Filing Cabinet

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. You can see his site at CoachRB.com

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]

A player is not the only one that makes mistakes. Coaches make many mistakes every day, even though most of them are not noticed. A costly mistake by a coach can be the difference between winning and losing. It also can lead to an underachieving, dysfunctional team. The three most costly mistakes of coaches are highlighted in this article.

Coaching basketball these days at any level is a very difficult job. Many books are written about successful qualities of excellent coaches and leaders. Most coaches will not take a deep look into their own coaching ability to discover their weaknesses. If you are serious about your coaching ability, take an objective look at the factors that keep you from reaching your potential.

1. Coaching without Clarity–

This is by far the biggest mistake made by coaches in basketball. This flavor-of-the-day approach has no base and leads to failure. The ultimate test of coaching clarity is defined by your ability to answer this question;

• What are your three areas of concentration in coaching? If your practice was observed for 30 minutes, would your Top 3 be easily identified? Why is this such an important part of coaching? Having a Top 3 given your coaching and your program the direction and clarity it needs. If your drills, terminology, practice, and daily focus are tied directly to your Top 3, your players will execute at a high level and time will be greatly maximized.

If your coaching or your program are without a Top 3, you are like a ship in the ocean without a map, compass or rudder. You will try hard every day, but you will not consistently travel the path to success. The Top 3 is the key to successful basketball coaching, consistent winning, and program development.

2. Priority Imbalance— I have yet to meet a coach that said his family, parents, or significant other was not his Number 1 priority in life. This commitment is repeated so much we all begin to believe it after a while! This is “coaching blindness” at its best. I call it the “Coaches Biggest Lie”. Coaches confuse provision with priority. The paycheck that arrives home each month is important for all of us. This check, though, in no way means that by supporting our loved ones financially we have given them top priority in our life. We say they are important but rarely find the kind of quality time and communication needed, especially during the season. To illustrate this point, it is said that time is the true test of our priorities. The things we spend most time on we value the most. It is a cut and dry proposition.

• Do you spend more time at work or with basketball than your family?
• Do you carry your job home with you and pretend to be present when your mind is elsewhere?
• Do you work as hard satisfying your wife’s needs as you do preparing for practice or games?
• What do you do with your free time; spend it on selfish pursuits or with family or friends?
• How many hours a week do you watch television as compared to quality time with your family?
• Do you know the name of your children’s teachers at school better than your next opponent?
• Do you feel that you have to watch tape at home at night?
• How often do you tell your loved ones why they are your loved ones?

3. Paralysis by Analysis— Coaches are famous for analyzing the game to the point of exhaustion. Many times we are the only ones who truly understand what is being taught. The philosophy, “Keep it Simple Stupid” gets massive lip service from coaches. This is a tough battle for most coaches, including myself. Our insecurity often leads to a catalog of drills, offenses and defenses that stagger the mind of young players. We stuff file cabinets with thousands of keys, teaching points, and magic late game plays. The knowledge well gets bigger and deeper by the year. At this point it is very important to ask a question: What is the goal of coaching?

I believe the answer to this question is execution. Coaching is the task of getting your players to play the game and execute the way you want them to. At its purest level, getting players to execute what you have taught and drilled them is the key. Some have said that execution is doing what you are suppose to do, when to do it, and with the greatest effort. If all of this is valid, simplicity is the only way to success.

The Simplicity Test for players—

1. Do your players know your Top 3 as a coach?

2. Do your players know exactly what they must do to get on the floor?

3. Do your players know exactly what they must do to stay on the floor?

To do justice to your own coaching, ask your players these three questions? The answers will provide a map for the future of your coaching. Are you a confusing coach to play for? If so, humble yourself and step back for a while. Carefully analyze your coaching approach and philosophy and get the opinion of assistants, administrators, and players. What seems like weakness can actually be the strength of your coaching! Congratulations to all coaches that take on this challenge. Please share your results with me and make next season your best one ever!

This is an article I like to include each year in our player’s notebooks. I also think that these qualities or any mental or intangible qualities you are looking to instill in your players must be a part of your improvement season or out of games season workouts or practices.

A certain amount of growth in maturity (or any other character trait that we value in our programs) will develop with returning players being a year older. But, my belief is that for those traits to reach the level I want them at for the entire season, I must work to develop them from April to October in addition to the daily work we do on them during the season.

I hope these ideas have some value to you and can use them to help your players to improve mentally.

