Dalai Lama Wisdon

The ultimate source of a happy life is warm-heartedness. This means extending to others the kind of concern we have for ourselves. On a simple level we find that if we have a compassionate heart we naturally have more friends. And scientists today are discovering that while anger and hatred eat into our immune system, warm-heartedness and compassion are good for our health.

Quote of the Day:

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.   

-Muhammad Ali

The Power of Your Beliefs: The Sell

There are a million different ways to win a basketball game. There are countless offensive systems and defensive systems. What's the best method?

In my opinion, the power of your belief in a system is more important than the system you run.

I found this great quote from a recent Urban Meyer interview: "What's special about Chip Kelly is not that he runs an up-tempo, no huddle offense, its that he has every single person in that organization from the top down believing that's the best way to win a football game.""

John Wooden, famous coach of the UCLA men's basketball team, would tell his teams that they are the BEST conditioned basketball team in the country. Later, in interviews, he would admit that he wasn't sure if this was true; however, he trained his athletes (mentally and physically) to believe that was true. And you know what? They believed their coach. At the end of close games they would muster extra strength drawn from their belief that they were in better shape than their opponent.

I can convince a player that getting up at 6am to do a workout is better than doing a workout at 3pm because I strongly believe that is true. On one hand, someone may say that a workout is a workout- doesn't matter what time you start and the content will be the same. I look at it like this: it's 6am on the East Coast so that means it's 3am in California. How many people do you think are up right now working on their game? Maybe a few, probably not many. I would also sell the aspect of discipline, work ethic, extra time in the gym, commitment and a display of passion when running 6am workouts with someone. I think I can get a player to believe they are better when they work out at 6am as opposed to 3pm because that's what I believe....and I believe in that strongly.

A good salesman believes in their product with 100% mind, body and spirit. A great coach must find a system of play that fits their team's personnel, but equally as important, matches the coach's fundamental beliefs and values. 

Quote of the Day:

"Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not,
to put this plan into action."

— Napoleon Hill

Quote of the Day:

"You can do anything, but not everything."

— David Allen

Over-Coaching

"I think just about all teams are over-coached.  They have a lot of defenses, but not one which they do particularly well.  They have several offenses, but too often fail to take advantage of openings and mismatches.  They have handfuls of out-of-bounds plays but seldom screen well or make sharp, well-timed cuts. 

I don't think there's a grand formula for how many offenses, defenses and special plays any team should have.  But I do know that most teams spend too much time going over movements and not enough time imporving their execution.  I am often astonished watching TV and seeing big-name college teams look completely baffled trying to attack a common 2-3 zone."

 - Dick Devenzio, Runnin' The Show

Winning Statistics in Basketball: Stats That Matter

At the start of each media timeout (at the first deadball after the 16, 12, 8 and 4 minute marks of each half), a Sports Information worker hands me our stat sheet. It looks like this:

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Official Basketball Box Score
Rhode Island College at. Rhode Island
12/16/2012 at 2:00 pm @ Kingston, RI

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VISITORS: Rhode Island College (6-3)

								TOT-FG	3-PT		REBOUNDS
#		Player Name						FG-FGA	FG-FGA	FT-FTA	OF	DE	TOT	PF	TP	A	TO	BLK	S	MIN
20		Vandell Andrade.....					f	1-5	0-0	0-0	3	3	6	2	2	0	0	0	0	16
31		Courtney Burns......					f	1-6	0-0	2-2	2	1	3	3	4	3	2	0	0	21
01		Danielle LeBlanc....					g	1-8	0-3	2-2	0	1	1	0	4	0	7	0	1	17
13		Cara Paladino.......					g	2-3	0-0	1-1	0	2	2	3	5	1	0	0	0	24
33		Ashley O'Dell.......					g	6-13	2-7	0-0	2	2	4	1	14	1	3	1	3	29
12		Megan Sewall........						3-8	1-2	3-4	1	0	1	1	10	4	6	0	2	22
14		Alexia Vega.........						1-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	3	2	1	0	0	1	21
21		Devin Hill..........						0-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	10
22		Melanie Cline.......						2-3	1-1	5-6	1	0	1	0	10	1	1	1	2	12
24		Michelle Lagrotteria						1-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	3
25		Stephanie Prusko....						3-6	1-3	0-0	2	0	2	0	7	1	1	0	0	25
TM		TEAM................									1	5	6	0			0
		Totals..............						21-56	5-16	13-15	12	16	28	13	60	12	20	2	9	200
TOTAL FG%		1st Half: 33.3%	2nd Half: 42.3%	Game: 37.5%
3-Pt. FG%		1st Half: 25.0%	2nd Half: 37.5%	Game: 31.2%
F Throw%		1st Half: 100.0%	2nd Half: 80.0%	Game: 86.7%

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HOME TEAM: Rhode Island (5-6)

