Thoughts
Coaching is a science and an art. If you struggle with one, you won't be great at the other.
One person with a grudge can get you fired.
There are two types of coaches: those who have been fired and those who haven't been fired yet.
When your program is the front porch of a school, you are vulnerable.
Coaches need to think more heavily on the back end of a press. I think we are too quick to focus on the front end of a press. Pressing without back end execution can lead to:
mismatches
keeps a game closer than it should be
widens a game further away from you (losing)
Thinking how you can lose to a team allows you to prepare to beat that team.
Parents will never understand the gap between a college level player and a "good high school player."
Parents will never love your team more than their son/daughter. As the coach, you will never love their son/daughter more than your team. This natural divide can never be fully bridged.
As the coach, you have to enforce the discipline in your program early. Eventually a championship caliber team will crave it, and when it is lacking they will enforce it themselves.
I'm not a fan of 6, 7, 8, 9 year old kids playing travel ball. They get more out of going to 4 or 5 camps, and as expensive as camps are nowadays, they cost less than travel ball.
You usually have to lose with a team before you win with them.
Teach the Why's and How's. If you spend all of practice on the What's, your team won't be able to make basketball plays.
Don't coach to try to control what the other team does. Control what your team does.
80% of your results come from 20% of your players (usually). I like only having 12-14 guys in my varsity practice. Have a separate FR/JV practice everyday.
If you don't enjoy hanging out with 14-18 year old's (HS) or 18-23 year old's (college) then why are you doing this?
You can't outpower your Superintendent or President. You will lose.
The media always has the last word. You always have the first word. Know when not to give them the first word. Believing the media is objective is naïve.
Losing when you are used to winning is hard, it requires toughness to make it through those times. Winning when you are used to losing also requires toughness.
Plan each practice with a Day 1 mentality.
Some jobs are stepping stones, some jobs are kidney stones. Sometimes you coach at a school where you stand behind a stone statue of someone else.
Guard your words spoken to your team. You can lose your job with one sentence. Understand that you will be repeated and what you said will be taken out of context to fit outside agendas.
When people harm you as a coach, when they set you up to fail, when they undermine you, the baggage they will carry will be far heavier than your short term pain. Just get to the other side of pain.
Meet high school kids where they are at skill wise. Be flexible as they develop or fail to develop.
Warren Buffett rule: have a staff with talent, intelligence and character. If you only have the first two in a staff member, they will undermine you.
OTT, Organize Tomorrow Today. Review your past week on Sunday. Plan your upcoming week on Sunday. Review your past month as the month closes out. Plan your upcoming month as the month closes out as well.
Increase your skill workouts in late January and February.
I have never regretted shooting too much in a practice.
I took notes as I did a deep dive in the book of Proverbs. I refer to the wisdom gained by doing that almost daily.
No one is going to remember the thing that happened. They will remember how you reacted to the thing that happened.
Talking vs. Yelling. Players have a tendency to listen when you talk. They only hear when you yell (usually). Your voice tone is impactful.
Communicating vs. Connecting. Communicating to a player or a team is talking to them. Connecting is when you talk with them.
I've never regretting grinding my team in half-court defense.
Have your FR and JV team take detailed notes from a varsity game or two. Then go over their notes. You will learn some things.
Still contemplating this one: Make your practices more like games and your games will become more like practices.
Static stretching after practices is underrated.
Why are more and more college teams going straight to the weight room for an active recovery lift after a game? Should high school teams do the same?
If I don't add live transition offense/defense after each live half-court defensive drill in practice - I am a dummy.
Play the athletic offensive rebounder. His lack of skill is worth the extra possessions.
At the end of the day, I can coach because my wife supports me through it all. I love having her close to my players. I think the players truly love her. Which make this journey really cool.
Skip passes in transition aren't used enough. They create bad close-outs when help isn't organized yet.
Moving the ball without moving people isn't efficient. You need ball movement and screening action.
I will always believe middle penetration hurts a defense more than baseline penetration.... except vs. a 1-3-1 and Triangle & 2 zone. You want the ball to go middle.
If a player can't play without the ball, he or she better be your point guard.
A .42+ 3FG shooter that attacks the rim first is a heck of a player. A .42+ 3FG shooter that doesn't attack the rim is easy to guard.
Great shooters have an economy of motion.
Want a great practice drill? Put your best 4 players vs. 5 guys that the 5th guy picks. Your best 4 will win. Play for 3:00. You will have leverage and their attention.
You have a special player that can achieve 180 status. 2FG% + 3FG% + FT% = 180% or more.
Bad defense and bad 3FG shot selection are buddies.
Focus on swishes only while shooting FT's.
I see way too many ballscreens being set for guys who can't play downhill.
Players sometimes have 1 parent or 4 parents, and maybe the traditional 2. Know this about your players. You need to know and understand their tribe.
Letting my player-leaders have control of the time-out huddle is one of the best in-game decisions I've ever made. I literally made all coaches and support personnel get away from the players.
Don't complain about bad administrators - be smarter. Most High School Principals and Superintendents want their basketball coach to succeed.
Buzz Williams makes his players write thank you notes on Friday before practice.
Our identity is not "Basketball Coach." If you think that's who you are, you will realize you were wrong in a painful way one day.
Don't Fake to Relate with your players. It's not your past that draws them to you. It's the connection to the real, current, you.
"Here is how we are attacking their defense," versus "Here is what they do."
How would your team's focus improve if your last locker room talk before taking the floor and your player introduction huddle only focused on the first two possessions?
Before you steal a You Tube play, picture your personnel on the floor running that set.
Your best player in the middle vs. a zone defense. Stay out of the way.
You get fouled on OBU's a lot.
You are down 10 with 3:00 to go. Sub in a player to foul. "Open up" the opportunity for your opponent to pass it to the bad free-throw shooter and foul him. He misses FT's, and watch how the other coach struggles to take that player out, especially in high school. You have to practice this strategy as well as unintentionally fouling a player.
High school coaches should be millionaires when they retire. It's a perfect set-up for dollar cost averaging over 25 years, in addition to their pension. First year teachers/coaches need to start with their first pay check. Ignore the market - just put the same in each pay period. Increase contribution with every raise.
Have a manager take a picture of your time-out draws and record your time-out message. Afterwards, would you have understood what you drew on the whiteboard and said in the huddle?
Standards
Practice and Train at a standard that exceeds the most talented team in your league.... daily.... in-season and out-of-season.
When you play poorly you should fall to the level of everyone else's standard.
Your team's STANDARDS come before your team's FEELINGS. Standards over Feelings.
The Stages of a Coach
Survival
Phone rings and you are scared
Yells at players to prove they are right
Overreacts to minor issues
Worries too much about what other are saying and thinking
Striving for Success
People may want to come to your practice
"That guy can coach!"
Satisfaction
It is hard to handle success
complacency can set in on your staff
Significance
Most dangerous time for you as a coach
Administration might be jealous
You are the front porch of the school
Job change may be healthy for you
Spent
You have nothing left
The details start to slip