A BIGGER "YES"

"You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage -- pleasantly, smilingly, unapologetically -- to say no to other things.  And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside."

-Stephen R. Covey

"CAN WE DO A LITTLE MORE"

I came across this video of Michael Jordan and it is basically a collage of clips and interviews -- all with great merit.  But the thing that hit me was the very early piece on his baseball career.  The segment talks about how MJ was the absolute first to the ball park every morning and the last one to leave and that a day didn't pass that he didn't say to his hitting instructor, "Can we do a little more."

It is well chronicled that Jordan was the first to the gym and last to leave in basketball but some may put that off as why not, he was so good at it.  Of course, he was so good at it because of the work he put in it.  And he certainly didn't hit the batting cage as an accomplished hitter but he knew there was no way to get there unless he put the time in.

ADVERSITY COMES TO US ALL

Adversity comes to us all—it’s only a matter of when. The real question is not whether we’ll face adversity but how we will respond to it when it comes. If our attitude is one that embraces learning and growing, we’ll treat adversity as a stepping-stone to the success we desire, rather then see it as an insurmountable obstacle. But if we have a negative attitude and become defensive at the first hint of criticism or begin to blame others for our mistakes, we’ll miss the opportunity to develop into the types of people we want to be.

From "The Winners Manual" by Jim Tressel

MJ: "I WANT TO BE THE BEST PLAYER TO EVER PLAY HERE"

The following is conversation between Coach Roy Williams, then an assistant at the University of North Carolina and a young freshman named Michael Jordan:

When Michael Jordan first got to UNC, we were sitting at the track one day after conditioning. It was just the two of us. “Coach,” he said. “I want to be the best player to every play here.”

“You’ll have to work much harder than you did in high school,” Williams said.

“But, Coach. I worked as hard as everybody else.”

“Oh, excuse me. I thought you just said you wanted to be the best player to ever play here. Working as hard as everybody else is not even going to come close, son.”

That was the end of the conversation.

Two days later, after the next conditioning session, Michael comes up to me and we were sitting there alone again. He said, “Coach, I’ve been thinking about what you said. I’m going to show you. There will never be anyone who will outwork me.”

He did that. From that day on, Michael tried to kick everybody’s rear end in every drill.

From "Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court" by Roy Williams

ELITE COACHES: NO PLAYING EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

This past week, there was a well-written article at ESPN.com by Jason King that chronicled the career of several of the game's better coaches that did not play (or play much) on the collegiate level.  And, more importantly, how that lack of playing experience has not hurt or hindered their ability to be an excellent coach.  It is a long article with a lot of information and I've listed the link below.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

Although it can certainly have its benefits, a successful playing career in college or the NBA is far from a necessity to excel on the sideline. Study the résumés of some of the NCAA's top coaches from the past few decades and you'll find guys who struggled to make the varsity squad at their high school. And that's if they played at all.

Frank Martin led Kansas State to four NCAA tournament berths in five years despite never flourishing as a prep player in Miami. Rick Majerus, who tried unsuccessfully to walk on at Marquette in 1967, sparked Utah to the 1998 NCAA title game. Before coaching Gonzaga to 11 straight league titles, Mark Few was a star point guard at Creswell (Ore.) High School, but his playing career ended there.

Heck, just last season, the Sweet 16 featured four coaches -- Crean, Baylor's Scott Drew, Marquette's Buzz Williams and Cincinnati's Mick Cronin -- who never played college basketball. (Actually, it's five if you include Roy Williams, who played for North Carolina's JV team.)
 
"One of the most overrated thoughts out there is that if you weren't a great player, you can't be a great coach," said Martin, who now coaches at South Carolina. "It's a big fallacy."

"Coaching in college is about assembling a team, which is different than playing," Drew said. "There's the paperwork, the speaking, the recruiting. The on-court stuff is just one aspect of it. You've got to do it all to be successful."
 

And Drew certainly has been at Baylor, where the Bears won a school-record 30 games last season while reaching the Elite Eight for the second time in three years. Drew said his lack of experience as a player has never been an issue during his coaching career.

Drew never played varsity basketball in high school, but his father, Homer, was an All-American at William Jewell College and the longtime head coach at Valparaiso. And Drew's younger brother, Bryce, played in the NBA after hitting one of the biggest shots in NCAA tournament history at Valpo in 1998.

Scott Drew was an assistant coach on that team. He joked that he and Bryce, who is now the head coach at Valparaiso, probably have different selling points when pitching themselves to recruits.

"My brother can say, 'I know what it takes. I've been in the NBA,'" Scott said. "At the same time, I can say, 'I helped my brother get to the NBA.'"

Read the entire, lengthy article here: http://es.pn/KCq530

THE WEST POINT "HARDER RIGHT"

On of my favorite books in terms of leadership and building teams is "The West Point Way of Leadership" written by Col. Larry R. Donnithorne.  It give excellent, detail insight as to how West Point molds leaders, followers and teams.  One of the great West Point traditions is to teach cadets "the harder right."  Often times when we are faced with decisions, there can be more than one good choice -- but "the harder right" goes deeper to insure it positively affects more people in a more profound way. 

It reminds of Coach Don Meyer who talks about coaches (and leaders) that are often faced with deciding between what is best for an individual and what is best for the team.  In his mind, and he makes sure his team knows it early on, that decision was made a long time ago.  The team will come first -- that's his harder right.

Here is what Col. Donnithorne has to say about it:

Most people agree that leaders should always do the right -- as opposed to the expedient or the pragmatic or the popular -- thing.  West Point asks cadets to do this, and then go one step further and reach for what we call "the harder right."

