CAL RIPKEN JR. ON CONSISTENCY

We constantly preach to our players about being an "NBA Player" -- meaning "Next Best Action."  The best players don't dwell in the past.  They are on to the next play.  If they are thinking about the last play -- a missed shot, a turnover, a poor play be a teammate, a bad call by an official -- then they are not give 100% of their mental capacity to the most important play of the game -- the next one.  After all, as Sue Gunter would constantly tell her teams, "The next possession is the only one we have control of."

By now I am hopefully that you've all heard of The Players Tribune.  If not it needs to be a must read for you and your players.  It is articles that are written completely by athletes.  Not coaches. Not writers.  It gives us an amazing perspective and insight into what some of the best are thinking in so many different situations.

One of the more recent entries came from Cal Ripken, Jr. in an article titled "The Best Play I Ever Made."  One of the take aways from the article was when Cal had failure on the field, an error or poor at bat, he always seemed to follow it up with success -- a good defensive play or a hit.  This is the Next Best Action attitude.  This is a look into Cal's mentality: 

"More often than not, whenever I made an error, I’d get a hit in my next at bat. If I struck out a few times, I’d be more likely to make a nice play in the field. Whatever I was struggling with, I tried to excel in another area to balance it out. I always viewed baseball as a constant internal battle within myself. You have to keep your emotions low when pressure is high, but play with passion when pressure was low. It’s not about focusing on perfection so much as on consistency."

THE OTHER MADNESS IN MARCH - FIRING COACHES

While all the attention this time of the year centers around "March Madness" and the excitement of the NCAA tournament -- and with great reason -- there is yet another madness: the firing of coaches.  For us in the business it is a very difficult time because many of those coaches that are fired are friends -- we know them, and their families.  If you are in the business long enough, some of those being shown to the unemployment line are your former players.

Please know that I'm not saying there aren't situations where a change in leadership is needed.  It happens.  But we are in a microwave society where we want coaches fired in the middle of the season because they are in a three-game losing streak.  Coaches are getting fired with winning records...because they can't "win the big one."

To boosters, the majority of fans and even some in the media the bottom line is winning, winning now, and winning big.  There is never a consideration about the job the coach and their staff is doing in developing young people. Those aforementioned individuals would be shocked at the amount of time spent by coaches away from the X's & O's working in the community or spending time problem solving with their student-athletes.

This past weekend, it was reported that Tulane's men's basketball coach Ed Conroy was told during a game that he was being fired.  During!  The only problem is that Ed was in the middle of upsetting the University of Houston so the dismissal had to wait a day.  I know Ed.  He's a good coach and an even better person and has done a respectable job at a school that historically has a difficult time of "winning."  If this report is true, the administrators involved should be shown the door before Ed -- not for the dismissal but for its embarrassing execution.

There was a time when administrators dug in and supported their coaches because they could see the work and progress in front of them. 

Most people in listing the greatest of the greatest in men's basketball coaches would list Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. Yet in his first three years at Duke, Coach K was 38-47.  The last home game in that third year Duke lost to rival North Carolina by 24 points.  The next week there was a 43-point loss to Virginia in the ACC tournament.

Would any coach in America survive this today?

But then Duke AD Tom Butters dug his heals in and fought off the boosters screaming for a change.  I once read an article where Butters talked about a particular wealthy booster that pressured him greatly to fire Coach K.  A few years later Butters spoke of the constant letters from that same booster urging him to pay what he has to pay to keep him!

And right down the road another legendary coach Dean Smith got off to a slow start.  After three years, Coach Smith was 35-27.  The fourth year got off to a rough start.  The Tar Heels returned to campus after a 107-85 loss to Wake Forest.  It was their fourth straight loss.  At the bus pulled up the gym on the Carolina campus, there, hanging in a tree, was a dummy dressed like Coach Smith.

In 1967, Coach Wooden took UCLA on an amazing post-season run that would see them capture seven straight National Championships. That string ended in 1974 when the Bruin again made it to the Final Four before losing.  The next year, Coach Wooden's final one as a coach, UCLA again advanced to the Final Four capturing the programs 10 national title in 12 years.

Coach Wooden tells the story that immediately after the game, while the team is still on the court celebrating, one of the team's most prominent boosters came up said, "Congratulations.  I'm glad you didn't blow it like last year."

One of my mentors, Sue Gunter, went through three losing seasons.  At the SEC tournament during her third losing season, an administrator was telling everyone that she would be fired when she got to campus.  Upon arrival, Coach Gunter went into the AD's office unannounced talked him to keeping her because she knew they were getting ready to turn the corner.

Coach Gunter coached nine more seasons at LSU where she averaged 23 wins a season, advanced to eight consecutive NCAA tournaments, including five Sweet 16's, three Elite 8's and the Lady Tiger's first Final Four appearance.

