GREG BROWN USING LESSONS OF THE PAST TO FRAME THE FUTURE

Spent a little time this morning speaking with Greg Brown, head women's basketball coach at Lipscomb University.  There are very few people I respect more as a teacher, coach and leader than Greg Brown.  If you are on twitter you need to be following him (@LUCoachBrown).  If you are a teacher or coach of any sport, you need to check in on his blog http://lipscombwbbthoughts.blogspot.com/. 

One of the best things that have happened to me in the area of professional and personal growth was spending a season working together with Greg last year at the University of Central Florida on Joi Williams' staff.  It was a daily clinic for me as we talked basketball and coached our team.  After all, we are talking about someone who worked for Don Meyer and Pat Summitt.  The thing about Greg is he is a continual and intentional learner -- and following in the footsteps of Coach Meyer -- wants to share all that he has learned.

In an article from Luminationnetwork.com, Greg talks about some of the things he has learned and how they will effect the building of his Bison women's basketball program:

Greg Brown, former student coach under Don Meyer, came back to Lipscomb this year, only this time as a head coach.

Brown was a graduate assistant and then assistant coach under Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee and was then an assistant coach at the University of Central Florida before returning to his alma mater, Lipscomb.

“The environment and the culture are the two biggest draws,” Brown said, talking about his return to Lipscomb. Brown said he strongly believes that Lipscomb and Nashville are a wonderful community that he is thankful to return to. He also mentioned how thankful he is to be able to send his two sons to a Christian school.

Brown coached under Don Meyer, a legend not only to Lipscomb but to the basketball world, as well. Brown talked about the influence Meyer had on other legendary coaches.

“As I went to Tennessee, I got to see his influence with Coach [Pat] Summitt and with Coach [Joi] Williams at UCF,” Brown said.

Brown said he picked up many aspects of his coaching style from Coach Meyer.

“Intensity and the team attitude, and the Greek word arete–that pursuit of excellence–is what I learned then [under Coach Meyer], and it starts to become more and more evident every day,” he said.

One major thing Brown took away from coaching under Coach Summitt is “what it was like to compete at your highest level, individually, and then to compete at the highest level as in National Championships.” Brown said he is thankful for those experiences and said “that is what we are building Lipscomb towards.”

Building the team up to reach those high standards is only part of the job Brown has undertaken. He talked a lot about the players and the team striving to always grow and be better than they were previously.

“We want each player to leave here better because they are part of our program,” Brown said. “Better spiritually, better academically, better prepared for a career and better in their basketball skills, and we want them to try and reach their potential.”

Brown focuses strongly on intensity in everything the team does, and in doing so, he said he hopes to help them “become the best players they can be.”

“If you take care of the process and you take care of the intangibles, the results will take care of themselves,” Brown said. “We don’t put a number out there, and I’ve learned by being a part of the process and following a pretty good blueprint, you’ll see those results at the end.”

Read the entire article here: bit.ly/SJt0VS