Explore an Uncommon
Approach to Leadership!
Adjust To Your Talent
In my second year at Maine, we had the most athletic team in the America East. We started three freshmen and two sophomores and we played at the fourth fastest pace in the country. We had a chance to be a top three team in our league the next year. But our young talent didn't return, with four of our best players and athletes transferring up, while another of our athletes graduated.
We scrambled to replace them that spring and summer, but we didn't get nearly the same level of athlete we had on the roster my first two years. We went from being the most athletic team in the league to being the least, or at least close to it.
The biggest mistake I made as a coach at Maine was going into that third year. We didn't change our approach to playing the game fast, even though we didn't have the athletes. I had always coached a fast, athletic team and we were always in attack mode, playing aggressively. I didn't re-think my approach, given that we weren't very athletic at all. I realized about halfway through the year that I hadn't put my team in the best position to win. I was asking them to do things that didn't fit their ability.
When I became a head coach at Rhode Island College I had an idea about how we were going to play: fast. I wanted to attack on both ends of the floor, and I wanted to play a lot of guys, with a relentless style. Fortunately I took over a really athletic, deep team, and RIC was a place where we could continue to recruit athletes. The style I wanted to play fit perfectly with the talent in the gym.
We were good every year at RIC, so I never had to really adjust my approach. We did tweak some things on offense to fit our personnel better, but as far as style of play went the team you played against at RIC in 2005 was pretty similar to the one you played against in 2014. We wanted the game moving fast at both ends of the floor, and we had the athletes and talent to play that way.
The question gets asked a lot across all sports - do you adjust your style of play to your team, or do you ask your team to adjust to you? I think it's a pretty simple answer. Your job as a coach is to put your team in the best position to be successful. You have to evaluate the talent you have in the gym and figure out how to get the most out of them. You can take pride in being a "man to man coach" but if your team is slow but has some length, you may be better off playing zone. You might want to play up-tempo on offense, but if you don't have guards that are quick and can play at speed, that style isn't really going to work.
A lot of coaches aren't willing or able to re-think their approach. This doesn't mean you have to make major changes or lower your standards. You might adjust your man to man defense so that you don't pressure the ball as much, or introduce a more structured fast break so that your guards can see two or three options, rather than just making plays in the open floor. But I see a lot of teams that don't necessarily have the personnel to fit the way they are playing, but they are playing to the coach's approach and they struggle to win. The default for the coach becomes blaming the players, saying they just couldn't figure it out.
The best coaches know when it's time to adjust, and how to implement the change. Evaluate your team thoroughly each year to really dissect their strengths and weaknesses. Figure out what changes you need to make to give your team the best chance. The adjustments might be minor, or some year they might be major. But it's your job to adjust your approach to the talent in the room to give your team the best chance to win.
Leadership Development
Interesting concepts regarding the difference between horizontal and vertical leadership development. Many leaders fail, not because they don't have the skill set, but because they struggle with insecurity and don't understand or manage the mental and emotional side. A good six minute video.
"Awareness of Yourself"
From the last chapter of former Disney CEO Robert Iger's book, The Ride of a Lifetime. It's a very easy read and a fun look at the inside of Disney as they dealt with leadership change.
Maybe this is the case for many of us: No matter who we become or what we accomplish, we still feel that we're essentially the kid we were at some simpler time long ago. Somehow that's the trick of leadership, too, I think, to hold on to that awareness of yourself even as the world tells you how powerful and important you are. The moment you start to believe it all too much, the moment you look yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on your forehead, you've lost your way. That may be the hardest but also the most necessary lesson to keep in mind, that wherever you are along the path, you're the same person you've always been.
Think Again
A good book to read if you are looking is "Think Again," by Adam Grant, about the "power of knowing what you don't know." It's about re-thinking your opinions, and the power of un-learning and re-learning. Do you ever think about the non-negotiables you have as a coach and whether or not you should re-think them?
Some approaches in basketball that might be worth re-thinking.
Two Fouls In The First Half
When I was growing up watching college basketball in the 1980s, it almost seemed like it was a rule that if you got a second foul in the first half you had to come out of the game. It was standard practice. This is one approach that has been re-thought over the years, and thanks to Ken Pom we can actually track which coaches allow their players to play the most in the first half with two fouls.
Have you ever re-thought your approach on this? Using halftime as benchmark is pretty arbitrary. Why does he have to be on the bench with two fouls with 22 minutes left to play, but once we get to 20 minutes we are good playing him the rest of the way? I've been burned before losing control of a winnable game in the first half with my best player on the bench, only to look at the box score when it was over to see that he had played just 23 minutes, and he finished the game with 2 or 3 fouls.
Have you thought about preparing your team to play with 2 fouls? How about setting it up during practice, where everyone has 2 fouls during a drill, and making them run if they commit a foul. Maybe you take him out when he picks up his second foul to give him a breather, but you can prepare him to play with 2 fouls. You get 5 of them.
Fouling On Purpose
There are a lot more scenarios where fouling on purpose is a good idea than the one where we actually do it as coaches - when we are losing late in a game. If your opponent has a terrible free throw shooter on their team, putting him on the line isn't a bad idea. Even in the first half. If they are in the single bonus and holding for one shot, put that awful free throw shooter on the line. First of all, you'll really get into his head. Secondly, statistically it often works out to be a better play than just trying to play defense, especially against a really efficient offensive team.