But what I've failed to mention -- what far to many people fail to understand -- is what the student-athletes would say about Coach K, Coach Smith, Coach Wooden and Coach Gunter.  It wouldn't be about how they developed their jump shots or improved their ball handling.  They would talk about the like lessons that came from being in those type of programs.

The same type of life lessons that are being taught at Division II and Division III schools under the leadership of good coaches.  The same type of lessons that are being taught at mid-major schools that aren't in the limelight of the national basketball scene.  The same type of lessons that are being taught at universities that may not be winning enough games to satisfy fans and administrators that have lost sight of the primary purpose of athletics.

Again, I'm not saying that coaches should never be fired.  Far from it.  But now we have too many administrators from ADs to school presidents who bow to the pressure of the boosters and alums making decisions to quickly for often the wrong reasons.

We have fans that start FireMyCoach.com not understanding that the coach and their staff have families.  I have from time to time wondered how they would feel if we showed up at their place of employment and yelled and screamed obscenities at them while they performed -- with their families sitting nearby.

I have the greatest respect for the coaches that do it the right way.  That come to work and grind each day to make a difference in the life of the people they coach, the staff they work with and the community they live in.  I respect the coaches that battle the pressure and work to win games so they can continue to do what they love.  I think love is the only word to describe why people stay in the business as long as they do -- at least those that are doing it for the right reason.  I have respect for the coach that take undue criticism from those not in the arena.  I have respect for those coaches that bounce back after being fired to find a job so they can continue doing what they love and impacting those within their reach. 

I have a constant reminder of the grind of our professions.  It comes from the book "The Coaches" by Bill Libby.  There is a passage in it that another of my mentors Dale Brown once had framed, handing in his office.  When he retired, he gave it to me and it has hung in every office I've had since.  It reads:

He’s called a coach and it’s a different job. There is no clear way to succeed. One cannot copy another who’s a winner, for there seems to be some subtle secret chemistry of personality that enables a person to lead successfully and no one really knows what it is. Those who have succeeded and those who have failed represent all kinds.

They are young, old, experienced, they are soft, tough, good natured, foul tempered, proud and profane. They are articulate and even inarticulate. Some are dedicated and some casual. Some are even more dedicated than others. Intelligence is not enough, and dedication is not enough.

They all want to win, but some want to win more than others and just wanting to win is not enough. Losers almost always get fired, but winners get fired also. He is out in the open being judged publicly for six or seven months out of the year by those who may or may not be qualified to judge him. Every victory and every defeat is recorded constantly in print. The coach, this strange breed has no place to hide. He cannot just let the job go for a while or do a bad job and hope no one will notice as most of us can. He cannot satisfy everyone, seldom can he even satisfy very many, and rarely does he even satisfy himself. If he wins once, he must win the next time also.

They plot victories-, they suffer defeats; they endure criticism from within and without; they neglect their families, they travel endlessly and they live alone in the spotlight surrounded by others. Theirs may be the worst profession in the world. It’s unreasonably demanding, poor pay, insecure, full of unrelenting pressures and I ask myself: Why do coaches put up with it? Why do they do it? I’ve seen them fired with pat phrases such as, “Fool”, “Incompetent”, or “He couldn’t get the job done”.

I've wondered about that, having seen them exalted by victory, and depressed by defeat.  I've sympathized with them having seen some broken by the job and others die from it. One is moved to admire them and to hope that someday the world will understand them; this strange breed they call coach.

 

ARE YOU 'IMPRESSIVE' OR 'INFLUENTIAL'

I posted the following in our Hoopboost for Players blog but it's just as important for coaches as well.  Two of the biggest influences of my coach career have been (and continue to be) Dale Brown and Sue Gunter.  Both had an amazing ability to make whoever they were with at the time feel like they were the most special person on the face of the earth.  The characteristic is called "sincerity."  We never had a banquet or team party that the custodians and all members of our support staff weren't invited.  The custodians were also on the team "gear list" -- sweats and shoes.  Managers were treat like invaluable team members because both Coach Brown and Coach Gunter knew that they indeed were just that.  They had the managers backs at all times.  Everyone from SIDs, Secretaries, Trainers and all student workers were treated with the utmost respect from those head coaches and with that came a trickle effect to the assistant coaches and the players.  It was part of the culture in the LSU men's and women's program during those years and it helped teach the student-athletes a life lesson that they will care to other jobs throughout the life. 

Everyone is important.  Everyone has a valuable role.  LSU baseball coach and AD Skip Bertman would always tell us, at any specific time, someone is the most valuable person in your program.  The day before a baseball game, the ground crew is the most important people in your baseball program.  If they don't get your yard mowed and marked you can't play.  On game day, you can't have a crowd without ticket takers.  Well before the jump ball is tossed, those ticket takers are the most valuable people in your program.   And on and on it goes. 

As a coach, how you making these people feel.  As Pat Williams says, are you impressing them or influencing them?

