ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Boston's early adversity is putting Stevens' magic touch to the test (ESPN.com)

-Even down an All-Star, Stevens has been careful not to temper expectations for his Hayward-less team. Instead, he has put an even greater focus on his typical "get better each day" philosophy.

While observers ponder if the Celtics can still compete for a top spot in the Eastern Conference,

Stevens focuses on the next day, the next practice, the next possession.

-The Celtics, with an average age of 25.06 years, are the fifth-youngest team, according to the

NBA's roster survey conducted at the start of the season, trailing only the Suns (24.49), 76ers

(24.65), Lakers (24.89) and Trail Blazers (24.89). To combat his team from getting caught up in its overall lack of experience, Stevens won't allow his players to use age as a crutch. "Let's beat the age thing. Let's not talk about the age thing," Stevens said. "Let's talk about how we can be better at what we can control and how we can learn and grow every day and everybody expedite the learning curve.” Added Stevens: "If we're not committed to getting better, individually and collectively, then we're not good enough. If we are, we'll see what happens. But that's the only way to go about that."

-"When he establishes [players' roles] and when he's explaining that everyone has to be great in their role and collectively have to be great -- every single detail is important, every person is important. And he makes sure he relays that message to every single one of us every day. It's pretty easy to kinda buy into what we're trying to accomplish after that."

Jason Kidd's advice for Giannis: 'Don't get bored' (ESPN.com)

-For him, from where we started and where we are to the present day, I think it just speaks volumes of his patience, his work ethic and his trust in us in helping him get to where he wants to go. And he's just at the beginning of that, so it's just remarkable watching him. The things that he can do now that he couldn't do two years ago.

-[On what it takes from a coaching perspective to take a great player and get him to that superstar level where he's doing it every night] I think it comes down to listening, trust and his ability to work.

And he has all those components, so it makes it really easy to be around and coach [him].

-The #1 thing Kidd would impart to Giannis as he makes his ascension: Don’t get bored. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Raptors President (Bill Simmons Podcast)

-Best management advice: Be more passionate than ambitious

-Simmons’ advice: Trust the people in your inner circle. You cannot win if your inner circle isn’t empowered and good at what they do. You hired them and it’s your job to stick up for them.

-Ujiri: Hire women. It’s something about them that brings us to a level where we think better.

-A lot of guys have got into the NBA like that. ‘Oh you’re going to open the door for me one inch?

I’m in. I’ll do whatever.’

Michael Lombardi, The Ringer

-That’s when you know. That’s a perfect example of the Redskins still paying attention to their coach. That was a split read, he broke on the ball and understood what the play was. It was coached during the week and executed. Practice execution becomes game reality. That’s a key thing. That’s when you know your team is following you. When you know the team is listening to their coach.

-“I’m not ever going to accuse a team of quitting on Sunday because I think it’s too hard to go out there and not give all your effort. The game is too hard, the game is too violent. But where I think the quitting occurs and where you as an executive or as an owner, when you evaluate the team…because we’re in the veterinarian business (the patient doesn’t talk to us), we have to evaluate certain symptoms that occur. When you see free access touchdowns and when you see players not paying attention to detail. You know Monday through Saturday that there’s a disconnect going on. As an executive or as an owner, you’re like ‘Well, wait a minute.’ It’s too harsh to say a team quit, but football’s a game of attention to details. Marcus Aurelius has this great quote that the secret to all victories lies in the organization of the non-obvious. What he’s saying with that quote is ‘it’s the details, it’s saying when you lie up with this split, you’re going to do this or do that.’ While the Rams are very predictable with what they do, if you don’t pay attention during the week, they’re going to catch you off-guard and they did against the Giants. To me, if I were McAdoo and I was watching that tape, I’d say, “Our message isn’t getting home.”

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

David Epstein on Finding Mastery Podcast

-I call him on a Saturday morning and he’s in his lab and I thought I was calling him at home and he said, “Saturday morning experiments are the most important thing I do because there’s no one else around. You don’t have to conform what you’re doing, you can be a bit sloppy, a bit unorthodox.”

Braving the Wilderness

-Maintaining the courage to stand alone when necessary in the midst or family or community or angry strangers feels like an untamed wilderness. When I get to the point where I’m like, Screw this! It’s just too hard. I’m too lost! I hear Maya Angelou’s words again: The price is high. The reward is great.

Chris Caputo, Miami

-Habits then reads. You need to establish the habits and then build the reads.

Thoughts

-When you were getting ready to go to college, everyone always said “Time management, time management.” Being a seems to me to be the biggest test of time management.

-In scouting, you have to always keep in mind that the players don’t watch nearly as much film as you do and don’t have near the capacity to remember what you do. Find simple things they can remember that can help them.

Tim Kight, Focus 3

-Culture’s job is to energize the behavior called for by the strategy.

