Explore an Uncommon
Approach to Leadership!
"Success Demands Accepting The Risk"
"It is impossible to master the countless variables of leadership to guarantee a perfect result. Ultimately, the best you can do is to increase the probability of success. Failure rides alongside, but success demands accepting the risk. I found that being confident of my commitment, but humble about my ability to control the outcome, is the best I can do."
- Stanley MyChrystal, "Leaders"
Fran Dunphy
Was invited to share a call with former Penn and Temple coach Fran Dunphy (thanks Pat Scanlon, Greenwich Country Day) this week. Coach Dunphy isn't just a great coach, but almost universally regarded as one of the best people in the game, always willing to share his time.
Some of the notes I took from his talk -
- One of the challenges when we take over as head coaches is we are generally "a lot more insecure when we are younger," and therefore not as prepared to share responsibility with our staff, or give ownership to our players.
- He noted that he used to take 2 1/2 hours to plan a 2 1/2 practice, before realizing if he shared the responsibility with his assistants his practice planning and practices themselves became more efficient.
- When building a culture - show empathy and vulnerability (hard to do as a young head coach).
- If he could do it all over again, he said he'd "pick 6 guys" who were veteran head coaches and pick their brain and listen to them.
- He also said he would do more scrimmaging in practice.
- He'd probably be less hard on players in front of the team, and do that more 1 on 1.
- Load management is something we are "probably overdoing a bit."
- Against Princeton, his main key was "great ball pressure in the scoring area."
- "The really good guys in our profession hold their teams accountable for everything."
- "I was much more inclined to beat my team up after a win than after a loss."
- "Guys love to watch film when they make good plays. Your job is to get them to appreciate watching a bad play."
- He talked about how his favorite team of all-time was a Penn team that was beating Princeton at halftime 33-9 and ended up losing that game. After the game, he just pulled up a chair and told his team that it was his fault, and mentioned the things he could do better. After that, they went around the room and each player talked about what they could have done better that night. The team went on to win their next 4 league games on the road, won the Ivy Championship and went to the NCAA Tournament.
- "Great teams stay together forever."
The first time I met Coach Dunphy I was an assistant at Providence and he brought his team in to play Brown, and they practiced at our facility. So I set up the gym for them and introduced myself to him. He asked about where I was from, how long I had been at Providence, and started a conversation. I mentioned to him that my brother had graduated from Penn in 1992.
The next time I saw Coach Dunphy was in July when we were on the road recruiting. He sat down next to me to watch a game, and before I could say hello and re-introduce myself, he said "Hey, Walshy, how's that genius brother of yours doing?"
He's absolutely one of the best people in the coaching business.
NCAA Travel
One interesting look from Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer on how the NCAA may have to change to save money: Cutting down on travel.
Will non-revenue sports still be able to fly all over the country for a league game?
Free Leadership Seminars
I've been asked by a few different coaches and organizations to do online clinics and presentations on leadership during this time when most of us are staying home. We are all looking for ways to stay connected and get better when we can't get together in-person.
So I had this idea. I'm happy to do one hour sessions with any staff, team, organization or group on any relevant topic connected to leadership, culture, team-building or the like. I will present and create a dialogue on relevant topics to your organization based on your feedback and needs. We will use Zoom as the platform, and you can include as many people as you want.
All of the seminars I will do will be free - with one catch. After the seminar, I ask that you, your team members or your organization overall decide what the seminar was "worth" to you, and you make a donation to a local charity of your choice.
There are plenty of people who can really use our help right now. Donate to first responders funds, local small businesses, food banks, shelters, even go donate blood - just find a local group in your area that can really use the help right now, and do what you can. It can be $50, $100, five dollars for each participant - whatever you feel like you can give. I really don't care about the amount. Every bit makes a difference and there are a lot of people who can use the help right now.
So it's an opportunity to stay connected to your team and make them better, while also doing a little good for some people on the front line of this pandemic who need support.
Please send me an email at bwalsh23@live.com if you are interested. We can communicate on what type of seminar will most benefit your group, and set up a time where we can make it work.
Be smart, stay safe, stay healthy.
Afraid Of Winning
Ron Shelton wrote and directed Tin Cup as well as Bull Durham and a bunch of other movies. I just read this quote in an interview he did about making Tin Cup.
"I’ve often felt more people are afraid of winning than they are of losing. To win, you then have to own it. You have to wear the crown and you have to defend the crown. That’s much harder than almost making it, and being competitive, and being a hell of a guy."
Interesting. Don't know if I agree or disagree, but it's something worth thinking about.
Body Language
I'm not sure we have the right approach to body language. I just don't know that we should be making a big deal out of it. I get it, it doesn't look good, it's not a positive thing and you don't want to show any sign of frustration or weakness. I just don't know if we should really be making that big of a deal out of it. I've always been more concerned with the response to the negative action that caused the body language, and not the body language itself. I want to coach the behavior, not the response to it.
