Coaching Basketball: My Top Ten List of Things That Will Drive A Coach Crazy
During my high school coaching career I have seen many things that made me wonder why I got into this business. Feel free to add any of your items to make this list complete. The following list is based on real life events as an assistant and head coach.
1. You spend all off-season and pre-season implementing a new offense or defense and realize about a week before the first game there is no way they will ever get it.
2. You care more about the game then your players do.
3. The opposing player you scouted is shooting 6% from the 3-pt. line, but when he plays your team he hits 5 three’s in the third quarter to cut a 20 pt lead to one.
4. There is always a player on your team who thinks he’s Kobe Bryant.
5. “Coach, my son was real good in the 4th grade, how come he is not playing a lot as a Senior?” - a parent comment to me after we beat the #5 team in the state on their homecourt at the buzzer.
6. You have a 5 point lead late in a playoff game when your star player is called for a foul. The player then procedes to take off his shoe and throws it in to the crowd for a double tech ejection. We lost.
7. Your team was just eliminated from the playoffs when one of your Seniors storms out of the locker room yelling profanities at the coaching staff because he had a bad game.
8. You lose at the buzzer.
9. The administration at the school thinks the basketball program is not as important as the chess team.
10. No matter what you do you can’t make your players two inches taller.
Reading my list you might think that I didn’t enjoy coaching, but when I make a list of the things that makes coaching great, it will be a list of 100 rather than 10. Keep coaching and remember that you’re doing it for the kids.
September 22nd, 2009 at 00:31
Good stuff coach. Your posts are great for coaches and fans. I wish you the best on your new site and have a good golf season. The reason we liked those teams in the 80s was each had a separate identity and they stuck with the team concept. It didn’t hurt that those teams were led by ultimate superstars and their #2 and 3 options were hall of famers or close to it. Bird, McHale, DJ, Parrish… Isiah, Dumars, Laimbeer, Aguirre, Rodman…Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Scott… MJ,Pippen, Rodman… Except for the threesome today in Beantown none of the NBA teams can match the overall depth of the classic teams.