Before a leader makes a decision, she must imagine her range of influence as a circle.  "The harder right" is usually the decision that most positively affects the widest possible circle of people.  This requires a type of moral math that isn't instinctual -- it must be practiced.  Our instincts tell us to do right by those immediately around us -- our friends, family and immediate colleagues.

It takes years -- and considerable devotion -- to do this.  It is a continual process and raising one's sights to include more and more.

Indeed, if one has any doubts about a moral decision, here is a step-by-step series of questions that will sharply increase a leader's ability to reach for the harder right:

1. What are the relevant facts of the situation?  First, a leader must clearly assess the situation at hand.  What is the decision that has to be made?  Who and what are involved, and how much is at stake?

2. What are the alternative actions available?  Honorable leaders don't make decisions solely on impulse.  Even if there's only a moment to ponder, a leader should, as definitively as possible, balance the different choices available.

3. Who will be affected? An honorable leader tries to make the decision that will be most advantageous for the largest number of people.

4. What moral principles are involved?  The leader must ask herself if there are any morally debatable aspects to the choice she makes.

5. How would these principles be advanced or violated by each alternative action?  A leader thinks through each choice and it's potential results.

RICK CARLISLE ON ROLE DEVELOPMENT

Rick Carlisle on how to get your players to conform to their roles:

• At some point you’re going to hit a touch stretch and guys are going to complain about their roles.

• We laminated cards with exact definitions of each player’s roles:

“Player's Name: Leader, scorer, rebounder, defender, game closer.”

OFF-SEASON SKILL DEVELOPMENT #1

We're going to occasionally post some drills for you to share with your players that they can utilize in the off-season to working and improve on their game.  This first drill comes from Coach Don Meyer.

THREE PERSON ONE-ON-ONE

One player is on offense trying to beat a defensive player. The extra guy plays help side defense. Start each play from a different spot on the floor.

Be explosive, read your defender’s front hand, beat him and then play the helper.

This also works on defensive principles which goes back to Bob Knight's philosophy that most great basketball drills have an offensive and defensive component to them.

GREAT Q&A FROM "LIFE BEYOND SPORT"

The following comes from my friend Stephanie Zonar's blog "Life Beyond Sport."  I actually retweeted it yesterday but I thought it was so good that I would post it as well.  Stephanie comes up with some great question and I really love Coach Albright's answers and I think they are important for coaches (especially young ones) to think about.  If you get a chance, you should visit Stephanie's blog.  Here is a sample what you get!

Jane Albright enters her fifth season as the coach of the Nevada women’s basketball team. A 25+ year coaching veteran, Coach Albright is the winningest all-time women’s basketball coach at both Wisconsin and Northern Illinois and ranks 31st in wins among all active Division I coaches. More importantly, she is known for her strong faith and unwavering commitment to her student-athletes.

1. When you were first starting out, what did a coaching mentor teach you that continues to impact your coaching today?

When I was starting out, Kay Yow spoke to me about the tyranny of the urgent. She explained the importance of understanding the difference between the urgent and the important. She encouraged me not to make decisions or run my program under the tyranny of the urgent, but to know my principles and to let them govern my decisions so that my values and things I deem important would never suffer from the urgent.

Another coach told me not to go after parrots with cannons—had to think about that one for a long time—I’ll let you figure it out!

2. Some say you haven’t been a coach until you’ve been fired. You’ve had that experience. What did you learn and how has it made you a better coach?

I was fired at Wichita State because my “team was not excellent”. When I interviewed for the job I have now, the athletic director told me that “some jobs are just not good fits”. It didn’t bother her at all.

If you are fired, do not believe you are not “good enough”. Evaluate what you can do better and move on. Athletic directors do not have to be fair—they can fire us for any reason they want. We chose this profession and we need to understand we have to win games to get to keep our teams, but DO NOT COACH TO KEEP YOUR JOB. Remember to be yourself!

3. What do you know now that you wish you knew early in your career?

I understand now that wins and losses do not define me as a coach, though I will always strive to win. For a long time, my identity was in how my coaching went, and that is just such a lie. Now I know who I am and why I do things. Like pickling, it took awhile…

THE IMPORTANT OF SELF-EVALUATION

Thanks to Joey Burton for passing along this article from The Herald Sun by Steve Wiseman.  It speaks of the process Coach Mike Krzyzewski has undergone in the off-season to re-evaluate how his team does everything.  It speaks volumes of why Duke remains an elite program season after season -- because they don't hesitate to take a strong look at themselves. Here is some excerpts from the article:

This past season’s ending, a maddening March rather than March Madness, represented a rarity for Duke basketball.

A loss to 15th-seeded Lehigh at the Greensboro Coliseum marked the first time since 2007 that the Blue Devils had failed to win at least one NCAA Tournament game. It was just the fourth time in 28 NCAA Tournament appearances under Coach Mike Krzyzewski that Duke went out without a win.

The loss led Krzyzewski and his staff to ask some tough questions about the program.

“Sometimes if you leave a tournament earlier, you are more truthful with yourself, not just about that game but about everything,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday. “If you would have won, say, two games and lost in the Sweet 16. Well, we won 30, so it must not be that bad.

“I’m not going to go through everything I looked at because that’s private. But we need to be tougher with what we’re doing, how we’re practicing, how we bond. I take a look at all those things. I think you look at them closer, whomever you get beat by. When you leave a tournament that early, that’s not what you want to do.”

“We’ve had a chance to look at everything, make the appropriate adjustments,” Krzyzewski said during a news conference at the start of the K Academy Fantasy Camp. “It’s been very busy. I’m really pleased with where we are at right now.”

Read the entire article: http://bit.ly/LKwNhT