HANDLING HIGH EXPECATIONS

We often blog about what teams have to do to improve.  We blog about turning a program or a player around.  But there are those teams that don't need to be turned around.  They have established themselves as the best among the best.  Unless you have been fortunate enough to coach in those situations, you may not realize the difficulty in keeping that type of team/program focused and moving forward.  There are many distractions and pitfalls for successful teams/players and you must have a philosophy and plan to keep your team growing.

This past week we had a road trip.  I like to grab a book and magazine/internet articles to take with me while we travel and get some reading in.  Often I will grab previous read items that I have earmarked as worthy of another read.  This past trip, one such article for me was written by my friend Don Yaeger -- an article from 2008.  Having been blessed with being involved with some outstanding programs, Don's article gives a lot of insight about the challenges involved with and how to continue to improve when you are at the top.

I strongly encourage everyone to click here and read the entire article -- it's a tremendous read as Don gets input from UNC's Roy Williams along with Joe Torre and Tom Coughlin.  Here are some of the nuggets I pulled:

Roy Williams doesn't hesitate in saying which he prefers: "Give me great players and big goals anytime."

Roy Williams: "But I want them to have dreams, not expectations. I want them to have goals, not be concerned about what others say.  I wanted them to realize from the earliest point that others who have lots to say have nothing invested.  We will be successful if we make the investment and ignore the hype.  If you have dreams and goals and are committed to them, are working toward them, it becomes easier to block those outside forces."

Joe Torre told Tom Coughlin: "Leading when everyone expects you to win really requires that you convince every member of your team that last year doesn't matter.  And that's tough to do because all year long they're seeing the words Defending Champion placed before their names.  The only thing that winning last year means is that your opponents are looking forward to playing you."

Roy Williams: "I recruit character as much as I recruit ability.  And if you've built a team of character, they can handle moments that others cannot and they accept coaching on how to manage pressure."

Joe Torre: "The second you think you've arrived, someone passes you.  You have to always be in pursuit."

Roy Williams: "Most elite teams have elite players.  And the guy others look up to also happens to be dedicated to constant development, that's a dream situation.

Roy Williams: "...the way you deal with expectations is to focus only on today.  Yes, we have a plan for the entire year, but it all begins with what we are going to do today, you're preparing yourself to be the best you can be tomorrow.  It sounds simple, but it's not.  If each of us works every day to be the best we can be on that day and then come back and do the same tomorrow, then we have a better chance of being our very best at year's end.  Will the be enough to win a national championship?  That's hard to say in college basketball today.  But handling as high expectations as we are gives us our best chance for success."

BILL SELF ON REBOUNDING

"If you're going to value what is important in rebounding, boxing out is definitely 25-50 percent part of it.  The other part is having guys who are relentless on the glass, not allowing yourself to be blocked out.  Desire outweighs footwork when it comes to crashing the glass."

-Bill Self

SABAN ON TEAM CHEMISTRY AND PRACTICE MOTIVATION

We often blog about the importance of team chemistry.  We believe you have to meet as a staff and have a plan of attack in developing it just as you would your offense, your defense, your transition game.  It was a topic that Coach Sue Gunter brought up each Monday in our staff meetings.  "What are we going to do this week to improve/maintain our team chemistry."

Here are is what Michael Casagrande of www.al.com wrote about Nick Saban and how he handled some chemistry issues this year.  What's impressive is that its been a long time since Alabama has lost yet Coach Saban is cognizant of how his team is meshing. 

It's a great column by Casagrande which you can read on line here.

The month of September didn't include an Alabama loss, but coach Nick Saban wasn't happy with a few things.

These were internal things that were visible if you looked closely on Saturday afternoons.

"I didn't like the chemistry of the team in the beginning of the season," Saban said on his radio show Thursday night. "There was just something not right."

It was a generational thing.

"The older guys and the younger guys weren't gee-hawing like you'd like for them to. The younger guys weren't respecting the older guys like they should and the older guys probably didn't care enough about the development of the younger guys."

That doesn't fit with Saban's vision of the way his program should run.

So in the third or fourth week of the season, he implemented a new approach.

"I started to call the players in," Saban said. "I said you have to go talk to five players. I'm not going to ask you which ones, you choose them, but you have to make it a point to go talk to five players and say 'How do you feel? What's the problem?' Show some understanding. I've been there before. This is how I managed this, this is how I handled it so you're doing something to invest some time and help somebody else be able to mature and do the things they need to do to be able to mature and be successful."

Communication improved a lot since then and the breakdowns tailed off on the field. The effort continues. Every Wednesday the older players meet with the younger players.

"They just talk, no coaches in the room and nobody is trying to infiltrate some kind of propaganda or anything like that," Saban said. "But just so the younger players gain a respect for the older players and the older players can express some of the things that helped them be successful so it helps those players."

Saban also explained another form of discipline that helped with accountability.

