Jim Calhoun Thoughts

In this third blog of a five-part series from this year's Final Four coaches, I will provide some thoughts from UConn Head Coach Jim Calhoun. I have read his book "A Passion to Lead." The book is a great summary of Calhoun's leadership principles and beneficial for not just coaches but all leaders.

ON COACHING...
"I coach because I love to help transform impressionable kids into responsible adults."

"I want every kid, first, to value himself and his potential as a human being. I want him to learn that getting a good education is important; that being dependable and responsible to yourself and your family, friends, and teammates is vital; that there is no substitute for hard work; and that the need to broaden yourself never ends."

ON CHALLENGING HIS PLAYERS...
"I ask our players all the time: 'How did you feel at six this morning?' What I'm really suggesting is that they take an aggressive, can-do approach to life."

ON LEADERSHIP...
"I think that one of the things that separates good leaders from lesser ones is this: attention to detail."

"If you want to build a winning organization, you must first establish a culture of winning. To do that, set high standards for yourself and your colleagues in every aspect of the operation. Make everyone accountable. Out of high standards come victories."

"All good leaders have two key responsibilities which are vital to organizational success. First, you have to surround yourself with good talent to achieve goals. Second, you've got to be a hellacious motivator to develop your talent every day so that it performs at a peak level."

ON DEVELOPING HIMSELF AS A COACH...
"My tactical ideas about basketball don't change a lot from year to year, but I keep my head in the game every day by talking to other coaches, by attending coaching conferences and seminars, by running basketball camps in the summer, and by spending lots of time chewing the fat with my assistants. I'm still curious about the world, too. I read books about psychology and leadership to pick up motivational ideas. And I enjoy talking to people in other professions."

John Calipari Coaching Thoughts and Dribble Drive Motion - Final Four Series Part 2 of 5

ON HIS COACHING PHILOSOPHY…
“In a paragraph, my goal each year is to help each player have a career year and to get those players to play together. It’s simple…. have each guy have a career year and have that group of players play good together. Get them to play off each other.”

ON RELATIONSHIPS…
“Look, in this profession it’s all about building relationships…If you’re not being fair with kids, guess what? All those people over time build up too, and they’re working against you.”

“What have you done for another coach? What have you done for our profession?”

ON THE DRIBBLE DRIVE MOTION OFFENSE…
"The players are unleashed when they play this way," he says, "because every player has the green light to take his man on every play."

DRIBBLE DRIVE MOTION OFFENSE from Sports Illustrated Feb. 12, 2008…
“Instead of going straight into the offense, Memphis sometimes swings the ball around the perimeter or springs the point guard with (gasp!) a ball screen. And instead of sending his post man straight to the lane's weak side, Calipari allows him to go on what Memphis calls a ‘rim run,’ in which the penetrating guard throws a lob in the vicinity of the basket for an alley-oop dunk.”

Special thanks to Sports Illustrated and collegehoopsnet.com for some information from Coach Calipari.

Shaka Smart Coaching Philosophy - Final 4 Part 1 of 5

Three Priorities in Starting a Program

1. Develop relationships – “This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes work.”
2. Build a staff – “The most important decision a new head coach makes.” Looks for “work ethic, loyalty, and personality”.
3. Recruiting – “Different and challenging wherever you go”

Recommendation to Young Coaches...

“Work as many camps as you can to build relationships. When I was a graduate assistant, I worked camps at both the University of Dayton and at the University of Florida…those relationships I built with the staff helped me in my career.”


Special thanks to www.winninghoops.com for some of the material on Coach Smart.

