be worth four to six more 'team' points.  

Add yours.

Possession savers. 
  • Offensive and defensive rebounds
  • Saved ball out-of-bounds
  • 50-50 balls won
Possession changers
  • Charges taken (also adds to foul totals)
  • Steals
  • Forced turnovers/forced violations
  • Held balls
Disruptors
  • Deflections
  • Screen assists
  • "Dental" screens (teeth rattling, clean screens)
Rick Pitino is a big believer in deflections. "If you got 35 deflections, you're going to win 95 percent of your games," he says.

And the NBA tracks everything: 


As an assistant, I tracked hustle play because I thought players who contributed but didn't score a lot needed recognition. Everyone needs to feel valued and heard. 

Lagniappe. "Life is difficult." 







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Achievement Means Persistent Performance Over Time

"Do more to become more; become more to do more."

Coaches want players to be mature, to become 'professional'? A player might respond, "I'm sixteen years old. How can I be professional?"

  • Take care of business at home. Be responsible to your family as they support your journey.
  • Achieve academically. I don't mean 'show up'. Shine. 
  • Always be on time. 
  • Never be a distraction. 
  • Be coachable. 
  • Be a great teammate. 
  • Model excellence. 
  • Make everyone around you better. 
  • Be the hardest worker at practice.  
  • Put the team first. 
  • "Always do your best." 
I'm proud to have former player Cecilia Kay sign her National Letter of Intent today to play at American University. 

- On track to become valedictorian at her school. 
- Three time Boston Herald All-Scholastic
- Boston Herald 2023 Dream Team (Top five in state) selection
- Led her team to the State Finals with a brilliant postseason
- Exceptional teammate and leader

"Having joined the 1,000 Point Club this past winter, Kay led the area in points (22.2) and rebounds (12.4) per game while also averaging 4.1 blocked shots per contest. She finished the season with 572 total points, 337 rebounds and 112 blocks; Kay also had double-doubles in 24 of the Crusaders’ 26 games, with three performances of 30 points or more."

She is on track to score over 1,500 points with over 1,000 rebounds in her career. 

She embodied the attitude, beliefs, and character needed for success. She and her family deserve the credit. 

When you coach, your family never stops growing.   

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Basketball: Fast Five, Making Winning Plays

We can't tell players often enough to add value by making others better. Here are five short clips showing 'winning plays'.

1. "Under-the-radar guys" still make plays with Jaylen Brown and Porzingis out. Derrick White to Jrue Holiday. 


2. Dalano Banton went +8 in eight minutes by making a difference with multiple efforts.
 

3. CARE - concentration --> anticipation --> reaction --> execution by Jaden Springer as the Celtics get careless.
 

4. White draws 2 and dishes to Luke Kornet. "Movement kills defenses."  


5. "Great offense is multiple actions." NBA teams exploit inside to outside passing in analytics-driven basketball. White 'stampedes' with an attack off the catch leading to finding Tatum at the high slot. 

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Basketball and Life, Epiphany: Simplify in Threes

I say it regularly, sport is a microcosm of life. Sometimes the answer appears. Take a step back and see it.

Imagine our current 'ecosystem' isn't working. Whether we call it culture or leadership void or whatever, the problem is the same. 

  • Jack Jones, Mac Jones and the Patriots. It's not working; reset.
  • James Harden and the Sixers...great player who can't always make a team better. Move on. 
  • Policy, at any level, flows from a combination of economics (money), religion (including both cultures and actual war), and politics. Much of the time, positions are so entrenched that 'deciders' marry the status quo. 
Sometimes it helps to think in 3s. Three's have power as in rhetorical tricolon:

- Friends, Romans, Countrymen
- Truth, justice, and the American way
- I came, I saw, I conquered.
- Chamberlain, West, Baylor
- Executive, legislative, and judicial branches

