Reading Lute!, an autobiography by the longstanding coach of the Arizona Wildcats, provided interesting food for thought. First of all, the calm and composed appearance of Lute Olson belies an insatiable enthusiasm for basketball and unwavering loyalty towards those who play on the teams that he coaches. Olson’s fifty-year career links the game’s past to its present, from Pete Newell and John Wooden to Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski, from the Pacific Coast to the Mid-West and back. The book is typical of most sports autobiographies and will not contend for the Pulitzer Prize. Yet the text remains capable of …
The Basketball Gods
Tex Winter says that a team must pay tribute to the basketball gods in order to succeed, his metaphor to inspire players to practice solid fundamentals and teamwork. According to the 1958 National Coach of the Year, the team that executes at both ends of floor the best will be rewarded. Fortunately, I was coaching a team that was able to benefit from this today, directly and indirectly. Directly because poise and control resulted in quality scoring chances and defensive pressure produced turnovers and indirectly because fate assessed the opponent with a bizarre technical foul when a player removed their …
The Last Season
I am sorely disappointed with Phil Jackson. Irrespective of the tremendous work he has performed during the current season, he took an enormous step back in the coaching profession due to the publication of his fifth novel: The Last Season. Jackson’s chronicle of the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers season seems to break several confidences. What happens in the huddle, the locker room, the team bus, the plan, training camp, the video room, or an office should stay within the team, despite the dollars a publisher may promise. Apparently, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson have a very tenuous relationship; how will …
Assertiveness and Coaching
Different coaches have different personalities, which contribute to the diversity of sport. Some display more energy than others, some have a stage presence, and some have a sense of humour about their job. Nevertheless, there is more than one way to coach successfully. Coaching and control are synonymous in the minds of many individuals inside and outside the profession but that is not an accurate description. Coaches motivate student-athletes to reach their potential as a group. Crafting systems that best suit the team is part of that task, managing every single detail of the team is not. Creating accountability among …
Overtime Reflection
When faced with a choice between a book about Crime and Punishment and another about screening and rolling, perhaps only the mentally ill would choose the book about ball. Coaches and players can get stuck in the details like they are the lightning sand. Although he could write an essay on the subject, Bill Bradley only needed a sense of where he was to succeed on the court. Recently I was coaching during crunch time of a game and I made things too difficult for the team. Basketball should be simple. In the final minute of overtime, I wanted to …
The Wages of Wins
Reading The Wages of Wins by David J. Berri, Martin B. Schmidt, and Stacey L. Brook raised interesting questions regarding assessment and evaluation. Factions contributing to victories and the rational behind coaching decisions were studied among other issues. Statistics are more prolific than ever before but whether the numbers are correctly applied remains to be determined. Scoring and winsFortunately, the authors scrutinized the Association extensively, finding that scoring is highly correlated to winning. Therefore coaches should play the five players who contribute to the highest scoring rate (who also limit the opponent’s scoring rate). A player can affect points per …
Performance Under Pressure
During Superbowl XLI, Rex Grossman performed poorly, throwing two interceptions and barely moving Chicago’s offence. According to the media, Grossman was one of the worst Superbowl quarterbacks ever – and possibly one of the worst to play that position in the history of the league. How bad was he?Breaking down the reasons for Grossman’s inauspicious performance generates a generic list: physical skill, knowledge of the game, composure under pressure, etc.. Like other major sporting events, performance under pressure on demand trumps all. During his career at Florida, Grossman demonstrated excellent physical tools at an elite collegiate program. He must still …
Watching the Association on ESPN
“How can you give up a wide open three followed by an offensive rebound on the other side of the court?”– Bill Walton, during the Spurs-Rockets game on 24 January 2007 Team defence is getting worse and worse in the Association and beyond. Conversely it seems like the screen and roll play is getting better and better. Inbounding under their basket with few seconds remaining on the shot clock, the Spurs set a double screen for Ginobli on the foul line. Ginobli curled the screen, received a pass, and made the lay-up. Earlier in the evening, Marion set a ballscreen …