Maturity Is…

1. 1. The ability to do a job whether you are supervised or not; finish a job once it is started; carry money without spending it, and be able to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.
   2. The ability to control anger and settle differences without violence or destruction.
   3. Patience.  It is the willingness to postpone immediate gratification in favor of the long-term gain.
   4. Perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging setbacks.
   5. The capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat without being bitter, complaint or collapse.

1. 1. Humility.  It is being big enough to say, “I was wrong” and I am sorry.” And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, “I told you so!”
   2. The ability to make a decision and stand by it.  The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.
   3. Dependability, integrity, and keeping one’s word.  It coming through in a risis.  The immature-have excuses for everything.  The immature are masters of the alibi.  They are confused and disorganized.  They are the chronically tardy, the-no shows the gutless wonders who fold in the crises.  Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business and good intentions that somehow never materialized.
   4. The art of living in peace with that which we-cannot change, the courage to change that which can be changed and the wisdom to know the difference!

1. Something each of us possesses large-or small-pockets of immaturity: the totally mature individual does not exist.  Nor does one grow up all at once. Like  physical growth, emotional growth is achieved one day at a time.
2. Unselfishness, responding to the needs of others.

   “Our coaching staff believes-through extensive experience-that competitive athletics contributes materially to maturity.”

These are 45 of the 366 thoughts for basketball coaches to share with players that I have compiled.

If you would like to download the entire eBook with all 366 thoughts for players, I would like to ask you to help me let other basketball coaches know about my email service.

1. Toughness is a skill and can be practiced and improved like all other skills.
2. “You should always want your coach to be critical.  It gives you an opportunity to learn and to overcome adversity.” Steve Nash
3. The more things you can do, the harder you are to keep out of the lineup.
4. You either get better or we get worse. You don’t stay the same, so we have to use every practice and workout to get better.
5. Concentrate on effort and execution; the results will take care of themselves.
6. Proper form and a strong work ethic plus preparation and repetition is the formula that makes a great shooter.
7. No excuses, no explanations.
8. Buy in or buy a ticket.
9. Good teams and players give second efforts, great teams give 3rd, 4th, and 5th efforts.
10. The only way for an individual to improve is to work at an uncomfortable pace in practice and during the improvement season (April-September)  If you aren’t uncomfortable, chances are you aren’t improving.
11. Contact from the defense is never an excuse to lose the ball.
12. “There is do and do not, there is no try.”  Yoda in Star Wars
13. “The game honors toughness.” Brad Stevens
14. Expect to get hit hard when you take the ball to the basket.  Don’t get upset.  The best revenge is making the free throws.
15. A player’s goal every practice and every improvement season skill workout should be to improve yourself for the benefit of the team.
16. Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.
17. “Don’t mistake routine for commitment.”  Tommy Amaker. Don’t just show up, but give it everything you’ve got, every single time.
18. Fouling negates hustle.
19. “Anyone who doesn’t make mistakes isn’t working hard enough.”
20. There are two pains in life, the pain of discipline, and the pain of regret. Take your choice.
21. Your energy level is controlled by your thoughts.
22. We rate ability in people by what they finish, not what they start.
23. Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities.  They vary in their desires and how smart and hard they are willing to work to reach their potential.
24. The best offensive players have ball in their hand as long as they need to…not as long as they want to.
25. “Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit.” Michelangelo
26. Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together”. Hard means with effort, determination and courage; Smart means with proper execution and poise, Together means unselfishly, trusting your teammates and doing everything possible not to let them down.
27. “We all need a daily check up from the neck up to avoid stinkin thinkin which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes.”  Zig Ziglar
28. “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”  Epectetus
29. You don’t have to be bad to change.  All too often, people resist change because they assume it means they were not OK to begin with.
30. It takes 21 days of conscious repetition before anything becomes a habit.
31. “False Hustle = cheap fouls, lunging, reaching, etc.” Billy Donovan
32. If you think small things don’t matter, think of the last game you lost by one point.
33. Teamwork: The fuel that produces uncommon results in common people.
34. Good enough is neither.
35. R.E.P.S.- Repetition Elevates Personal Skills.
36. “A person really doesn’t become whole, until he becomes a part of something that’s bigger than himself.”  Jim Valvano
37. “Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.”  Jose Ortega y Gassett
38. “Your toughest competition in life is anyone who is willing to work harder than you.”
39. “The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it.” John Ruskin
40. The best way to improve your shooting percentage is to take better shots.
41. Life is like a bucket of water.  We are a part of the whole.  But how big is the hole that is left when we take away a large cup of water?  The hole suddenly fills up and…so life goes.  The nature of life is that there is always someone who can and will take your place, when you think you are irreplaceable.
42. It’s not the hours you put in, it’s what you put in the hours.
43. Victory or defeat is not determined at the moment of crisis, but rather in the long and unspectacular period of preparation.
44. “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” Jacob August Riis
45. This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.  There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it.  Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.  Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.  Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.  Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.  It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

These are 45 of the 366 thoughts for basketball coaches to share with players that I have compiled.

