Theatrics and basketball

Watching the holiday action at the collegiate and high school level we've seen more than our fair share of sideline antics and theatrics by coaches. The BCR has always taken the position that the behavior of a coach on the sideline will manifest itself in one way or another on the floor by their players.

We saw a game today where the head coach literally waved his hands in disgust every time one of his players made a mistake. (More on mistakes in a later post). An assistant coach showed his displeasure during a 30 second timeout by not getting up and essentially pouting. How did it manifest itself? You know that every time a player, teammate, or referee made a move with the hint of mistake, the players on the floor overreacted and lost focus. That team lost by double digits. Where they better than the team they lost to? No, were they hanging around trailing by 10 most of the game? Yes. How did they react to mistakes by allowing their opponent to build the lead up to 16 or 18 on a consistent basis. If the sideline sideshow were tamed and the staff more focused on what was going to happen next perhaps they cut it to 6 and we all know how difficult it is to win when you let an inferior team hang around until late.

In another game we saw today, we saw what coaching your kids through a rough patch can do. USC was trailing Western Michigan by double digits early. Yes the same USC that beat #8 ranked Tennessee like they stole something over the weekend. Rather than pout or put on a show, Kevin O'Neil and staff kept plugging away at it and eventually USC turned up their defensive effort and got the win, ugly as it may be.

John Thompson of Georgetown said that he would rather learn lessons from winning than losing. USC's staff and team will most assuredly take a long hard look at their first half and still learn some great lessons, and also reinforce what stepping up their effort can do for them.