I've coached some great players who exhibited bad body language. They were great competitors and they got frustrated when things didn't go their way. I'm not saying this is how I wanted them to respond. Sure, I'd love it if everyone was always calm and composed and never showed any sign of frustration. But not everyone has that kind of make-up. If they then respond with a bad play due to frustration, that is what I have a problem with. It's the next action I'm concerned with, and I'm not sure the body language really dictates that. A lot of guys get frustrated when they come out of games and they'll slump on the bench or put their head down for a second. Even though it might not be the response that you want, it's part of caring and competing. We all show some sort of reaction when things don't go our way. If you aren't putting that guy back in because he showed bad body language on the bench, and he can help you win, I think you are making a big mistake.
I also feel there is a hypocritical element to this as coaches. If you filmed the head coach during a close game and examined his body language, I'm pretty sure he'd have the worst body language of anyone in the gym. Most coaches react emotionally to negative things that happen in the games. Would the body language you exhibit during a game be acceptable to you if a player did the same thing? If body language really matters to you and you are going to police it, you have to start with yourself. A lot of coaches hate the "palms up" reaction from their players when something doesn't go their way, but don't the coaches do the exact same thing all the time? If the body language of your players is important to you, your own body language better be important to you as well. If not you are just setting yourself up as a hypocrite.
I've always found the way we deal with body language as coaches to be subjective. I know when I was a young head coach I was a lot more vocal about a young, immature back-up who exhibited bad body language than if one of my best players did it. If one of my best players showed bad body language we would say he's just really competitive, whereas when someone else did it we'd say it was unacceptable. When a great player reacts poorly we tend to make excuses so that the body language doesn't have to be addressed. I guess what I'm saying is I don't think we are that good at evaluating body language, and half the time our response probably has more to do with how we are feeling at that moment than about the outward show of frustration from our player.
Think about Tom Brady. Might be the greatest athlete of our time, certainly in the discussion as the best football player to ever play. He might be the greatest competitor I have ever seen. Forget that he's Tom Brady for a second and just look at his body language. He complains to the officials - verbally and demonstratively - often. He shows outwards signs of frustration with his teammates when they screw up. He gets animated on the sideline, and when he gets frustrated you can see it in his face and his entire body. Is his bad body language a problem? If an average quarterback did the exact same he'd likely get killed for it. When it's Tom Brady we call it leadership.
I've had this conversation with friends about great players in any sport. Tiger Woods sometimes slams his club and curses. He certainly shows outward signs of disgust when he hits a bad shot. Lebron James complains about fouls and is very visible with his displeasure. That might not necessarily how we want them to respond - or how they want to respond themselves. But the point is, these are great players who show outward signs of bad body language pretty regularly.To me, that is part of who they are, part of their personalities. Would they be the same player if their coaches were so focused on toning that body language down? I'm not sure that they would be. And honestly, I'm not sure why their coaches would want to spend their time worrying about it. If it's not having a negative affect on performance, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on it.
There's actually one thing I like about body language. At least I know what I'm dealing with. Body language is a great cue as to what your team needs. Sure, you don't want to see a lot of frustration, but when your kids react negatively you know you've got to bring them back. Just like when your kids get a little too excited and you want to calm them down. I'd prefer the kid who gets a little emotional on the court than the one who is completely flatlined. Sometimes those kids are hard to coach because you aren't sure what they need or how to get them going. It takes me a little longer to learn how to coach the kid who never shows any signs of emotion.
Your team gets scored on, gives up a lay-up. It was way too easy. You are upset. Your guys just kind of turn and run up the floor on offense. Have you ever said - in that scenario - "Hey guys, one of the problems is we just gave up a lay-up, and it doesn't really look like anyone cares. It didn't matter to anyone." I've heard this a lot in dealing with players individually, showing them film, trying to get more out of them. Heck, I've done it myself. But if you say that as a coach, what are you hoping to get out of them? Do you want to see some outward sign of frustration or disappointment that tells you they are upset about it? What would give you an indication that they care? It would likely involve some sort of bad body language.
I'm not saying I'm a fan of bad body language. It's not like I enjoy seeing it. I just think as coaches we make too big of a deal out of it. We try and evaluate it too much, and often we want to use it to fit our own narrative about our players, as opposed to seeing it objectively.
If I a guy shows me a sign that he's frustrated through his body language I may take him out of the game for a few minutes to try and calm him down. I absolutely think you have to know your players, and you have to understand what their verbal cues mean. But I'm much more concerned with the physical and mental response on the next play than I am any outward sign of emotion. I will tell you this - if I look down the bench and see a kid who looks a little frustrated on the bench, I sure as heck am not leaving him there just because I don't like his body language. If we need him in the game, he's going in the game before I have a chance to analyze what a scowl on his face or slumped shoulders might mean.
