WENDI JONES: HONORING A LIFE WELL LIVED

It was a difficult drive on Wednesday to the northern part of Texas to celebrate the life of Wendi Jones who passed away after a second battle with breast cancer.  As I pulled into Keller United Methodist Church I for some reason parked towards the back and entered on the side.  Walking through the door I found myself on the church basketball court. 

How ironic! It was basketball that first introduced me to Wendi. 

I was a member of Dale Brown’s staff at LSU while Wendi played for the Lady Tigers.  There was a such a great respect for both programs and we supported each other in every way imaginable.  The women would practice from 12:30 until 3:00 PM while we would take the floor at immediately after.  I loved watching Coach Sue Gunter teach and would often head over to the gym well before our practice time to watch the Lady Tigers.  Their teams in that era were excellent.  Three things I remembered about Wendi was that she had an element of toughness, she played extremely hard, and she was a wonderful teammate — always with a great attitude.  These intangibles would served her well through life.

Later when Coach Brown retired, I had the opportunity to join Coach Gunter’s staff and one of my responsibilities was alumni relations.  My conversations with Wendi turned to alumni weekend visits and updates on her life and family.

The next link to my relationship with Wendi came about through breast cancer.  My wife Sherie, was diagnosed in 2007.  We made a decision to be public in our fight and see if we could raise awareness and money.  I think it was because we went public that Wendi’s husband Trent felt comfortable reaching out to me when she was first diagnosed.

Over the course of the next few years there would be various conversations, text messages and communication through Facebook.  I never ended one without thinking what an amazing attitude Wendi possessed.  I rallied our Lady Tiger family around her reaching out to our professional players as well.  Seimone Augustus, Sylvia Fowles, Temeka Johnson and others reached out to her and sent her things like their pink WNBA game shoes, head bands and more.

The last time I physically saw Wendi was at an LSU basketball game two years ago — alumni weekend.  I was by then on the staff at Texas A&M but couldn’t wait to see her and for the first time meet her son Ryan.  On that day, I wore a special pink Breast Cancer Awareness tie in her honor while she and Ryan were decked out on purple and gold.  It was a great day.

I was out of town a few weeks ago when Trent let me know that Wendi’s time was near and that she was at peace with everything.  I couldn’t help think how fortunate she had been to have Trent along for this journey.  Unless you have held down the responsibility of caregiver, it’s hard to understand the energy, effort and toll it takes.  Trent was amazing and I have so much respect for him.

It was a beautiful service with teammates Barbara Henderson and Shelly Raines there.  Barbara spoke and told some stories about Wendi that brought out her caring nature and her sense of humor as well.

As I looked around the church, it was at near capacity — a testament within itself.  As Coach Don Meyer would say, “You can tell more about someone at the funeral than you can their wedding.”  Among those in attendance were many junior high and high school students — too many to count.  Wendi was a teacher — it would be shared by her friend Lisa Bradley that was named Teacher-of-the-Year three times though it was already obvious how well she did her job by those students in the pews.

I thought of the quote by Henry Brooks Adam, "A teacher effects eternity, and you can never tell where the influence stops."  Looking at all these young faces I knew that the lessons they learned in Wendi's classrooms were important but the example she lead will be with them forever.

Wendi had also coached and Lisa gave great insight as to why she was a great teacher by saying “Wendi enjoyed practices far more than games.”

The family asked that in lieu of flowers that we “donate to a Breast Cancer charity of your choice.”  Today I will make one to the Kay Yow Fund in Wendi’s name.

I would ask that all of us that knew Wendi do one other thing.  I firmly believe that the best way to honor someone you’ve lost is by the life you live.  Wendi has given us all a great blueprint in her servant leadership example.

Thank you Wendi.  You will be missed but certainly not forgotten.  For as Barbara Henderson reminded us, Sue Gunter taught us the on the court or off the court is it always US.

IF YOU GIVE A BOY A BASEBALL

We saw this on Facebook a few weeks ago but it wasn't attributed to any one.  It was however very powerful in terms of what the right type of parenting and sports can do for our youth so we felt the need to share:

If you give a boy a baseball, he will want a bat to go with it.

You’ll buy him the best bat you can find, and then he will probably want a bucket of balls and a glove and some cleats too.  

Then, he will probably spend hours begging you to go out in the yard to play with him, even though you may want to sit on the couch and watch tv.  He will insist. And his insistence will win.

And when a boy gets a jersey, he will need pants and socks and a belt to go with it. And a TEAM…..

And then life as you know it will end.

There will be no more lazy weekends watching tv. You will see more sunrises than you ever thought possible. Every spare minute of your time will be spent hauling buckets and bags and stinky cleats and crazy boys all over tarnation for hours to practice for a game. 

