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Can You Make Them Talk?
We all want our teams to communicate better. We emphasize it constantly. Great communication is essential on high performing teams. But some players naturally talk a lot, and others just don't open their mouth. No matter how much we tell them to do it, it doesn't come naturally to them. We've all coached plenty of guys who we are pleading with to talk more, over and over, without a lot of success.
The reality is it's hard to talk on the basketball court. If it wasn't, everyone would be doing it. For many players, focusing on their job in the middle of an intense environment takes up all of their concentration. It's a challenge for them to play really hard, produce and communicate while they are doing it. It's not that easy, and it's not that natural.
I'm not talking about just calling out a screen or calling for the ball when you are open. Most guys understand the practical aspect that comes a long with being a teammate to communicate essential aspects of the game. Most players will do that. But the constant communication that brings energy to your team, or the chatter that lets everyone know where you are defensively at all times - that's a little different. The guys that communicate in that way constantly really stand out. They are different.
I think it's essential to emphasize communication. I also think you have to tell them what they are supposed to say, and give them a language to speak. I like having a language for your program that breaks down key elements into one word keys - screen, right, left, help, etc. - so they know exactly what they are supposed to say and when to say it. But I'm not sure you can get guys who aren't comfortable to talk more.
We've all coached many players who are quiet by nature and not comfortable speaking up. They see the game, they know what is expected of them and they do their job. But ask them to talk and they just aren't comfortable. It's not like they are being defiant. They just can't focus on their job and compete the way they are expected to while also trying to communicate.
I've stopped trying to get those guys to talk. As long as they are communicating on essential aspects of the game - help, screen, one more pass, etc. - I'm not going to force them to talk. I've learned that if it's not part of their personality, it's like I'm trying to force something down their throat that they don't want to eat. It takes a ton of energy on my part and it makes the player uncomfortable. It's not worth it.
I do think communication is essential and I also think you can get players to talk more. It's definitely worth emphasizing. But when you are talking about players who just aren't comfortable talking, you aren't going to get a lot more out of them. You are going to get them thinking about something that is hard for them, and likely make it harder for them to produce. There are certain players who are simply not comfortable talking when they play, and I'm not going to try and force it out of them.
Momentum
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 is from 2011, but an interesting look at it from the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective.
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 right or wrong isn't as important as handling the emotion you are faced with.
Early in my career as a head coach I learned this lesson, even though it's still not easy to recognize and deal with. We had one player I coached at RIC who was very talented, cared a great deal about success, but also had a hard time dealing with things that didn't go his way. He wasn't very mature or mentally tough when things started to break down, but he was a terrific talent who did help us win. But I had to learn to manage his emotional intelligence.
We were playing our first league game of the year at Eastern Connecticut in a very intense environment, and this kid was struggling. He missed a couple of easy shots, and then he went to the basket and got hit pretty hard, with no foul called. He got frustrated and jogged back defensively, shaking his head. Our team all saw him jog and was pretty upset, as was I. When I took him out of the game he continued shaking his head and bitching about the missed call. I responded by yelling "stop making excuses and play!" at him as he sat down, in front of the whole team. He had stopped competing because he was unhappy with what happened to him, and that was unacceptable. I had every right to say what I said to him.
What I didn't factor in was how emotional he was as a player, and how my comment - and the way I said it - would add to the emotion in an already intense environment. It didn't help the situation. Now the player was on the bench even more upset, and useless if I wanted to put him back in the game. You can say he has to grow up, and it's on him to handle the situation better - and I wouldn't disagree with you. But my job as the head coach is to understand the personalities of the players and how to best handle them. Making that point at that time, the way I did, only added fuel to the fire. It made the situation worse.