I'm a big believer that you have to let the kids be themselves to get the most out of them. That doesn't mean they do whatever they want. But if they get a little frustration and show some outward negative emotion, I'm not going to overreact. I think it's a natural part of being a competitor.
If a kid reacts a certain way and needs a little time to shake it off, I'm okay with that, as long as he's ready to go on the next play. If he can't respond correctly on the next play we have to correct that, not his body language.
Coach the behavior, not the reaction.
Coaching A Confident Team
Below is the link to the online coaching clinic that I did on March 30th on Coaching A Confident Team. The presentation is about 50 minutes long all in.
https://summit.coachesclinic.com/talks/coaching-a-confident-team/
Leading In Tough Times
Two keys in tough times - people management and task management. And a third - self management.
"The facts are always friendly."
"One way to keep people focused on positive action is not to slip into the trap of automatic sympathy. While it makes a person in victim mode feel good to hear such things as “that’s terrible, you must feel awful, they should fix it, poor baby”, etc., those are the wrong messages. They imply that the power is out there, with those bad people who are doing you wrong, with that evil competitor or that rotten economy. A more effective way to get and keep the right focus is with statements such as “yes, that’s tough – what are you going to do about it?; I wish it was different, but it’s not – what did you learn from it?; I understand you’re angry – so how will you avoid this in the future?”. These responses imply that the power remains with the individual and that some positive can come from this tough situation. A key to great leadership in tough times is helping people see reality and helping them find appropriate ways to deal with it."
Coach The Behavior, Not The Personality
A big part of being a successful coach is developing strong relationships with our players, and getting to know their personalities. Every kid we coach is different, and a big part of leadership success is to know who we are coaching and what buttons to push. We want to understand the personality of everyone we coach.
But as we get to know our kids really well - and we should - we can easily put them in a box. We get to know the characteristics of our players very well, but when we do we rarely allow for the fact that those characteristics can change. If a kid is lazy, he's always going to be lazy to us. If he is always joking around, we are going to think he doesn't take it seriously enough. And if he's a really hard worker, we are going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Our impression of who our kid are can easily affect the way we coach them. There is such a thing called confirmation bias, which speaks to the way the mind works. When we are evaluating players we think we know really well, we look for behavior that confirms what we already think. And this absolutely comes through in the way we coach our players. As I've grown as a coach I've noticed plenty of scenarios where I was coaching a kid a certain way based on what I thought of him, as opposed to what they actually did.
Say you've got a tough guard who starts for you and is known as your best defender. And his back-up is a kid who is talented, but not very tough and you really don't think he's a great defender. I've noticed myself doing this. When the bad defender goes for a steal and doesn't get it, he gets hammered for being a bad defender. But when the tough defender makes the exact same play - he goes for a steal and doesn't get it - I justify it, saying he was just trying to make a play. The same play was made with the same result, but they were perceived - and coached - differently.
"Coach the behavior, not the personality," is something our athletic director Bob Driscoll said to me in a conversation we had during the season. It's such a great way to put it. Think about the way you've coached different players and different teams over the years. I'll bet the kids you maybe don't like as much, or don't believe have the right work ethic or approach, got a little bit of a different tone than the kids you held in higher regard. That kid who you believe is all-in and competes his ass off every day, he's probably getting the benefit of the doubt.
It's so easy - and almost natural - to coach the personality. That's why I think it's so common, but you have to be willing to look at your own behavior through a clear lens. The kids that get on our nerves a little bit or don't always do things the right way, their mistakes get treated differently. Their behavior isn't looked at in an unbiased fashion, it is looked at as an extension of their personality. The kids we love will always get the benefit of the doubt, and their mistakes won't get as magnified.
To get the most out of your players and your team, you have to get to know them as individuals. But be careful not to let what you think of them as people to affect the way you coach them. Take an unbiased look at what they do on the court, regardless of what you now about who they are. Coach the behavior, not the personality.
Dynamic Leadership Podcast - Chris Holtmann
Some very insightful thoughts on how he established his approach at Ohio State, and dealing with the ups and downs of this past season.
Interestingly he set his team up with a very tough schedule early because he wanted them to face some adversity, but they went out and started 11-1 and were ranked #2 in the country. He was concerned that they might take some knocks after Christmas and he wasn't sure how they would handle it. Very candid stuff.
Genius and Leadership
Reading "Leaders" by Stanly McChrystal, Jeff Eggers and Jason Mangone, which compares some of the great men and women in history and their leadership style.