"And the other thing I do, if a guy's not doing what he's supposed to do in practice and it's really upsetting to some of the older players who are trying to do the right thing, I say 'Look, you don't have to practice today. Just go over there and stand in the box. Just go stand in the box. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to practice, you don't have to do up-downs, you don't have to do exercises. Just stand in the box and everybody out here's going to know you're not doing what you're supposed to do.'"

How many have visited the box?

Two, Saban said without identifying them.

SABAN: COACH'S OFFICE DOESN'T HAVE TO LIKE A VISIT TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Matt Scalici for www.al.com.  You can read the entire article here.

Nick Saban and Tom Rinaldi arrived at Saban's office, where Saban asked Rinaldi just how terrified his players typically are when they enter the room.

"I'm really in my older age. I don't yell at players. They don't really think this is the principal's office. A lot of times there's teaching done here. Lessons are learned. Here's what you did, here's the outcome of it, this is how it's going to affect your future, this might be a better way to do it. Sometimes it's things we can't tolerate and sometimes you can bring guys in and tell them what a good job they're doing, whether it's community service, how they affected another guy on the team. The meetings in here are not all bad meetings. Most of the time they're to teach a guy so he has a better chance of being successful."

PETE CARRIL ON WINNING, TEACHING AND RECRUITING

“A very important part of my life is teaching.  At some big-time basketball universities, the emphasis is on recruiting: ‘Let’s get a coach who can bring in talent.’  For me, the basic things has to be teaching.”

"Three factors influence your behavior.  One is the way you think about something.  Two is that what you see is affected by the way you think.  And three is that what you see affects what you do.”

  “Overemphasizing winning is bad, but singling out winning as the most important thing you do is good, and you should do everything you can to prepare so you can win.  Winning is the only objective measure for a team; all the rest is subjective.”

  “A coach’s job is to put his team where it can function effectively and win.  That’s more true with older kids where habits are well established than with younger kids, where the coach has to work on teaching them the fundamentals and how to develop the right habits.  His other main job is to make each player better than the man he is playing against.”
-Pete Carril

LOMBARDI ON THE THIRD INGREDIENT

Vince Lombardi on the separator for his championship teams:

"There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don't win the game.  Then you come to the third ingredient: if you're going to play together as a team, you've got to care of one another.  You've got to love each other.  Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself, "If I don't block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken.  I have to do my job in order that he can do his."  The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling these guys have for each other."

MAKE LIKE A PENCIL AND GET THE LEAD OUT

Coach Gary Blair found the following in a newspaper and read it to our team.  It was written by Harvey Mackay:

Make Like a Pencil and Get the Lead Out

           

A young boy asked his mother what he should do to be a success when he grew up. The mother thought for a moment, and then told her son to bring her a pencil. Puzzled, the boy found a pencil and gave it to her.

            “If you want to do good,” she said. “you have to be just like this pencil.”

            “What does that mean?” her son asked.

            “First,” she said, “you’ll be able to do a lot of things, but not on your own. You have to allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.

            “Second, you’ll have to go through a painful sharpening from time to time, but you’ll need it to become a better pencil.

            “Third, you’ll be able to correct any mistakes you might make.

            “Fourth, no matter what you look like on the outside, the most important part will always be what’s inside.

            “And fifth,” the mother finished, “you have to press hard in order to make a mark.”

            Great advice. His mother touched on five important topics – teamwork, being able to accept criticism, correcting mistakes, self-confidence and working hard. Let’s take them one at a time.

Teamwork. As I like to say, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. You can’t do it all alone. My definition of teamwork is a collection of diverse individuals who respect each other and are committed to one another’s successes. Teamwork sometimes requires people to play roles that aren’t as glamorous as they’d like

Criticism. Giving and taking criticism is no easy task, but it is necessary if you want to become better. If you ignore the problem and hope it goes away, you are not going to improve. Every office I’ve ever worked in or done business with has been made better because of suggestions or criticisms of the people who spend their working hours there. No one ever choked to death swallowing his or her own pride.

Mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. What’s important is that you learn from them. President Ronald Reagan said: “What should happen when you make a mistake is this: You take your knocks, you learn your lessons, and then you move on.” The greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid to make one. In fact, you often need to increase your failures to become more successful. Mistakes don’t make you a failure. How you respond to a mistake determines just how smart you really are.

Self-Confidence. When I’m interviewing potential employees, one of the traits that I look for is confidence. Confidence doesn’t come naturally to most people. Even the most successful people have struggled with it in their careers. My advice: Track your success, practice being assertive, accept that failure is not the end of the world, step out of your comfort zone, set goals, keep improving your skills and above all else, don’t compare yourself to others.

Work Hard. Success comes before work only in the dictionary. Many people look for a magic formula to turn things around, but there is not magic formula. Sure, natural talent can make a big difference. But show me a natural .300 hitter in the major leagues, and I’ll show you someone who bangs the ball until their hands bleed trying to keep that hitting stroke honed.

Mackay’s Moral: If you want to make your mark, sharpen your skills.