Fast forward to the conference tournament that same year, with us involved in a tough semi-final game and the same player getting a little emotional. He was struggling on the court, shaking his head and showing visible frustration with the officials. He had only been in the game for a minute, and I took him out. However this time, I didn't say anything to him as he walked off the court. I let him sit down, and I told my assistants to coach the team for a minute. I walked down the bench, knelt down in front of him and just talked to him. He was shaking his head and frustrated, wondering why I took him out. I explained in a calm voice that when he got frustrated like this, he wasn't helping the team. I took him out simply to let him catch his breath and calm him down. I wanted to make sure he was okay and that he wasn't going to let the emotion take him out of his game. I told him we needed him to win the game, but we needed him at his best. When he took a deep breath and said "I got you Coach. I'm good," I put him right back in the game.
The right time to coach him on how to better handle his emotions wasn't in the middle of an intense game. It was talking to him off the court and pointing out examples during practice - calmly - where his emotions were starting to impact his play. During the game, when he got emotional, adding more emotion to the situation was never helpful. Even if the point I was making was the right one, with the added emotion he wasn't getting the point. The message wasn't getting across because I was making the situation more emotional with my response.
Recognize the emotional level of a situation as the leader, and think about taking a measured approach. Don't add emotion to an already emotional situation. If you do, you won't often get the response you want.
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 we wanted to be and what I expected our program to look like, and I shared with my players what was important to me (how hard we compete, toughness, unselfishness...). But I didn't have a list of core values to start.
Part of that was because I was a first-time head coach and I think approach and philosophy are always evolving. But part of it was because I wanted to focus more on behaviors than the words on the wall or the back of a shooting shirt. Effective core values translate into behaviors, and I've learned it's essential to define whatever your values are in behavioral terms for your team.
Our core values evolved into core behaviors, and what we settled on was three things - compete, produce, and be a great teammate. Those were our core behaviors as a program, and what essentially would stand as our core values.
I knew when I became a head coach that I wanted us to be defined by the way we competed. That was what we could control every day. To us, it was 100% effort all of the time, without compromise. That encapsulated physical and mental toughness, effort, work ethic, commitment and all of the other related buzzwords that coaches painted on the walls. I wanted our core behaviors to be broad, so that we could emphasize all of the things that were important to us within them.
Production is actually often underrated, believe it or not. A lot of coaches like to talk about how hard their kids work and how committed they are, without translating it into production. It's not reasonable to just say you are going to start the five hardest working players on the team. If that work doesn't turn into production, then something is wrong. Either you are competing the wrong way or emphasizing the wrong things. Great competitors can turn what they do into production. For us, production was anything that helped our team win.
Being a great teammate is very broad, and can mean so many things. That was the point. It involves attitude, approach, selflessness, and caring about those around you. There are plenty of different ways that you can be a great teammate, and those behaviors were things our program really valued.
The challenge was to make sure to define the behaviors within the values, so they became tangible to our team. When somebody turned the ball over but sprinted back at full speed to get a deflection and stop a fast break, that was competing. We made sure to stop practice and point it out. When someone set a great screen to get his teammate open for a lay-up, that was production - along with the ability to score and rebound. We made a big deal out of it. When players picked one another up after a mistake or a bad play, that was being a great teammate. We made sure we emphasized and celebrated the behaviors that went into our core values.
Compete, produce, be a great teammate. Those values started with questions about playing time, when the players wanted to know what they had to do to get on the floor. They became the day to day core values of our program - everyone wanted to play, so they lived the behaviors.
Core values are important for any organization if you believe in them, but only in so much as how they turn into behavior. I'd start with the behavior you want, make it clear to your team and celebrate it when you see it. That behavior will define your team's core values.
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 taciturn doesn't make one any more or less of a leader than being easygoing and funny. What matters more is whether that person is authentically firm or authentically easygoing.
The simplest measure of authenticity is consistency: consistency of action, consistency of thought, consistency of values. Consistency builds trust, and a lack of consistency instills doubt. Think of it this way: If stepping on the brake pedal didn't consistently stop your car - if sometimes it made the engine race or turned on the wipers instead - you wouldn't trust the brakes, right? The same idea applies to humans. If you don't believe you're seeing authentic versions of people, if you suspect they are play-acting or pretending, presenting insincere facades that shift with their audience or their own whims, it's impossible to build an honest foundation of trust.