By Alan Stein, Stronger Team Blog (re-posted with permission)

“Basketball is a complex dance that requires shifting from one objective to another at lightning speed. To excel, you need to act with a clear mind and be totally focused.”

Phil Jackson

If you want to maximize your play on the court you have to learn how to ‘Play Present.’ There are as many as 150 individual plays over the course of a game (roughly half on offense and half on defense). The best players in the world are totally focused on the present moment – because that is all they can control.

Great players don’t worry about a missed shot or a bad call. They don’t get distracted by trying to think about winning and losing. They focus on the here and now. They ‘Play Present.’

The ability to ‘Play Present’ is a skill that takes practice – just like shooting and ball handling. Basketball is a highly cerebral game. As Coach Jones has said, ‘you can’t just play the game; you have to think the game.” That is where mental training comes in.

Whether you are a player or a coach, you need to practice ‘Playing Present.’ You need to constantly remind yourself to be focused on the task at hand. Build your self-awareness so you recognize immediately when your mind starts to drift. Over time, you will be able to sustain focus and concentration during the chaos that occurs during a game. This will drastically improve your performance.

Think about this hypothetical scenario. Imagine if at a random time in the beginning of practice or in the first quarter of a game, you called your players over and said, “If you get a stop on the next possession, I will buy each of you a brand new pair of Jordan’s.”

Do you think they would get a stop? I do! Why? Because your players wouldn’t be thinking about anything in the world except for getting that stop. They would have razor sharp focus and make sure they were in position, were playing as hard as possible, and were communicating. They would be ‘Playing Present.’ The key to success is learning how to achieve that level of focus every possession!

Like any skill, if you want to learn how to ‘Play Present’ – you have to practice!

A mental training exercise you can do at home is called “100.” Find a quiet spot to sit and relax. Close your eyes. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. When you breathe in, say the number 1. When you breathe out, say the number 2. Repeat all the way to 100. In the beginning, your mind will be elsewhere and you will be thinking of all kinds of distracting thoughts. But the goal is to ‘Play Present’ and bring your focus back to your breathing and to the next number. Do this every day (only takes a couple of minutes) – when you first wake up or right before you go to sleep.

Another powerful mental training exercise is called the MVP (Meditate – Visualize – Positive Talk). This is perfect to do before your team’s pre-game talk and warm-up.

Meditate: Sit in silence with your eyes closed, take 15-20 slow breaths, and focus on the moment. Let the day’s distractions leave with each exhale. Get present.

Visualize: Using all of your senses, recall a time when you played in the zone, a time when you played (or coached) your best basketball. See it and feel it.

Positive Talk: Repeat your favorite motivational affirmations and quotes to yourself.

Another concept that goes along with ‘Playing Present’ is the concept of ‘Next Play.’ Whether good or bad… the last play doesn’t matter… let it go… focus on the ‘Next Play.’

Learning to move to the ‘Next Play’ is the foundation of how you ‘Play Present.’

I learned about the concept of ‘Playing Present’ (as well as the exercises above), from my friend and colleague Graham Betchart. Graham is the founder of GB Performance Coaching (www.GBPerformanceCoaching.com) and is a wealth of knowledge. I am extremely thankful for everything Graham has shared with me. He has made me a better coach.

In the past 20 years, few college programs have played with the mental toughness (and thus success) of the Duke Blue Devils. Coach K is a firm believer in the concept of ‘Next Play.’

Train hard, train smart.

Alan Stein

www.StrongerTeam.com

www.Twitter.com/AlanStein

www.Facebook.com/StrongerTeam

This is the first part of a two part article written by Indiana University Men’s Assistant Coach, Ed Schilling. Ed guided Park Tudor (Indiana) High School to the 2011 and 2012 Indiana 2A State Championships.

He has been the Head Coach at Division I Wright State, has served as an assistant coach for John Calipari at UMass, with the New Jersey Nets, and at Memphis. He was on the UCLA staff as an assistant for four yeas.

Ed also served as a Head Coach for the Adidas Nations Program.