"Each of us has varying abilities that can into competencies, but a quantum leap above lies the qualitatively different category of genius. Beyond a useful gift, or natural cleverness, are abilities of stunning skill that separate a genius from the rest of us. In their particular field, whether narrow or broad, geniuses do what most of us cannot.
But does that make them leaders?"
They then go on to compare Albert Einstein and Leonard Bernstein, to see if there genius translates into leadership.
It's a great question to ask yourself as a coach. Are you conflating genius and leadership? More often than not we ask our best players to also be our leaders, even though they might not possess the skills or mentality to do so.
Just because they have some level of genius, and we are drawn to their talent, doesn't make them great leaders. Make sure the people you rely on for your leadership are your best leaders, not just your best players.
When Your Player Gets A Technical
I was watching the replay of the Duke/Kentucky Elite 8 game from 1992 - the Christian Laettner game, arguably the greatest game ever played - this weekend. With just over 8 minutes to go Laettner got fouled going to the basket, and then responded by stepping on Aminu Timberlake's chest. Laettner clearly did it on purpose and got T'd up for it, and rightfully so - you could make a strong case he could have been thrown out of the game.
I sent out a tweet watching the game giving Coach K credit for not over-reacting to the technical, and leaving Laettner in the game to help his team win. There was 8 minutes to go in the biggest game of the year, and Duke obviously needed him to win the game. I wasn't giving Coach K credit for trying to win, I was giving him credit for not making an emotional decision.
I got a lot of positive interactions to the tweet, with almost 100 likes and retweets, but some of the negative responses were pretty intense, which I guess I should have seen coming given it was Coach K, Duke and Laettner. It was really interesting to see the difference in the reactions.
My point was this: When a player gets a technical foul, especially in a close game, it's a pretty emotional moment. The easiest thing to do as a coach - and I've done this - is to get upset and pull that kid out of the game, leaving him to think about what he did on the bench. It shows everyone that you are in charge and you aren't going to stand for bad behavior. But what you are doing there is adding your emotion to an already emotional situation - and that's not usually when the best decisions are made.
So I do give Coach K credit for handling that situation with composure. He didn't add negative emotion to the situation and make it worse. He figured out what was best for his team and stayed on that course. Was he trying to win the game? Hell yeah he was. That's a huge part of his job.
Now if you feel like Coach K made the wrong decision, and should have yanked Laettner from the game, I understand how you can feel that way - even if I don't agree with it. One of the toughest decisions you have to make as a head coach is if necessary discipline rises to the level of suspension for a game. If it does, then you have to make the tough call to sit your player. If it doesn't, there are plenty of other ways to discipline a player and get the right message across. I've said many times I don't believe in half-suspensions or minute restrictions, because I don't think they send a clear message (What you did was wrong! But we are going to play you enough to hopefully still win the game...). Now, is there behavior that clearly merits you are done for the game and you shouldn't check back in? Sure there is. Did this rise to that level? I'm not so sure.
And the hard truth for me is this - At the time, in the heat of a close game, when one of your players makes a terrible emotional decision - that isn't the proper time for you to make the right decision. There is so much that goes into any decision on discipline, and it shouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction that's made in a matter of 30 seconds. That's not how you make the right decision, and I firmly believe that. If you can take your time to get it right, you should do that.
I've had that type of reaction as a head coach, and I've learned from it. A kid gets a technical foul in a heated game, and I'm pissed off, so I bench him the rest of the game. But when I go back and watch the tape, I realize the officials made a mistake. He didn't do anything to deserve the technical foul, he was actually trying to help the situation. And the official clearly overreacted. But I sat him down for the rest of the game to send him a message, and I had to apologize to him and the team later. Now, is there a lesson to be learned in not putting yourself in that situation to get a technical? Certainly. But I was reacting to the T, not to the behavior of my player.
I was at a high school game a few years back watching a friend of mine coach, and his best player got a technical foul early in the second quarter after a skirmish. He and a player on the other team got a technical foul. I saw it pretty clearly, and my guys kid really wasn't involved and was trying to walk away. But the ref stuck them both. So the kid sat for the rest of the 2nd quarter (while the opposing player who got T'd up kept playing), and his team went down by 14 points, never to recover.
So I asked the coach about the T's after the game. He said they had a rule, that if you get a technical foul you sit the rest of the quarter. I found that interesting. First of all, the penalty by definition is going to be random. If you get a T with 8 seconds left in the quarter, you only sit 8 seconds. But this kid got stuck early in the quarter and had to sit over 7 minutes. That didn't make sense to me.
I asked my guy if he had ever gotten a technical foul and he said he had, he'd gotten a few. So I asked him if he always sat for the rest of the quarter when he got one and he laughed and said "no, of course not." Um, okay.