THE GAME. 

And your house will be a mess. And your car will be dirty. All because you gave a boy a baseball. 

Your weekends will be spent freezing or burning to death on a fold up chair. And his weekends will be spent gaining confidence and friends, and learning new skills and having fun and getting dirty. So dirty in fact that you will have to learn how to do laundry in a whole new way, like maybe at a carwash using the pressure washer.

And you will be there the day he hits his first home run, first strikeout, and his first double play. And he will make you SO proud. The other moms will congratulate you. But you feel weird saying thank you because it's not you at bat or on the mound. It's everything him. He did this. 

And right before your eyes, your little boy will be transformed from the baby who spun around with his head on the bat, (because he loves attention), into a pitcher. Because he loves attention still. 

When you give a boy a baseball , you give him more than just a ball. You give him a sport, and a talent, and hope, and dreams, and friends, a new family, a place to learn about life, room to grow as a person where he can push his limits, and bravery, and courage and LIFE, and memories. And he will have ALL of these things, simply because you gave a boy a baseball. 

Because you gave a boy a baseball, you too will develop new/lifelong friendships, developed solely from the same passion for the game and love of your team. You will root together. And spew PG-13 things out of your mouths together. Because you gave a boy a baseball.

All because you gave a boy a baseball. 

And played with him.

KELVIN SAMPSON: "LET'S GO HIT THE ROCK"

If you follow, read and study Tim Elmore (and you should), you know the importance of visuals in making emotional connections with those you lead.  In a story that ran a few months ago in the Houston Chronicle by Joseph Duarte, I loved what Kelvin Sampson had created to get his message across at the University of Houston:

From Duarte's article: 

A rock is the first thing visitors see upon entering the player's lounge inside the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility.

It's kept in a case with a sledgehammer leaning against it, a symbol of what Kelvin Sampson has based the revival of the University of Houston men's basketball program.

Sampson often ends every staff meeting with the saying, "Let's go hit the rock."

"It ain't going to break today," Sampson, the Cougars' 62-year-old coach, continues. "We don't know how many times we are going to have to hit it, but I just know it's going to crack."

"He's said it for four years," says Kellen Sampson, an assistant coach on his dad's staff. "Our whole culture has been based on hitting that rock."

COACH K AND BRAD STEPHENS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RELATIONSHIPS

Last week I attended a Coaching Roundtable at UT Arlington.  The new UTA head coach, Chris Ogden, had came from the staff of Chris Beard at Texas Tech.  When asked about the keys to success at Tech under Beard, Ogden responded, “Relationships.  He spends more time with them off the court then on.  He believes getting to know his players is 90% more important than the X & O’s.”

Coach Ogden said that daily Beard would meet with players — sometimes armed with only one video clip to begin a discussion.

Our ability to teach at the maximum level starts and ends with the connections we have with those people we want to lead.

In an article on NESN by Joshua Schrock about the Celtics Jayson Tatum, he was asked to compared his college coach, Mike Krzyzewski to his NBA coach Brad Stephens.  His response:

“They are both very, very good coaches. Coach K is a lot more animated. He yells a lot more. Brad is a lot more reserved and laid back. But I think the thing about both of them is how they connect with their players. Brad being so young and Coach K being so old and being able to connect with 18-year-olds, and that’s why a lot of kids go to Duke.”

Two different methods of coaching yet both grounded by their ability to connect to their players.

THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS AND THEIR CULTURE OF PASSING

There was an outstanding article in the USA Today this week written by Sam Amick on the value of passing the ball for Golden State and it's incredible value to the culture of the Warriors.  You can (and should) read the entire article here.

I've long spoke about how you play being a big part of your culture.  Your system of play and it's level of execution says a lot about who you are as a coach and in turn your team as a unit.  

The first part of that piece is practice.  The make up and execution of practice impacts players and how they feel about playing and their level of belief in how prepared they are going into a game.  On the collegiate level, recruiting often comes down in part of how a team plays.  On the professional level, free-agents will at times gravitate to a style of play.

In an era that becomes increasingly difficult to promote team play, to have one of the best teams in the NBA base their success on number of passes gives all of us coaches hope.  

A few excerpts include the following:

“Ball movement will forever be superior.”

-Shaun Livingston

Ever since Kerr made the move from TNT analyst to the Warriors bench, when he saw the glaring lack of ball movement in that final season under former coach Mark Jackson and told the team’s ownership how he would fix it, this has been their ethos. So much so, in fact, that it all started with a magic number: 300.