He previously operated Champions Academy in Indianapolis–a skills training academy for players of all ages and skill levels. The highest profile players who work out with Coach Schilling are NBA and pre NBA draft prospects.

Nine first round NBA draft worked out with Ed at Champions prior to being drafted.

As a player, Ed was a four year starter at Miami (Ohio). He holds the Miami single game, single season, and career assist records. In addition, Ed’s 18 assists in one game still stands as the Mid American Conference record.

Exposing a Thief of Team and Individual Success Part 2

by Ed Schilling

Click here to read part 1 of this article

Crossroads

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” –Robert Frost

In every player’s career, he will often come face to face with the temptation to turn his focus toward himself and away from the team. What direction the player chooses at that “crossroad” will impact his future success, the team’s success, and also the quality of the player’s experience.

The decision to turn selfish can be prompted by a well-meaning family member, a peer looking to encourage or even a sports agent trying to help make his client appear more marketable.

Subtle comments like, “you ought to be playing more minutes”, “you were open a lot and didn’t get the ball”, “you need to score more”, “don’t understand why so and so shoots so much”, “you are being played out of position”, “you need to show the scouts your shooting range”, etc., etc., can be the little spark that sets the forest of selfishness ablaze for the unsuspecting athlete.

The “disease of me” can affect the leading scorer, the point guard, the sixth man or the player at the end of the bench. This can also impact a coaching staff member as well. An assistant coach who thinks his ideas need to be used more readily by the head coach can fall victim to the “sickness of selfishness” which could potentially weaken the team.

Cancer

One of Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions for cancer: “something evil or malignant that spreads destructively”

When a team member (players and/or coaches) comes to the crossroad of moving his thoughts (which eventually will become actions) from what is best for the team to what is best personally, that negativity spreads on the basketball team and is detrimental force. It must be dealt with like cancer. Cancer treatment is often immediate, aggressive and fierce. To rid the body of cancer may require painful surgery or chemotherapy that uses strong chemical agents to kill the cancer cells. Perhaps you have heard of a player being referred to as “a cancer” on the team. A bad attitude acts like cancer to the body of a team. One player with a bad attitude has the potential of soon becoming two. Misery does love company. In the game of basketball not everybody gets 32 minutes and 32 shots in high school or 40 minutes and 40 shots a game in college or 48 minutes and 48 shot attempts in the NBA.

The potential to be sucked into unhappiness is available to all who play. The “strong chemical agent” on a team is the head coach and it is often he who must recognize and diagnose the most appropriate treatment to rid the team of the cancer. However, the assistant coaches can be significant in helping cure the selfishness if it is caught in time. In many situations, a fellow teammate can see the “sickness” brewing and can try to save the player before he becomes too contagious.

Tornado Watch Vs. Tornado Warning: “A tornado watch is just to let folks know to be on the lookout for a possible tornado as conditions are favorable for one to occur in the area; whereas, a tornado warning is a notification that a tornado has been seen in the area.”

The key for a team is to understand that conditions are always right for a self-serving tornado to wreak havoc on the team and to be alert. And, if a selfish and bad attitude has been sighted, then urgent measures must be taken to protect the team from potential and pending disaster.

Protect What Matters Most

“Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, if you can focus on three things, and three things only: your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers.” –Vince Lombardi

If you are like me you have probably lost your cell phone or had your phone or computer crash at some point in your life with all your important stuff on it. My latest broken phone caused me to lose many important numbers. In fact, one day I had the brilliant idea to put all my user names and pass codes and also frequent flyer and hotel numbers in my smart phone. This was a long, tedious process, but one that seemed wise for it would keep me from carrying so many cards in my wallet and save me time trying to remember what user name went with what pass code. This great idea worked well… until the phone crashed. This was a while back, the Icloud hadn’t been perfected yet, and I hadn’t backed all my stuff onto my computer. So all the tedious work of entering my pass codes, user names in along with so many key numbers, etc., etc., etc., were lost into the abyss. In hindsight, significantly more measures should have been taken to protect my information and my phone.

As much time as was invested in putting things like those frequent flyer numbers into my phone, players invest far more time into their basketball abilities. Players put in at least the required two hours plus per day of practice in season, and additionally work out in the weight room and on the practice court countless hours on their own away from the team. The time investment into a season is almost impossible to calculate. Way more unfortunate than a crashed computer or a lost phone is a season corrupted by selfishness and negative attitudes. I have been able to recover almost all of my lost numbers from my broken phone. However, the good times, the life long relationships, and exhilarating victories that are prevented by a team infected with the horrible “cancer of selfishness” are worse than lost for they never happen when selfishness invades a team.