Would you ever foul when you are up 1, with the shot clock off, late in the game? A lot of coaches in Europe will do this. Again, statistically there are a lot of scenarios where this is the most efficient play, even though it seems counterintuitive. If you do foul, they'd have to make both free throws to take the lead, far from a guarantee. Even if they do take the lead, you still have a possession to win the game. And if they miss one of the free throws, you have the ball in a tie game and almost no chance to lose the game. There are more scenarios than you think about where fouling on purpose is the right play.
Leadership
I've talked a lot about the traditional leadership model in this space and in speaking engagements, as well as in my book. How often do you re-think your approach or definition of leadership? I've never been a fan of the top down model, where one or two people lead the group and tell everyone what to do. That creates a lot of followers, not a great way to develop an elite team. Think about a way to empower everyone to lead, and a definition that fits your approach. Does the traditional way to pick captains and promote leadership within your team really work?
Role Definition
I think as coaches we really over-emphasize role definition. Your role on my team is always to help us win. That's it. That's what everyone is trying to do. Have you ever thought about how defining roles specifically might limit what you get from your players? It's easy to put them in a box, where they have one or two strengths in your mind and that's all you want to see from them. You can learn a lot more about your players, and how your team can be successful, by allowing them to be who they think they are - not who you think they are. Does specific role definition really make your team better? Common coach speak says yes. I'm not sure it does.
Good Shot/Bad Shot
Does constantly harping on your team about good shots versus bad shots help you offensively, or does it hurt you? Think about it. I know we all want our teams to take good shots, and we feel we have to teach our guys what the shots are that "we" want. What is the best way to get them there? You can constantly talk about good shots and bad shots, but odds are you are making them think about it and that's the last thing you want. If you teach your guys how to play and let them decide what shots to take, it might help their confidence. I've always said this - guys that constantly take bad shots, they aren't very good players. If you are constantly coaching it, you might have the wrong players out there.
Defensive System
Are you clear with your team on how you want to defend, or are you constantly changing? Giving your team a lot of options defensively can also give them licenses to make excuses or take the easy way out. I know we have to make adjustments as a coach, and that's fine. But do you have a defined set of principles that your guys know inside and out, that don't bend? Reliability, trust and toughness are huge elements of a great defensive team. It's hard to believe in each other and compete at an elite level if you aren't 100% sure about what you are doing. When was the last time you thought about how you approach defense? Is it worth re-thinking? A defined defensive system can be a separator between good teams and great teams.
Conditioning
It seems like more and more we are doing less and less. We want to save their legs, make sure they are fresh, and avoid any type of injuries. I realize staying fresh and healthy is important. But to me the best way to do that is to be in great shape. How much does your team run? And how tough are they? Conditioning is not only a great way get in elite shape, but it also develops a lot of mental toughness.
Think about the way you condition your team. It doesn't always have to be punishment. You can incorporate it into your drills, and work on execution right after you run to challenge your team. Put them in tough situations and make them come through.
The Starting Line-Up
Does it matter who starts, or who finishes? I like to play a lot of guys, and there are certain line-ups that are better for against certain teams. Does it make sense to start the same guys every time? Or can you prepare your team that different guys are going to start each game based on practice, match-ups, and performance. Tell them their goal should be to finish the game, and be one of the 5 guys out there when the game is on the line. It strikes me that we might all be better off as a team over the long season with different starting line-ups that create better rotations for certain games, but we are so married to the traditional idea of starters and bench players that we don't even think about it.
Pick-Up Games
If you read this blog somewhat regularly, you know how I feel about pick-up games. It's something our players are going to do a lot in the off-season, and if they do it a lot it's important. Have you ever taught your players how to play pick-up?
The most important thing to me about pick-up games is that the players learn how to win. Winning has to matter. And for winning to matter, there must be something on the line. Ten guys playing pick-up games over and over isn't ideal, because if they lose they just run it back. Having a team waiting to play makes a big difference, because if you lose you know you are going to sit out.
Put something on the pick-up games. The losing team has to run. The team that loses the most games in a week gets up Monday in the morning to run. Pick-up games have to matter, or they quickly become garbage and a great way to practice bad habits. Put something on the games and your team will learn how to play to win.
Competitive Edge and Composure
I've learned over the years that the best players, the best coaches, the best leaders I've been around - people who can sustain elite success - have one thing in common: perspective. They all have the ability to handle everything that comes their way - good and bad - with the right amount of balance. They have a particular way of looking at things that allows them to take what they do very seriously, but not take themselves too seriously. We often use the term "he just gets it" as a way of explaining it without being able to explain it.
The way I see perspective translate to players on the court is a balance between competitive edge and composure. Compete-level is usually the first thing I notice in a player, and it's the thing I'm most attracted to. I love watching anyone compete at a high level on matter what they are doing. But the elite players are able to balance that with composure, and that's not easy to do. You compete with an edge, you give everything you have on every play, but then when things don't work out you handle it. A big part of being a great competitor is showing the composure necessary to handle everything and move on to the next play.
Creating a competitive environment around your program is essential. You want there to be competition in everything you do, so your kids see it and feel it every day. Time the sprints and the conditioning sessions and keep track of progress. Have your players count makes and misses in shooting drills so they can try and beat their numbers every time. Keep score of pick-up games. Make your drills in practice competitive.
You also have to keep that competitive edge in the right perspective, and your kids will follow your lead on that. You can demand an elite level of competitiveness out of them every day without making the results seem like life or death. If you don't react emotionally to the results, your team won't either. The right perspective is something they see every day, and they can absorb. They will look to you on how to handle the positives and the negatives that come along throughout the season.
