Filing Cabinet

This article was written by Coach Mike Neighbors.

This post is the second part of what I have posted. Here is a link to part 1

Well Coached Teams Part 1

Coach Neighbors has a weekly newsletter that is outstanding. If you would like to subscribe, email me and I will forward your interest on to him.

Well Coached teams players have positive body language: No poor reactions coming of the court after a substitution, no back talking a coach/teammate/official, no slumping of shoulders on the bench, no looking in stands during a time out, no throwing water bottles/towels/warm-ups at managers… With well coached teams it’s difficult to tell whether they are winning or losing games without looking at scoreboard.

Well Coached teams have a distinct “language” that they speak: Terminology is consistent from player to player and coach to coach. Areas of the floor are called the same thing. Screening actions have a vocabulary. Offensive actions are consistent. Consistent use of terminology breeds confidence and as a result performance levels are impacted.

Well Coached teams follow the game in general and respect it’s past, present, and future: We can all spot a basketball junkie a mile away by the way they speak about the game. Well Coached players know their opponents by name and/or number, they know the historical significance of their former teams, and they know the history of the game they love to play.

Well Coached teams have players who take care of academics equal to athletics: This isn’t saying that every player is straight A, Deans List student. Just that they manage their books as well as their ball.

Well Coached teams make adjustments to what other teams are doing against them: We’ve all faced those teams who come out of a timeout or halftime with a slight change in their tactics that completely change the momentum of the game and sometime the overall outcome.

Well coached teams display qualities of passion, discipline, selflessness, respect, perspective, courage, leadership, responsibility, resilience, imagination: These qualities come from Bill Bradley’s book on Values of the Game. They are all true and each comes with many different definitions and application.

Well coached teams have a consistent player rotation that always seems to place each player in a position to contribute effectively: This thought illustrates another favorite quote of “don’t take ducks to eagle school”… well coached teams have coaches who have their players in the right spot at the right time more than most. They don’t ask a non-shooter to hit a three to win the game. They don’t have a non-rebounder in the game on defense to win. They don’t have their EAGLES sitting beside them at crunch time Well coached teams don’t foul when the ball is away from scoring area: Although this is not a NEVER instance, well coached teams don’t repeatedly do this putting teams in bonus earlier in half than necessary and creating foul troubles later on in game.

To me the hardest thing about coming up with a philosophy or a definition is that there are so many factors to consider and rarely can you point to one thing being an ABSOLUTE. Maybe it is the scientific thinking background I was born with or my love for court room movie drama’s, but I have always been a “prove it to me” type coach. Show me some evidence. Present a case with the evidence.

So, I began taking the examples of WELL COACHED one by one to find a well coached team. Teams that DID NOT have that particular quality but was still WELL COACHED. For example, our current team has four seniors who have won 4 consecutive A10 titles and I am almost embarrassed sometimes at the lack of intensity it seems we have in pre-game warm-ups. Yet they bring it every single night come tip-off.

The UCONN Huskies who recently just ended a record 90 game winning streak that included back-to-back NCAA Championships and are obviously WELL COACHED, came out of a timeout in a recent game with a short shot clock and didn’t recognize in time to get a shot off.

Watching an SEC men’s game last night with a coaching screaming to foul on the floor with a three point lead before a player could shoot, I see the team NOT do what he was yelling and the opposing player hits a three to send into overtime at the buzzer. They end up losing by double digits in double OT.

I believe you can find examples of teams everyone would agree are WELL COACHED that rarely, if ever, exhibit certain qualities that we all would agree are indicators of actually being WELL COACHED. So is this a question that has no answer???

Maybe so. Maybe the answer is like Coach Wooden says… A lot of answers.

Who knows, but I can tell you that through the years of thinking about this and observing it, I have been
able to find two characteristics that all WELL COACHED teams do have. They may be displayed in different ways. They may be held accountable in different ways. They may be perceived in different ways. But in my eyes all WELL COACHED teams have these two.

1) WELL COACHED teams have players who have surrendered to the culture of their program.

