Our team went through a difficult transition last year. There were a lot of variables that could have easily lead to a disappointing outcome. We had just completed a run of 5 consecutive Final Fours but following the fifth one, we graduated all five starters. To make it worse, we also graduated 2 of our top 3 substitutes. We only had one returning player that averaged over 10 minutes a game. We brought in seven freshman and one junior college player to give us eight new Lady Tigers to start the season.There were a lot of decisions to be made. Some we made early as in our schedule. We opted not to take a step back in terms of the difficulty of our schedule. We did work the schedule to make sure a number of those games were at home. Our home non-conference schedule included Notre Dame, Xavier, Middle Tennessee, Nebraska and Florida State. Four of the five advanced to the NCAA Tournament. We had rivalry games with Tulane and Louisiana Tech and a big road game against Connecticut. When the season would end, our schedule would be ranked #9 in he nation by Collegerpi.com.
We also made a decision that we would not rush the teaching aspect of our system of play. We were going to stick with the basics even though we knew it may prolong getting everything in.
Another thing that we benefited from was by simplifying our system. We kept our transition game simple with an occasional ball screen out of secondary. We ran motion and has a couple of entries. We played man to man defense 95% of the time. In this regard, we spend a great deal of time teaching transition, motion and man defense.
This is not to say that the process wasn't painful at times. We had the youngest team in the nation but at one time we were 12-9 in the season. We had lost games to Notre Dame, Xavier, Middle Tennessee and Florida State. All were very close. Three of them we lead in the last three minutes. But we weren't ready to closeout out a quality team and all three of those teams went to the dance. We decided to stay the course and continue to teach!
We went to Connecticut and gave them one of their more competitive games of the season. Still we had to keep teaching. And the key in teaching was that we had to teach them "everything."
We had to teach them how to practice. The majority of them had never played collegiality and didn't understand how to go hard the entire time, push the fatigue and maintain concentration.
We had to teach them how to prepare. How to prepare for a practice as well as how to prepare for a game.
We had to teach them how to learn. They needed to be exposed to how they can best benefit from video. We had to teach them to meet with coaches when they had questions.
We had to teach them how to rest. They were young and excited about being on a college campus for the first time. Yet we have conditioning, weights, practice, study hall, class, and other team functions. They needed to learn that there was a time to enjoy the college life and a time to rest.
Of course, we had to teach them time management. It is one of the biggest adjustments for a freshman.
We had to teach them significant parts of the game such as clock management in regard to score and possession. How to close a team out when you have a lead late. The value of special situations. How to lock in and focus at a timeout.
I mean we had to start at ground zero. At LSU, we have been a program that prides itself on upperclassmen passing the torch. That means that much of what we mentioned above is taught to the new players by the returning players. But that was impossible in the situation that we had this year.
Communication was of paramount importance. We met with the team and with individual players more than any year I can remember. It was important not only to correct their mistakes but also to reinforce what they were doing correctly -- we were trying to lay the groundwork for proper habits not just for the next game of for this season -- but the rest of their careers.
The final result of keeping it simple and making teaching in all areas a priority was the youngest team in the nation going 19-11 and finishing 2nd in the SEC. We were able to make our 11th consecutive NCAA tournament and we started the foundation for a new era of Lady Tiger Basketball.
As I mentioned, it was difficult and frustrating at times. I did find great comfort late in the year reading Jim Calhoun's book, "A Passion to Lead." In the book Coach Calhoun spoke about a similar year when he had brought in eight freshman. Below are some of the excerpts from the book regarding their transition:
"In the late summer of 2006, we brought eight freshman players into the Connecticut program. That was the most new players we’d ever had. They came to Storrs from all over – Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, New York and Connecticut. One was a seven foot, three inch player from Tanzania, who’d moved to America three years earlier, when he was sixteen. Another kid, Ben Eaves, grew up in England and represented his country three times in international basketball competitions. Ben spent a year at Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, which is where we first saw him play. (He has since transferred to University of Rhode Island.) Meanwhile, freshman guard Doug Wiggins grew up in East Hartford, about a half hour drive away.
They were a diverse group, each unique in his own way. But in one respect they were no different than every other group of first-year players we’ve had: They all thought, when they arrived, that they were good basketball players. They all thought, when they arrive, that they understood the meaning of hard work. They all thought they knew a lot about basketball, and school.
They were all wrong. They all do have athletic potential. They’re all good kids who certainly energized the coaching staff last year. And many of them have good study habits. But college is a major adjustment for everybody, and most students don’t realize that until their heads are spinning after week one.
The freshmen don’t know yet how tough it is to become a good player in the Big East Conference. They don’t comprehend how much organized they’ll need to be to handle the many new demands on their time-academic, athletic, and social. They are starting an entirely new phase in their lives, heading in a new direction, and they need a few people which compasses to point the way.
That’s where the coaches come in. We are teachers, first and foremost, and our first task is to let the new student athletes know immediately that thing will change. Life will be different.
Trust me, I know. We didn’t have much chemistry last year. Young players tend to make mistakes, and the only way to eliminate them is to make the kids practice until execution becomes second nature to them. We work on the basics constantly-team defense, rebounding, and getting the ball down the court quickly on offense after we get a rebound.
Either before or after practice, we hold meetings and watch videotapes to reinforce the instructions the coaches give on the court.
Coaches must spend a lot of time getting players in a winning frame of mind-building a confidence and, importantly, toughness; motivating the players to work hard to improve. It’s almost a 24/7 job, and nearly as important as the physical aspect of the game.
The one thing our teams usually have is swagger, but that’s hard to have when almost everybody is wet behind the ears. We suffered through a lot of growing pains last year. It was the price we paid for having zero returning starters. I am not a patient man, but we were in a rebuilding mode, and I knew going into the season we’d play some ugly games. Still, I took responsibility for our losses, and so did the players. When we lose, everybody associated with the team takes the hit, and we all vow to work harder and do better the next time. That’s the way you develop trust and get better."