Competitive edge and composure. When you find guys who show you both, get them on your team. When you are coaching your team, show your guys both so they can see the behavior. Players and teams who are elite competitors and have great composure have what it takes to sustain elite success.
It's About Decisions, Not Answers
A great point to think about as a leader, from Chris Millette:
As a leader, you may believe that you need to have all the answers. This is a myth. By virtue of the position, it’s often lonely at the top, but remember, you are not alone. In fact, when those at the top act as if they have all the answers, it can appear disingenuous, weakening their influence rather than strengthening it. This miscalculation happens when leaders do not differentiate between answers and decisions.
The role of the leader is not to always have the answer, but rather, it’s simply to make the decision. As it’s frequently reported, the best leaders surround themselves with smart people, creating an atmosphere of speaking openly and confidently. In this type of environment, after hearing different ideas and solutions, the leader simply makes the decision. Unfortunately, I’m aware of how common this mistake is because early in my coaching career, I was a frequent offender.
I became a head basketball coach at the college level at the age of 28. At the time I believed I was ready, but, in hindsight, I wasn’t. Like most new leaders, I made my share of errors (like holding everyone accountable for the mistakes of just a few, as you’ll read in a future post Don’t Make Everyone Run.) But, one of my most glaring and dangerous mistakes was believing that I needed to have all the answers.
In my third year, still not truly confident, I decided to change our team’s offense, spending months preparing and researching. As the season approached, I was ready to go. Two people who didn’t know I was ready to go? My assistants. With all the pre-season preparation, meetings and conversations we had, I kept them in the dark. I needed to be in charge. I needed to be all-knowing, so they were kept out of the loop. On the first day of practice when I introduced the offense to the team, it was also the first time my assistants heard about it. Even writing this now makes me cringe!
What was I worried about? Perhaps they would ask questions I couldn’t answer? Perhaps they would know more than me about the offense? Who knows, but I couldn’t risk it. Not shockingly, things didn’t go well; both with the offense and the season as a whole. My need to have the answers, and the insecurity that surrounds that feeling, underscored the making of a mediocre year.
Five years, and a lot of growth later, I was in my fourth year at Tabor Academy. By this point, I was a much more comfortable and confident coach. Entering the season, I knew two things: 1) we needed to change our defense, 2) my previous leadership approach had failed. So, when it came time to make the change, I was confident enough to listen.
Although I knew which defense would work for us, the reality was I wasn’t totally familiar with it. “No problem,” my assistant told me, “I know that defense very well.” When it came time to introduce the plan to our team, I blew the whistle, gathered everyone, then I walked off the court and let my assistant take over. Certainly, a different approach than my insecure mess five years earlier. My assistant became the master of the defense. This not only empowered him but also allowed me to focus on other things (one of the benefits of not micromanaging I outlined in a previous post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/work-less-produce-more-chris-millette/). And not surprisingly, we’ve had a good amount of success over the last decade. Amazing what not having all the answers can do!
As a leader, it’s easy to think not having an answer makes you look weak or incompetent. It’s quite the opposite. By empowering those around you and holding on to the decision-making power, you strengthen your role as a leader. Now my assistants and I talk about everything we want to do. They give their thoughts...I merely make the final decision.
Know Your Role
My second year as a head coach one of our post players, who was 6-9, asked me half-jokingly during the pre-season, "Coach, is it okay if I shoot 3's?"
I answered him with another question. "Well, can you make 3's?"
"Yes! I can make them."
"Well, I like made 3's as much as anyone. I like any player who does things that help our team win. Of course if you can make them, you can shoot them."
He was obviously concerned that as a big guy his role wasn't to shoot 3's. We needed him in the post and the paint, banging and getting rebounds. He just assumed I wouldn't want him out on the perimeter shooting 3's. But he was a capable shooter, and he worked hard on shooting the ball, especially from the top of the key where he'd get a lot of trail 3's. He didn't shoot a lot of them, but he became a reliable threat from 3 for us, especially when we wanted to bring the opposition's post player out of the paint. I remember starting some games with a quick-hitter to get him a top of the key 3.
I know role allocation is an important point for a lot of coaches, but I've never been a big believer in it. It goes back to my early days as a head coach. I always said I wanted a team that played with freedom and confidence on offense. In return, I was going to demand a lot out of them defensively. If I defined for each player what they were and were not allowed to do, were they really going to play with freedom and confidence? I didn't think so. In a lot of situations I think "know your role" is a code for "I want control" of what you do.
My approach to this really started with our pre-season pick-up games, when our guys played for six weeks before we started practice. They chose teams at the beginning of a week and kept them all week. They kept score, and every win was recorded. At the end of the week, the team that lost the most games had to get up at 7 AM on Monday morning and run a mile. The result: those games mattered. No one wanted to lose, and guys took pride in getting through the pre-season without ever having to run on Mondays.
Because those games mattered, the guys learned to play the right way. The goal was to win, and they learned what gave them the best chance to win. That approach in those games took care of a lot of bad habits before the season even started. If you couldn't make 3's, do you think you were going to pull up for a 3 when it's game point? If you did, you were certainly going to hear it from your teammates. They didn't want to run either. The result was guys learned what they were good at, and what they could do to help their team win. It wasn't a lab to try out your new dribble moves or work on your left-handed runner. You played the games to win, and it became very clear what worked and what didn't.