2) WELL COACHED teams have identifiable standards of excellence on the court.

To me most the things we have already mentioned can be reworded to fit into one of these two categories in some shape form or fashion… but these two things sum it all up the best in my mind.

Players who have surrendered to their culture have let go of the things that make them uncoachable. They have surrendered their personal feelings to put their trust in their teams and their coaches. They have surrendered their defense mechanisms for the betterment of the team. They have surrendered their fear of being uncool in teammates eyes for being cool in their coaches eyes. They have surrendered their inadequacies to be part of team that has each other’s back. They have surrendered the personal time for team time. They have surrendered distracting relationships for healthy relationships. They have surrendered negative thoughts for positive outlooks. They have surrendered the input of family/friends for constructive criticism of coaches/teammates.

Teams who have an immediate identifiable standard of play… it may be toughness, execution, enthusiasm, speed, power, athleticism, tenacity. Teams you know are going to either guard you from the time you get off the bus or have a hand in your face every time you shoot. Teams that are going to share the ball so well that you can’t key on one player. Teams who have players that are listening to their coach even if their eyes or body language might suggest they aren’t. Teams with players who are consistent in their “swagger”. Teams that are going to get the ball into their star’s hands so often you can’t defend them. Teams who are going to be so prepared that they are calling out actions in your offense the second a coach signals a play call. Teams who can be summed up in a few words on a scouting report but be impossible to defeat come game time. Teams who’s standard of play is synonymous with the name on the front of their jersey regardless of who’s name is on the back of their jersey. Teams who are who they are every single night.

Those players are WELL COACHED. Those teams are WELL COACHED.

This article was written by Arkansas Women’s Coach Mike Neighbors when he was an assistant at Xavier.

This post is only a portion of his entire article.Click here to see Part 2

Coach Neighbors has a weekly newsletter that is outstanding. If you would like to subscribe, email me and I will forward your interest on to him.

Well Coached teams are motivated: These teams play with an energy and a visible passion that proves they are engaged in the process that their team and coaches have established. These teams display fight and toughness and you usually cannot tell the score of the game by simply watching the actions and reactions of their players and coaches.

Well Coached teams have good shot selection: These teams have the most shot attempts by their best scorers. Those best players know when to take a shot and what shots should be taken based on time and score. Rarely do you see well coached teams without their best scorers having the ball when it counts.

Well Coached teams have little or no game slippage from practice: These teams are able to execute and they are able to play at a high intensity level. They seem to make things look easy in their execution. Their timing and spacing are usually impeccable and their movements appear rehearsed because they are in practice every single day at game speed. Few missed lay-ups, few mishandled passes, limited turnovers when dribbling all a result of having practiced at game speed.

Well Coached teams players hold the ball when their coach speaks: In viewing a practice when a coach speaks the gym is silent and all eyes are on the speaker. (I personally played for a coach that would glare down a dribbled ball across the gym even if that person were not part of our squad). It’s not the actual act of the players holding the balls as much as it is that coach commanding that respect.

Well Coached teams have genuine enthusiasm because the are invested and bought in: We can all tell the difference between genuine and manufactured enthusiasm. Have the person that films your games dedicate an extra camera to your bench one game to see if you really have your team INVESTED…Be prepared for what you might see on the video…

Well Coached teams don’t have to be coached on effort: Very rarely do you see the coach of a well
coached team spending valuable game (or practice) time convincing their players to play hard, to give effort, to give extra effort. They just do it. Obviously those desires have been instilled at some point and time in the past but there is not one second wasted during a timeout for a well coached team with a coach using time to talk about effort, energy, or enthusiasm.

Well Coached teams players display proper techniques in fundamental areas of the game: Inside pivot foot on the catch, triple threat position, butt down on defense, chin on shoulder in post defense, take a charge, dribble with their eyes up, pivot from pressure rather than dribble,

make two handed passes, post with a purpose, cut hard off of screens, hold their box out on the FT line, dribble with left hand up left side, use shot fakes, make back door cuts, etc. They LOOK like players.