If you have a rule about technical fouls and they are unacceptable and you stick to that rule, because it works for you and it fits your personality, I have no problem with it. We all handle them differently. But not all technical fouls are the same, and the actions that lead up to them certainly aren't the same. I'm certainly not arguing against discipline or accountability. But I do think it's important to think about how consistent you are with it, and the manner in which you make those decisions.
You may have a rule about being late for practice as well, but everything is contextual. I've had players late for practice because they overslept or they were flat out lazy. But I've also had players late for practice because they had a young daughter and their mother couldn't get over in time to take care of her, so they had to wait until she arrived. And that made them late for practice. Are those situations going to merit the same response? Technical fouls come in different context as well. The difference with technical fouls is often they happen in the heat of an intense game, where it is even harder to make the right decision.
For the record, my teams have always had a rule on technical fouls which we discussed at the beginning of each year. The team would agree that they were unacceptable, and I would make sure to talk about how you can't put yourself in a position where you might get one, because sometimes the officials will overreact. We would have a team run of "11 in a minute" - 11 lengths of the floor finished in one minute, for everyone on the team, if we got a technical foul. That would give us a chance to discuss the technical and how it came about - but also to finish the game and give our team the best chance to win. I've gotten one technical foul in 13 years as a head coach, and thats' one too many. I ran the 11 in a minute drill myself the next day while the team watched.
If you want to say that Laettner stepping on Timberlake's chest was enough to bench him for the rest of that game, I get it. The truth is if we had replay back then for flagrant fouls like we do now, he probably would have gotten a flagrant 2 and been ejected from the game. Should Coach K have taken that matter into his own hands and benched Laettner immediately? You can make that argument as well. I'm not so sure. Was Coach K thinking about winning? I'm sure he was, and I don't see how you can kill him for that. It's absolutely his job to think about winning, and with 8 minutes to go until the Final Four that is only magnified. Did he put winning ahead of discipline or what was right for the player and his team? I have no idea, and neither do you. I don't know nearly enough about how he handles discipline inside his program. I have no idea if he handled that with Laettner and how he did it. You can certainly have your opinion on it, and reasonable minds can disagree.
But I do firmly believe this - making a reactive, emotional decision in the heat of a game to bench a player because he got a technical foul is not the right way to go. Measured, unemotional decisions to me lead to the best outcomes. And it is simply hard to be measured and unemotional in that moment.
Regardless of what approach works for you, it's important to be consistent. And it's harder for me to be consistent making an emotional decision during an intense game. Don't overreact to the emotion of a technical foul, take the time to make the right decision.
Get Your Defense To Help Your Offense
Watching some film from the season, going through one of our games, when they go inside the huddle. The opposing coach says, "Right now our inability to score has completely taken all the fight out of us on defense." It's a good point, and one that is pretty commonly talked about amongst coaches. When teams aren't scoring, they don't seem to have the same energy on defense. When they score, they tend to guard better. We talk about that dynamic all the time.
It's so common now that it's almost become accepted. If we can't get the ball in the basket, we aren't going to have a lot of energy defensively. But we should be trying to achieve the exact opposite - finding a place where the energy on defense is what makes our offense better, not the other way around.
It's not that easy to do, so it's something you have to really be intentional about. Once you get your guys thinking that way, the evidence is there. You'll always get some easy baskets off of great defense. So if you get stops, it's going to help your offense. A breakaway dunk or a transition 3 can be a great momentum play, and often times those start with your defense.
It's really a shift in mentality that has to come from you. You have to emphasize the defensive end of the floor, and make sure you reward great effort on that side. The kids have to no it matters. Then you have to show them how it translates into offense - how you can get easier shots and score more points. Connect the dots for them, and continue to emphasize and reward the defensive effort. That will go a long way towards flipping your mentality.
If defensive effort is a constant - and non-negotiable - for you, it shouldn't be affected by anything else. Not the previous possession, a missed shot, or a lack of points on the scoreboard. You have to drive that point home, that no matter what happens, we are going to guard. And if it's not something you generally pay close attention to as the head coach (it should be), turn it over to one of your assistants and let him or her be the bad guy. Create that mentality that the way you guard will never change. Make it something you know you can count on.
It's not easy, but winning isn't easy. Everyone of your kids would rather play offense than guard somebody. So be intentional about it. Don't accept the fact that when your offense doesn't click, your defense is going to get worse. Flip it around, and put it on your defense to pick up your offense.
Greg Wright - Hunting Park
Mike Jensen of the Philadelphia Inquirer with a great story that shows the impact an AAU coach can have on his kids. RIP Greg Wright.