Three Lessons from Jack Donohue
Recently, I read Dream Big Dreams: The Jack Donohue Story by Mike Hickey, a thoroughly entertaining biography that is required reading for Canadian Basketball coaches. Both Andy Higgins – who knew Coach Donohue personally – and I found the book to be very insightful and had difficulty putting it down. I’ve listed three lessons any coach can take from Jack Donohue’s life and coaching career. Helping Players: Jack Donohue helped the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team, the College of the Holy Cross, and Power Memorial players, among others, lessons about teamwork, responsibility, sacrifice, and enjoying life, that they remember to …
The Responsibility of the Coach
Evidently, it is the players play hard, play smart, and play together; the coach merely plays the role of the enabler and the modeler. If contributions were not made on the court when they were needed, contributions off the court were irrelevant. Players wear headbands and win games, coaches can only ban the former and observe the latter. According to Bear Bryant, “After a victory the players deserve the credit; after a loss the coach deserves the blame.” Is Bryant’s dissection of the blame appropriate? If players merit praise for their physical and mental performance than they should receive criticism …
Endings and Beginnings
Watching the bookends of two practices this week, I thought about work ethic and attention to detail. The middles may have been the most intense and focused practices one could imagine but since I didn’t see them I can’t write about them. I thought about how one starts and finishes something is a tremendous barometer of how they will complete the whole. Consistency shouldn’t take days off. Execution counts and there’s a reason that coaches harp on it. I don’t think it bodes well when bigs eschew running in their lanes, littles neglect to read their defenders, and many stand …
Three Lessons for Sam Mitchell
The Toronto Raptors are a frustrating team to watch. After overcoming a double-digit deficit to claw within a single point of near the end of the third quarter, the bottom fell out. Missing dunks, conceding open threes, taking early shots, not getting back in transition, leaving posts wide open — offence and defence were both disastrous. The Suns torched the Raptors with the high rub. They’d slip the screen or roll directly to the basket and get dunks and lay-ups, using a cute baseline back-screen to occupy the help defenders. Lesson #1 for Sam Mitchell: If 5-10 Andre Barrett plays …
T.D.C.A.A. Final Miscues
I watched the T.D.C.A.A. Senior Boys Championship game this week. The passing was terrible. Father Henry Carr beat Mother Teresa 63-51. Players knocked balls down with one hand, threw the ball out of bounds and passed into traffic. Setting effective screens, good footwork on offence and defence, and accurate passing critical skills at the high school level. Henry Carr is probably the best team in Ontario but if they turn the ball over that frequently at the provincial championships, they could be upset by anyone. Good high/low post play is better than lackadaisical five out play. Pass. Cut. Replace.
Too Much Burn
So Chris Bosh made the Eastern All-Star team as a reserve. He deserves it. Position scarcity, attitude, and talent make him one of the most fifteen valuable players in the Association. He’s not a true post but he goes down there occasionally and exemplifies good post play. Once his shot becomes a little better and he learns to set screens, look out. So why does Sam Mitchell want to kill him? He should not play fifty minutes in a game. The Raptors lost to the Spurs 125-118 in overtime because Michael Finlay blew up and their two best players played …
Tae-Kwan-Do Fundamentals
My friend told me that his Tae-Kwan-Do class was asked to perform some basic kicks. Despite their black belts, the class had trouble executing white belt maneuvers. The class was given a month to improve their fundamentals. Irrespective of the level of play, the fundamentals remain the same. All coaches should pay attention to these details and devote time to the basics. Elite basketball players still need the time to develop skills like footwork, passing, or shot-faking. This concept is not a sport-specific lesson in any way. Whether you are running the Princeton offence or trying to combine the playbooks …
Why Do We Coach?
Paul J. Meyer once said: “You never work for someone else. The truth is someone is paying you to work for yourself.” Someone recently suggested that coaching for the purposes of self-actualisation was possibly selfish. In the end, don’t all humans choose their actions in order to satisfy a need (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation)? Even those employed in an altruistic occupation do so because helping others meets their belonging, esteem, or self-actualisation needs. The suggestion was made with a somewhat negative connotation. I couldn’t disagree more. People are free to act as they wish and no one can …