Season's End

The winter season has officially ended for me.  I try to look back over the season at this point to see what I did well, what I can improve on, and things like that.  

This was a unique season for me.  The last couple of winter seasons gave me plenty of talent and experience, which allowed us to dominate most teams with minimal effort.  I didn't allow them to settle, and they were already familiar with what it took to win games, the agony of defeat, and were prepared for what a winter season is like.  Most of those players were familiar with how to dribble while looking up, were comfortable handling the ball with both hands, and could finish at the rim on either side.  The knew what I wanted from a good, solid ball screen or a back door cut.  So I walked into it expected a similar situation.  Needless to say, I need to spend a couple of practices just evaluating the IQ of my team next season.   I wasted so much time before I realized just how far behind this group was in comparison to my previous teams, and had I taken a few days to make that evaluation, perhaps we would have won more games at the start of the season.

Another thing the season taught me is that while there are different ways that people react to motivating, there are also different ways to motivate.  This season, after the experience in the spring and fall seasons, I decided to try to adopt some of the other coaching styles from coaches I'd worked with or against, and one big thing was to try to be more stern.  Well, not only did it not work for the players, it didn't work for me.  It made me more negative and made it harder to stay energized (hence my post a few weeks ago : Growth Experiment: Energy) and it actually started to be more work than fun.  When I relaxed and went back to being where I felt comfortable, we saw more energy, fight and determination, and it was just more fun coaching.  

The last big thing that the season taught me is that I'm a coach, not a player.  While my competitive side helps to keep me constantly looking for things to improve, I have to keep it in check.  Ultimately my job is to develop talent and winning games is a bonus.  While I would have loved to go 49 - 0 as a competitor, the growth we saw as a team en route to our 17 - 32 record made me proud. I'm not satisfied, but I'm also not destroying myself over it because of my understanding that my job is to create these kinds of things.  Like I said earlier, the team was so new to the game that many people wondered how we would do, if we'd even get 10 wins, and the like.  Our first few games were shocking - defeats by large margins, struggles to do basic things - but so were our last.  We looked better, we were able to beat presses that suffocated us before, able to run some offenses, and were competitive in most of our games in the final month.  There's still plenty to do, but everyone agrees that the boys had improved, which means I did what I was asked to do.

These are just a few of the things I'm thinking about during my little intermission.  It's an important part of my off-season, but I can't stay on it for too long.  I have a new challenge about to start with the spring AAU 14U team coming up very soon.  A team that looks to be very competitive, with high expectations, and at a level I'm not familiar with.  I have to focus, I have to prepare, and I have to believe.  This last season provided me with several lessons that will help build on what I've been through the last 2 years and this new challenge will need me to put them all together.   These boys from the winter were determined to work hard and find success, and that shall be my inspiration to do the same in the spring.

All Star Game? Pfft...

One of the leagues we compete in had its annual All-Star game this past weekend.  For the 3rd consecutive year, I sent no one.  For the third consecutive year, I've had to explain that decision.

I don't like what All-Star games have come to represent. For as long as I can remember (and my quick Google search confirms it - NBA All-Star Scores), defense is optional.  But aren't these players supposed to be the best of the best of the best players the game has to offer?  Championship teams attribute their titles to their ability to defend, yet in the game of the best, there's none to be had.  There's minimal team play as it turns into one-on-one with 8 spectators each possession. I vividly remember a healthy Dwight Howard, a premier shot blocker that year, watching and failing to rotate over in help defense as a member of the West took the ball to the rim.  The NFL All-Star game was such a joke that the league considered not even having it anymore.  I have a hard enough time trying to convince players to play defense to let them play in a game where it really is an optional facet of the game.

Another reason is just because of my philosophy as a coach.  I demand a lot from my entire roster.  Everyone has a job to do, and I expect all of them to do it.  Some guys are scorers, some are rebounders, defenders, and the like.  When all the guys play their parts, we play well.  When someone overdoes it or doesn't fill their role, we look a complete mess.  So in a system like that, how do you determine who is eligible to be an all-star?  Do we work on all facets of the game in practice?  Absolutely.  But when you deal with young players, you have to make an effort to make sure that the kids are placed in positions to maximize their strengths, limit their failures as a result of their weaknesses, so that they will continue to work on those things and grow.   I also preach all season long to play as a team, put the team above the individual, work together because we are the sum of our parts, etc.  It's fitting that we are the called the "Wolfpack" because that is just how a pack of wolves thinks.  To go an entire season talking about that - preaching, demanding, and expecting team work - and then to select one or two individuals as all-stars feels dirty.  Add that to the fact that you are telling a 10 or 11-year old, who has worked all season long to fill his role, earn his time, build his confidence, and his coach's trust, that he was not selected as an all star but someone else was.  Thanks, but I don't want to deal with that.  Or to the kid you've selected - he'll take that to mean that he's got the green light to score at all times, even when it's a terrible shot decision - because he's an all-star.  Again, thanks, but no thanks.

This season only further justifies my beliefs.  We struggled through so much this season, but the team has really started to come together, roles are getting filled, and we are playing great basketball AS A TEAM.  After all the struggles, frustrations, and low points, we still have a legitimate chance to play for the league championship.  That opportunity for the team means more to me than a couple of individual opportunities to play in an all-star game, and I don't see that changing any time soon.