Image: Perception Is Reality

IMAGE - A mental picture or impression of something. A mental conception held in common by members of a group and symbolic of a basic attitude and orientation. A popular conception of a person.

PERCEPTION – A result of being regarded as such and becoming aware of through the senses; especially visual observation. A mental image.

REALITY – The quality or state of being: fixed, permanent, or immovable things; not artificial, fraudulent, or illusory; being precisely what the name implies; occurring or existing in actuality; having objective independent existence.

Have you ever run across a staff or faculty member on your campus that has misjudged the character of one of your players based on the way he dressed? Or because he wore earrings? Or too much jewelry? Or his pants hanging off his butt? Or your player was cursing in public or class? Or he has an unusual hair style? Has any of this happened to you on a road trip?

I think we have all encountered something like this at one time or another. Those of you coaching at high schools with a dress code, some of these issues have been solved (or at least I would think so). There is, especially at the collegiate level, a large disconnect between athletics and the rest of the campus. The images our players portray are a large reason for this.

I recently tweeted about the “fishbowl” our players live in. Because they have the privilege of playing basketball, they are going to be under even more scrutiny from the public. Our players are leading VERY public lives even at the high school levels.

With the passing of Coach Wooden this summer, we’ve heard volumes about how he not only taught the game of basketball, but he also taught valuable lessons about the game of life. To this end, one of the greatest things we can teach our players is this: Perception is reality.

Our players are constantly being observed by those around them. What others become aware of through those observations becomes their reality. You could have the greatest young man in the world playing for you, but if he is wearing earrings with his pants hanging off his butt and cursing in the cafeteria his classmates and teachers are going to perceive him as a thug. That is now the general public’s real view of this young man.

Is this right? Is it fair to judge a book by its cover? Absolutely not, but that is the world in which we live in. It is extremely important to impress upon our players this message. Once they leave school and begin creating a life for themselves, they are going to have a firm understanding of this concept. If they want to win over a prospective employer, they are not going to be able to waltz into a job interview with their pants hanging off their butt. It just doesn’t work that way and they will end up either jobless or working jobs they don't desire.

This can become part your team’s culture. Like Doc River’s says, “You must fight for your culture EVERY day.” If you stand for positive image portrayal, and in my opinion you should be, you need to teach, model and enforce it every day.

The following is a great excerpt speaking to the fact that perception is reality and the life in a fishbowl from the 2000-2001 Oklahoma Sooner’s basketball handbook:

The Sooner Image

Although we are not trying to stereotype our players, we believe there are certain fundamental concepts to which each individual must subscribe.

As a basketball player you will be in the public eye more than athletes in other sports. You will be emulated by youth and your actions both on and off the court will be evaluated either positively or negatively by the general public. Recognizing and accepting this fact, we must make certain rules and regulations that reflect more the “generation gap” than acceptance from your peer group! As a representative of our team, you will be expected to exemplify conduct both on and off the court that does not lend itself to outside criticism during the season and to a lesser extent in the off-season.
Remember you are a student first and an athlete second. A minimum performance in the classroom will reflect on you personally and on your teammates generally. It takes only one so-called star doing poor class work to label a whole team as academically inferior.

We expect our players to have pride in themselves, their teammates, and their school. We will strive at all times to be good citizens and gentlemen.

We would hope to develop a squad morale and esprit de corps with self-respect and respect for one another that enables us to work together for our common goals and objectives.

THE SOONER IMAGE WILL BE POSITIVE!!

Dealing With A Difficult Player

I know that all coaches can agree that they have, at one time or another, had a difficult player on their roster. Doc Rivers talks about wanting "character over characters. More R's than S's." The "S's" can range from the physically violent or threatening to the psychological. We all have experienced a player that we consider to be a "cancer" to our team. The following tips can aid your dealings with those players.

The Aggressor = This is the player that is intimidating, hostile and enjoys threatening others.

What to do: LISTEN! Listen to everything this player has to say. Avoid escalation and arguments. Be formal with the player, call them by name. Be concise and clear with your reactions.

The Underminer = This is the player who takes pride in criticizing others, is sarcastic, and devious.

