I have been out of prep basketball coaching for 14-years and I continue to miss two things. First, I miss not having a team. You must understand that for thirty-seven varsity basketball seasons, I had names of players, combination lineups and offensive/defensive schemes rolling around in this otherwise empty head. The second thing I miss is knocking mental 'crutches' away from young players to lean upon while creating a team culture.
I was big on both physical and mental preparation. I was absolutely convinced that no opponent would out work our teams in pre-season preparation and our practices would be extremely intense because I constantly explained to our teams that the actual game begs for both teams to experience 'game-slippage.' The team with the least slippage usually wins.
We were also explicit reminding our players that no single play in a basketball game will win or lose the contest...impossible. Too many variables in a thirty-two minute game, which is laced with turnovers and officials calls. On the latter matter, we did not permit players to ever talk about officiating. It was out of our control as was the 6-point home court advantage in high school basketball.
Had Donald Trump walked in my shoes, he would have undoubtedly screamed "Rigged," when playing at Quincy, Collinsville and Mater Dei.
There you go, Brian...you didn't think I'd post a blog without mentioning your crybaby candidate, did you?
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