Battlefield Communication
"Battlefield communication is incredibly important for athletes, coaches and members of our armed forces and members of our first-responder communities." - The Program
We are constantly telling our teams to communicate. We all want our teams to communicate more. But where we miss the mark often is that we don't work with them on how to communicate. How often do you talk to your players about the most effective ways to communicate? The longer I've coached and the more I've seen the challenges teams have with communication, the more certain I am of the importance of teaching how to communicate. How many times have you heard a coach say, "I don't get it, off the court these guys won't shut up?" Well, they know exactly how to communicate with each other off the court. It's second nature. But on the court, in the heat of an intense game or practice, it's not that simple.
More from The Program:
"Words can get drowned out and our attention can be snatched by something else more pressing. We further complicate the environment when we do not communicate effectively. Too often, in a fit of frustration, people will yell a general statement to no one in particular. "We have to work harder!" or "Catch the ball!" The impact on the team is no different from the drunk, shirtless, painted fan in the stands yelling "Play defense!" Nobody listens to that guy either.
"Battlefield communication has three components: name, command and volume.
Name: Use your teammates name. Yelling "Let's go guys" has never worked. Direct your message to the person who needs to hear it. We all like to hear our name called and are far more likely to pay attention to the message delivered when our name is used.
Command: Tell your teammates what you need them to do. During the heat of battle, literal or figurative, we don't have time to be unsure and insecure. Using modifiers like "I think" or "maybe" only dilutes the message. Be clear with your command and communication.
Volume: Use the volume appropriate for the location and situation. For a pair of Marine Corps Scout Snipers in a hide site exiting a reconnaissance and surveillance mission, the appropriate volume may be a whisper. On a volleyball court, foot field, pool deck, or trading floor, the appropriate volume is nearly always loud.
Say the person's name, give the command, and use the right volume. Make it a habit."
I think this approach translates very well with basketball teams. It may not always be perfect or easy, but it is a great way to teach communication to your players. First of all, so much of what we all say gets lost in the moment, because we are naturally focused on the next most important thing. I've stood in front of my team at many practices trying to get a stern message across, only to have it fall on deaf ears. Using someone's name directly when you want to deliver a message is a great habit.
The command aspect actually gets muddled a lot more than you think it would. We always stress talking on defense, but I learned early we also had to tell them what to actually say. I've had players who called out a screen like this: "Hey, I see you Cam, here it comes, get over it, get through it..." There is too much communication, and the command actually gets lost. What I want them to say is "Screen right! Screen right!" and that's it. If you listen closely to your team and what they say on defense, I'll bet at least half of what they are saying is just noise, not a message. Well if that's the case, the actual message is going to get lost.
We used to say to our guys "Talk to the ball" on defense, a phrase of I always liked. But I've learned we have to tell them more. We want you to talk to the ball, but here is what we want you to say.
The volume, and the way the message is delivered, probably takes the most work. I don't think there's an easy scale to use to determine how loud the message should be in certain situations. The important thing is to talk to your team about how the message is delivered, and get them to pay attention to how it is received.
If your freshmen center blows a wide open lay-up off a great feed from your point guard, and your point guard screams at him "C'mon Matt! You need to focus!" he's probably going to make him more uncomfortable after missing the lay-up than he is going to get his point across. If he waits until the next whistle and pulls him aside and says "C'mon Matt, focus on that lay-up," the message will likely be a lot more productive.
A lot of the volume and the delivery of the message is going to be trial and error. The situation, the noise around you, the urgency and the receiver all play a role in how to best make the point. But it should be part of your communication process and the way you teach your team to talk.
Name, Command, Volume. Three essential aspects to effective communication, especially in the "heat of battle," or the intensity of a basketball game. Don't just tell your team to communicate. Teach them what to say, and how to do it.
A Strange 24 Hours
I saw John Paquette from the Big East Office in the Dunk on Wednesday night, March 4th, as we were getting ready to play Xavier in our 2nd to last Big East game. The Big East Tournament came up and I said something like "Well, that's if we play it." He laughed and said "Don't worry about that." The coronavirus was still relatively unknown. But I'll never forget us laughing about it.
We had a good practice last week on Tuesday morning at the Ruane Center. Our guys were fired up to get down to New York, and having won 6 in a row to finish 12-6 in the league, we had a lot of confidence. We had gone from an afterthought in the Big East to one of the hottest teams in the country in 3 1/2 weeks, so it's safe to say we couldn't wait to get to New York.
At that point, nothing seemed very different. We had decided to take a bus down to New York instead of the train, partly because of concerns over the Coronavirus. But it was still just something that was mostly happening elsewhere. We weren't really thinking about it other than making sure we washed our hands and used hand sanitizer at every opportunity. Honestly it was really just something funny to talk about at that point.
We got to New York around 4:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday and unloaded at the hotel. Everything was normal, and the buzz and speed of the city was invigorating. There really is nothing like the energy of the Big East Tournament. We had a little time to get settled in our rooms, we met to watch a little film, and we went to dinner at Brother Jimmy's BBQ. We enjoyed a great spread and watched some of the other conference. championship games.
