An Oxymoron--Patient Aggressive Offense?

December was a weird and unusual month for us as we played only four games in a five week period. For the players, it meant never-ending practices where the coaches could push them with high intensity and force them to go hard day after day without worrying about tapering off for games. After enduring six weeks of conditioning in the fall, what player would want another month of perceived conditioning?

Personally, the opportunity to work long practice hours, to get in the gym twice a day over the winter break, is a slice of heaven. With such a young team, it is necessary to teach, to do high numbers of repetitions of the same skill, to demand the right execution of offense, and to get them to buy into team defense. This past week we've been spending hours and hours on the concept of side to side and back on offense. When we broke down the game tapes of our last two games and noted the number of times we took bad shots, we knew things had to drastically change.

Most coaches don't mess with teaching the motion offense because it requires so much time, patience and structure. I bought into it because it provides freedom within structure and it teaches the players how to actually play the game not just run from spot to spot. The problem with teaching players how to set a screen and use a screen is that most of them have never been taught how to do either. In fact when I watch basketball on television at the Division I level, I am often surprised at how many elite players do run-by screens or how they screen only air.

Some of the hardest concepts about motion offense are letting the ball take care of itself meaning each player has to trust the person with the ball taking her eyes off the ball while she sets a screen or uses a screen. The next most difficult concept is to learn what a good shot is within the offense and when to take that shot which is where the side to side and back concept arises. If we can teach the team to be patient enough while still being aggressive with the ball, we will make better shots but to most players the idea of being patient aggressive sounds like an oxymoron.

It is a lengthy process but one I believe in because I have witnessed the growth of players over the years. So many of our freshmen come in averaging four or five points but by their senior year are closing in on a thousand points. I know it works but the process of teaching and learning it is very challenging.

My hope is by the time the winter break is over, our players will have caught on and our shooting percentage will be on the rise.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Loving The Life Of A Coach

Most people have no clue what goes on behind the doors of the gymnasium. Some people have this concept the coaches spend their day hanging out, talking to peers, working out in the fitness center and waiting around until practice begins as if practice time is when our day really starts. The truth is the day sometimes begins at 10:00 a.m. and sometimes at 5:30 a.m. Sometimes it ends at 6:30 in the evening and sometimes earlier but on away trips, it usually lasts until 2:00 a.m. We don't get the holidays the other staff members at the university receive as our season rolls right through Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break. Oh it is true, we now receive a seven day recovery time during the Christmas holidays because of the NCAA Division II Life in The Balance Initiative, but our peers get a four week vacation.

So what do coaches do in a normal day? Well, first of all there is no such thing as normal. Nope. Not in the world of coaching. Every day brings a hotbed of new challenges to the table. Sometimes we have to stop everything for a "crisis" of one of our players. I put the word in quotation marks because I rarely see things as a crisis. I mostly see events now as opportunities, as doorways, and as the marker for something better to come, but most of our players have not yet gotten to that philosophy of life. They still think there are good days and bad days and evil lurking around every corner waiting to grab them up and insert its nastiness. It is our job to help them see the good and the light at then end of their perceived tunnel.

When we are not dealing with academic or personal issues of our players, we are preparing for practices, doing the much dreaded NCAA compliance paper work, and recruiting which entails writing emails, making phone calls and watching tons of games. During the season, we are mostly breaking down game film pausing the film, rewinding it, taking notes and watching, watching, watching. The preparation for a single game takes hours. We have to discover through game film how to defeat our opponents and what are the keys to winning the game, and then we must sell that to our players in a way they understand it.

The life of a coach is hectic, stressful but oh-so-rewarding. It is not the wins which feel so good; it is witnessing the growth of the players, watching them as they transition to better people. It is getting an email from Ali Tobias saying thank you and telling me how I touched her life, and hearing from Mr. Carmen how Kika is now attending law school because she learned so much from playing at UC. It is watching Jihan who we literally had to babysit through classes to make certain she graduated now bring her books and computer to study for graduate school while she is visiting her boyfriend. It is knowing I have so many former players who are now extremely successful in their chosen careers.