To make it even simpler: Authentic people are genuine. They aren't markedly different in private than they are in public.
"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, and we had built a really strong program that would go to 8 straight NCAA Tournaments. He had taken over a really good job late, didn't have time to change much, but won enough games so that his fan base was excited about the future.
We were talking about running a program, managing practices, playing time, and getting everybody bought in. Just a general conversation about everything you have to deal with as a head coach, and how you really establish your culture and approach. He was telling me about his best player, a guard who led his team in scoring but didn't shoot a very high percentage or help make his teammates better. He kept going on about all of the things wrong with the kid - selfish, lazy uncommitted. He said he had a hard time coaching him.
"Why did you play him?" I asked, with a pretty good idea of the answer I'd get.
"We had nobody else. I had to play him." Yup, as expected.
"How many games did you guys win again?"
"Seven."
"Seven games. And how many do you think you would have won without him? I mean, playing him all those minutes got you seven wins. Did it really matter?"
"He was our most talented player. We had no one else," came his reply.
We got into talking about playing time and buy-in, and how you get everyone on board with your program. He was convinced he had to play this guy because of his talent, and I kept pointing out that his talent could not have made that big of a difference if he still only won seven games. At that point, we had been really good at Rhode Island College, and he asked about how I went about establishing playing time. I told him I liked to play a lot of guys. We had a lot of good players, but I also liked the competitive edge it brought to practice. I played 10-11 guys every game, and they knew coming to practice that they could earn playing time if they competed hard and produced. There was no set rotation. What was expected at practice was laid out very clearly, and the guys knew what they had to do to play.
He said he didn't have that much talent, so he couldn't play a lot of guys. He said he had to keep his main guys on the floor, or they would have gotten smoked. I reminded him they won seven games. He kept asking about how guys dealt with a different rotation each game, not knowing when they were going to get off the bench or how much they were going to play. I told him the criteria for playing time was explained very clearly, and everyone knew they had to be ready. I'd make the decisions based on what guys earned in practice every day.
His response was "We can't do that here. That wouldn't work at our level."
I was confused. He kind of pulled the division I card out on me, as if being a division III coach, I just wouldn't understand. Things were different at that level, according to him. You couldn't offer up playing time to everyone and let them earn it. The players wouldn't accept it They wanted to know "where they stood." I told him my guys knew exactly where they stood. They knew exactly how they had to earn playing time. Everyone had the same chance. It made our team better, made practice that much more competitive.
"I like that. I just don't think it would work for us."
I'm a strong believer that leadership is highly contextual and situational. There is no one right answer when it comes to leadership approach. It has to fit who you are as a leader and the environment you are in. I'd never tell anyone this is how you should do things. I think leadership development is about sharing ideas, getting your mind to think a different way, and seeing the possibilities in a new (and maybe uncommon) approach. It's not about taking somebody else's approach and making it yours.
I've always been surprised - and a little confused - when I've heard coaches say that over the years. "That's great. But we couldn't do that at our place." A clear and direct message. A chance for everyone to compete for playing time. A transparent approach. It seems like that would work in most programs.
Over the years, as I've worked with different coaches, teams and organizations, I've learned that "we can't do that here," or "that would never work for us" are the battle cries of the mediocre. It is a comfortable place that allows them to stay average - and to remain comfortable. I hear it a lot in coaching, but also with any organization that is contemplating change. High school coaches say that couldn't work for us. College coaches see an idea they like from a high school coach and say, "yeah, but it's high school." Small businesses look at something that works in an athletic arena and say "but that's a little different." It is a common mentality that cripples progress, maintains the status quo, and gets in the way of any meaningful progress. But it keeps us in our comfort zone.