Well Coached teams have great spacing and timing on offense: Regardless of what style of offense a well coached team incorporates they utilize tremendous floor spacing among their players and execute with precision timing. Shot selection is also a component of this attribute.

Well Coached teams don’t leave trash in visiting locker rooms, benches, or on the bus: One of the most well coached teams I ever saw was at a team camp in Neosho, MO. After each game, their players (without instruction by the way) walked the length of their bench AND their opponent’s bench picking up every piece of trash they could find. That stuck with me and two good things came from it in the near future. On that trip home from camp when I got the bus back to the bus shop, I picked up every single piece of trash and put it into a box. At our next team workout, I emptied the box onto the floor of their clean locker room and told them where it came from.

I then told them I was going to walk out of the room for 30 seconds and every piece of trash that was still on the floor when I got back would equal one set of dribble pull backs before practice started. (Dribble pull backs were our form of punishment rather than straight running. Start on end line. They get two dribbles forward then one dribble backward until they complete a down and back. Great conditioner/reminder/ball handling all at once) Needless to say they about killed each other picking up the trash in 30 seconds. The 2nd thing is something we still do at our Summer Camps to this very day. During the first break I walk around and drop a piece of trash on the floor near the concession area. I watch until some camper picks it up and throws it away. Before the next session begins, that camper is called up and receives a $10 gift certificate to the concession stand. The rest of the week campers are fighting with each other to pick up trash around our counselors!!

Well Coached teams execute set actions coming out of timeouts/quarter changes/halftimes: We all have faced those teams who were lethal coming out of situations in which their coach had time to diagram an action that their players could then come out and execute for a timely basket. This might also be changing a defense to off-set a play that you have expertly drawn up to use. Regardless of the situation, these teams always seem to be able to take what they had practiced and/or talked about onto the floor at a crucial time.

Well Coached teams don’t lose their poise/composure others might become distracted: Time/score, home/away, loud gym/silent gym, good refs/bad refs, slick basketball/flat basketball, slick floor/sticky floor, fan shaped backboards/wooden backboards, chain nets/colored nets… didn’t matter…well coached teams PLAY

Well Coached teams don’t react to calls that go against them or their teams: Even in the most crucial of times, well coached players and teams hand the ball to the official and play the next play. There is no
wasted time/energy on something that can’t be changed anyway. Not to say they play without emotion. It just isn’t wasted on a official and a call that didn’t go their way.

Well Coached teams utilize drills in practice that emphasize many facets of the game: When you observe a practice of a well coached team their standards of play become obvious through their drills. Drills are either game situation, game speed, or game technique… Sometimes the drill is all three, sometimes just two, but never less than one. There is ZERO wasted time in a well coached team practice or game preparation.

Nothing to “fill in” there to reach a desired length. My all time favorite was watching a boys team at a school I coached do ten minutes of 2-line lay-ups before workouts every single day of the season. I then kept count of how many lay-ups their defense created and their offense created on the year… FIVE… So, for over 1000 minutes of practice time, they got FIVE lay-ups… They didn’t press, they didn’t deny passes in half-court… Does that seem like time well invested? Did I mention they actually missed one of the FIVE?

Well Coached teams move on the air time of passes on defense: It seems like well coached defensive teams have an extra player on the court. They are moving as a unit in constant harmony with effective communication. When the basketball is in the air, all players are on the move and talking about it!!

Well Coached teams use different things in practice to condition than they do to punish/remind: As a result the players understand the importance of being in condition and being reminded. Running does NOT motivate or remind every player. Well coached teams have a coach who takes the time to recognize these areas and remind/punish accordingly.

Well Coached teams have a sharp, crisp pre-game warm-up: The time leading up to tip off is an extension of these teams practices and preparation. They are moving… there is energy… there is enthusiasm… I spoke with several WELL COACHED teams coaches who mentioned they believed a sharp warm up was worth 3-5 points come game time. Another coach said it was a team goal to have the opponents glance down to their end more than once and “wish their warm-ups” were like theirs… I have seen intricate passing drills (many of which we have shared in our Newsletters). I have seen coaches physically out their putting them through a series of defensive slides… I have seen teams diving on the floor in unison to simulate going for loose balls.