								TOT-FG	3-PT		REBOUNDS
#		Player Name						FG-FGA	FG-FGA	FT-FTA	OF	DE	TOT	PF	TP	A	TO	BLK	S	MIN
01		Tayra Melendez......					F	7-13	0-0	0-0	1	1	2	1	14	0	4	2	3	23
25		Lara Gaspar.........					F	8-10	0-0	0-1	3	3	6	2	16	7	2	0	1	24
34		Samantha Tabakman...					F	9-12	0-0	3-4	3	0	3	1	21	1	0	0	0	24
14		Teneka Whittaker....					G	1-2	0-0	0-1	0	3	3	3	2	4	2	0	3	18
23		Brianna Thomas......					G	3-8	0-3	1-1	0	3	3	0	7	3	2	0	0	25
03		Kerry Wallack.......						2-4	0-0	0-0	1	5	6	2	4	6	2	0	1	22
05		Ajanae Boone........						5-6	3-4	0-0	1	3	4	0	13	2	2	0	0	19
21		Symone Bullard......						2-2	0-0	0-2	0	0	0	1	4	3	0	0	0	13
24		Megan Straumann.....						2-6	1-2	1-2	1	1	2	2	6	2	1	0	1	13
32		Sydney Lewis........						1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	3	2	0	1	0	1	7
33		Tati Johnson........						0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	12
TM		TEAM................									2	4	6	0			1
		Totals..............						40-64	4-9	5-11	12	24	36	15	89	28	17	2	11	200
TOTAL FG%		1st Half: 62.2%	2nd Half: 63.0%	Game: 62.5%
3-Pt. FG%		1st Half: 40.0%	2nd Half: 50.0%	Game: 44.4%
F Throw%		1st Half: 50.0%	2nd Half: 0.0%	Game: 45.5%

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Score by Periods	1	2	Total
Rhode Island College	27	33	-	60
Rhode Island........	53	36	-	89

Officials: Michael DoCouto, Fatou Cissolo-Stephens, Amy Todey
Attendance: 447

Technical fouls: -None. URI-None.
Points in the paint: -18, URI-60. Points off turnovers: -18, URI-28.
2nd chance points: -12, URI-7. Fast break points: -4, URI-20.
Bench Points: -31, URI-29.

There are close to 20 pieces of information you can take from this stat sheet on your team alone- everything from individual player stats (shots made/missed, rebounds, fouls, blocks, minutes played) to team stats (shooting %, points in the paint, points off turnovers, scores per half). This doesn’t include the stats that we take as coaches on the bench, which include: opponent scoring runs, our team’s offensive droughts, charting offensive and defensive efficiency, counting charges, paint touches, ball reversals, post entries, etc.

In a 30, 60 or 90 second timeout….which pieces of information do you look at? What do you choose to ignore and what do you relay to the team?

What stats matter the most?

I love the quote “a jack of all trades is a master of none”. Many coaches try to be good at too many things. My perspective is that it’s better to be excellent at a few things than average at many things.

Dean Oliver, author of Basketball on Paper, has come up with four essential stats for winning basketball games:

1.     Effective Field Goal Percentage (he weighs made 3pt shots more than a 2pt field goal)

2.     Turnovers (need to have the ball to score!)

3.     Offensive Rebounding (dramatically increases your field goal percentage)

4.     Getting to the free throw line (and, in essence, drawing fouls from the other team)

You can see how Dean Oliver calculates the % here.

There is also a more complex formula called Player Efficiency Rating (PER), created by ESPN columnist John Hollinger. Check out his formula here. It's focused on individuals and can be used to objectively determine a player's impact on the game.

Maybe one of the most simple and effective statistical formulas for measuring an individual’s efficiency on the basketball court is Oregon Tech coach Danny Miles’s “Value Point System”.

Numerator = Pts + Rebounds + (2 x Assists) + (2 x Recovery Stats)

Denominator = (2 x FG Missed) + FT Missed + (2 x Fouls) + (2 x TO)

Recovery Stats = Steals + Blocks + (Charges x 1.5)

Take Numerator and divide by Denominator

Scale: 1.75+ is Excellent, 1.5 – 1.74 is Very Good, 1.25 – 1.49 is Good, 1 – 1.24 is Fair, and anything .99 or below is Poor.

Jim Crowley, head coach at St. Bonaventure University, talks about the "Moneyball" concept and how he implemented this system with great success in this ESPN Article. Moneyball highlights another advantage of stats: focusing on several pieces of the game that you can track and measure that, if a certain standard is met, puts your team in a great position to win the game. Coach Crowley focused on turnovers and how much time his team had the ball in their hands. His philosophy was simple: if we have the ball, they can't score!

The beauty of stats is they are objective pieces of data. There is no bias or emotional influence on the formula. They are easily measured and can be a benchmark for success.