I have a good friend and mentor who uses the phrase "terminally unique." His take is that most organizations are terminally unique, in that they look at great ideas and say, "I like that, but we could never make that work, because we are School X!" Every play I have worked at has some level of terminally unique qualities on display.
Yes, context is important. Yes, you have to find an approach that fits your organization and works for you. But that doesn't mean you should stay close-minded to new ideas. If you don't like the idea or it isn't a good fit for your team, that's fine. Don't mess with it. But don't let the fact that you are terminally unique keep you from trying new ideas or making progress.
"We can't do that here" is a comfort zone for the mediocre.
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."
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 purpose.
Think about that when it comes to how we coach our teams. When we think about motivation, do we think about giving our players autonomy, mastery and purpose? I think most of us look at motivation as a reward and punishment model. Winning, playing time and success are the ultimate reward for our players, so that is what will motivate them to work hard, right? Conversely, if there is a punishment for the wrong behavior, that will motivate players to do the right thing. I think most of us are trained to see motivation in that context. If we can increase reward, or threaten them with punishment, we'll get the most out of them.
That isn't how the human mind works. Sure, people like having success and want to avoid failure, I'm not saying it doesn't have an impact. We all want to be good, we all want to win. It's fun. But in my experience there is a limit to that level of motivation. If everything you do is based on winning, eventually that will get stale. The best way to motivate people to win is to eliminate the result from their mindset. Focus on other things that are more important.
According to Pink's research, those things are autonomy, mastery and purpose. How much do we think about these values when we are coaching? Autonomy is giving the players control, allowing them to own the process. This is crucial to sustaining long-term success for any organization (Hey, I even wrote a book about it!). Get your players to the point where they own what they are doing every day, and they will be highly motivated to succeed.
Mastery is something we probably do think about, although maybe in a different way. We all want to make our players better. We spend a lot of time working with them on their skills to improve, helping themselves and helping the team along the way. When player see that what you are doing is making them better, that is the ultimate motivation. They love coming in the gym, even if it's really demanding, if they know you are making them better. We all emphasize individual development, although we probably don't call it mastery. However, I'm not sure we see it in the context of motivation.
Purpose is one we probably don't spend enough time on. If our purpose is simply to win, the motivation will only last so long. We need to spend more time with our players discussing their purpose. Talk to them about why the play. What are they doing all of this for? If it's just for fame, money or winning, their purpose is pretty shallow. If they see the value of what they are doing every day - the work ethic, the commitment, the sacrifice, the discipline - and the impact it is going to have on their life beyond basketball - that is true purpose. That is much more of a motivating factor than success, and it's probably something we need to unlock more often as coaches.
Autonomy, mastery and purpose. Intrinsic factors that are the key to motivation. It's not about running sprints at 6 AM to motivate your team not to do something - although that type of punishment can certainly play a role in the discipline necessary for your team. Find ways to get at the intrinsic factors that impact your players to make sure you are motivating your team.
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 never shut up!" approach, you are missing the point. Communicating while operating at a fast pace in an intense environment isn't that easy.
Great teams communicate about how they are going to communicate. I've learned to talk to my teams about the way we are going to talk to each other. It starts with how important it is - giving them behavioral examples so they see the value. - calling out a screen, getting matched-up in transition, finding an open man with the extra pass. Then it's an understanding that it is going to be hard, and at times it will be abrupt. The message might be delivered with some intensity, because the environment is intense. We can't respond to the tone in the heat of battle. We have to get to what's important - the message, and what needs to be done. Finally, we have to understand we are always on the same team - the goal with communication is never to humiliate or demean a teammate. We have to get quick, direct messages across immediately. It's never personal. It's about making the team better.
Are we mature enough to accept that as team?
I've been on many teams where the communication caused more problems than it solved. If that is the case, you are creating your own obstacles. Communication must eliminate confusion. That is always the goal. If it creates confusion you have a lot of work to do. You can't simply tell your team to communicate more, and then complain when they don't. You have to teach them how to do it, and talk to them about how it will be delivered. You have to work on it constantly, just like you do your rebounding our execution.
