Your relationship with the truth is essential to your ability to lead. How aggressively do you seek out the truth about you and your team? How comfortable are you with the truth? How willing are you to recognize it and process it? Are you strong enough to deal with the truth every day? One thing […]
Gary Parrish On Bully Coaching
“But far too many coaches, even Hall of Fame coaches, have spent their careers yelling and screaming, constantly demeaning and ridiculing their players in ways that should be unacceptable, and would be unacceptable, if not for the weird power dynamic that exists on many campuses. No college professor would ever be allowed to talk to a student […]
Meyers Leonard
You can be both. Powerful, intelligent stuff.
Jimmy Butler
“Don’t be easy on them. Don’t be easy on them. You made me what I am. You turned me into who I am. You’re turning somebody else into something like that, too. Just don’t be easy on them. You changed my life.” Text Jimmy Butler sent to Buzz Williams after he left Marquette
Bob Gibson
A terrific profile on the great Bob Gibson – one of the most intense competitors of all time – from the New Yorker back in 1980. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/09/22/distance “He was tough and uncompromising,” White told me. “Koufax and Don Drysdale were just the same, with variations for their personalities—they had that same hard state of mind. […]
Cannot Be Misunderstood
“Don’t write so that you can be understood. Write so that you cannot be misunderstood.” – William Howard Taft I think about this quote a lot when I think about coaching. Don’t coach so that your players understand you. Coach so that your players cannot misunderstand you. One of the most common mistakes I made […]
Recruiting Jimmy Butler
The story of how Buzz Williams signed Jimmy Butler. A reminder that recruiting is an art, not a science. “The connection between Butler and Williams is actually a man named Joe Fulce, who had committed to go to New Orleans and play for Williams in advance of the 2007-08 season. But when Williams resigned at UNO after […]
Ed Orgeron – Locker Room
What he said to his team the night before they won the national title: “Early for curfews. Early for meetings. Relentless work ethic. You’ve kept this hotel clean. I’ve asked you to do it, and you did. No bullshit. Character. Character wins,” he says, his deep, unmistakeably halting voice booming throughout the room. “Poise. No […]
Getting Duncan Robinson Wrong
Recruiting is an art, not a science. There’s no right way to do it, no formula to make sure you are evaluating correctly. Even with the advent of analytics, and some schools using statistical data to evaluate recruits, there are still plenty of misses. As college coaches we spend an incredible amount of time evaluating […]
Make Or Miss
“It’s a make or miss league.” It’s a common cliche’ used to describe the NBA. You hear a lot of coaches at all levels going to something similar – “We got the shots we wanted, we just couldn’t make any,” or “We just gotta make some shots.” I’m not really a fan of that mentality. […]