Here is what we posted at Hoopboost today:

The following "The Difference You Make" -- a great book by Pat Williams with Jim Denney:

"People are impressed by athletic ability but they are influenced by the way we treat other people.  It takes a lot more than athletic ability to be a hero and a role model.  You've got to have good character, good values, and a good heart in order to be someone worth admiring and emulating.  A 'hero' with great athletic talent but a small mind and a closed heart is unworthy of anyone's adulation."

As an athlete, you are working hard to develop your skill set.  But as a person, how are you working to develop those around you.   Do you know you gym janitors by name -- always greeting them will a "hello" and a smile?  When's the last time you've been by the office to speak to your team secretary and see how she's doing?  What is your relationship with your team's managers?  Do you truly treat them as team members or do you make their jobs more difficult?  The absolute great ones know that to achieve maximum success that they need everyone to be at their best.

SELLING THE INVISIBLE (PART I): COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR TEAM

This is somewhat of an unusual book review for a coaching/teaching website but when you think about it, much of coaching comes down to marketing. "Selling The Invisible," by Harry Beckwith may not be a book that a normal coach picks up to read but think about it -- how do we market our concepts that we want to get across to our players...to the media...to our fans…to the administration? The title itself says a great deal about coaching — "Selling The Invisible." Getting our players to envision how a good possession will look or how a good season will feel...get your fans to buy into your vision for the future of your program...and certainly if you are on the collegiate level, recruiting is all about selling the invisible.

It should also be noted that as coaches we should feel some responsibility to help market our program and get people in the seats. We should be part of the solution as opposed to being part of the problem. We need to understand that while we want to teach our players how to play we also need to help grow the game — regardless of what level we are working.

The following are just a few thoughts from Selling The Invisible:

First, let's take a look at this passage in regard to how you might possibly organize your comments in a timeout or at half-time...or possibly a team meeting or an individual player meeting:

In repeated studies, people were shown a sequence of items—pictures of an apple, pear, peach, prune, and pomegranate, for example—are most apt to remember the apple and the pomegranate. They remember the first and the last items but forgot the middle.

Your first comment to your player(s) is going to register.  The last comment is going to stick.  Plan according for more effective communicating.  How much time do you spend thinking about how you are going to address your team on a daily basis?

At a very early age in my coaching career, my mentor and junior high coach Allen Osborne, allowed me to travel with him to visit college programs to observe practices.  I remember watching Indiana practice with Bob Knight.  The Hoosiers came out for pre-practice ran by the assistants and then Coach Knight would called them back to the locker room for a short talk that might include video.  At North Carolina, they would start with station work followed by Coach Dean Smith walking to center court and going over an emphasis of the day and a thought for the day.  I guarantee you that both gave great thought to what those opening comments were for their team.  It was early in the practice session, their team was fresh and attentive -- so what message was prevalent in their thinking to give to their team.

On the other end, practice is over -- whether it's been a good practice or a rough one -- and the team is gathered to hear your thoughts.  What's the last thing you tell them?  It's important.  It can go a long way in framing the next practice you have or framing their thoughts for the game tomorrow.

I had the great honor of working for Coach Dale Brown at LSU for 13 year -- what a communicator! As much as possible he prepared his thoughts before speaking to his team.  He was also a great story teller.  Stories paint pictures to help with communication.  I only wished we could have video taped some of those team meetings.  He always had a goal to accomplish in each meeting and planned accordingly.

Timeouts are critical.  Sue Gunter, another Hall of Fame coach that I was honored to have worked for was the best time-out coach I've been around.  She kept her thoughts short and to the point.  When the team first came off the floor from a timeout she would either praise or correct the previous possession (while it was fresh on their mind).  She would then give them one central thought that was important to the flow of the game.  Finally, she would close with specific instructions regarding whatever phase of the game we would immediately be involved in coming out of the timeout.  She could put on a mini-clinic in a timeout -- short, simple and to the point.

How you communicate with your team is important -- of course you already know this.  But how much time do you think about improving your communication plan of attack? 

I'll bet every coach takes great time and thought in putting together their words for the first team meeting of the year.  How about the second team meeting?  Or the 12th team meeting?  You want your team's best on the first game, the second game and the 12th game so they should get your best in the organization of your team meetings.

Coach Brown and Coach Gunter were also masters of the pre-game talk.  I often saw them jotting down or going over notes to prepare their pre-game message.  They knew how to frame a game.  I'm not talking about rah-rah stuff but finding a way to simply get across the key concepts needed to succeed.

Half-time.  What does your team need?  Just because you played poorly doesn't always mean that you need to rant and rave.  The best coaches have a great sense of exactly what is needed.  Even on the occasions where you might have to blister your team for a lackluster performance in the first half, the best coaches know how to calm it down and sum it up for their team before sending them out for the second half.  If your team played well it's important to keep them in the "middle of the road" -- they must be reminded there's 20 minutes left and, more importantly, the keys to winning those 20 minutes.