We always started our first team meeting with one statement to our team - Communication can never be an issue in this program. To get to that point, it's something you really have to work on - just about every day.
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 1st season he’s playing for the Lakers” says Coby Karl, D-Fenders head coach
• Former Lakers Coach on David Nwaba’s strengths: “He doesn’t seem to care about anything but winning and playing defense.”
• While playing for the Chicago Bulls, Coach Fred Hoiberg said this of David Nwaba: “His skill is he goes out & plays harder than everybody else on the floor.”
• “David Nwaba’s ability to play hurt underlines his character & winning attitude,” says Coach Stephen Silas, Rockets Head Coach
Nwaba is currently with the Houston Rockets (5th year in NBA).
2020-21 Stats:
22 mpg / 9 ppg / 3.9 rpg
David Nwaba on his path to the NBA:
* I had the faith that it would work out, but I had to be patient
* I had to — as they say — trust the process
* So if you take anything away from my story, I hope it will be this: No journey is a straight line—every single one looks a little different
* Trust yourself & GO TO WORK
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 military and in sports.
- Geno Auriemma - "Coaches are afraid to coach their players now."
- If you want to advance in coaching there is one thing you can control - get better as a coach. Be as good of a coach as you can be. It's not about networking. Get better as a coach and you have to get lucky.
- Players want 3 things - 1) To win - they want to be part of a great team. 2) Have fun - they want to enjoy themselves. 3) They want to get better.
- People who are happy get over themselves and get into other people. "No matter how good you have it, if you are thinking about yourself, it's never going to be good enough. You are are going to be unhappy."
- 9 C's of Communication:
- Communicate Competently - You must show competence in how you communicate. Anders Ericson, Peak - High-performers don't just accept good coaching, they don't just welcome it. They demand it."
- Communicate Courteously - Understand your team and their goals - respect them.
- Communicate Collaboratively - 1) Listen 2) Use others to get your message out 3) Talk to EVERYONE
- Communicate Consistently - "Do not tolerate in victory that which you would not tolerate in defeat."
- Communicate Confidently - you must study your craft, know your message.
- Communicate Clearly - "Cluttered minds = Slow Feet" - communication must eliminate confusion.
- Communicate Candidly - Frank, open, sincere, honest and straight forward. "There is nothing more important in coaching than to be honest. Always."
- You want to play more? Don't tell them they need to rebound better, turn it over less - it's not true! "You have to be better than him!" - that's the honest answer.
- Communicate Constructively - Give them stuff to do. "C'mon guys, we're playing like shit right now!" - What does a player do with that?
- Your job as a coach is to tell them the truth, as you see it, all the time.
- People say I'm too negative as a coach - how much should I be positive vs. negative? Carol Dweck, Mindset - "That's the wrong question. The question is which one do you want? Do you want me to tell you how great you are, or do you want me to make you better?
- Communicate Courageously - You cannot be afraid of confrontation and conflict.
- How do you know if you are being effective as a communicator? - Look at the performance of your team. If your communication is working, you should see it out there.
- The coach/player relationship is one that is designed to get a result.
Tara VanDerveer
Tara VanDerveer used to bring the best basketball to the park so the boys would have to play with her.
Model The Behavior
Perhaps the most consistently powerful approach you can take as a leader is to model the behavior. You send a powerful message with what you do every day, and if you are talking about something and not doing it, the message is just as powerful. Your team needs to see the behavior you expect out of them in you (and your coaching staff) every day. What you do is so loud, they can' hear what you say.
Coaches love to talk about body language. They hate to see any negative body language, usually saying it's a sign of weakness. I've never been a big fan of the concern over body language, one of the main reasons is most coaches don't model the behavior they expect when it comes to body language. Take one look at the sidelines during most college basketball games and you'll see coaches making facial expressions, raising their arms, giving the "palms up" look and generally stomping up and down like someone who didn't get their way. How can you talk to your guys about body language if you are acting that way? Try filming just yourself on the sideline one day at a game or a practice. If you don't see the type of body language you say you want out of your players, don't expect to see it from them.
