MORE MARCH MADNESS: LESSONS FROM A LOSING TEAM

PITINO CITES CRITICAL YET COMMON PITFALLS IN TEAM’S NCAA DEFEAT

Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals gave up a second half 9 point lead to Michigan, losing 73-69 in second round 2017 NCAA play.  Afterwards Coach Pitino reflected on the team’s second half difficulties.  “Where we have struggled is on the mental facets of the game. Michigan played great, but we beat ourselves mentally. I could say that every game we lost this season it was because of the mental parts of the game, not the physical. Our guys consistently give great effort... (One of the problems was) guys were so absorbed by the offense. Quentin (Snider) says ‘Oh God – I’m 0-for-9. I’m letting my team down.  I want to win so badly’ then runs into a screen. We’ve got to get our guys out of this mindset of scoring – and if they don’t score they’ve got to play defense.  Once we get out of that (thinking) we’ve got a great chance to come back and be an outstanding team.”

Pitino’s comments point to two key difficulties I have noticed in my 20 years working with athletes.

First, I have found that players and teams who find themselves struggling will typically double down on effort, assuming that doing more of the same, only with greater resolve, is going to make the difference.  Pitino’s point regarding making changes on the MENTAL level, not the PHYSICAL level, is so frequently missed by players, and particularly players with less experience. 

My previous post  offers examples of the importance of mental adjustments to stay competitive in pressure situations. The fact is that players ARE taught to give greater effort and to care MORE; they are RARELY taught how to make critical adjustments to their thinking that result in a more EFFORTLESS performance.

The second trap which so many players fall into is their disproportionate focus on offense. It leads to dismissing the equally important role of defense.  In the end, the game is about prevailing over an opponent with all the tools at your disposal. But far too often, players are ill-equipped to grasp this critical point because of a constant emphasis on statistics as the primary measure of a player’s effectiveness or value.

Some years ago I attended the European Men’s Basketball U20 Championships.  One of the players on the UK team was playing during the regular season for a college team in the U.S. whose coach is a friend of mine.  When I emailed my friend to tell him I had seen his guy play he wanted to know how he had played. I told him that the player had not made it into the stats but had done a lot of little things that helped his team, like setting great screens that allowed a teammate to score, or chasing down loose balls to keep a possession going.  This coach was happy to hear, because this was also the kind of player he wanted on his teams.

Snider’s offensive difficulties may have chipped away at his overall confidence and mental energy which, applied to defense and the other “little things” might have  helped alter the game’s balance. 

Furthermore, as many players know, when things aren’t going well on offense, channeling your energies into defense can often help you turn around your own sense of competitive spirit.  But unless coaches and/or the players themselves dedicate time in practice throughout the season to understanding and successfully executing this part of the game, it won’t be there for them when they need it most.

"Are You Paying Too Much Attention to Your Stats?"