Coaching is a crazy profession. It requires a dedication beyond the ordinary; it requires people who live with a passion for the teaching of the game. I know I am blessed to have been a coach for 22 years, and I am so grateful for each player who passed through the gyms where I coached for each one of them taught me something valuable and made me a better person.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Firing From The Hip With Chrissy Keir

There are probably not many coaches who would have recruited Chrissy Keir as she stands about 5'2" on a good day with extra padding in her high top shoes. In fact, I clearly remember the day we were recruiting her. It was in a gym on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. where teams were playing on ten courts. We happened to be sitting at her court because we were watching the point guard from the other team.

As we sat and observed, we became more and more enamored with her ability to squeeze a ball between two defenders, to see the floor, and to monitor the tempo of the game. There were many coaches sitting around us all lamenting her size commenting if she were only taller they would recruit her. I wasn't in on those discussions. What I kept coming back to was the height she played not the height she was.

So now after two years of playing experience where she has shown small bits of her game, letting passes fly from the hip on occasion, holding back just a little, letting the senior starting point guard have the glory, she has finally decided to step up and be a player. During our last two games, she was the floor general fully in command supporting her troops in the way only a general could.

In the game against West Liberty, she did all the little things that only a discerning eye could see--playing position defense, calling out screens, tracing the ball on the dribbler, recognizing the play and calling it out to teammates. None of these are in the stat column, none of these are noted by reporters or even fans, but her coaches and teammates know they all make a difference in the outcome of the game.

Not only has she been playing amazing defense, but she has begun feeling when to push the ball and when to slow down the tempo recognizing the pace of the game we want. She knows when to hold the ball and allow her teammates to get into place or when to push it for the transition basket.

But what I really adore are her passes--the ones she pulls out of her trick cap, the ones nobody sees coming except for her teammates who have learned to keep their hands up and ready. She has this ability to put a spin on the ball which makes the ball travel one way and then back to a teammate. I'm not certain how this works but I do love it when a defender tries to get to the ball and thinks she has a hand on it and then it slides away from her. There is the behind the back pass and the no look pass, the passes that graze defenders' ears as they whistle by their heads on way to the posts in the low block. When she makes one of her amazing passes, it dazzles the crowds and gets her teammates off the bench in excitement creating momentum for the team.

I am thrilled to see the floor general in complete confidence, playing in the zone, commanding her teammates to play harder and faster. If no other coach or opponent notes her importance to this team, I want her to recognize the coaches do. Thanks Chrissy for stepping up and being the player you were meant to be.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Living In Optimism

When I was younger, in my twenties, I considered myself a realist. Most people who knew me would have called me a pessimist but I thought I called things as they were and lived in reality. I had no idea reality is something which is made up in one's mind so I spent much of my time looking at things and seeing the worst possibility and believing in the "facts" other people gave me as truth. Lucky for me I dropped being a realist and signed up for optimism because now I believe in all possibilities and I seek in the best in things.

Take for instance this basketball season. Had I been coaching this team full of youngsters and inexperience in my twenties and early thirties, I'm certain I would have listened to the wisdom of all those who would have offered their belief that youth cannot win big games. I would have bought into this hook, line and sinker thinking like most people do that young players don't have the experience to play in tight situations. I would have coached the team with the mindset we would be a good team the next year and take our lumps for the season.

We started the season 0-3 losing to teams which we could have beaten, looking rather raw and incapable of doing anything remotely close to resembling solid basketball fundamentals. The coaches watched from the sideline as we boinked the ball off the backboard on easy put backs, fumbled passes, threw the ball directly to the players who were not on our team, shot a measly 60% from the free throw line and generally looked like a sandlot group of athletes who were playing basketball for the first time in our lives. It was dreadful and I could have believed we were going to drown in this ugliness, swallowing too much of the missed cues, but I chose to believe in what I knew to be this team's potential.