Well Coached teams can run 5-on-0 offense with players going game speed: I was actually written up at one high school for calling this portion of our practice DUMMY OFFENSE, so to this day I try to call it something else… dry offense, 5 on 0, ghost defense, etc… Regardless of what you call it, most every team has this time dedicated to their practices to go over their SET actions or even their MOTION read/reacts…

Well coached teams can do it at GAME SPEED

This post is only a portion of his entire article.Click here to see Part 2

This article was written by Coach Randy Brown. He is a former D1 Assistant Coach at Iowas State and Arizona. His 18 years in college basketball highlights a successful 23-year career. Mentored by Basketball Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson at Arizona.

He has passion for the game of basketball and works as a basketball consultant and mentor for coaches. Click on the link below to subscribe to his daily email that includes links to his blog posts, plays, videos and other free resources:

Randy has a free eBook that is a great resource for basketball coaches. Cick here to download a copy:

Coach RB 100 Vital Coaching Questions and Answers

Randy’s coaching resume includes positions at Arizona, Iowa State, Marquette, Drake, and Miami of Ohio, 5 Conference Championships and 5 NCAA appearances. His efforts have helped develop 12 NBA players including Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, and Jaamal Tinsley. To contact Randy, email him at [email protected]

Using Statistics to Effectively Evaluate Your Team

by Coach Randy Brown

Statistics are a valuable tool for coaches in all sports. A common fault is to keep general statistics that illustrate only part of the true picture of your team. To properly glean specific information from statistics you must first decide what you hope to learn from them. This article provides guidelines on how to effectively use statistics to improve your team on a daily basis.

Recently I received an email from a coach asking for advice on keeping offensive statistics for his team. Here is my response to his questions.

1. I challenged him to first decide what specific statistics he wanted to effectively evaluate his team.

2. Offensive options include shot selection, shot chart, turnovers, post touches, penetration, number of passes, set play effectiveness, and use of inside out components.

3. Defensive options include defensive transition, easy baskets, defensive block outs, contested shots, help and recover, defensive rules, and fouling.

4. Once you decide what specific items you want to see from your team you can then devise a specific statistics strategy.

5. Your staff size will determine how many different statistics you can chart during practice or games.

6. Limit your scope to one or two things on offense and defense.

7. OER is a valuable offensive measurement tool but takes time to keep and analyze.

Once you determine what specific statistics to chart you must decide how to use them.

1. Use them with your staff only to make decisions on playing time and making adjustments in practice.

2. Share with your players to help them understand exactly what you want from them.

3. Help crystallize your own coaching philosophy and develop your own Top 3!

If used properly, statistics can be very beneficial to your coaching effectiveness and your team’s ultimate success. Use these ideas to begin developing your own system of evaluation using statistics for games and practices.

Keeping Statistics in Practice Provides Many Benefits

It is said often in sports that the number do no lie. Statistics are the ultimate indicator of player productivity and effectiveness. Most basketball coaches use statistics to evaluate their games, but how many take advantage of them in practice? Discover the benefits of this approach to evaluating practice.

The high school coach faces many obstacles in terms of practice. A shortage of coaches or managers limit the amount of statistics that can be kept. If you are in this situation, get creative and do all you can to have students keep statistics for you. It will pay off exponentially for you and your team.

Four benefits of keeping practice stats are below. Hopefully one or two of them can help you.