I realized over time when we got to practice I didn't have to talk about strengths and weaknesses. I didn't discuss good shot vs. bad shot. And I certainly didn't have to talk about your role. "Figure out what you are good at, and do it a lot," I would always say. If you were good at shooting 3's, you should be looking for ways to get open looks from 3. If you were a great ball-handler you should be getting in the paint to make plays. If you had good post moves and could finish at the rim, guess what? That's where you should be.
I found that most of the good players never asked about their role. They knew what they were good at, they did it a lot, and those things helped the team. Usually when a player did ask me about their role it was simply because they weren't playing well. They didn't like how they were playing (or they just weren't good enough) so they'd say they weren't "comfortable in their role." I would always tell my guys the same thing "Your role is to help us win. That is your role." If a player needed clarification, we would talk about it. What are you good at? What can you do to help us? Usually they'd have an easy time talking about their strengths. My follow-up was then pretty simple. Do those things a lot, and they'll help us. I was happy to offer some suggestions based on what I thought they were good at if they needed it, but usually it was better coming out of their mouth.
I'm sure it's easy to look at this as a coach and feel a lack of control, but that's kind of the point. We used a military phrase "In command, without control" to describe how we wanted our team to look on the court. I didn't want to have control, because I don't think control is the best way to get the most out of my players. When you allow the players to define their own role for themselves, instead of putting them in a box, you learn a lot about your team that you may not have known. Your players have some skills and ability that you don't know about because they are trying to fit in to what they think their role is.
Now it's not total chaos. It's not like you aren't coaching them on their habits, or you are just letting them do what they want. That's not what you create. What happens is everyone learns the strengths and weaknesses of the entire team, and then you can make better decisions. If players are doing a lot of things they aren't good at, they aren't going to play. If you keep shooting a lot of 3's and you can't make them, you won't play. If you stand on the perimeter all of the time and refuse to rebound, I'm sure I can find someone who can. You will get to strengths and weaknesses organically when the role is not defined for them. If they can't figure out what they are good at that helps the team win, guess what? They aren't very good.
Think about the way you define roles for your players. For me, it's help us win. That is your role. Figure out what your players are good at, and coach them to do that a lot.
Steph Curry
From The Atlantic on Steph Curry and the impact Davidson had on his career.
Before Stephen Curry was everything, there was Davidson
DAVIDSON, N.C. — Kevin Oleksiak, a senior for UNC Greensboro, wasn’t exactly offended Steph Curry was defending him. But he certainly noticed who wasn’t defending him.
Max Paulhus Gosselin, a 6-foot-6 wing who eventually was named the Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year, was who Davidson put on the opponent’s best perimeter player. And he was defending Mikko Koivisto, Greensboro’s other guard. Which meant Oleksiak had Curry, a smaller and thinner sophomore, in front of him.
“They obviously think Mikko is more of a threat than me,” said the 6-4 guard from Pennsylvania. “I’m gonna come out and be extra aggressive.”
Oleksiak made his first seven shots, punishing the Davidson defense as Greensboro built a 20-point first-half lead. Fleming Gym was rocking this night, Feb. 13, 2008. See, Davidson came to town on a 13-game win streak. They had competitive losses to No. 1 North Carolina, Duke, UCLA and North Carolina State on their non-conference schedule. So Davidson was well groomed and ripping through its SoCon slate.
Something happened with the Wildcats’ one-and-a-half-hour trip to Greensboro. The bus arrived late and impacted their warmups. The whole team started cold. Greensboro went into the locker room feeling like the hype of Davidson, and Curry, wasn’t justified. Oleksiak was feeling like this was his night.
“And then that second half,” Oleksiak said, “he took over. In that second half, he was just like, ‘I’m on a different level than everyone else on this court. Hey, everyone, get on my back. I’m gonna win this.’”
Curry scored 23 in the second half and finished with a then-career-high 41. He scored 15 during a 24-5 run as Davidson roared back for their 14th straight win.
“So I think that was when we were like, ‘Alright. This guy actually is pretty special.”
Before elevating Golden State’s moribund franchise. Before becoming an MVP and capturing the imagination of the sport. Before becoming a champion. Before the debates about where he ranks among the greats. Before becoming a global icon and admired citizen. Before — “Finally,” athletic director Chris Clunie said — becoming a Finals MVP and stamping his legend. There was Davidson.
Some 20 miles north of Charlotte, ever so fittingly off Exit 30 on I-77, is 665 acres of manicured grass, fancy brick buildings and antebellum homes, all embedded in trees that whistle from the winds off nearby Lake Norman, where the superhero figure got his superpowers. Where young adults congregate at burger joints and dorm lounges for fun. Where one-lane roads, jogging neighbors and elders with warm eyes remind that leisure is the local pace. Where the dress code is comfortable and the vibe affluent. Where small-town smiles and kind gestures seek to compensate for rampant privilege and lacking diversity. Where jocks and geniuses, artists and activists, are indoctrinated alike with values of service and community steeped in the school’s Presbyterian heritage and liberal arts bent. Where red is an emotion and a statement as much as a color. Where, unbeknownst to everyone, the foundation of an NBA legend was being laid.
Wednesday, he was back. Curry was welcomed by No. 30 jerseys and spray-painted greetings on white sheets hanging from porches and trees. He was serenaded by a packed Belk Arena, buzzing with students geeked that this Warrior is also a Wildcat and alum, who still awe at the prestige he’s delivered since 2008. He was anointed as their favored son, beloved brother and embodiment of every ideal crammed into their mission statement.