Pass the ball at least that many times during the course of a game, he told them, and the offense will hum. For Kerr, who won five titles while playing for San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and then-Chicago coach Phil Jackson, these were the lessons learned that he had to pass on.

“If you have shooting — if you have great shooting — then the more ball movement the better, because you have guys coming off screens and … you want to make the defense have to defend for long stretches rather than just one pass and a shot,” Kerr explained to USA TODAY Sports recently. “So we looked at the passing totals, and … (300) was a really key number for us.

"I just said I want the ball to move. That’s always how I’ve seen the game, and if you have Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) on your team and the ball is moving, it’s fairly obvious that it’s going to be hard to defend. So we just kind of came up with that number.”

Amick backed his story up with the following facts:

◄After ranking last in passes per game (243.8) during the regular season before Kerr’s hiring and finishing 12th in offensive rating despite already having three of their four current All-Stars in Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green, they have had the league’s best offense in three of the past four seasons while finishing second in offensive rating once. During that span, the Warriors’ passes-per-game mark has ranged from 306.6 to 323.5.

◄The Warriors’ only two losses this postseason have come in the only games in which they passed the ball fewer than 300 times (256 against San Antonio in Game 4 of the first round; 295 against New Orleans in Game 3 of the second round). In all, they lead all playoff teams in passing (323.2; Rockets 15th at 227.5).

◄Green and Curry have been first and second among the Warriors, respectively, in passes made for the past three regular seasons.

As Green is quick to point out, passing alone is not enough. The Warriors at their best are like a basketball version of the Blue Angels, with players darting to and fro while stopping only briefly to set a few screens along the way. But when you combine the movement with the passing and some of the best scorers the game has ever seen, then push the tempo, it’s the kind of thing even Kerr couldn’t have dreamt of when he put this program into place.

EXECUTION IS STRATEGY

It's well chronicled of my passion for reading.  It has made us better in so many ways from organization to leadership to team building to personal growth.  Every now and then I come across a passage that creates a "wow" effect for me.  I found such one in Tom Peter's new book "The Excellence Dividend."  Two of Mr. Peter's book have really resonated with me -- "In Search of Excellence" and "The Pursuit of Wow!" so I have been looking forward to reading his newest book.

Early in Section I on Execution, Mr. Peter's quoted Fred Malek whom he'd worked with in the White House in the early 70's:

"Execution is strategy"

It hit me like a thunderbolt in the strength of it's message in only three words.  My years of coaching have brought me to a realization of the importance of the process.  Studying some of the best from John Wooden to Nick Saban has taught me that the process is more important than the result because it is what leads to the result.

As Coach Don Meyer would say, "It's not what we do, it's how we do it."

As coaches, we sometimes get lost in complete big picture thinking without enough or even any thought to the details involved in success.  Excellence is in the details -- our ability to execute those details.

I read an article last week on Houston Rockets associate head coach Jeff Bzdelik who has an reputation as a great defensive coach.  Here is a quote about his work:

“He will break down a defensive drill like I’ve never seen before,” Bzdelik’s then assistant coach Scott Brooks tells me. “Where your left hand [goes], where your right hand, where your left foot, where your right foot, where your chest, what you’re thinking of. He has it down to every minute detail and he’s really great with technique and being able to explain. He’s one of the best I’ve ever been around.”

Sometimes we as coaches consider a defensive breakdown drill as part of our means of improving execution -- and it can be.  But it was interesting to read that Bzdelik breaks down the breakdown drill.  That's a commitment to execution.

It's not enough to have a game plan or a goal.  We must be detailed and intentional in the path we take to achieving it.

In the book "Practice Perfect," by Doug Lemov, Erica Woolway and Katie Yezzi, make the following observation on the legendary John Wooden:

"Though we remember him for the championships, what ultimately made Wooden great was practice."

"Practice Perfect" also brings out the point that we can sometimes lose our focus on excellence by putting too much stock into hard work when it comes effectiveness.  They quote Wooden as saying "Bustling bodies making noise can be deceptive."  

And then there is one of my favorite Wooden quotes I often share with our teams: "Don't mistake activity for achievement."

It is critical that we are intentional in all that we do in striving for excellence.  If we want proper execution, we must be intentional in the detail we put into our work.  We shouldn't expect cutting and screening to be effective during a game in moments of distress if we aren't demanding proper execution at all times in practice.

Quite possibly the best that's ever coached in the NFL understands the important of practice and the role it plays in developing execution.  When the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick was told by a media member of all the success their team had accomplished in terms of wins and championships and then asked what would be the next goal for him he followed with:

"I'd like to go out and have a good practice today.  That would be at the top of the list."