What about post game?  Probably one of the worst things you can do as a coach is go off on a team immediately following a poor outing.  This becomes more of an emotional outburst as opposed to an intellectual one.  That's not to say you can't let your team know of your disappointment but you'll be better off to show film the next day to have visuals to go with your voice. I always think after a loss you have their attention more than after a win -- make it count.

It's also just as important to say the right thing after a win.  Again I refer to Coach Gunter who was simply a great communicator.  She had a three-prong message after wins.

#1 She always wanted to compliment the team for winning -- no matter how ugly.  She also always went out of her way to compliment at least one role player.

#2 She always pointed out something we needed to improve upon -- no matter how well we played.

#3 She always mentioned our next opponent.  It was her subtle way of planting a seed before they left that it was on to the next games.  In fact, one of Coach Gunter's most often repeated phrases was "The only game we can do anything about is the next one on our schedule."

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON COACHING (PART I)

ACCOUNTABILITY

BILL PARCELLS: "Not every team has enough talent to win the Super Bowl, but any competent coach can field a team that is strategically sound, that plays with discipline, that doesn’t beat itself. If any of those components are missing, it’s the coach who must be held accountable."

ADVERSITY

BOB KNIGHT: "If we don't force our players to react to things: if we don't put them in tough situations, then it's our fault they can't react to them in ball game."

ATTITUDE

SCOTTY BOWMAN: “Probably the most important thing is attitude. I really think that there are a lot of things you can’t change, that are out of your control, but your attitude is in your control. The right attitude is something that will help you be successful. There are not many successful people that don’t have the right attitude. There are other things you have to have: You have to have some patience, you have to have perseverance obviously, and you have to maybe have had some adversity too. But the main thing I’d say is attitude. You can always do something to help your attitude.”

BEING A COACH

MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: “I'm a basketball coach all the time. That's what I do. I don't play golf. I chase my dog, or he chases me, and I whack down some trees and bushes and play with my grandkids and drink a little bit of wine."

BELIEF

JOE PATERNO: “Your players tend to become what they believe you think they are.”

CHAMPIONS

DON MEYER: “You don’t have to win a championship to be a champion.”

CHARACTER

JOHN WOODEN: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. You character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

CHEMISTRY

MUFFET McGRAW: "It's also difficult for me to respect anyone who tries to undermine the team, and, unfortunately, it only takes one player with a bad attitude to destroy team chemistry."

COMMUNICATION

PAT SUMMITT: "The foremost thing we require from our players, before anything else, is that they make good eye contact...eye contact is a sign."

COMPLACENCY

SUE GUNTER: “We must use our tradition to motivate us to build on it and not as a crutch to lean on where we might stumble and fall.”

CONDITIONING

VINCE LOMBARDI: “It’s usually the best conditioned team which usually wins the game. I’m going to expect a 100 percent effort at all times. Anything less than that is not good enough.”

CRITICISM

LARRY BROWN: “Know the difference between coaching and criticism. That is the only way to develop trust with your players.”

SUE GUNTER'S PRESS OFFENSE GUIDELINES

I would imagine that I've posted this before through the years but as I was taught by Skip Bertman, the Hall of Fame baseball coach at LSU -- "repetition is good."  This is a list of traits that are important to good press offense that I got from Coach Sue Gunter.  Regardless of the alignment or action of your press offense, I think these are a great set of guidelines to follo:

#1 Remember the biggest key is to always maintain good spacing. With good spacing, it leaves more room for the defense to cover, and longer distances for them to run before making a trap or steal attempt.

#2 Make all your cuts hard and sharp. If you are not cutting as quickly as possible, you are helping the defense to defend you. Cut to create help. The same holds true if you don’t cut properly, rounding off your cuts instead of cutting in straight lines.

#3 We must always keep someone behind the basketball. We don’t want that player “on top of the basketball.” Stay behind the basketball as a release valve, but maintain proper spacing.

#4 Always come back to meet a pass made to you. This one is critical. If you wait for the pass, someone near you can beat you to the pass and get an interception. Come back for the ball and catch it with both feet in the air to land with a jump stop for pivoting.

#5 If at all possible, we don’t want to receive the entry pass to close to the inbound baseline. Again, this is poor spacing. Try to catch the ball as deep as possible to give you more room to operate.

#6 Utilize pass fakes at every opportunity. Almost all full-court pressure is based on active, gambling-aggressiveness and therefore is prone to pass fakes. A good pass fake will get the defense in the air and allow you a chance to put the ball on the floor or give you an opportunity to make an easier, more effective pass — “fake a pass to make a pass.”

#7 Don’t waste your dribble. Catch the ball, pivot, and look ahead for a possible pass as well as to read the defense. If you pick up your dribble without looking ahead or reading the defense, you become an easy target to be trapped with very few options.
 