“Everybody sees the polished, finished product on the court,” Curry said. “They see these Finals runs. They see the impact I try to have off the floor. But I think these are moments to reflect on where it all started.”
In front of his wife, whom he called 13 years ago crying, torn over whether to stay swaddled in one more year of Davidson love or be an NBA lottery pick. In front of his three children, all old enough to remember the cherishing of his dad. In front of his parents, fighting back tears born of pride in a son who continues to impress. In front of old friends and former teammates who make sure the celebrity knows he’s one of the guys. In front of teachers who supported and prodded him.
The 3-point king was the honoree in a three-part celebration. The first was a full graduation ceremony, with a procession and all, for the lone and most famous graduate, to give him his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. The second was his induction into the Davidson Sports Hall of Fame, which came with a gold medal medallion on a red ribbon. The third was to put No. 30 in the rafters, never to be worn again, the school’s first and only retired number for any sport.
Davidson is where his confidence on the court hit puberty. Davidson is where he learned to blend his individual brilliance with a team motif. Davidson is where it became clear the road to greatness has no shortcuts and no chauffeurs — a lesson that started taking root after his first practice when he got kicked out for being late and trying to sneak in like he wasn’t. Davidson is where he was constantly reminded of the resilience needed to finish what he started, the spirit that kept him tethered to the Warriors through the rough early years and eventually earned him his college degree. Davidson is where he was first fitted for stardom, and learned to tailor his special brand of celebrity to include humility and purpose.
It wasn’t lost on Curry, as love from some 5,000 people took his breath away, the value of this place, which prompted him to send thank you cards to alums after he was drafted No. 7 overall in 2009. It’s instantly recognizable, the role this community had in shaping the face of the NBA.
After committing 13 turnovers in his first college game, a home win over Eastern Michigan, Davidson coach Bob McKillop played his true freshman 35 minutes the next day. Against Michigan. In Ann Arbor.
He took 15 threes in that game, the second of his college career. In his sixth game, he took 20, making nine against Colby. The audaciousness sprouted at Davidson.
“One thing I like about him,” said Dontaye Draper, a guard for College of Charleston who faced Curry three times, “he was little, but he was fearless. He’d miss like four in a row and come right back and make the next one. He didn’t care.”
Google “Stephen Curry I love the commons” and see the origins of the jovial celebrations and willing self-deprecation.
“So all of that has given me a sense of gratitude, a sense of work ethic, a sense of running my own race,” Curry said. “I don’t know what it would look like if I went anywhere else. If I went to a high (Division I), or a power-conference school. I don’t know what my career would have looked like. But I do know that I got to come here and, again, just blossom at my own pace and had the confidence of a coach that really felt like I could be that guy.”
The Wildcats had put together back-to-back 20-win seasons and made the 2006 NCAA Tournament when Curry arrived on campus. Everyone knew he was Dell Curry’s kid. But he hardly invoked fear in opponents. His 6-3, 185 pounds felt like a generous listing when he walked on the court.
His 32 points and nine rebounds at Michigan made it clear he was a good player. And he almost immediately tormented defenses with his off-ball movement and quick release. But back then, in 2006-07, Draper was more the guard that worried defenses. He was a 5-foot-10 athletic type, tough like his Baltimore hometown and quick. He spent the summer working out with Carmelo Anthony and new College of Charleston coach Bobby Cremins, the longtime Georgia Tech coach, moved Draper to off guard so he could attack more. He came into his senior season, Curry’s freshman year, looking to get to the NCAA Tournament on his last dance. Draper put up 38 in the conference semifinal and was one win away.
But like so many others, Draper had his hopes splashed away. In the SoCon title game, Curry had 29 points to lift the Wildcats back into the tournament.
“Davidson, they play smart, the right way,” said Draper, who played more than a decade overseas. “And they literally come down and do the same exact thing every time. The point guard dribbles all the way to the free-throw line, and they got Steph and those guys coming off screens. You couldn’t make mistakes against them and we made a few mistakes. Steph had a big 3. I remember that.”
When Draper graduated and started his pro career, Curry was but a good player in a great program. But people he knew that kept tabs on the conference kept telling him sophomore Curry was different.
A year later, he ended Oleksiak’s college career in the conference semifinals with a 26-point game, then dropped 23 in a win over Elon in the championship game. What followed was the tournament run that would initiate the legend. It would lead to national prominence for Davidson. And a move to the Atlantic 10 conference. And no doubt more red Davidson jersey sales than ever before.
And that led to the NBA success. The permanent alteration of basketball. The historic dynasty. And the full-circle moment on Wednesday, on the court he and his wife donated in honor of McKillop, when he got the flowers he waited 13 years to receive.
That’s how this thing was built — gradually, element by element, until the bedrock was in place. No one foresaw an NBA superstar would emerge from those humble beginnings. Those who saw him early say anyone who claims to have predicted this from Curry is lying. But looking back, those are Davidson bricks at the base.
“This is an absolutely amazing day,” Curry said. “An amazing moment for myself, for my family. Heard a lot of amazing words and stories and memories from childhood to high school, to the best decision I ever made — to come to Davidson College and pursue an amazing education.”