Belichick understands the importance of practice, habits and execution.

Nick Saban is also a big believer in the importance of the process and brings the value of the mental aspect to execution:

"When researches compared whether process or analysis was more important to making good decisions, they discovered that process mattered more than analysis by a factor of six.  But the reverse was not true - superb analysis is useless unless the decision process gives it a fair hearing."

I often meet with my players do discuss their "why."  I want to know about their dream and visions for the future.  But I always tell them they have to dream in details.  It does no good to dream of playing professional basketball if you don't have a deliberate plan to execute -- all the way how you spend the minutes of your day -- and that must be part of the dream as well.

I'll close with yet one more thought from Coach Wooden on the importance of details and execution:

"Races are won by a fraction of a second, National Championship games by a single point.  That fraction of a second or a single point is the result of relevant details performed along the way."

THE ONE GUARANTEED TRAIT OF THOSE COACHES WITH SUSTAINED SUCCESS

The one thing that I have learned through decades of coaching is that there is no one set way to teach and coach and be successful.  Time has shown us that there are as many ways to be successful as there are committed coaches to their philosophies.  There is no set defensive style of play or offensive attack that is better than the other.  You can push the ball in transition or walk it up and find positive results.  The use of video and scouting reports are also as varied as the number of programs using them.

There is one constant however for those who have sustained success -- they are all continual learners.  They find time to grow their knowledge of the game as well as to improve in areas of communication and relationships.  To remain the same is to fall behind.

It was interesting today that I got an email from my mentor Dale Brown that talked about one of our games great coaches in John Wooden and how he approached learning throughout his career:

◄How about Coach Wooden actually took a psychology class so that he might be able to communicate with his student-athletes at a higher level.

◄He believe in watching the practices of other sports and developed some of his time management thoughts from Notre Dame football coach Frank Leahy.

◄It didn't bother coach to reach to UCLA rival coach Pete Newell to talk about defense.  (This also speaks to Coach Newell in his willingness to do so as well)

◄As did Don Meyer, when Coach Wooden as speaking at clinics, he would arrive early and stay late and be an avid note taker of the other speakers.

◄Each off-season he would select a phase of the game and pour himself into over the summer.

◄He was also a ferocious reader that once read the dictionary from cover to cover to improve his vocabulary.

Want to be successful over the long haul?  What your plans this summer to grow YOUR game!

TRANSACTIONAL OR TRANSFORMATIONAL

I’ve spend the last few weeks catching up on my reading — specifically articles I’ve saved off the internet or received via Google Alerts.  Later I’ll blog about my system of reading from these various sources.

However, today I enjoyed reading an outstanding article on Virginia men’s head basketball coach Tony Bennett.  The article was written by Paul Woody of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and discusses the question for coaches of whether they want to be transactional or transformational.  It very well written by Woody and I strongly suggest you click her to read it in its entirety.

Here are some key thoughts from the article:

As Woody starts the article…

A college basketball coach has to make a decision.

Does he want to be transactional or transformative?

A transactional coach tells players what to do and expects them to do it, no questions asked. If they don’t perform as the coach directs, players often are yelled at, belittled and demeaned.

In a perfect world, the transactional method shouldn’t be successful. If you think it’s not, you haven’t been paying attention to the sidelines of college basketball games.

Than Woody takes a look at the transformative method used by Bennett…

If the players buy in, the coach can ask what they’re seeing in games and practices, ask them if what he’s asking them to do is working, and listen if they answer, “No.”

That’s transformative.

“He teaches us off-the-court lessons every day, through basketball and without basketball,” sophomore point guard Ty Jerome said. “On the court, we have our way and do what we do and everyone’s bought in. I think that helps him be a transformative coach. Then he can ask us, and the whole staff, ‘What do you see on that and on this?’

“It’s easier because we’re all so united. That’s a credit to him, to his humility. He could easily be, ‘I have all these wins. We’re going to do it this way.’ ”

Don’t be mistaken. Transformative is not new-age, touchy feely. Bennett coaches 

basketball, a very physical game in a highly competitive league, the ACC. At Virginia, there is no room for negotiation concerning effort, defense, toughness and teamwork. You are fully engaged in all four or you are fully on the bench.

“I come from a unique perspective,” Bennett said. “Yeah, I’m a little more old school. There was a time when you’d come home and things weren’t going well, and it always was your fault. The question was, ‘Why aren’t you listening to the coach?’

“Well, today it can be a little different. I played for my father. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he believed in me. He thinks I can be really good, and I can trust him. It’s built in. He’s my dad. I realized that was almost the secret sauce.

Again, I strongly suggest you read the entire article.