COACH K'S 3 SYSTEMS OF PLAY: OFFENSE, DEFENSE AND COMMUNICATION

The following is a short excerpt from the newsobserver.com written by Barry Jacobs.  It details Coach Krzyzewski and is role in the Duke business school's Center of Leadership and Ethics.  Coach K, with all his championships may leave his biggest legacy by how he is developing leaders -- in all walks of life.  That article is fascinating and well worth the read here.  But in this short excerpt, we point out as we have before how Coach K stresses communication with his team to the point that he considers it a phase of their system of play.  Here is what Jacobs writes about that:

Krzyzewski, an executive-in-residence at the Duke business school’s Center of Leadership and Ethics, mounted the bleachers prior to the end-of-practice scrimmage to explain to Leadership Summit members what he had observed of his team and what the session had aimed to accomplish.

“We’re trying to teach three systems at the same time,” he said. “We’re trying to teach an offensive system, a defensive system, and a system of communication. When you’re tired or whatever, one of the first things, especially guys do, is they keep their damn mouth shut. They do not say a damn word.”

The practice stressed talking to one another and getting back to pressure defense, Krzyzewski said, following several days in which the focus was on zone and zone press tactics. The very nature of teaching the less-preferred defenses had caused the team to come to expect stoppages for illustrative purposes. Consequently, with habits not yet firmly established, the squad’s return to continuous action on defense was “only somewhat successful,” the coach observed.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/10/31/3330089/jacobs-krzyzewski-shows-leaders.html#storylink=cpy

THE LEADERSHIP GROWTH OF DERRICK ROSE

A big thanks to my friend Joey Burton for emailing me this article.  It is written by K.C. Johnson for the Chicago Tribune and it's on the "leadership growth" of Derrick Rose:

Luol Deng readily recalls the first time his mother met Derrick Rose.
 
"She kept talking to me about him and was just really happy with how he carried himself," Deng said. "To me, I don't care how good you are or what you do in life. Who you are as a person is more important than anything. And you can just tell Derrick is one of those kids who was raised the right way.
 
"He's not going to change. He's better at dealing with the spotlight than before, but all he really cares about are his teammates and winning. That's what a leader is."
 
Rose may be quiet by nature, but his will to win invokes determination and demands of others.
 
"I never worried about Derrick in terms of taking care of himself," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "But in setting the tone for the team, not tolerating others not doing their job, I think that has been his biggest growth."
 
Rose is notoriously hard on himself. His post-practice shooting routine would get bleeped out if misses were filmed. This drive, paired with a tireless work ethic to improve his game, is an example of his non-verbal leadership.
 
"If you can't coach your best player hard, you can't coach your team hard. And you can coach Derrick Rose as hard as anybody on the entire team," general manager Gar Forman said. "You talk about leadership. That to me is probably the strongest type."
 
The verbal leadership is more evident to those who know Rose well. So while there may not be histrionics on the court or many headlines about his leadership, those within the organization say it's there.
 
"He's quiet by nature but he's comfortable with the guys around him," Deng said. "If you don't know Derrick or he doesn't know you, he just goes about his business. Guys he's comfortable with, he'll open up."
 
"The talent is pretty easy to see," he said. "What you don't see are all the intangibles that he brings to the team, the confidence. But the confidence doesn't come from a false bravado. It comes from his preparation, his study and the work he puts into every day.
 
"The best thing about Derrick is he's a team-first guy. He's committed to playing for the team, and that's special."
 
Put another way, Forman appreciates Rose's low maintenance.
 
"We've all seen it over the years: There may be scenarios where the star player wants or needs preferential type of treatment in whatever it is," Forman said. "And there's none of that with Derrick."
 
Asked if he feels he has grown as a leader, Rose looked up.
 
"I just know I put the work in," Rose said.
 
You can read the entire article -- it extremely well-written -- here.

DOC RIVERS TO CLIPPERS: STAY WITH AND TRUST IN THE PROCESS

The following comes from an article by Eric Patten on NBA.com.  The article was written after the Clippers opening night loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.  The article deals with Doc Rivers belief in "the process" and his relentless goal of getting his team to buy in and "trust" the process:

The Clippers aren’t jumping to any conclusions.

A day after losing their season opener, guard J.J. Redick said the team is looking at it as an opportunity.

“Last night, could be a good thing for us if we respond the right way,” said Redick, who scored 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting Tuesday. “And the response has got to be to learn from our mistakes and own up to them and get better.”

“I thought we came with the right intentions,” Rivers said. “We just didn’t do them very well. I thought we broke down a lot. All of the things that we’ve worked on that we do in a drill and when the lights came on we didn’t do them.”

Asked to be specific, Rivers responded by listing off the points of concern on the defensive side of the ball first. “Our shows, our stunts, our recovers, we were in to out instead of out to in,” he said.
“The game just didn’t look right to me throughout the game. I just didn’t feel good about it. You could sense it.”

Rivers stressed that he did not come to practice Wednesday with a drastic message.

“The process hasn’t changed,” he said. “We haven’t changed what we’re going to do. We’re just going to keep working on it until we trust it.”

NOTE: The next night the Clippers beat a very good Golden State team. You can read the entire article written by Eric Patten here.