Oleksiak still gets a bit of a sting whenever he hears or sees Davidson, the rival that deprived him of glory. Even though Curry was a primary reason, he can’t help but feel the opposite about the former Davidson star. Even in losing to Curry, Oleksiak was rewarded. His father, Kevin, never let anyone forget his son scored 26 points against Stephen Curry. His co-workers, his friends, anyone who would listen, heard him brag about his son’s great college game against a future legend. He even showed them pictures of his boy matched up with Curry.
Oleksiak’s father died a couple of months ago. The grief is still raw. The disbelief was still present. But Wednesday, as Curry was honored with a trifecta, it gave reason to remember where his journey began. At Davidson. Curry’s jersey retirement, Hall of Fame induction and solo graduation was a reminder to Oleksiak that he was a small part in Curry’s miraculous rise, yet big enough to make his father proud.
"Unbelievably Direct Communicator"
“But the thing that struck me most then and strikes me every day now is, he is an unbelievably direct communicator. He tells you precisely what he thinks. He is not going to sugarcoat something or say something he doesn’t believe in. It sets him apart in many ways.”
- Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame Athletic Director, on new football coach Marcus Freeman
Leeds United
A good look at how Jesse Marsch, who is from Wisconsin, took over Leeds United and is implementing his own style. Imagine the pressure of trying to change a culture while also avoiding relegation?
"We can't feel too good about ourselves, we can't feel too bad about ourselves. We just have to have a relentless commitment to keep moving forward. The goal isn't to have total harmony, but to create a common understanding as to what we are, our identity and to commit to that every day. I don't have a problem of telling somebody if they're not carrying their weight, or of telling them how disappointed or angry I am because I will protect the environment above everything. That's the most important thing: it's not harmony, it's about identity, expectation and making sure that in every way we're maximising the potential of each other and of the group every day."
First Team Meeting
- It will not go the way you think.
- We are all on the same team
- Richard Pitino writes this on the board for his team's first meeting of the season.
Things I've learned about the first team meeting of the year:
- You aren't getting all of the messages you want across.
- It's better to talk less and listen more.
- Ask questions and hear your team.
- Who do you guys want to be?
- What's important to you?
- How good can we be?
- How are we going to get there?
- Start the process of ownership of your culture for them.
- Let them know how hard it's going to be.
- It's too early to name captains.
- Don't set numerical goals - set goals for how you are going to compete every day.
- Take everything you want to say and throw 75% of it out - it's too much.
- People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it.
- Let them know who you are.
- Ask them about the pre-season.
- The less absolutes you declare the better.
- Be absolute when it comes to academics, punctuality and respect.
- Don't paint yourself into a corner with penalties - you don't know what's coming.
- It's a marathon, not a sprint.
- The path to success is not linear.
- Your culture takes shape gradually, over time. You can't force it.
Losing
What can you do to turn things around when your team is losing?
When I became a head coach in 2005 at Rhode Island College in 2005 I took over the best team in the league. We were good enough to win games regardless of the mistakes I made. When I became the head coach at Maine in 2014, I took over the worst team in the league. We weren't good enough to win no matter what I did. I gained a lot of valuable experience as a head coach with both winning and losing.
Understand The Pulse Of Your Team
Any important decisions you make as a leader start with the pulse of your team. You really have to know what makes them tick as individuals and as a group. That is harder to due when your team is really struggling, especially with a new team.
When you are losing your approach tends to drift away from the people on your team and how to connect with them. The overall mindset becomes "we just aren't good enough" and you need an overhaul. I know when I got there as a coach, the individual mentality didn't matter to me as much as it should have. It was a major reconstruction project and this was how we were going to do it long-term, and connecting with the players wasn't as important. We cared about them and we tried to make them better, but changing the mindset became a group thing, with individual personalities not being as important. That made change that much harder.
Some teams are really loose and a little bit wild, and maybe they need things to be tightened up a bit to change the narrative. Other teams are too rigid and put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform, and that has a negative impact. Understand what type of team you have to help find your way out of it.
Any type of meaningful change is still about connecting with individuals mentally and establishing and maintaining buy-in. Motivating players when you are winning and they are playing well isn't that difficult. Connecting with them to get more out of them when they are losing is really hard, and knowing who they are and how to get to them is crucial. Don't lose sight of who they are because you are losing.
Evaluate Their Ability
Talent matters. Some players are good enough and some aren't. When you are going through a losing streak, make sure you are honest with what your players are capable of. Are you putting them in position to be successful? Are they good enough to do what you ask?
When you are trying to shake things up to get your team out of a rut, make sure you are putting them in the best position to win. It's not a bad idea to mix it up. But it is easy to make things worse. If you are struggling to shoot the ball and you are shooting a lot of 3s, maybe you aren't as good a shooting team as you think. If you have a great post player who you keep feeding inside but he can't finish, maybe you need to different approach.
It's so easy when you are losing to get pissed off at your players and blame them. Sometimes they aren't good enough. Make sure you are asking them to do stuff they are capable of doing before you hammer them about the way they are playing.
Look Inward
Take a look at how your actions and tone have changed as your team has started to struggle. Are you being consistent with who you are and your organization's core values? Do they still see someone they can trust every day?
Taking responsibility is a great way to show vulnerability to your team and the value of taking ownership. When my teams were struggling I felt one way to relieve a lot of pressure was to tell them it was ultimately my fault. I prepared this team to play a certain way, and we aren't playing that way. It's on me. But I'm going to keep working as hard as I can to get this right, as long as you guys are willing to do the same.
Ask some veteran guys that you trust how your own approach has changed in their eyes. Do they see the same guy they saw at the beginning of the year? Is the message still consistent and clear? Ask a lot of questions and listen. Having those conversations will teach you a lot about yourself and your team.