Study the 'Discipline of execution'
  1.  People  "This is who we are." 
  2.  Strategy "This is what we do." 
  3.  Operations "This is how we do it."
What's our overarching philosophy?
  1. Teamwork
  2. Improvement 
  3. Accountability
How do we structure game play? 
  1. Offense 
  2. Defense
  3. Conversion between O to D and D to O
What's your offensive organization?
  1. Spacing
  2. Player and ball movement (creating advantage)
  3. The scoring moment (executing advantage)
What are your offensive and defensive symmetrical keys?
  1. Take quality shots ("Take more and better shots than your opponent." - Pete Newell)
  2. Take care of the basketball (Force opponents to turn over the ball).
  3. Get easy baskets (Allow no easy baskets.)
What does each of us control? 
  1. Attitude
  2. Choices
  3. Effort 
Lagniappe. Learn from mistakes. 

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Lagniappe 2. Beautiful action. 

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Basketball: Do You Ever Get "Coach Block?"

Author R.L. Stein says that he never gets writer's block because he outlines thoroughly. 

Where is our coaching outline? Start with questions.

Where are we in the season? Do we need intensity, rest, emphasis on fundamentals, on offense, defense, or a specific issue (e.g. delay offense, special situations like SLOBs)? 

Coaches cope with a raft of concerns which cannot all be addressed daily. 

  • Player development template - 1 v 1, 2 v 2, 3 v 3
  • Conditioning (part of other actions is more efficient) 
  • Scoring structure- e.g. transition, sets, threes
  • Primary defenses - sagging or tight man, which zones? More may be less
  • PnR - what are the primary and secondary coverages?
  • 'Special situations' - BOB, SLOB, ATO, close and late?
  • Conversion (D to O, O to D) and transition
  • Offensive delay game
  • Defensive delay game
  • Game winners
Reality challenges...

-We can't do everything, every practice.
-We cannot "presume" a high basketball IQ 
-Brian McCormick's no lines, laps, and lectures
-Maximize efficiency (plan, high tempo)
-Shooting 30-35% per practice (we have to shoot better) with emphasis on competition
-Conditioning within drills, scrimmages
-Handling pressure every practice - includes conditioning
-3 on 3 every practice with a coach with each group
-Special situations (BOB, SLOB, ATOs) every practice
-Scrimmage (how much is enough?) 

Verify that we get players on same page, with buy in, and feedback. 

Lagniappe. "Play present." 

Lagniappe 2. It's not too late to become quicker and more powerful. 

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Monday, November 13, 2023

Basketball: Coachability

First, Mike Lombardi discusses coachability. "Being open to coaching is wonderful, but it doesn’t make you coachable. Only when you actively seek out coaching do you become coachable."

Coaches don't talk to hear ourselves think. 

My idea of the qualities of the coachable player:

Translate lessons into action. When we tell a player not to save a ball under the basket in their defensive end, we expect that to resonate. Concepts we share with one player apply to everyone. 

Listen. The best hunger for improvement, whether adding to their game or revising. That's especially true for shot selection and foul reduction, both of which translate directly into points among the Four Factors. For example, stop taking contested "tweener" shots in-between layups and floaters. And stop slapping down to block shots. If it 'looks like a foul' expect a foul. "Fouling negates hustle." 

Embrace don'ts. Knight's The Power of Negative Thinking makes great points. "Basketball is a game of mistakes." Turnovers, violations, and missed assignments cancel preparation and practice. 

Sleep on it. Care for your 'machine'. Proper sleep (ideally a minimum of eight hours), good nutrition, and considering staying off cellphones on game day may improve performance. 

360 degree evaluation. Coachable players understand that all actions on and off the court impact the team. Never be a distraction. A 360 degree evaluation takes input from superiors, peers, and subordinates. Don't bigfoot subordinates. Never kiss up and kick down. 

  • Be a model teammate...on time, ready to go. 
  • Never embarrass the team through your actions. 
  • Take care of business at home and school. If you can learn basketball, you can learn high school math and history. 
  • Don't leave your scent on everyone around you. 
  • Raise everyone around you to a higher level. 
Lagniappe. This NBA SLOB feels 'flexish' 

Lagniappe 2. Food for thought. 