Focus is a word that coaches use all of the time. We want our teams locked in and ready to go for practice every day. If that's the case, you better show them you are focused every day. You have an organized practice plan that is ready to go. Your message is prepared, clear and concise. You don't get distracted by anything - any visitors who are watching practice, talking with your staff during drills, a cell phone or whatever it may be. If focus is required of everyone in the gym, it needs to be required of you first. If you are distracted throughout practice, don't expect your players to lock in.
We all want our teams to play with composure, but do we coach that way? Are we composed on the sideline, despite what happens, good or bad? I think it's crucial for your team to keep their poise in big spots to be successful. But the only way they are going to do it is if you do the same. If the emotion and intensity of a game gets to you and effects your process, expect the same out of your players. We all wonder at certain times how some players "lose their mind" out on the court. You might get the answer by looking in the mirror.
I always felt as a head coach that anytime I started to get into it with the officials, I'd feel my team slipping away from me. If I started to lose my composure, my players would do the same. I'd often have to catch myself, regain my composure, and get back with my team. I don't think "Don't worry about the officials, that's my job!" approach really works. It's just a cop out. If you want your team to play with composure, they need to see a composed coach.
So often we get upset with our players for the way they communicate, or a lack of communication. Not only is it important to tell them how to communicate, but you have to show it to them as well. If you are going to attack someone verbally for making a mistake, they'll likely communicate the same way. They may not come back at you like that out of respect for the fact that you are the head coach, but notice their communication with one another. If it's too aggressive or not very clear, take a look at how you communicate with them. It's likely your communication style is having an impact.
"Do as I say, not as I do," does not work in any effective leadership model. Being the head coach is not a pass to poor behavior. If you are going to demand it out of your team, they have to see you demand it out of yourself first.
Body language. Focus. Composure. Communication.
Tone Setters
Great competitors can have a huge impact on the way you practice.
I coached a player at Rhode Island College named Ethan Gaye, who was a tough combo guard who wasn't recruited and came out for the team in the fall. I knew something was different about him when my veteran players kept asking me if we were going to have a spot for him before practice started. Ethan wasn't the most skilled guard but he was athletic and tough. He wasn't a pure ball-handler or a great shooter, but he made up for any shortcomings with how hard he competed. He was like a free safety. Ethan made our squad, and over time worked his way into the starting line-up and a key role on some great teams.
One year Ethan had some challenges to handle balancing school, work and his family and he wasn't sure he'd be able to play. We had a few conversations and he decided to take the first semester off from basketball. When he came back in December, it was clear right away how much we missed him. We hadn't gotten off to a great start and we were inconsistent in the way we practiced and played. But Ethan changed the tone of our practices as soon as he came back, just with how hard he competed. He was hungry, he was full of energy and you could tell how much appreciated the opportunity to compete every day with his teammates. His competitive edge set a completely different tone for the rest of the team.
When I look back at our success at RIC, we had a number of tone-setters like Ethan Gaye, although I don't know that I recognized it at the time. Kinsey Durgin. Tahrike Carter. Terrance Tribble. Alex Cruz. It's remarkable how much of an impact great competitors every day in practice had on their teammates.
John Linehan was one of those players at Providence College. We were lucky to take over a team in 1998 at PC when John was a sophomore, and I'm not sure I've ever coached anyone who competed as hard as John did. He was your typical undersized, something-to-prove guard with a chip on his shoulder. People who would come to practice and watch us play would comment about how hard we competed, and I always felt it was really just because of Linehan. He competed at a level that just wouldn't allow anyone else to take a day off, or a play off. If you didn't compete, he'd find a way to embarrass you by going so much harder than you and making you miserable. There was a competitive edge about the entire team anytime Linehan was on the floor. There's a reason why he's got more steals than anyone in the history of college basketball.