You want to end a losing streak by figuring out what your team can do better. Sometimes it's about figuring out what you can do better.
Change Something
Sometimes you just need to do something else. Make sure it sounds different and feels different to your team. Get them out of their rut and give them something to be excited about.
When we were struggling defensively at Maine I was continually pounding our guys on the defensive end. It was the emphasis every day. The drills were harder and longer. I was going to make sure the guys knew we were going to guard people no matter what. And it wasn't working.
I just decided to go the other way. Before we played Hartford after a tough loss at Stony Brook, I went completely opposite. I told our guys I wanted to try and score 100 points. That was it. That was the scouting report before Hartford. I didn't say anything about the defense, because the guys were tired of hearing about it. All we were going to do was try and score 100 points.
It definitely changed our guys mentality a bit. It gave them something to get excited about, something to smile about in practice. We had been losing game after game, so we needed something to change. We went out and beat Hartford in the next game, and we did score 100 points (although the game went to overtime, and it took us overtime to do it).
Stay Focused On Who You Are
Stay true to your core values and behaviors. Make sure that is how you continue to evaluate your team. Negative results can impact the way you see your team, and you have to fight that. The process is what really matters. If your team is competing the way you expect, make sure you celebrate that. Too much goes into the results that you can't control. Evaluate your team based on their approach every day and you'll continue to get their best.
Trust Relieves Pressure
I heayrd a really interesting take from Joel Sherman, a long-time reporter for the New York Post, on "The Captain," Derek Jeter's documentary about his career. If you are a Yankee fan or a Jeter fan, you'll find "The Captain" interesting and fun, but it's basically just a recap of his career.
Sherman was talking about the difference between the Yankee Dynasty (1996-2000) teams that one four World Series and the teams from the next decade who had a lot of talent and struggled to win. Jeter during those years used to always say "these teams are different" without elaborating on what the difference was.
Sherman said that the Yankee Dynasty teams had built up such a level of trust that the following teams didn't seem to have. He said the trust that was built relieved a ton of individual pressure in the locker room because there was so much trust and confidence that somebody would find a way to get the job done. The individual players didn't feel as much pressure because they knew the team as a collective could handle it.
I'd never heard a take like that on trust and the collective pressure, but it makes a lot of sense. When I first started coaching championship teams that were good year in and year out, the power of our trust in one another was tangible. It sounds silly, but I felt you could just see how much we trusted each other on the court. It was a collective mentality, borne of hours and hours in the gym with the right approach. The way we played, shared the ball, covered for each other and competed every day, you could tell how much we trusted one another and our approach.
I never thought about the concept that the trust helped relieve the pressure. Now that I've heard it, it fits perfectly with those great teams I coached. There was an ease about our mentality in tight games. We were confident and never got rattled, and if you were going to get us, you had to beat us. We never really gave in to the moment.
The level of trust we had for one another relieved us of individual pressure. No one person had really felt it, because they were surrounded by people they knew the could count on. Trust made it easier for us to come through in tough spots and win big games.
I've always felt strongly about the importance of trust in your culture, ever since I became a head coach. I never connected it to our ability to perform under pressure.
Teach Them How To Get Better
I remember talking with a Division I head coach a few years back about the summer access rules and our ability to work with our players in the off-season. He said "We really need it, because these kids don't know how to get better on their own." And my response was, "Well, if they played for you for a year, shouldn't they know how to get better on their own?"
Most players need to be taught how to get better on their own. What are they doing when they are alone in a gym or on the playground in the summer? There is a big difference between working on your game and shooting around, and at some point everyone needs to be taught. If you play a musical instrument, somebody taught you how to practice, and how to get better. You didn't just pick up the flute and start playing it. Somebody taught me math, and showed me the problems I needed to work on to get better at algebra. Similarly we need to teach our players how to get better.
I would say that most players when they get to college don't have a great idea how to get better when they are alone. I know there are workout people everywhere nowadays, and everyone has a guy or two that they "work out" with. It's not that hard to ask someone to work you out, rebound for you and pass you the ball - if you go hard, you'll get better at some rate. I'm talking about guys going to the gym by themselves, or with a teammate to work on their game.
If you are coaching in high school or college it's one of the most important things you can do. Show your kids how to get better when they are alone in a gym. They don't have to take a day off just because they don't have someone to work out with. Show them full-court ball-handling drills. Show them how to get shots and make one on one moves off of spin-outs to themselves. Show them the pace they need to work out at, and how to catch their breath shooting free throws in between drills.
Too many young players are reliant on other people to help them get better. They'll go to the park or the gym when there is pick-up to play, and they'll join a work out when someone has room for them. But when they are on their own, what are they doing? They need to be taught how to get better on their own.
"Live With Paradox"
"An ability to embrace new ideas, routinely challenge old ones, and live with paradox will be the effective leader's premier trait."
- Tom Peters
It's What You Do
When you take over an organization, it's natural to want to talk about who you are and your core values. You want to explain to your team everything your team will be about. It feels like you can't repeat the message enough.
I've learned that your team really won't understand your values until you see them in action. Long meetings with dialogue about what you are all about lose their impact quickly. As much as you feel the urge to share your core values and everything you stand for, words won't have a huge impact. They will figure out who you are and what's important to you through your actions every day. That is where you should focus.