Some of the talk was about whether or not fans would be allowed at our games. But a shutout still didn't seem like an option. Our academic coordinator Jaime Lipski glanced up at the CAA final between Hofstra and Northeastern and said "Wait, is that game being played without fans?" Nope, just a light crowd between two teams from New York and Boston playing their final in Washington D.C.
I was getting texts from a few friends who were planning on coming in to the City for the tournament, asking if fans were going to be allowed. To be honest, we hadn't even heard any talk of that. I'm sure the Big East was discussing all possible options at that point, but word hadn't really gotten to us about anything happening. I told all my friends fans were still on, they hadn't told us anything different.
We woke up Wednesday morning, the day before we played, and everything was as expected. Coaches got their workouts in, we had our team breakfast and we left around 10:35 to get to practice at Baruch College at 11 (the battle for practice gyms at the Big East Tournament is real. Someone should write a story on all of the gyms that have been used over the years). John Alesi at Baruch took care of us, as he did Creighton who practice before us and Depaul who practiced after us.
Nothing had changed for us that morning, and now we were just over 24 hours from tip-off of our game. And obviously the 7-10, 8-9 games were going to be played that night. All was a go. Some more colleges had started to go to virtual/online classes only that morning, telling kids not to return after spring break. We started to wonder if and when Providence College would do the same.
As we started to warm up word spread that Villanova and Butler were having trouble finding a practice gym. They were scheduled to practice at John Jay College, but the school totally shut down. So they couldn't use the facility. I'm not sure if they found a place or not to work out on Wednesday.
We had a good final practice and felt ready for Butler. We went back to the hotel, had some lunch and had a little down time before dinner. Some of our guys had study hall, the others just hung around and rested. I took a walk over to my father's old apartment on 33rd and 3rd, a place I hadn't been to in years. The city had plenty of life and it was a nice day to walk around. Maybe the city was a little slower, I don't know - but to me it was hard to tell that anything was different.
We watched a little film before dinner, and then the team went out to eat. I went over to the Garden to scout the St. John's - Georgetown game as they were on our side of the bracket. I just love the energy of the Big East Tournament at the Garden, and having grown up in New York there's still something special about hearing "St. John's - Georgetown"
The Garden was half-full that night, but had good energy as you would expect. Honestly, I didn't think the crowd was any smaller because of the coronavirus, it was kind of what I'd expect for that game on the first night of the tournament. Both teams played hard and the building had a lot of life. Georgetown took control late in the first half and led by 10 until there were about 6 minutes to play. Then St. John's scored 23 points to finish the game on an incredible run. It certainly wasn't 1985, but the Garden had a lot of juice.
My wife and I left after the first game, taking the gamble that we wouldn't see Xavier or Depaul in the finals 3 days later. We cabbed it back to the hotel, and former Friar point guard Donnie McGrath met us in the hotel bar when we got back. By that time Mark Emmert had announced that the NCAA Tournament was going to be played without fans, and they were looking for some smaller venues to play in. Word had spread that the Big East was having discussions about what to do with regards to fans for the tournament. My friends were still texting me, and my response was we were still playing, but likely without any fans. They were going to make a decision that night.
We were sitting at the hotel bar and Donnie walked in to say hello, but he was finishing up a phone call and stepped back outside. That's when everything changed. I looked at my phone and saw the alert that said "NBA suspends season," and said to my wife "Holy sh!t." I showed her my phone and said "No way we play tomorrow." A minute or two later I looked up at the TV and there was an announcement that the Jazz game had been canceled, and that the trainer had gone out on the court before the start of the 2nd half talk to the officials, and they pulled the teams off the court. They then announced that Rudy Gobert had tested positive for the virus.
From that moment forward, the same for most people in America, everything was different. I think we are going to look back and be glad that Rudy Gobert tested positive (and obviously hope he fully recovers). But that was the moment where it really seemed like playing a basketball game was a stupid idea. What happens if a week from now one of our players test positive for the virus? A basketball game being played the week before would seem like a really dum idea at that point. From that point on I was very confident our season was over.
Donnie walked back in and I told him that the NBA had suspended the season and that Rudy Gobert had tested positive. He said "Oh, sh!t, Rudy?" He and Gobert had been teammates for a year playing overseas and remained good friends. The Jazz had been in New York the week before, and they had practiced at Baruch. All of the sudden hearing stuff like that made you a little nervous, hit close to home. We kept talking and checking our phones, and I kept saying "There is no way we are playing tomorrow."
I got a text that we were going to have a team meeting around 10:00 and we needed to get all of our guys downstairs. Coach Cooley, Bob Driscoll and Kevin Kurbec had been on a call with the Big East, talking about what was going on the next day. The NBA news had just hit, a good example of how fluid and rapidly moving the situation was. We were going to play tomorrow as scheduled, but the Garden would be closed to fans. Each team would get 200 tickets for everyone - staff, band, team and close family members. That was it.
