Does the team who hits a shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime have a better chance of winning? I was thinking about this after Alabama hit a deep 3 to tie UCLA at the buzzer, but then UCLA went on to dominate the overtime session in this year’s NCAA Tournament. This […]
Don’t Add Emotion On Top Of Emotion
One of the toughest challenges of leadership is to evaluate and handle the emotion of a situation. As coaches we have to deal with it all of the time. The intensity of practice every day, the pressure of the games, the scrutiny of results and the public scoreboard all contribute to an emotional environment. Sometimes […]
Core Values Vs. Core Behaviors
I’ve gotten a lot of great feed back on my book, “Entitled to Nothing,” and one of the questions that comes up a lot is about core values. I didn’t go in as a head coach and list our core values and paint them on the wall of the locker room. I did know who […]
Authenticity
From Rich Diviney’s book The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance. Among all of the leadership attributes, authenticity is the most important for building trust. Authenticity, by definition, can’t be faked. It can’t be copied: There’s not template, no checklist of external behaviors or attitudes that are the model of authenticity. Being firm and […]
“We Can’t Do That Here”
I was sitting at a recruiting event about 10 years ago talking with a friend of mine who had just finished his first year as a Division I head coach. I had been the head coach at Rhode Island College (Hey, I wrote a book about it) for 5 or 6 years at that point, […]
Steph Curry Is Never Satisfied
“Curry has that unique trait that all extremely talented people possess: He behaves as if he doesn’t have talent.” https://thedailycoach.substack.com/p/stephen-curry-is-never-satisfied?r=1k46x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Motivation: Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic
In Daniel Pink’s excellent book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, he discusses the difference between intrinsic needs and extrinsic needs, and how intrinsic needs are much more powerful motivators. Things like money, reward and punishment hold little value. What Pink says are the three elements of true motivation are autonomy, mastery and […]
Communication About Communication
Communication has been a challenge on any team I’ve ever been a part of. It’s just not that easy. You can’t just tell your team to talk and expect them to talk – especially with the intensity level at which we practice and play. If you go to the old, “Off the court, you guys […]
David Nwaba
DAVID NWABA: NBA BLUE COLLAR MINDSET • David Nwaba, graduated from Cal Poly with a sociology degree & earned a contract with G-League LA D-Fenders after paying $125 to tryout • “David figured it out; he embodies BLUE COLLAR. He was probably the best defender in his only season in the G-League. 2/3 into his […]
Stan Van Gundy – Notes
From a talk Stan gave at IMG Academy in 2019. Older generation of coaches share with one another a lot more. There was less paranoia. We need more of that. There is a serious lack of leadership in our country right now. We need coaches more than ever. Leadership is really only taught in the […]