When I first got to Maine we didn't really have any tone setters. I was the tone setter, and that was a challenge. I was trying to coach and will our guys towards the right compete level, but all they could do was hear it from me. They couldn't see it. There really wasn't anyone who understood that competitive edge and had the toughness and mentality to bring it every single day. The team was looking to me to provide it, and that won't translate nearly as well. There is a difference between the coach telling you to play harder, and getting embarrassed on the court by someone who is kicking your ass because of how hard he is playing.
Seek out and value players who can be tone setters. They might not be your most talented players or the guys that put up the best numbers. But the edge they bring to practice every day can have a huge impact. They make your job as a coach a lot easier.
The New Reality
College basketball coaches are used to having power and control. But things are changing rather quickly. Players are now able to transfer one time without having to sit out a year. And soon to be enacted legislation will allow players to make money while in college off of their name, image and likeness. Every player has also been given an extra year to play due to the pandemic. The players will now have more power and freedom than they've ever had.
So much of the conversation about what's happening right now, with over 1,000 players in the transfer portal already, is focused on the players. They aren't being loyal, they don't want to face adversity, they are just taking the easy way out. Kids these days, kids these days, blah blah blah. Keep in mind, the majority of players in the transfer portal are not in there on their own. They have been told that there might not be playing time for them next year and they may want to look elsewhere. It's the coaches making those decisions more so than the players.
As a coach, I think the focus needs to be on how we are going to adapt. When I was the head coach at Maine, I dealt with a large number of transfers. We had nine guys transfer up in four years, to places like Oklahoma, VCU, South Carolina and Colorado State. We dealt with young players who came to Maine and put up good numbers, and then looked elsewhere for a better basketball experience. It wasn't easy, and it changed the dynamic of our entire program. But it was the reality we were dealing with.
I knew when I took the job we had to try and win on culture. We didn't have a lot of advantages as a school or program, and we had our share of disadvantages. We had to create an environment that kids wanted to be a part of and one that made them better players and people. There was no sense worrying about our location, the weather, long bus rides or a lack of tradition. We couldn't do anything about that. What we could was control our own environment and the way we coached our players every day. That was our best chance, really our only chance. Ultimately before we could really establish that culture and create the buy-in, our young players had opportunities to play at a much higher level. We did change the culture but it took time, and in that time most of our recruited talent went elsewhere. But complaining about our reality was of no help to us. We had to figure out how to best navigate that reality.
That is the challenge for college coaches today. With the pandemic, everyone granted an extra year, no live recruiting for at least 15 months, new transfer rules and the incoming NIL legislation, everything is changing. We can spend time complaining about what we don't like about it, or we can look inward, and figure out what we are going to do about it.
We've long enjoyed the comfort of power and control as college coaches. If we are being truthful, many head coaches haven't really had to answer to anyone. You run the program the way you want to run the program, and as long as you pile up enough wins you continue on without much challenge to your control.
The lifeblood of every program is recruiting, and that world is cutthroat. You do and say what you need to do to land the players you can win with. I'm not talking about cheating, although of course there is some of that going on. I'm talking about communicating in a grey area. Telling the players want they want to hear to make them comfortable, to get them to sign. Once they signed, in the past, they really didn't have any power. Up until recently if they were thinking of transferring they needed to get permission just to talk to any other schools. And if permission was granted, they'd have to sit out a year wherever they went. When you got them to sign, you now had them under your control.
Now things are very different for the players. With technology they have instant access to information whenever they want it. They know everything that is going on everywhere else. They will also have the ability to make money off of their name, giving them financial freedom. And they can enter the transfer portal whenever they want, giving them back the power that they generally relinquish when they sign a letter of intent. They don't need permission to leave, or to talk to other coaches. They have more control. You can disagree with all of this, but it is the new reality. So what are you going to do about it?
