Mindset of the Team

 What I'm about to say might be viewed as controversial but here goes.  When coaching a team, the mindset you should be instilling in your team is not about winning games.  Instead what you should focus on is the process.  Some of you may be looking at me and saying what are you talking about?  To me, if the players understand what the goals of the team are and trust the path you as a coach are putting them on to achieve those goals then the process has begun.

Setting Goals

When I talk about setting goals, I'm talking about setting team goals about specific basketball characteristics you want the team to have.  I do not mean wins and losses.  To me the goals of the team should revolve around what the object of the games is, to score more points than the opposition.  To do this your teams should focus on the following:

• Taking more shots than the opposition-you do this by taking care of the basketball.  Limiting turnovers when you have the ball and forcing them when you don't.  Grabbing offensive rebounds when your team has the ball and limiting them when your team doesn't have the ball.
• Never pass up open looks-You are never more open than when you first catch the ball.  If you catch it and you're open, and in range, shoot it.  We need to take shots in order to win.
• Layups-At the end of a close game, the one thing you will always look to is how many layups were missed.
• Free throws-Same as layups.
  
• Easy shots taken vs. given-this could be defense turning to offense, an offensive putback, scoring a layup from the offense.  If your team gets more than the other team, your raise your chances of winning the game.
  

At the beginning of the year, I will sit down with my team and talk about my expectations.  I will list out the base offense and explain how to work with each other to take advantage of what the defense gives you.  I will list out the base defense and show all the basics of that defense.  I want the team playing fast when they are on the floor, I don't want them thinking.  This is why I don't want to burden them with sets.  I'd rather show them how to balance the floor on offense and how to attack zones vs. man to man.  I'd rather teach them how to play than teach them plays.  I want them to learn how to read plays on the floor and take advantage of opportunities. Ideally, I'd love to see a hard nosed defensive team that can get a few easy baskets and is always pushing the ball up the floor looking to find an edge.

 The Process

Once the players have been introduced to the team goals, then the process begins.  The process involves the steps to complete all of your team goals.  The players should be focused on these goals and the process on a daily basis.  Also keep in mind that the process is never completed.  Once the coach completes going over all of his goals then repetition is required in order to make everything instinctive.  

Encourage players at the beginning of each session that their goal should be to have a good practice.   This means going through every drill hard regardless of results, hustling back from water breaks,  paying attention to the coaches when they are talking, and being great teammates.  Once the players have accomplished a good practice, then you challenge them to start stacking good practices together.  As a coach, count the stacked practices and see how many your team can reach.  Give them a prize after every 5th or 10th or whatever benchmark you want to set.  The whole point is to get them working hard, challenge them to keep working hard, and reward them when they do so.

When the games start I like to treat them as glorified practices.  What I mean by this is that I want my players to focus on the process even in games.  The process can be summed up as follows:

1. Effort
2. Execution
3. Evaluation
   
4. Teamwork
5. Trust
   

Notice how winning is not on the list.  I don't want my team to focus on the opponent, that's my job as coach to put them in a position to succeed.  Their job is to execute, work hard, and play together.  If they do this, even if they fall short, how can you be upset with them.  The one thing you should talk to them about is stacking practices.  I always like to tell my teams that the goal is to stack good practices.  What this means is that the team is working with energy, they are executing and playing as a team and adjusting to the feedback they are getting.  I like to tell my team that the more good practices we stack together the better we will be.  If they do this, the wins will usually take care of themselves, but the one thing you as a coach should feel good about is that your team will be better at season's end than before the season started and that should be your ultimate goal.

Grading Good Practices

One more thing I would like to cover involves how do you evaluate practices.  There is a basketball adage that I heard from Don Casey but I'm not sure where it came from.  The adage says "If you don't make them do it in practice then don't expect them to do it in the game."  If you don't emphasize hustle and don't emphasize execution and teamwork during practice then don't expect them to show it in a game.