#8 Always remember, once you beat the pressure, the good press defense teams like to come from behind and try to knock the ball away. You must always stay alert.

#9 At the end of the press offense, always look for a good shot. If we execute properly, we can get lay ups, short jumpers, and wide open three-pointers. We want to make a team pay a heavy price for pressing us. Always remember that a forced or bad shot is the same as a turnover for a pressing team.

#10 If we don’t get a shot from our press offense, get directly into our man-to-man or zone offense. Often teams that press, especially zone presses or run and jump presses, have a difficult time recovering to their proper defensive assignments in their half-court defense.

THE COACHES

One of my favorite things in my office is a framed written piece called "The Coaches," by Bill Libby.  It was given to me by Coach Dale Brown back when I worked for him.  It hung on my office wall while I worked for him and at one point Coach Sue Gunter told me how much she liked it so I gave it to her to hang in her office.  When she passed away, I reclaimed and it has remained on my office wall where ever I worked.  After a difficult loss tonight, I took the time to read it once again:

Coaching is a difficult job, and there is no clear way to succeed in it. One cannot copy another who is a winner, for there seems to be some subtle, secret chemistry of personality that enables a person to lead successfully, and no one really knows what it is. Those who have succeeded and those who have failed represent all kinds – young and old, inexperienced and experienced, hard and soft, tough and gentle, good-natured and foul-tempered, proud and profane, articulate and inarticulate, even dedicated and casual. Most are dedicated, some more than others, but dedication alone is not enough. Some are smarter than others, but intelligence is not enough. All want to win, but some want to win more than others, and just wanting is not enough in any event. Even winning is often not enough. Losers almost always get fired, but winners get fired, too.

He is out in the open being judged publicly almost every day or night for six, seven, or eight months a year by those who may or may not be qualified to judge him. And every victory and every defeat is recorded constantly in print or on the air and periodically totaled up.

The coach has no place to hide. He cannot just let the job go for a while or do a bad job and assume no one will notice as most of us can. He cannot satisfy everyone. Seldom can he even satisfy very many. Rarely can he even satisfy himself. If he wins once, he must win the next time, too. In the end, almost certainly, he will be fired.

They plot victories, suffer defeats, endure criticism from within and without, and brook rumors that they are on their way in here and out there. They neglect their families, travel endlessly, and live alone in a spotlight surrounded by others.

Theirs may be the worst profession – unreasonably demanding and insecure and full of unrelenting pressures. Why do they put up with it? Why do they do it? A few retire, but most hang on desperately, almost unreasoningly. Why? Having seen them hired and hailed as geniuses at gaudy party-like press conferences and having seen them fired with pat phrases such as “fool” or “incompetent,” I have wondered about them. Having seen them exultant in victory and depressed by defeat, I have sympathized with them. Having seen some broken by the job and others die from it, I have been moved to write this book.

SUE GUNTER'S 11 GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE PRESS OFFENSE

The following is a list I pull out each season of press offense guidelines that I wrote down through the years of working with Coach Gunter.  What I like about them is that I think they are universal for all pressure offense.

#1 Remember that the biggest of all keys is to always maintain good spacing. With good spacing, it leaves more room for the defense to cover, and longer distances for them to run before making a trap or steal attempt.

#2 Make all your cuts hard and sharp. If you are not cutting as quickly as possible, you are helping the defense to defend you. Cut to create help. The same holds true if you don’t cut properly, rounding off your cuts instead of cutting in straight lines.

#3 We must always keep someone behind the basketball. We don’t want that player “on top of the basketball.” Stay behind the basketball as a release valve, but maintain proper spacing.

#4 Always come back to meet a pass made to you. This one is critical. If you wait for the pass, someone near you can beat you to the pass and get an interception. Come back for the ball and catch it with both feet in the air to land with a jump stop for pivoting.

#5 If at all possible, we don’t want to receive the entry pass to close to the inbound baseline. Again, this is poor spacing. Try to catch the ball as deeply as possible to give you more room to operate.

#6 Utilize pass fakes at every opportunity. Almost all full-court pressure is based on active, gambling-aggressiveness and therefore will go for pass fakes. A good pass fake will get the defense in the air and allow you a chance to put the ball on the floor or give you an opportunity to make an easier, more effective pass — “fake a pass to make a pass.”

#7 Don’t waste your dribble. Catch the ball, pivot, and look ahead for a possible pass as well as to read the defense. If you pick up your dribble without looking ahead or reading the defense, you become an easy target to be trapped with very few options.
 
#8 Avoid the half-court area as a momentary position for the ball. Don’t pass the ball to a teammate just over the half-court line when there is a possibility she can be trapped. And certainly don’t dribble the ball just across the half-court line and hesitate where you can be trapped

#9 Always remember, once you beat the pressure, the good press defense teams like to come from behind and try to knock the ball away. You must always stay alert and watch out for back taps.