What to do: Focus on the issues at hand. Do not acknowledge the sarcasm. Don't overreact. Most of the time the underminer is begging for the attention. Be direct and let them know his actions will not be tolerated.

The Unresponsive = This is the player that is difficult to talk to, defiant, and never reveals thoughts or ideas.

What to do: Ask them open ended questions; rich questions where "yes" or "no" are not the answers. Be silent with them and wait for an answer. Be patient and friendly. Many times, for the unresponsive, the silence can be like fingernails on a chalkboard and they will ultimately say something even if it isn't the answer to the question. Let them know that this is a start!

The Egotist = This is the player that knows it all, feels superior, and acts superior.

What to do: Make sure you know the facts. Agree when possible and try to find common ground. Disagree only when you know you are right. Back yourself up with stats and video.

In all of these cases, we've got to put into perspective how the behavior is detrimental to the TEAM. Ask them, "What is good for the team?" You've got to sell the loyalty to their team and teammates.

Ask yourself, "What is good for the team?" Of course we've got to know when to cut dead weight. Sometimes we can do everything in our power to get our message across but that message still won't be received. If you have tried and tried and tried, the TEAM's well-being outweighs the individual.

Selecting A Staff - Doc Rivers

Some thoughts on creating your coaching staff from Doc Rivers, Head Coach of the Boston Celtics:

- Build your staff based on the idea of what your team should be. Ask yourself what do you want your team to stand for? Hire accordingly. Things Doc looks for is loyalty, talent, and team players

- Engaging Assistants. Don't hire "yes men". Look for people that will provide insight into what will make you better. Debate, explore, decide, and implement.

*** Pat Riley "Beginners are open. Experts are closed. The challenge is to stay open."

- Take a page from the football coaching mentality. Find staff members that have strengths that compliment each other. Much like football coaches being position specific and/or offensively or defensively specific, find coaches that fill voids. Doc says, "Give them room to be great!"

- If you tell your team to play their roles, shouldn't you do the same with you and your staff?

- The X's and O's don't matter. What matters is if you and your staff can get the players to buy in. Assistant coaches must buy in to the system and goal(s) as much as, if not more than, the players.

Defensive Principles

Communication - Essential and detrimental to our success on defense. Everyone has got to be on the same page. Something I learned by working with Kevin Eastman was "Talk loud. Talk early. Talk often!" Kevin's work with Doc Rivers and the Celtics has added the rule of three. Verbalize things three times, "Pick right, pick right, pick right!" or "Switch, switch, switch!"

Transition - Must quickly change gears once the opponent has secured possession of the ball. Responsibilities: Ball stop, Ball side denial, Opposite help, Up big, and Basket big. Guards verbalize their responsibilities. Bigs sprint to half court, communicate up or basket, and play up the floor from there.

Ball Pressure - Tremendous on ball pressure! We want to turn the ball handler 3-times before half court. Defense determines where the offense is allowed to go. Where the ball is, a hand is! We want to get deflections. Deflections lead to steals. Steals lead to quick baskets. Quick baskets lead to us repeating the process.

Early Help - Force the ball handler to put the ball on the floor and "Early Help" to make him pick it up. Jab and retreat at a dribbler from deny and help positions. If the dribbler gets out of control, take a charge from deny or help positions. Do not leave your teammate on an island! On ball defense is much more effective if the on ball defender knows he has help.

Front the Post - We aggressively defend the paint like our lives depended on it. 3/4 on the high side when the ball is in the middle third of the court. "Knock down elbows" and step through to front. Hands up and take up space. Treat this as if you were posting up on offense. When the ball is reversed, spin off the shoulders around to the 3/4 deny. (I will be talking more in-depth about how I want my players to defend the post later)

All 5 on a Side - When the ball has chosen a side of the floor, we want all 5 of our players on ball side of the midline. We want to aggressively keep the ball on one side of the floor. The only option for the offense to reverse the ball is by skip pass. No reversal and no paint!

Rotate - Sprint to spots and communicate spots. I will be discussing various defensive rotations in later posts.