1. If you evaluate game stats only you are dealing with a set of numbers from a particular setting; games. Think of the number of shots, rebounds, fouls, turnovers, free throws, offensive rebounds, and fast break baskets that occur in practice.
2. Practice stats can give a more valid picture of a player’s production due to dealing with three to four times the amount of information.
3. It is good for players to know that practice is much more than just “practicing. They will approach their play in practice differently when they know stats are being kept. If you do take the time to keep them during practice also share them with the team at different times during practice. If you make player decisions that affect playing time, you will indeed have the attention of your entire team.
4. Practice can fool you. At times, effort alone will fool us to think a certain player is doing a good job on the floor in practice. Stats help a coach by proving the productivity with numbers.

For example, you may feel that your starters are rebounding well. When you check the stats you realize that one of your post players had three rebounds in 32 minutes of practice action. This stat amazes you because his productivity “seemed” much higher. Remember, the stats do not lie. This lack of rebounding must be addressed. IF you have a second team player getting 9 rebounds in the same amount of time, you can use this as motivation for your starter. You may also switch the two and see how the rebounding numbers change.This is a huge benefit to keep stats in practice and has been useful for years in my experiences.

I am convinced that the level of effort, concentration, and execution in practice will be replicated in the game. Rarely have I coached a dog in practice that could be all-world when the lights come on. Players think they can do this, but they are sadly mistaken. Test them in practice and share stats with them often during practice. Keep stats for everything, especially in competitive drills and play.

The stats do not lie and will give you a better idea of how your players are playing according to the numbers. This way the numbers that are produced in the game will not be a surprise. Game production will mirror practice effort, concentration and execution every time!

This article was written by Brian Anglim. Brian has coached basketball at both the high school and college levels.

Lessons from Football Coaches

by Brian Anglim

Like most Americans I am a huge fan of American football. For years I loved my Philadelphia Eagles and have recently adopted the Maryland Terrapins as my college team. As much as I enjoy the game as a fan, as a coach I marvel at the complexity and organizational skills of football coaches. At some point I would love to serve as some sort of assistant to a great high school coach and learn the nuances of their organizational structure and managerial skills. Below I listed 15 coaching concepts that we as basketball coaches may wish to adopt.

1. depth charts
2. personnel packages (what is your best press personnel, what is your best press break personnel, what is your best delay game personnel, etc)
3. team huddles (I love how they will hold hands and have a specific order in which they huddle)
4. more specific game planning
5. stronger audible concepts
6. position coaches – have a perimeter coach, post coach, and I love the idea of having a point guard coach.
7. Offense, defense, and special teams coordinators
8. Special teams – in the basketball sense this could include SLOB (sideline out of bounds), BOB (Baseline out of bounds), time and score situations, 2 for 1 opportunities with a shot clock at the end of quarters or halves, press break, rebounding techniques on the free throw line, free three fast break, etc.  Games won by 2 or 3 points are often won by special teams.
9. Quality control – how successful are you with each inbound play, what are your percentages rebounding defensively on the free throw line,
10. Quarterback progressions – in a basketball sense when my point guard is leading a primary or secondary break their are a series of reads I want him to make to decide what is the best action.
11. Terminology and verbiage – each team has specific terms to their system of play.
12. Off season strength and conditioning programs – in the basketball world this does exist but the culture in football we see a lot more dedication to the improvement of athletic ability.
13. Tape breakdown – I have always shown cuts of tape to prepare for games but football coaches do tons of tape (There is an article written by Coach Anglim on this topic below)
14. Scouting – it seems that top football programs do much more scouting and do a great job of charting tendencies
15. Teaching structure – they are very specific in offseason, preseason, and in-season teaching and training. I love the idea of going away to football camp to learn a programs system

Coaches Off Season Development Plan-Learning From Viewing Game Tapes

by Brian Anglim

We as basketball coaches expect our players to be working diligently throughout the “off season” but what do we do prepare ourselves for the season? Just as we expect our players to follow a structured off season program, we too must set goals and create a plan to achieving those goals. Watching tapes of my team and college and professional teams is a key component to my “Coaching Off Season Development Plan”. I tape a number of games throughout the year and will even convert these files into different file formats so that I can view them on my computer. I will watch these games carefully with a notepad at my side trying to find nuggets of knowledge that might help me become a better coach.