As coaches we really have to examine everything we do. Take a long look at our culture and the environment we have established for our players. Are we making them better? Do they enjoy being a part of it everyday? Think about the way we communicate. Are we being transparent and honest with our players? Or are we treading in that grey area, where we don't really commit one way or another, giving ourselves an out if we want to change our minds? Are the players who aren't getting the playing time they want comfortable that they are at least getting an opportunity to play? Are they treated the same as the players who play a lot? It's one thing to want to play more. It's another thing to feel like you aren't being treated fairly. We have to think about what we promise when we recruit kids to play for us. Are we delivering on what we are selling to them?
We also have to think about our coaching approach. There has always been a lot of yelling and screaming in coaching, with a lot of anger often in the mix. Whether we like to admit it or not, cursing, berating and some rather unpleasant communication exists in coaching on a lot of levels. With just about all of the power and control in the dynamic, a lot of coaches can get away with that approach. We have long accepted it in coaching, and the players usually can't do much about it. I hope this will be the impetus for some of that to change. With the players having more options, will they continue to accept a coaching approach that makes them uncomfortable? The days of closing the gym doors and yelling and cursing at your team could be coming to an end, especially if the kids decide they don't want to be coached that way. Whether or not coaches can and will change their approach will be interesting.
The new reality in college basketball gives coaches a lot to think about. We can complain about the players and "kids these days" all we want, but that isn't going to change anything. The level of power and control is shifting, whether we like it or not. A lot of coaches are uncomfortable with this new dynamic, as is often the case when you are forced to give up some power and control. Our job is to find the best ways to adapt and connect with our players, and doing so now seems more important than ever.
There is a lot of talk about all of the changes coming to college athletics, but I'm not sure we are talking about the right things. Complaining about the kids and the new rules isn't going to help. Those who look introspectively at how to address the new reality will be a step ahead. Coaches who don't adapt may find themselves wondering where it all went wrong.
The Low Maintenance Player
"Never underestimate the value of a low maintenance player." - John Beilein
When people ask me about the elite success we sustained at Rhode Island College (Hey! Look, you can read a book about it here!), I always say the same thing: We had elite talent willing to buy in to a championship culture. No question we had great players that were a huge part of the winning we did, but the sustainability came from the culture. While I was there, when media ask how we continued to have success year after year, I would always tell them to come watch us practice. Watch what we do every day, and you'll have your answer. You'd see elite players competing their brains out for one another.
Over time I realized that the fabric of our team, who we really were on a day to day basis, wasn't due to our elite talent, but due to our approach. And that approach was set in place by our "program" kids, the kids who maybe weren't quite as talented but who showed up every day with something to prove. To borrow Coach Beilein's phrase, the low maintenance players.
If culture really matters to you, pay close attention to your low maintenance players. We all fall into the trap at times of spending most of our attention on the guys who are a pain in the ass, and overlooking the guys going about their business the right way. But the guys who bring the right approach every day are quietly carrying your culture, and that should demand a lot of your attention.
If you have core values, core behaviors, a culture wall - however you go about it, then it's important to seek out the behaviors you want and do two things - celebrate them, and reward them. It's not enough to just point out how hard the walk-on runs sprints, or the effort one of your freshmen back-ups is giving in drills. If certain players show the values you really think helps your team win, then you have to reward him.
It's remarkable when I look back on those RIC teams how many of them had a walk-on in thee starting lineup. The toughness and competitive edge that we really valued came from those kids who "weren't good enough" on paper, and for us that edge translated to victories. Ultimately if your core values really matter, those players need to be rewarded, and the ultimate reward is playing time. I'm not saying they have to play a lot, but the opportunity to earn playing time has to be there. Many times the reward can be playing time in practice. If the core values they exhibit don't translate to winning in games, and they can't help you at all, then maybe you need to re-evaluate your core values.
Never underestimate the value of a low maintenance player. Those guys can really carry your culture and help you sustain it. Celebrate them and reward them.
Celebrate him. Reward him. If your values are important to you.