We used the phrase "Win Anyway" as a way of illustrating our no excuses approach. The point was that no one cared about whatever adversity we may face. It was about the bottom line, getting the job done, regardless of what happened around us. I used to talk about that to my teams all of the time - Win Anyway. No excuses. That would be a big part of our core value of toughness.
But it struck me that those conversations lost energy pretty quickly. OK, coach, we've heard that before. Got it. They had heard what I said, and they weren't ignoring it, but it wasn't really resonating. When we got on the floor and something happened, and they head me talk about it - that's when it started to sink in. If someone thought they got fouled in practice but it wasn't called, they'd hear me say "Win Anyway." OK, you think you got fouled, you didn't get the call, what are you going to do about it? Somebody is going to win this drill, either you or them. How are you going to respond?
The message was so much more effective when they saw it in action and there was behavior connected to it. I could literally see the response on the floor, the determination to take what I had said and put it into action. I quickly realized that all the time I spent preaching to my team, especially when I first took over, wasn't nearly as effective.
I realize the pull you feel when you first take over to deliver a great message and to clearly define your core values. But the longer you stand in front of your team talking at them, the less impact you will have on them. Deliver your message with action, and let it happen naturally. Your team will start to believe in your values over time, it won't happen overnight. It happens when they see those values turn into action, when it becomes behavior.
What you do is much more important than what you say. Deliver the message with who you are every day.
How Do You Make Your Team Tougher?
"If you want a team that is tough, get tough players." - Jeff Van Gundy
I recently had this conversation with a couple of local high school coaches. How do you make your team tougher?
Get Tough Kids
Coach Van Gundy said it best - you want a tough team, get tough players. Maybe not that easy at the high school level. But if you really want a tough team, then you have to value toughness every step of the way. With whom you take on the team, who you decide to start, who gets the playing time, etc. Value toughness every step of the way.
Define It As Behavior
If it's a value for you, you have to define it for your team in behavioral terms. Yelling at your team "we need to be a lot tougher!" doesn't make your team any tougher. They have to know what it is you mean, and they have to understand it as behavior. What does toughness mean to you? The kid who turns the ball over, but sprints back to get a deflection and save an easy basket in transition is tough. The guard who gets stuck in the spot on a big and works his ass off to get around in front and challenge any pass inside is tough. The guy who sprints in for an offensive rebound from the perimeter and gets his hand on the ball to keep it alive is tough. Any player who competes with 100% effort is tough.
However you define toughness, show your team the behaviors that fit that definition.
Get Physical
It's hard to have a physically tough team that doesn't play physically tough in practice. It seems like a lot of coaches are more concerned with somebody getting hurt than they are with getting tougher. I don't want to get anyone hurt either. But I don't see a way to prepare for the toughness needed to win games without battling it out in practice. You can control the level of physicality (and how long you go) in practice. I'm not saying have brawls. But banging bodies is part of the game, and if you want to be tougher you have to get used to it. Physical drills help breed toughness.
Run. A Lot.
Conditioning is one of the more underrated elements of mental and physical toughness. My teams always ran a lot to get in great shape. Get your team into great shape and they'll feel a level of toughness that can come through in any situation. It's a mindset that tough teams have. Start some drills with a sprint or two and then get your team right into what you are doing. Force them to get stops late in practice when they are dead tired. A team that is in great shape and knows it will be tough as nails.
Tough Situations
Put your team in tough situations and make them come through. When you have an early morning practice, demand the same level of intensity and effort. When you played the night before and have another game to prepare for, expect the same approach. If it's your fourth or fifth straight day of practice in the pre-season, don't make any excuses for them.
Give them the rest they need when they need it, of course. But don't always take the easy way out. Create tough situations in practice (after running some sprints) and demand their best. Tough teams are borne out of coming through in tough situations.
Indifferent to Injuries
This might sound a little harsh, but don't make a big deal out of injuries. In fact, move past them as quickly as you can. Obviously you want to make sure your players are safe and take care of them if they are hurt. But when the trainer gets involved and everything is okay, keep it moving. If it a kid goes down with a turned ankle and is limping a bit, get the trainer on it and move forward. You don't have to stop practice and have everyone get a drink until you find out the extent of the injury. If you are out of the drill, see the trainer and he or she will take care of it. But practice is moving on. For the guys that are milking things a bit and just need a break, they'll start to realize that the team is moving forward without them.
You can develop a mentality with your team that injuries are going to happen, and the trainer is the one who takes care of them. But the team has to continue to get better. No one who is tough is going to want to spend any time with the trainer while practice is taking place. If you get past the injuries quickly, your team will too.
Reward It
If you say you want a tough team, then you have to reward toughness. Celebrate the tough plays as much as possible. Stop practice and make sure they know how important it is to you. Show it on film and praise it.
If toughness matters, those tough kids need to play. Don't threaten to play the tough kids if your starters don't pick it up. Don't underestimate the value of having a tough kid who's not as talented in your line up. If you really value toughness, the best way to show it to your team is to reward it. The test of how you value toughness is how much playing time you will give to it.
Model It
Whether it's work ethic, consistency, showing up early, a great effort every day - however you define toughness, they need to see it from you. Make sure you model the behavior. If staying after practice and getting work in even when you are tired is a sign of toughness for you, then you should be there with them. If giving a consistent effort every day is a tough behavior, you have to make sure you give that effort. You might not be able to dive on the floor for loose balls (please, don't try it), but your team will definitely see whether you are tough or not, based on your standards. If you aren't tough your team won't be either.