Although watching a game leisurely can be enjoyable and informative, to get the most out of game you need to also have a plan. Below I have listed 20 key points that I am looking for when I view a game.

1. Why am I watching this game? I have teams that I watch because I am interested in something they do philosophically, for example I enjoy watching Purdue’s man defense.
2. Where is the game being played and are there any differences in the court size? This is a big deal when I watch high school games. One of our key rivals plays in a huge gym and loves to full court press in that gym and is much more half court oriented on the road.
3. Have I written anything else about this team? If so review those notes.
4. Are there any players that I specifically want to be looking at? I love watching pro-players from a skill perspective. Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, Pau Gasol, Ray Allen, Deron Williams, Hedo Turkoglu, and Richard Hamilton have given me absolute clinics on how to play the game.
5. What is the strength of the team? What are they trying to accomplish offensively (post play, spacing for penetration, screening game, continuity.etc)?
6. What are they trying to accomplish defensively (pressure, limit penetration, tempo control,etc )?
7. Is their a standard transition plan? Secondary Break?
8. How deep do they outlet the basketball? Do they jump outlet points on defense?
9. What is their pickup point defensively? Do they change defenses? What signifies the change? Do they change out of timeouts? Why did they change a defense?
10. What is their defensive conversion plan? How many go to the boards? How consistent is their board coverage?
11. How consistent is their intensity defensively? How strong is their defensive stance off of the ball?
12. Do they trap? Do they communicate defensively?
13. Do they switch? Why do the switch? Do they switch and deny? How do they handle mismatched switches?
14. How do the defend screens? How active is the screener’s defender?
15. Do they deny any passes?
16. How do they defend the low post (front, 3/4, behind, etc)?
17. Do they double team post players?
18. What is the pace of the game and how consistent are they with that pace?
19. Are they looking to score in “out of bounds” situations or are they looking for possession? Does their inbound philosophy change based on time and score?
20. What do they do with special situations (free throw rebounding, end of quarter and half, pressure and pressure releases, etc)?

I do not answer every one of these questions but I like to keep them in mind as I watch a game. More than anything I want to be watching the game with an open mind. There are thousands of clinics on the game out their if you are just willing to actively keep your eyes and mind open. If you want to be a great coach, you need to put the hours just as much as your players do. One final note, be sure that anything that you take from viewing other teams fits your players developmental level and your coaching philosophy.

By Alan Stein, Pure Sweat Basketball

Everything Matters

Every spring I get calls from dozens of NBA personnel inquiring about potential NBA draft pics. They know I have worked with most of the prospects before at events like the Jordan Brand Classic and Nike Skills Academies.

However, you’d be surprised at the questions they actually ask me.

Nearly every single question has to do with character, attitude or work ethic.

They never ask me about their athleticism or skills.

Why? If an NBA team is going to invest millions of dollars in a player, they need to know he is of high character, has an exceptional attitude and possesses an unparalleled work ethic.

Here are the most common questions I get:

• What was your very first impression of him?
• Did you see any red flags?
• Did you enjoy being around him?
• Was he always on time?
• Was he likable?
• Was he coachable?
• Was he an energy giver?
• Did he love to play?
• Did he love to workout?
• How was his attitude?
• How was his work ethic?
• Was he a gym rat?
• What was the best part about working with him?
• Was there anything difficult about working with him?
• Was he respectful?
• Was he self-motivated?
• Did he act entitled?
• Was he selfish?
• Was he mature?
• Was he competitive?
• Was he a leader?

And this is my favorite question that I’ve ever been asked:

Would you let your daughter marry him?

And while these particular questions are the ones I get from NBA personnel about potential draft picks, they are also the exact same type of questions I get from college coaches when they are recruiting a high school player.

There is so much more to basketball success than shooting, passing, rebounding, defending and dribbling!

Character counts!

How you do anything is how you do everything.
Alan Stein
Hardwood Hustle Blog
http://www.About.me/AlanStein

By Greg White,

When Jay Bilas wrote his article on toughness it brought to light what is in my opinion the greatest trait of a player. More so than that it changed the way I coach and what I want a program built on.