#10 At the end of the press offense, always look for a good shot. If we execute properly, we can get lay ups, short jumpers, and wide open three-pointers. We want to make a team pay a heavy price for pressing us. Always remember that a forced or bad shot is the same as a turnover for a pressing team.

#11 If we don’t get a shot from our press offense, get directly into our man-to-man or zone offense. Often teams that press, especially zone presses or run and jump presses, have a difficult time recovering to their proper defensive assignments in their half-court defense. Stay on the attack — let our offense be the aggressor and not their press.

CAROLYN PECK: QUALITIES OF A GOOD ASSISTANT COACH

I've known Carolyn Peck for many years starting when Coach Sue Gunter had her speak to our team many years ago.  She has always been gracious to all of us in the game.  I recall when she was done talking to our team that Coach Gunter asked her to give us as coaches some advice.  She said, "Take care of your players and everything else will take care of itself."

I later spent five days with her and her staff while she was the head coach of the Orlando Miracle.  She was again gracious in opening up her practices, her staff meetings and even her home to us to share all that she was doing in developing that young WNBA franchise.

Last week she took time out of her busy schedule to speak at the luncheon of the Assistant Coaching Symposium and here are just a few things she shared with us.

What she learned as an assistant to Pat Summitt:
"Know that you are going to make mistakes.  And Coach Summitt has a simple philosophy.  Screw up...fess up...don't cover up."

What she learned as an assistant to Nell Fortner:
1. Players come first
2. Operate as a team
3. Make the head coach look good.

Billie Moore taught her that nothing was more important than being yourself.

She also added a great sign of intelligence is "not what you know but you know you don't know."

While be the head coach at Purdue (and one her way to winning a National Championship) Coach Peck admitted that she could be demanding of her players.  One particular practice she got on a player only to notice assistant coach Pam Stackhouse go to the same player immediately afterwards.  This went on with two other players during the session so Coach Peck asked Coach Stackhouse what she was doing.  She said she was handing each player a sweetart and telling them to hang there.  What a unique way for an assistant coach to follow a negative with a positive.

Coach Peck: "Assistant coaches don't get enough credit for being Dr. Phil."

More from Coach Peck about being a good assistant coach:

1. Nothing is outside your job description

2. Be invested

3. Kids come first

Probably the best part of her talk to us was the following comment:

"What is your championship? Define what your championship is!"

Not all coaches have the resources to win a National Championship.  Some may not have enough to win a conference championship.  But that doesn't mean you can't have a championship program.  Don Meyer once told me that "you don't have to win a championship to be a champion."  Same is true of our programs.  Think about what you can realistically accomplish and then set forth on your mission to just that.

DO YOU WORK ON TEAMWORK AND CHEMISTRY

On my flight out to Phoenix yesterday, I brought John Maxwell's "Teamwork Makes the Dream Work." It is the third time I've read. I very much to like to re-read certain books. In part because my retention is not what I'd live for it to be and also because it gives me the opportunity to review material I thought important. My books are always marked up. I underline things...circle things...write notes on the margins...then I have a student worker go back and type all that I have marked up.

There were so many great concepts in thoughts in this particular Maxwell book even though it is a relatively short book (120 pages). It is well worth the re-read!

How many times do we as coaches talk about the importance of teamwork? We talk of other teams - "they don't play well together." Or we speak about our own squad - "we still haven't come together yet." I don't think there could possibly be a coach of a team sport out there there would disagree that teamwork is a very essential part of success in their sport.

My question is this...do you work on teamwork?

Team chemistry was so important to Sue Gunter. I learned a valuable lesson while on her staff. It is important lets talk about it, make a plan about it, and execute that plan. Whenever we had staff meetings with Coach Gunter, there would always be specific topics that you could count on such as offense play, defensive play, conditioning, recruiting, practice organization.....

....and team chemistry.

For Coach Gunter, the closeness of a team was important to her -- important enough to talk, plan and execute. Each week she wanted to do something with the team and/or for the team that focused on building team chemistry. It might be a team meal...it might be a motivational passout about team...it might be an assignment for them to discuss team...there would be drills in practice designed to bring the team together (those were always difficult ones of course)...we utilize "Secret Santa" at our team Christmas party because Coach Gunter thought it made the team think about each other.

Her thoughts on team were prevalent year round. She would be just as concerned in July with building a team as she would be in October. Every decision she made she would ask, "How does this effect the team?"

If TEAM is important to you than make it important enough to be part of your plan.

Outside of our video room there is a sign with the following Michael Jordan quote selected by Coach Gunter. I thought it appropriate that Maxwell utilized the same quote in his book.

"There are plenty of teams in every sport that have great players and never win titles. Most of the time, those players aren’t willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the team. The funny thing is, in the end, their unwillingness to sacrifice only makes individual goals more difficult to achieve. One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence win championships."