A Final Warning

The wise coach, athlete and parent will be constantly aware of the dangers of the insidious “disease of selfishness,” the thief who has the potential to steal, kill and destroy the unsuspecting athlete and team. Alertness and protective actions facilitate the highly positive desirable by-products of being part of a team—incredible enjoyment, recognition, life long friendships and victories.

If you have any feedback for Coach Schilling, email me at [email protected] and I will pass it along to Coach Schilling.

This is the first part of a two part article written by Grand Canyon University Men’s Assistant Coach, Ed Schilling. Ed guided Park Tudor (Indiana) High School to the 2011 and 2012 Indiana 2A State Championships.

He has been the Head Coach at Division I Wright State, has served as an assistant coach for John Calipari at UMass, with the New Jersey Nets, and at Memphis. He was on the UCLA staff as an assistant for four yeas as well as two years at Indiana University.

Ed also served as a Head Coach for the Adidas Nations Program.

He previously operated Champions Academy in Indianapolis–a skills training academy for players of all ages and skill levels. The highest profile players who work out with Coach Schilling are NBA and pre NBA draft prospects.

Nine first round NBA draft worked out with Ed at Champions prior to being drafted.

As a player, Ed was a four year starter at Miami (Ohio). He holds the Miami single game, single season, and career assist records. In addition, Ed’s 18 assists in one game still stands as the Mid American Conference record.

Exposing a Thief of Team and Individual Success

by Ed Schilling

One of my favorite things about basketball–playing and coaching– is the friendship and comradery that develop and strengthen throughout the course of a season. Memories from the really good teams that I have been a part of are not my points per game, assists or minutes played. Those most meaningful memories are the brotherhood, the friendships, the good times in the locker room, and the joy of “going to war” together. Ask a professional athlete after he retires what he misses most, and he will probably tell you that he misses the relationships and putting on that uniform with his teammates and going to battle with those whom he has poured out blood, sweat and tears.

As great and fun as athletics can be, the joy can be stolen and the unique opportunity to form life-long friendships can be easily missed when the vision shifts from the “we” to the “me”. The goal in sharing insights from over three decades of my playing, coaching and parenting is to help max out the enjoyment, the recognition, the improvement and the winning and avoid the “thief” of these of basketball delights.

Enjoyment

“If you want to be miserable, all you have to do is be selfish.” –Joyce Meyer

“Happiness ends where selfishness begins” –John Wooden.

When playing high school basketball in Lebanon, IN, we had a team that had a blast together. We loved playing ball with each other, whether in the park in the summer or in the gym during the season. We trusted in each other and believed that we had each other’s best in mind. As a result of our trust, we were one of the best teams in the state. Although I later became a starter on Division 1 conference championship and NCAA tourney teams, I probably never had more fun and enjoyment than I did with that high school team. Perhaps the foundation of the positive experience laid in the fact that neither the players nor the parents had selfish agendas. We wanted to win and we cared about each other. I learned a significant lesson from that team—if one wants to really enjoy the basketball experience then value the other guys on the team.

By the way, those parents had a great experience too. They didn’t worry about the coaching, stats, newspaper articles, rankings or awards—they positively supported and encouraged instead of complaining and manipulating for their child’s “benefit”. I have come to the conclusion after many years in basketball, that an athlete cannot truly enjoy the basketball experience if the parents are negative at home. Players listen and absorb what the parent’s say and carry the emotion of home into the practice and games. If the parents are “killing” the other players or the coach, the player cannot help but to be impacted. The negative impact steals the joy from the game, ultimately hurting the team. When the atmosphere is positive and encouraging those attitudes are reflected in the energy, enthusiasm and effectiveness of the players.

Recognition and Promotion

“As the tide rises all the boats rise.” –John F. Kennedy

A misconception is that individual stats get players opportunities to play at the next level.  The truth of the matter is that every team has a high scorer. Scoring a lot doesn’t make or break a player’s future opportunities.

 If a player can “play”, college coaches recognize it and NBA decision makers see it.  Playing well and helping the team win ultimately produces more recognition than getting big statistical numbers.  In 1996, I was an assistant men’s basketball coach at The University of Massachusetts.  We were #1 in the country for 10 straight weeks.  Our star player, Marcus Camby, didn’t care about stats—he cared about winning.  Some games he scored a lot, other games he didn’t.  He didn’t finish with gaudy numbers, yet he was the National Player of the Year.  He made his teammates and team better and the country recognized it.  During the course of the ’95-‘96 season, nearly every player on the team had a major article or news story done on them.  Even the players who rarely got in the games got noticed for their work in preparing the starters to execute well in the games.  There were many players in college basketball that scored more and averaged more minutes, yet it was Marcus Camby who received the John Wooden Player of the Year award.