To me the three most important traits for a team are toughness, unselfishness, and relentlessness. For a team to be truly unselfish and relentless they have to be tough. Toughness allows players to achieve great things. Coach Tom Izzo said it best. “Players play, Tough Players win.”

I don’t think toughness can be taught but I do think it is learned. Let me explain that. We can all think of  “Toughness” drills that we’ve done or do to make our kids tough. Loose ball drills, charge drills, wall sits. Anything to force you to be tough. My question is this: Why isn’t every thing we do instilling toughness? If we have to do drills to teach toughness we aren’t really tough. Toughness isn’t a sometime thing, it’s an all the time thing. Toughness has to be evident in everything thing you do as a program.

You can’t fake toughness. Let’s face it. If a player can’t play you can’t hide that, just like you can’t hide a lack of toughness. Basketball players don’t have the luxury of a helmet to add to their “character” as a player.

Basketball is raw. Every expression is visible to everyone. Toughness isn’t a look, it is an ability. You are either tough or not. There are plays where the presence and absence of toughness are evident but if you are creating a culture of toughness you don’t wait for 50/50 ball or someone taking a charge. You look for and instill toughness in every drill, every day and in every player. Here are the 3 points I believe lead to a Culture of Toughness.

#1 Without Fear and With Urgency
Toughness only knows the boundaries set by oneself. A tough player has a willingness to compete without fear of failure and sometimes without fear of of injury. Tough players do the dirty work. Loose balls, take charges, block out every time. They play with an urgency that this play is the most important of the game. These are all coachable but more importantly adaptable to any player. If this type of play is the norm you stop looking for signs of toughness and see the players not producing. More importantly , it becomes evident to their teammates who isn’t willing to sacrifice.

#2 Everyday Guys
Guys that do their jobs everyday are extremely tough. These are the guys succeeding in class, in practice and in the classroom.

They don’t take days off. They don’t take plays off. Sadly, this is a dying breed. I appreciate all the things our athletic trainers and medical team does for us but sometimes “I wonder if getting smarter made us softer?” Our athletic trainers in our program are extremely good and are as vital a part of our staff as our coaches. Trust has been developed where they can make decisions about the players without any second guessing.

Today’s player is more knowledgeable about their bodies than we were in the past. If you rolled an ankle in most cases your Coach shoved your leg in a 5 gallon bucket of ice water. I’ve seen guys play on an ankle the size of a grapefruit rather than endure the ice to hot routine. The rule is simple. If you’re hurt get up. This includes your pride. If you’re injured we will help you.

Everyday guys make a Coach’s life easier. They are the players you don’t ever have to worry about. In the NBA, I look at Duke Alumni as everyday guys. That toughness as instilled at Duke by Coach K. You can’t win without everyday guys.

#3 Away from the Ball
This is the “sign” for me if a Player is truly tough or not. Away from the ball, whether on offense or defense is where toughness is displayed. Whether you have the ball or are guarding the ball you are forced to be engaged. Everyone is watching you. It’s showtime. I’d say even the guys one pass away are working hard. What about the guys “out of the play”? Are they in a stance? Talking? Cutting and screening with purpose. This is where toughness must be evident. The Block/Charge is determined here, not by the official. The play is determined in the mind of the defender. Are they engaged? Same goes for the offside offensive rebound. Away from the ball is where games are loss more often than won.

This goes for your best player especially. This player is use to having the ball and being in the spotlight. There are times when we will make sure that our opponents best on the ball defender is put in a position of help defense because it’s out of his comfort zone. “No one is watching me so I can rest.” Hopefully all of us are coaching off the ball defense and teaching on the ball defense.

When Toughness is the norm, Players are forced to be tough. You can’t survive without being tough. It’s a culture, not a drill. It becomes an adaptation. A must for survival.You can’t teach a player to be tough. The player has to learn it, but most importantly need toughness to succeed in your program.