It’s not just about X’s and the O’s

As a high school basketball coach I firmly believe that some portion of your record is baked in before the season ever begins.  A typical high school team has at least a handful of games on the schedule where the outcome is decided solely by the disparity in talent level between the two teams and nothing short of widespread injuries or suspension will change the outcome.  Of course, the way your team plays will impact the final score turning what should have been a comfortable win into a close game or turning what should have been a resounding defeat into a near miss, but in reality 10 times out of 10 the winner and loser of the game wouldn’t change.  There are games on your schedule where you are too talented to lose or just not talented enough to win no matter how well or poorly you play.  That isn’t to say that those games don’t matter because how you play in those games will have a huge impact on what happens in the games where outcome is in doubt.

When I was a young coach I was convinced that nothing was more important than strategy and tactics.  If I could build the right skill development program, perfect our offensive and defensive systems and manage my in game decisions perfectly we could win any game.  25 years later my philosophy has changed dramatically.  Over the past several years without a team of my own I’ve been able to watch many more practices and games and many more teams play. The more games I watch and the more teams I observe the more importance I am placing on the components of your team that have nothing to do with skills training or offensive and defensive schemes. We’ve all heard “It’s not about the X’s and O’s, it's about the Jimmy's and Joe’s” but it's not just about how talented Jimmy and Joe are either.  Clearly, the more talented you are the better chance you have to be good.  And obviously you want systems in place to build highly skilled players in your program. You want to be able to execute offensive and defensive schemes that will put your players in the best position to be successful, but those things aren’t enough if you want to build a winning program and your team to reach their full potential. If I were taking over a program right now, developing a plan to develop my players mindset and mental skills would be just as important to me as implementing our skill development program on the court.

Over and over again I watch two teams face off with dramatically different records but similar talent levels. Or I watch the game where there is a dramatic difference in physical talent, but the superior team is struggling to win the game.  What makes the difference?  The easy answer is coaching and sometimes it is coaching.  But that’s not always it either, often the coaches are more similar than different too.  It is about the intangibles.  It’s about chemistry.  It’s about how the program is built and how it operates on a day to day basis.  One team plays hard all the time while the other plays hard until something bad happens.  One team shares the ball and plays unselfishly while the other team seems to have a couple of players don’t understand that being a ball stopper and contested 3 jacker isn’t great for offensive efficiency.  One team is clearly connected and playing together while a few players on the other team visibly pout and sulk when things don’t go the way they want them to.  One team maintains its composure during the opponents run while the pressure causes the other team to meltdown.  It would be an oversimplification to say that these things are true for every player on both teams, but some behaviors are so detrimental to team success that having just a couple of players who exhibit them can infect a whole locker room and sabotage any chance of a team reaching it’s full potential. (This is where it is important to understand that this can’t be determined just by looking at records. A super talented team can underachieve and still have a better record than a team that overachieved. I’m talking about maximizing what a team is capable of not just Wins and Losses)

More and more I believe that these attitudes and values can destroy locker rooms and burn down programs.  When coaches are putting together teams I believe it is more important than ever to consider these factors and not just be seduced by talent.  If a player’s talent will give you a chance to win more games but his selfishness and lack of coachability will destroy any chance you have of building a program with a winning culture is the gamble really worth it?  I’m not saying we should never give players a chance to improve their attitudes or that we shouldn’t work with challenging kids but I am saying that we need to make sure we clearly evaluate the risks and the rewards.  Some of my favorite players were a handful - initially very difficult to coach, but at their heart they wanted to do the right thing.  Along the same lines some of the wisest things I did in terms of roster construction was to cut players who were clearly talented enough to make the team.   Is the kid someone who doesn’t know any better and by setting boundaries and nurturing them we can develop them in a way that will set them up for more success in their life on and off the court?  Or is the kid entirely too uncoachable and too entitled to change his attitude and is much more likely to set your locker room on fire than to buy into what you are teaching?  As you approach the tryout season, don't forget that the best team isn’t always the collection of players with the best talent, but the collection of players who are capable of performing together at the highest level.

Good luck this season and reach out to us here at Next Play Basketball if we can assist you in any way.