I remember Coach saying to the team, "and this looks like how it's going to be for the foreseeable future, even in the NCAA Tournament. If there is an NCAA Tournament." And a few guys took exception. "Man, Coach, don't say that." I think that's when it first hit them that this thing wasn't headed in the right direction.
I remember walking out of the room after the players left saying to no one in particular, "I can't believe we are going to play."
It was an interesting challenge, dealing with the reality of what was going on around you, the changing landscape of the dynamics of our game, and trying to keep the players mentally ready to win. Obviously we didn't want to have conversations with the players about not playing the game, but I do think it was in the back of everyone's mind. But it was so close, the first game literally just 14 hours from tip-off, that you had to take the approach like the game was on.
I went upstairs - took a long, hot shower - and kept the news on the TV. The whole day just felt like a tidal wave, with more and more cancellations and decisions that 24 hours ago were impossible to imagine. There was too much going on. I must have told my wife half-a-dozen times "I still don't think we are going to play."
But the game was on, so I got up early, got my workout in and went to our team breakfast. We were talking about it amongst the coaches, and Coach Blaney said "next week is cooked," referring to the NCAA Tournament. I remember saying "I still don't think we are going to play today." It seemed hard to believe, as it was about 90 minutes until the Creighton-St. John's game was set to tip.
I went upstairs and got dressed for the game, but it still didn't feel like we were going to play. I got in a cab with Ivan Thomas and Matt Garvey to head over to scout the first game, and we were all talking about it in the cab. None of us could believe we were playing. It seemed very clear there was no way the Big East Tournament was making it to Saturday for a championship game, so why were we playing today? At that point the NBA, the G-League, Fiba and the Euroleague had all been suspended. We were really the only national basketball league in the world still playing. It didn't feel right. But I also understand that an awful lot goes into a decision like canceling the Big East Tournament.
We got to the Garden at about 11:40 and dropped our stuff off in the locker room. Andrew Ford started laying out the uniforms in the locker room and we walked into the arena to grab a seat at the press table. The Garden looked different for sure, but there was still some buzz. The bands were playing, and there were small groups of fans behind each bench making noise. It felt a lot like some of the early-season tournaments we play in sunny locations that don't draw a lot of fans. Except you look around and realize you are in Madison Square Garden. It was certainly odd.
As we sat down, I still wasn't convinced we were going to play. I even thought when the teams went into the locker room for their final preparations, they might not come back out. I think others felt the same way. Just after the ball was tipped, I got the first alert on my phone and read it out loud "The American Conference and the Big 10 have canceled their tournaments. The Big 10 pulled Michigan and Rutgers off the floor during warm-ups." John Cahill, the Big East Director of Officials was sitting right next to me and he said "this game won't last very long." Other alerts came rolling in, as other conferences made the same decision. I had my notes out on Creighton and St. John's, but we were sitting there watching a game that likely wouldn't be finished.
I can only imagine what the Big East office was going through with the City of New York. So many people are affected by this, and we are playing our tournament in the biggest city in the country. I'm sure at first no one even imagined shutting down the tournament was even a reality. Within 24 hours it became a certainty. Not an easy time for people in leadership positions with how fast the impact of this situation was spreading. You want to talk about a no-win situation? This was it for any leader in athletics.
About midway through the first half, we got a text from Kevin Kurbec saying that they had pulled the team off the bus. The Big East didn't want us bringing the team over. They hadn't officially canceled the tournament because I think they were in conversation with the leadership of the schools making them aware. But our players were back up in their hotel rooms packing their stuff. It took us a minute, but finally we got up and walked to the locker room. We were going home.
As we walked out of the Garden in the first half of that game, it was obvious a lot of people noticed. There were a lot of looks and whispers like "where are they going?" Kevin McNamara actually sent out a tweet about us leaving, saying it didn't look like the game was going to be played. Less than 24 hours earlier we were finishing up our practice at Baruch, ready to play. Now we were heading home.
On the way home it was announced that the NCAA Tournament was officially canceled. The season was over, just like that. I wasn't on the bus, but I know it was a pretty depressing ride home. When we got back, we met as a team in the locker room. It was almost impossible to comprehend. Coach thanked and congratulated the seniors. The seniors spoke up and thanked their teammates and coaches. Not only was the season over, but the campus was closed. Everyone needed to make plans to get off campus within the next 36 hours. I had this feeling like "are we really doing this?" It was all incredibly sudden, and hard to swallow.
It was a numb feeling, still hard to process. It was the right decision for sure, with everything going on in the world. But it still didn't make sense. It was as strange of a day as you'll probably ever see in college basketball.