-Michael Jordan

THE LEGACY WE LEAVE IS OUR RELATIONSHIPS

I'm often asked what did I learn while working for Dale Brown and Sue Gunter and the lessons are far too many to post in a blog. There is one very strong common lesson I gained from both and that is in how we treat people. From both I learned that our relationships are far more important than a defensive stance or well drawn up play. I learned that their thoughts on how we treat people transcended just the players we coached. Both felt basketball was a simply a vehicle to be able to do a great job in our communities. I was reminded of both Coach Brown and Coach Gunter last night when reading the following by Chris Widner on, "The Legacy We Leave in Our Relationships."

Relationships are at the very core of our existence and something we deal with every day and on every level of our lives. We have very superficial relationships with many people, such as merchants we may meet, and relationships that we consider intimate, such as the ones we experience with our immediate family and our mates.

Relationships provide us with both the most positive as well as the most negative experiences we have in our lives. There are those who, though they may never achieve fame or fortune in this world, will be remembered very highly by all who came in contact with them. Their funerals will overflow with people they have touched.

The pain and joy that can come as children remember their deceased parents is determined by the lives those parents lived and how well they maintained the relationships with their children.

And what it all comes down to is the ability to maintain healthy relationships.
I want to share with you the key components of establishing relationships that will allow you to leave a fantastic relational legacy.

Be Purposeful.

People are busy and time flies. Put these two together and you have a recipe for disaster in the relationship department. Pretty soon you and your best friends have had months go by between times spent together. In order to have quality relationships we have to be purposeful.

This is especially true with couples and even more so for couples with small children. They need to be very purposeful in making sure they spend quality time together communicating and enjoying one another.

Be Proactive.

This is the opposite of reactive. Reactive is when your spouse says, “We never spend any time together,” and you respond by saying, “Okay, we will this week.” It would be to sit down at the beginning of each month or week and schedule the time, or better yet have a weekly “date night.” The key is to take control and schedule your relationships. Otherwise, they are going to get away from you.

Be Disciplined.

Yes, it takes discipline to maintain healthy relationships. The discipline is to make investments regularly. This means the monthly lunch with a friend. It means the yearly hunting trip with friends from high school. It means cutting out of work early to go to your child’s game. It means disciplining yourself to work harder during the day in order to leave at a set time so you can eat dinner with your family. All of these are acts of discipline. Just as we have to discipline ourselves in other areas of our lives, like exercising for health or investing for wealth, we have to discipline ourselves into actions that will produce strong and healthy relationships.

Value People Above Possessions, Schedules and Achievements.

The sooner we realize that we leave behind all of our stuff when we die, the sooner we will be able to focus on what matters most—relationships. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we shouldn’t do our best to become successful financially or that we shouldn’t enjoy material possessions. What I am saying is that should be secondary to healthy relationships. I can’t imagine someone on their deathbed who says, “I wish I would have left an estate of ten million dollars instead of five million.” No, people get to the ends of their lives and wish they would have invested more in their relationships.

Be Loving.

I don’t mean to be guided by emotional feelings of “love.” Feelings come and go. This is what I mean when I say loving: to always act in such a way as to do what is best for the other person. Love is not feelings, but actions. When we say that we love someone, we mean that we are committed to their best interests. If we are lucky, those commitments are coupled with strong emotional bonds as well.

Be Forgiving.

The fact is this: Where there are people, mistakes will be made. I don’t care if you are the nicest guy on earth (or married to him), you will have some breakdowns in your relationship on occasion. That is the nature of being human. Other people will fail you and you will fail people.

And when this happens we must face a decision: Will we let the relationship remain broken or will we learn to forgive? An analogy might be in order. A relationship is like building a house. It has to have a strong foundation.

That is where you start. Then it must be built step by step until it is finished. During the building process there may be times when a beam falls or the two-by-fours break. The builder has a decision to make. Will he repair the building or let it go? If he chooses to let it go, the house will be weak and eventually fall into disrepair. Unfortunately, too many people let their relationships break and do not repair them by practicing forgiveness. People who leave successful relationships behind them practice the art of forgiveness.

Follow the Golden Rule.

The golden rule of life is, “Do to others what you would want them to do to you.” What is most interesting about this is that Christ was the first religious leader to say this in a positive way. Other leaders had said before to “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.” Relationships are about being proactive and doing for others.

When we wake up each day with the goal to follow the golden rule and do good in people’s lives, we set ourselves on a course that will allow us to build a strong relational legacy.

Think of how you want to be remembered, and then live in such a way that you will be. If you want to be remembered as kind, then be kind. If you want to be remembered as strong, then be strong. If you want to be remembered as friendly, then be friendly. If you want to be remembered as forgiving and patient, then be forgiving and patient. What you do and how you act will add up to how you will be remembered.

