Coach Meyer gave his players unbelievable confidence by ensuring they were the best prepared and most well-coached team. Coach Jones does his best to steadily mold the team throughout the season without getting too high or low. Coach Wooden was a master of fundamentals, emphasizing them every day to get his players to buy in.

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3. Have a plan- a written plan
Confident without being cocky
Bold, determination and others will follow
No meek successful head coaches
Coach Meyer gave us unbelievable confidence as players. We believed we were the best
prepared and most well-coached team. We never went into a game thinking we were not
ready to play. He made us believe we were the best conditioned, toughest mentally and
most together team.
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4. Coach Jones does the best job of molding the team throughout the season. He doesn’t get
too up, too down. Stays steady. Unflappable. Does not demean the players.
No division on the team
Have ways to mold the team
Constantly think of ways to get the team to play better as a group
(don’t think of your players as stupid, not smart enough, not good enough, not tough
enough)
You as the head coach or assistant coach find ways to get the team closer together and
mesh as the season goes along.
Write notes (notepad, index cards, phone)
What combinations work the best? What lineup needs to be on the floor?
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5. Enthusiasm and communication are the two main components in coaching.
Effectively teach your message
Coach Jim Harrick was a master at teaching his message “Teach what you know, know what
you teach.”
Study, prepare in the off-season
Nov. 1 is not the time for something new (unless you have had major injuries)
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6. Coach Gottfried was extremely good at understanding players competitive nature
We took over a team at Murray State that returned seven seniors. He was a seven-year
assistant at UCLA.
I watched him utilize players competitive nature as a positive and not a negative.
More talented the kids and past success he has had-treat the player with kid gloves if he is
not playing well or you have to bench him
Taking kids out of the game. How to handle. Emotions are high
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7. Coach John Wooden was an expert of having his team master the fundamentals.
Emphasized every single day.
If you don’t emphasize, don’t expect your kids to buy in
Every day, every workout, every workout, every warmup
Watching other teams warm up you can tell a lot about the program
What they do speaks volumes
Jim Calhoun says if he watched 20 minutes of your practice he should know what you
emphasize
Also says you can only emphasize 3 or 4 things.
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8. Coach K is the master of focus and determined nature
Don’t let the little things take your eyes off your job
Your two-hour practice session with your team is the most important two hours for your
team you have
Kids being late, bus breakdown, angry parent email, Administrator problem, other team
used the gym too long problems you can not worry about
Refs are uncontrollable
Your focus is your team and getting them ready to play their absolute best.
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9. Coach Torbett’s story of how got Better Basketball started.
“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up” Jim Valvano
Last one standing
No one going to outwork you (smart), out tough you
Be mentally sharp
Be willing to handle adversity
Know failure is part of the process
Decide before hand what you are going to do with failure- You will pick up and move on
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