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Don't Let One Cut Turn Into Death by Bleeding

I wrote this for volleyball but it applies to all sports. Don't let one play bleed into 'exsanguination' (death by hemorrhage). 

You have heard the expression, "death by a thousand cuts." It applies to volleyball and other sports.

A player commits a service error. Then, they misplay a ball and then again. One 'event' turns into a series of negative plays. A lead evaporates or a tie game turns into a critical deficit. 

And we all know is that volleyball is a game of momentum. An individual 'small mistake' becomes quicksand. It happens across all sports... the "snowball effect." 

It's not unique to one player or one team. But the best players have the capacity to move on, past the prior play. It's the "cornerback effect."

A young player with the New York Mets asked who the pitcher was on the other team. "That's Steve Carlton" (future Hall of Famer). Lenny Dykstra replied, "I'll hit him." 

Alan Stein elaborates. Watch this one minute clip. 

The four legs of the stool are: skill, strategy, physicality, and psychology. If one is broken, the stool tips.  

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Sunday, November 12, 2023

Basketball: A Meeting I'll Never Forget That Changed Everything

About twenty years ago, we attended an AAU 'team meeting' for parents before the season started. Coaches Shawanda and Eric Brown held court in Dorchester, a section of Boston. 

Their bold plan, split an established successful AAU team into two teams, integrating one. Not all the parents were in favor.

Shawanda explained that her intent was to get more exposure for all the players. She said something to the effect that during showcases, the team as comprised wasn't attracting as many coaches as an integrated team would. Adding suburban 'white girls' would make the team appear 'different' to coaches.

Some parents pushed back, saying that they didn't see why this was necessary. The sentiments clearly were not racist but directed to preserving the status quo.

Shawanda stood firm. "When your daughters play in college, the coach isn't going to care about your opinion." Another parent asked, "what if there are problems?" Eric, a Boston firefighter built like an NFL linebacker said, "there will be no problems." There weren't. 

My daughters got one of the best basketball and life experiences imaginable that spring/summer of 2004. They played basketball at the AAU Nationals at Winston-Salem (Wake), at the Disney Center, in Pennsylvania, Richmond, DC, and elsewhere. They practiced with and against better players and sometimes against Dorchester boys. They got better, faster, and tougher. They and we made a lot of new friends where character not color dominated.  

I introduced myself to a parent at a scrimmage. "Hi, I'm Ron." He replied, "I'm Ron, too." He had an enormous ring with an emerald stone. "That's quite a ring." He said, "you want to see it." "Sure." It read, "University of Miami Hall of Fame." I said, "You're Ronnie Lippett" (a former New England Patriots cornerback). He said, "And so I am." 

That winter, some of the girls' teammates came to Melrose for a high school game against Belmont. My daughter Paula scored 28 points with 14 rebounds that night. That would never have happened without the Lady Dolphins, the Coaches Brown, and their teammates. 

Shawanda and Eric Brown helped make that happen at that meeting that I'll never forget. 

Lagniappe. Often, the quality of cutting separates success and failure.  

Lagniappe 2. Sequential screens open up a 1-4 low BOB dunk. 

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Basketball: Teaching Highlights

Study film regularly.

Force to tape? Kevin Eastman preaches 'force to tape' meaning an imaginary piece of tape between the basket and sideline. Sometimes players defeat that as Porzingis gets the angle. 


Help on the drive (draw 2) results in an impossibly long closeout. NBA players are too good for this. 


Urgent cutting off a fake handoff with on-time, on-target passing for two.
 

Do we teach this often enough? Reject the ball screen and attack.
 

"Great offense is multiple actions." Sport rewards separation via screening and hard cutting.
 

In the Raptor two-man game, the Celtics double the post and the Raptors reestablish the mismatch with Siakam going "mouse in the house" on White. 


This is pretty and a bit unusual. Raptors get ball reversal via a short roll pass from the wing to the midpost. 


Another good example of ball reversal, through the post with a "one more" pass for a triple. 

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