Another example of team success producing individual promotion was the University of Florida Men’s Basketball team in 2006-07.  This team won the National Championship.  The highest per game scoring average was 13.3.  So, none of them got the chance to play in the NBA right? Wrong!  All five starters were drafted and played in the N.B.A. And, get this, the sixth man on that Florida team who averaged 6.2 points a game and only 18.4 minutes a game also played in the NBA.  Yes, “as the tide rises all the boats rise.”

There are examples after examples of players getting attention and promotion because of team success.  On the other hand, if the team doesn’t win, chances are that college recruiters or NBA front office people will be skeptical of a player’s ability.  Of course, one cannot promise that when players (and parents) channel their energies into making the TEAM the best it can be, regardless of the player’s role, that everything will work out perfectly.  However, one can just about guarantee that if players (and parents) focus on personal stats and selfish agendas, promotion and recognition will be thwarted.

After decades in the basketball business, I cannot recall a single example of when a player got upset and “concerned” over numbers or minutes played where proved to be helpful to the player or to the team.

Preparation

“If you STAY ready, then you don’t have to GET ready.” –-David Dawson

The rules of the game of basketball allow only five players on the court for each team at a time; therefore, a majority of the team will be on the bench during the game.  The players who don’t get to play in the game or don’t get a lot of minutes in the games are still almost always required to be at every practice and are expected to give their best effort at the practices.  This is a challenging part of basketball.   The attitude and effort given by that “bench player” in practice will significantly impact the team’s success.  Further, the attitude and effort will significantly impact the “bench player’s” potential to do well if, and when, he gets an opportunity in the game.

I spoke previously of the ’96 Marcus Camby led UMass team.  That team got to the coveted Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.  UMass played a talent-loaded University of Kentucky team in the Final Four.  In the game, UK got off to a great start and UMass couldn’t get going and struggled most of the game.  Midway through the second half Coach Calipari looked down the bench and called Giddell Padilla to go into the game.  Now Giddell’s younger brother (Edgar Padilla) was the starting point guard, but Giddell who was a senior rarely played.  In fact, as he was checking into the game the announcer said, “ Giddell Padilla to enter the game, let’s check his stats… Giddell Padilla has no real stats!”  What people outside the program didn’t know was that Giddell challenged and competed every single day of practice and tried to beat the starting guards every minute of every practice—yet rarely did he get any time in the games.  In practice, he often out played the starters.

When Giddell got into that game he made an immediate and positive impact.  He stole the ball and took it in for a lay-up, then deflected a pass, then an assist.  All of a sudden UMass got some momentum and the crowd of over 20,000 started roaring, UMass was back in the game.  Giddell Padilla played well and actually played more in the second half of the Final Four game than he did the entire season.  How could he play so well on such a big stage?  The reason he played so well was because he competed well against the starting backcourt (which was one of the best in Division 1 that season) every day in practice. He could have been upset that his younger brother was a starter or that he deserved to play at least some minutes, but he wasn’t.  He found enjoyment in the team’s success, and he “stayed ready” to play in the game by working everyday in practice.

Well, UMass lost that close and highly competitive game to UK who became the National Champions two days later, but Giddell Padilla’s performance did not go unnoticed.  Shortly after the season, he was offered and accepted a lucrative contract to play professionally in his native country of Puerto Rico where the game had been televised.  He became somewhat of a celebrity in Puerto Rico because of one game—one game that happened because he “stayed ready” even-though his chance of actually getting in the game was doubtful at best.

By working to make those guards playing ahead of Giddell better, Giddell got better himself.  His unselfishness and consistent effort put him in a position to have an experience that positively impacted the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, I have seen the opposite happen so often when “bench players” lose their drive to practice with passion, then when their opportunity does come in the game, they perform poorly.  Further, staying focused and passionate on the bench during games is important.  If Giddell had been stretched out on the bench, not paying attention or had a sour look on his face because he wasn’t getting any playing time, it is unlikely that Coach Calipari would have put him in.  Giddell’s effort in practice for six months could have been thwarted by six seconds of bad non-verbal on the bench when Coach Cal looked his way.

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