It is possible to leave a wonderful relational legacy. If you follow the principles above, you will surely do so.

THE ULTIMATE COACHES' CLINIC: SUE GUNTER

In 2008, Pat Williams, the GM of the Orlando Magic and a tremendous motivational speaker put out a book, "The Ultimate Coaches' Clinic." It is a fascinating book because of the style Pat utilized. He surveyed over 1000 coaches and administrators for insights to what is important to successfully do their job. From time to time I will share a few but it is a great book to own and I highly recommend it. Today’s list comes from Sue Gunter. I had the absolute great privilege of working for Coach Gunter and learned a great deal about coaching and life. I was fascinated by her five points of advice and can tell you she followed them to the letter. She is absolutely one of the best coaches to have every coached — any gender, any sport.

1. Empower the people around you, from the janitor to the athletic director. You do that by being sincere, caring about others, and then putting it into practice.

2. The character of your players and the program is more important than anything else.

3. Be flexible enough to change. Always assess the situation and be willing to change, add or delete.

4. Take input from those around you.

5. Constantly be developing the people around you. It’s more than delegating.

LESSONS FROM SUE (#2)

Part of Coach Sue Gunter's relationship gift was always seeing the best in people and communicating it to them. She was a believer in the human spirit and one’s ability to rise and meet their potential. It didn’t matter if she knew you for 10 years or that you had just met, you would always walk away feeling better about yourself. The stories are endless of how Coach Gunter could make you feel.

In his book "The Art of Living", Wilfred Peterson speaks of the various levels of listening. With each level and can see Coach Gunter executing in various situations. Peterson’s levels of listening included:

Listen with your eyes. Imaginatively listen to the sounds in a poem, a novel, a picture.

Coach Gunter always, I mean always, made eye contact when you spoke. You knew she was listening for content. There was an intensity in her listening.

Listen critically. Mentally challenge assertions, ideas, philosophies. Seek the truth with an open mind. This was always evident when we spoke in regard to recruits, game plans, scouting reports, practice preparation.

Coach Gunter would ask probing questions or make keen observations that would only come from critical listening.

Listen with patience. Do not hurry the other person. Show them the courtesy of listening to what they have to say, not matter how much you may disagree. You may learn something.

This was a great quality that Coach Gunter had that she would try to instill to her staff. We would be so eager to impress or suggest that we would sometimes cut each other off and not get the other persons full thoughts. Coach Gunter would quickly stop us and encourage the person to continue.

Listen with your heart. Practice empathy when you listen; put yourself in the other person’s place and try to hear their problems in your heart.

There was no one better than Coach Gunter. Because she genuinely cared, she always would be an empathic listener. Despite her opinions, she would listen and try to feel what the speaker was feeling. She was very opening minded because she simply wanted what was best for those involved.

Listen creatively. Listen carefully for ideas or the germs of ideas. Listen for hints or clues which will spark creative projects.

Again, Coach Gunter had a tremendous desire to learn. She was always interested in new and better ways to get things done — again the result of being open minded.

Listen to yourself. Listen to your deepest yearnings, your highest aspirations, your noblest impulses. Listen to the better person within you.

While Coach Gunter always listened with an open mind, I didn’t mean that she would make a decision overriding a strong conviction that she held. She was fully aware of her experience, especially in coaching, and knew just when to go with her gut instinct.

Listen with depth. Be still and meditate. Listen with the ear of intuition for the inspiration of the infinite.

Coach Gunter enjoyed listening to those who she considered experts in their field. She could have easily, because of her experience level, erase or tune out many but she was always looking for truth and improvement and she knew to do that that she must listen with a level of depth.

By Coach Gunter being a great listener, you should not take that to mean that she was not an excellent speaker. I just believe that her ability to listen made her an even more effective communicator — whether it be verbal or written.

LESSONS FROM SUE (#1)

One of my greatest privelages as a coach was to work with Sue Gunter. She was an outstanding teacher, a tremendous coach and a wonderful friend. I learned so much from her that I am currently working on a book about those lessons. From time to time, I'll share some of them with you.

Attitude was a big part of her teaching philosophy. She demanded of herself and her staff that we were positive teachers. Certainly that doesn’t mean that on the occasions that merit it, that she didn’t raise her volume and display her displeasure. In fact, she could dissect a team with precision if they were not concentrating or executing. However, the difference with her over many coaches is that she would immediately begin looking for positive things to compliment after she ripped a team.

It was the same after a loss. Coach Gunter would let the team know in no uncertain terms that she was upset with their performance. More importantly, as a master teacher, she would detail the areas that we were lacking. The next morning, however, in our post game staff meetings, she would always make sure to let our staff know that we were going to be positive and uplifting with the team. Her theory that she rode to great success was to instill confidence in her teams and this would start with a positive practice.

She wanted to correct and construct...not criticize.