We have speed and more speed, players who are lightening quick and appear like shadows on the court, coming in and out of a play before the opponents can see them. We have rebounders who can jump up with with great hands grab the ball right out of the air and we have this thing called "passion" which flows through so many team members it is like electricity on the court. Because I now believe in miracles, in the creation of great events in our minds, I didn't panic early in the season; I kept the faith knowing these young women would eventually come to see in themselves what the coaching staff saw in them.

Oh, it is still a work in progress and they are still trying to see the best in themselves, but they have improved from November 12th, our first game, to last night in what only could be called an amazing miracle of sorts. In our first contest, we only scored 46 points. Last night we had 44 points at half time. We have won three straight games and totally changed the pace of the way we play. In my old mind, I would have determined this was a fluke, a one time thing, but in my new mindset, I know it is only the beginning of amazing things to come. These young women will get better and better rising to the occasion, learning to see with their dreams rather than with the "facts" other people might try to sell them.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Coaching Is An Art

It is always interesting to me how the older players always believe I was tougher on them their freshmen year. Every year I hear the same tale--I'm getting softer. It is a story I've heard for the past 21 years. At this rate I should have been a marsh mellow by now.

So I listen to the upper class players and I get tougher for a few days, making them run for not hustling, perform frozen push-ups for not boxing out, jump on the heavy ropes for not using a screen. I yell louder, act tougher and everybody is happy thinking I'm back to my "normal" self. The truth of the matter is I'm a demanding coach year after year and sometimes I do get a little off kilter but never as much as the players claim. The thing is they don't put it in perspective. When they first arrive here, it feels tougher because they have never lived through the experience. First year players always feel targeted, feel they are getting the brunt of the criticism, and are certain I am on their case more than any other player. After the first year, the norm for players is the demanding practice so they don't believe I am being hard enough.

I often alternate between being extremely hard on players and giving them love. It is not uncommon for me to hug a player or slap them playfully on the back. I often tell them they are amazing or awesome or incredible. I believe all people need to hear this regardless of their age. Then there are days when I push and demand and ride them as if they have never done anything right on the court. There is a thin line which a coach must always walk; this line is between allowing a player to remain in her comfort zone and pushing her to a new awakening of her potential. It has to be done with tough love, giving praise and then demanding more.

I know they must feel as if my praise is real and valid so I give it only when they do well. I also know if they hear constant criticism even if it is meant to improve their skills they hear that they are not good enough preventing them from performing at a higher level. It is a thin rope to walk and I try to keep the balance but sometimes I fail and they falter because I haven't been positive enough.

About a week and a half ago I blasted two of my leaders in front of the team yelling at them for a lack of effort, taking them out of their leadership roles, making them run instead of doing drills. This was a calculated plan on my part. If I lost them for the season, we were not going to win a game, but I knew if they heard me and made an adjustment, it could mean success. Both of them were angry at me, refusing to look at me, wanting nothing to do with me believing I was being unfair to them and targeting them. I did target them as they were my leaders; they had to work at a different level.

Now they are playing better and being more vocal leading both through effort and voice. They will forget the practice where they were "targeted" as they play better and the team wins more. Eventually they will know I did this out of love as I wanted them to get to the next level, to be the players hidden inside of themselves.

Coaching is an art and sometimes I do well at it and sometimes I miscalculate. Hopefully, the players know my intentions are always the same--to make them the best possible players they can be.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Losing Is Only the First Step To Winning

After our third loss in a row and a loss to Bluefield State, I've had people calling me, consoling me as if a family member had died. It is interesting to me in the world of athletics how a loss or a losing season makes people get depressed and think less of themselves. I'm not angry or depressed or in a state where I have lost faith in the team or myself.

I know this group of players will figure it out. My teams historically start off slow because I teach so much. I have this philosophy about the game of basketball which includes breaking each part of the game down into a very small portion, teaching each skill exactly how it should be done, demanding the players execute everything correctly. This can result in a type of paralysis where players start to doubt their abilities and initially it hinders their talents, but when they get it, they become three times the player others thought they could be.