Chris Mack's Plan

Scott Gaede, a friend of Xavier head basketball coach Chris Mack, chronicled Mack's first season as head coach at Xavier during the 2009-10 season and published it in the form of "Next In Line". As both a fan of the program and the fact it's a great read, I got through this one in less that 48 hours. One of the things Gaede covers is Mack's nine-point plan for the program that he discussed in his interview for the job with Xavier Athletic Director Mike Bobinski:

1) Keeping the Core - Continuity through rapport and buy-in from players
2) The Xavier Way - A culture that has produced results
3) The Xavier Mission - Developing basketball players as students and people
4) Basketball Identity - Coaching with respect and dignity toward players; developing close-knit coaching staff; similar X's and O's identity that was developed under Sean Miller
5) Coaching Staff - Having "the smartest room of people" with which to work
6) The Bridge to Xavier Past and Cincinnati - Involvement of past players; ability to sell the program through media and community members because he's native of Cincinnati
7) The Xavier Vision - Moving the program to the next level; playing in the Final 4
8) The Plan and the Philosophy - 360-degree total development of players (academics, off-floor life skills, basketball skills, knowledge of player's support system); systematic approach to recruiting; passionate belief in current offensive and defensive systems
9) Established Trust - Continuity within the program; importance of communication

Nelson Mandela's 8 Lessons of Leadership

I took this one from a 2008 Time Magazine article by Richard Stengel. These are the 8 Lessons of Leadership from Nelson Madela:

1 - Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it.

2 - Lead from the heart - but don't leave your base behind.

3 - Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front.

4 - Know your enemy - and learn about his favorite sport.

5 - Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer.

6 - Appearances matter - and remember to smile.

7 - Nothing is black or white. - Decisions are complex, and there are always competing factors.

8 - Quitting is leading, too. - Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task, or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make.

Don Shula on Reducing Practice Errors

This one is from George Selleck's book "Court Sense." Selleck references a five-step plan that Don Shula used for reducing errors in practice. This one is good for any leadership, management, teaching, or coaching position.

1) Tell people whay you want them to do.
2) Show them what good performance looks like.
3) Let them do it.
4) Observe their performance.
5) Praise progress and/or redirect.

Coach K on Motivation

Mike Krzyzewski talked about motivation in one of my all-time favorite books, "The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team":

Motivation can come from many different sources.

One source is reinforcing that sense of perspective that you taught your team early on.

Another source is reviewing your established standards, giving your team the chance to see how they have performed based on those standards and how they can uphold them at an even higher level.

Another element of getting your team motivated is rallying support from the outside by broadcasting your group's message...Typically a group's message is some combination of your goal and your standards: This is what we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it.

Bringing about those emotions and harnessing the energy that they create is the essence of motivation.

Roy Williams' Coaching Philosophy

Obviously, Roy Williams has had a ton of success as a head coach at both Kansas and North Carolina. In his latest book, "Hard Work: A Life On and Off the Court," Coach Williams talks about his basketball coaching philosophy.

"My philosophy is that basketball is the simplest game in the world - IF you can get five guys moving in the same direction for a common goal. Coaching is all about me getting my five guys to do what I want them to do better than you can get your five guys to do what you want them to do. If you have one guy looking out for himself, you're in big trouble. If you have more than one, you have no chance."

Leadership from Ronald Reagan

In honor of the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, and the 100th anniversary of his birth, here are some quotes from President Reagan on leadership:

- The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality.

- A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough.

- We did not seek the role of leadership that has been thrust upon us. But whether we like it or not, the events of our time demand America's participation.

Thanks to leadership-skills-for-life.com for sharing.

Morgan Wootten's Big 5 in Coaching

Morgan Wootten may be the most successful high school basketball coach of all time. Wootten won nearly 1,300 games, five mythical national championships, and coached dozens of Division 1 college players at DeMatha (MD) High School. Coach Wootten's ultimate accomplishment came with his 2000 enshrinement in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In his book, Coaching Basketball Successfully, Coach Wootten outlines his "Big 5 in Coaching".

1. Our goal must be to provide a wholesome environment in which young men or women can develop themselves spiritually, socially, and academically.

2. As coaches, we should be the kind of coach we would want our sons or daughters to play for.

3. We must never lose sight of the fact that basketball is a game and it should be fun. We should never put winning ahead of the individual.

4. Because basketball is a great teaching situation...we must prepare them for the many decisions they will be making that will have long-range effects on the quality of their lives.

5. This is the bottom line: Are we doing all we can to make our players' sport experience as rewarding as possible?