I have seen this occur so often that I don't panic over losing games or freshmen not playing to their potential. After all, I've witnessed players evolve from substitutes off the bench to All-Americans. I watched Jihan Williams grow from her freshmen year where I couldn't play her because she wouldn't adhere to our defensive principles to an All-American her senior year. I observed Tarenna Dixon expand from a player who couldn't score consistently to averaging a double-double her senior year. I witnessed Lisa Lee develop from high school where she barely averaged 10 points a game to becoming UC's career leading scorer.

I've watched so many freshmen struggle with our system and with their confidence that I am acutely aware of how we affect them. I've even had parents angry with me after watching their child in their freshmen year, telling me I was ruining their child only to later tell me after their child's senior year they were amazed at how good they had become.

Being a teacher means I have to have patience, to push the team when I think they ought to be pushed, but to love and hug them when they are distraught and in despair. I alternate between being incredibly demanding to being patient hopefully giving the players the feeling of confidence they need to be successful.

If I chose to put them in a system where they ran to spots and had the freedom of not having to think so much, we might be more successful earlier but I am in this for the long haul, wanting them to intimately know and understand the game. Every one of the players at UC will know why each play works, how to correctly defend it, how to read the defense and improve their individual skills. They will be smarter than many coaches and this added game intelligence will give them power; they will feel they can defeat anybody with their brains.

So when people call to console me, they must first know I am okay. I understand we are in the teaching mode and our young players are learning. What I am absolutely confident in is the faith we will discover a way to win and we will get better. We will win some games and defeat some very tough opponents before the season is over. Those who are laughing at us now and doubting us will soon become aware that we don't give up at the University of Charleston. Instead we use each game to get better, each loss as an opportunity for growth.

I am proud of how far we have come this year in only three games and I know with our hard workers and passion, we will continue to grow at an amazing rate.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Change is Good!

On Saturday night I dressed up as a good friend of mine putting on a dress with full accessories of matching earrings, bracelets, a necklace, five inch heels and then went the entire enchilada wearing make-up and pink nail polish. For those of you who don't know me that was a long stretch from who I normally am. My normal attire consists of sweats and t-shirts and occasional jeans. If I get really dressed up, I put on a nice pant suit and a shirt which I pray matches.

The only reason I mention the above is to illustrate how quickly change can occur if one has the desire. This is exactly what the Golden Eagles did on Sunday in our second scrimmage. In just a matter of five days, we shifted from a team who did not comprehend what help side defense was to a team who shut down an opponent. It was an amazing transformation--one that even I had did not expect.

On the very first team meeting, I told them there were two necessary ingredients to creating success. One was the willingness to learn and the other was the willingness to change. Many players want to keep doing the same thing and expect different results which is by the way the definition of insanity. This team, however, understands the need to change and to do it rapidly.

In order to prepare for our scrimmage on Sunday, we prepared differently. Coach Pike took the time to watch the game DVD with small groups of players, pointing out how they performed--the difference between what we wanted from them and what they were doing. We broke down the opponent's offense and worked on defending their pick on balls. We presented a scouting report depicting how to defend their plays and players. We walked through all of their out-of-bounds plays and offensive sets, taking the time to specifically coach the team on exactly how to defend each movement.

This was a lot of information in a short amount of time, yet the team swallowed it, let it digest and then spit it back it back out as if they had been doing these techniques for years. Oh, I know it was only a scrimmage but the implications of how quickly they learned and wanted to do better is the reason I'm so excited. If they are willing to change and grow, great things can happen.

When a victory occurs like that and I'm not simply talking about the scoreboard but the process of change, something goes off inside the team. It is a realization or recognition of potential, of the ability of greatness within themselves. This is what changes players--their belief systems. As much as we try to tell them they can do something, they have to internally believe it and once it becomes a belief, then they show their true talents.

In a matter of a five days we altered who we were. Granted we still have a long journey in front of us, but the future appears bright for players who are committed to learning.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.