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Pep Guardiola and the unrelenting game of fools (Football Times)

-The logic behind his deep build-up is straightforward enough. The more players that you can attract towards you and outplay, the fewer players you must beat once you have successfully achieved the build-up. This is echoed in Juanma Lillo’s – one of Guardiola’s mentors – assertion that: “Everything is much easier if the first progression of the ball is clean.” This is a simple concept, you have more space to attack fewer players if you can eliminate a significant number of opponents using your own defensive players. When the build-up is successful, when it is ‘clean’,

Guardiola’s players have increased time and space to make penetrating interactions upfield. It is why his team’s attacks often appear to be so swift, breathless sweeps towards goal characterised by multiple players running freely into space and enjoying numerous passing options. The opponent’s defensive has been depleted as three or four players have been eliminated high up the pitch. The remaining six or seven find themselves suddenly required to scuttle back in hopeful retreat in the face of a raiding party of the world’s most gifted attacking players.

-So, if it isn’t some secret magic that Guardiola is using, why does it seem as though his style remains so unique? Ten years have passed since his Barcelona B team began to play in this way yet the style continues to elicit a stubborn refusal to be replicated. Indeed, many critics have lambasted those coaches who have appeared hell-bent on merely recreating the work of their idol; anyone who watched teams like Roberto Martínez’s Everton labour to progress possession up the pitch, scored by the groans of the disgruntled thrill seekers in the stands will surely identify with such a critique. Plagiarism is not a tenable manifesto; the imitators are ten-a-penny – destined to a career of mediocrity spent peddling a bastardised version of another’s vision. Possession of the ball is not an end in itself.

-And herein lies the rub, in my view it is Guardiola’s ability to convince his players that the risk involved in building-up – if executed according to the methodology – is less than the risk attached to playing direct that provides the psychological foundation for his players to play in this way. This lesson in risk literacy is evident in one of Guardiola’s favourite footballing aphorisms: ‘The faster the ball moves forward, the faster it comes back the other way.’ ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

-For the majority of players that he comes into contact with – particularly in the UK – this will be an alien concept, something anathema to their existing beliefs. He is asking his players to play in a new way, to step outside of their known territory and embrace a different paradigm of thought.

The problem with this is that we, as humans, are often unwilling to move out of our comfort zones; modern man is loath to stray too far from the campfire (or wi-fi connection).

-It is the opposite that seems to occur, the players embrace his ideas and choose to follow The

Emperor’s kamikaze instructions to the death. They suddenly seem fearless, as if freed from the fear of failure. Free to play. And this – as far as I can tell – is what makes Guardiola’s comments about Stones – and other similar glowing assessments of his players after defeats – so revealing. He loves players who are willing to play the role of ‘The Fool’. The Fool is the one who is not afraid to make mistakes, because when you step into the unknown mistakes are inevitable – it is how we learn. Throughout mythology, art and literature, from the Bible through Shakespeare to Disney, the

Fool provides the archetypal motif for the individual who foregoes their pride in order to follow the truth and dare to walk a new path. The Fool is humble yet robust, no amount of heckling or derision will cause him harm. He is the court jester, allowed to express himself freely, beneath as he is, from the contempt of the King. In mythological narrative and Tarot readings alike, the Fool is a precursor to the Hero, for how can one achieve mastery if one is afraid of humiliation along the way? Guardiola’s players must first learn to play the fool, to play without fear. Only by following this process will they transform themselves into the masters of play that the coach desires them to be.

-The Fool is the agent of change, the breaker of the established order, the re-writer of programs.

His willingness to do things differently is what leads to the great innovations. Guardiola, the trickster-hero himself embodies these traits. It is just as the mysterious sage, Marcelo Bielsa, prophesised: “A man with new ideas is a madman, until his ideas triumph.”

Thoughts

-The last expenses that should be cut are the ones tha occur within 24 hours of a game. It directly impacts winning.

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Ben Wilkins, Army

-Two things head coach can’t delegate: Relationships + Culture

Todd Spencer, Army Football

-On what makes Jeff Monken so good: Leader, confident, demanding, attention to detail, relentless recruiter, tries to be the hardest worker on staff (“The speed of the leader is the speed of the pack”).

How Steve Pikiell changed a culture by sweating the small stuff (Asbury Park Press)

-There is a new addition to Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell’s office, installed just in time for the 2017-18 season. “I have my three shelves up,” Pikiell said. “One for an NCAA Tournament ball, one for a Final Four ball, one for a national championship ball.” The shelves are bare, but their message is clear. “I want to get the guys thinking about it,” Pikiell said. “That’s what this league (the

Big Ten) does. The best teams play in the Final Four, play for a national championship.”

-It’s a small motivational touch, one of many little things that are adding up to a seismic cultural shift for this long-struggling program. Like the glass door Pikiell installed, so players would feel more welcome to step into his office. Or the larger beds he ordered so his big men don't have to sleep with their feet hanging off the edge. Or his consolidation of player housing, so they live close to the RAC instead of being scattered all over the sprawling campus.

-When Pikiell couldn’t organize a 5K race for his players on campus — too much red tape — he took them to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5K so they could learn about the firefighter’s heroism on 9/11. On Saturday, to give the Scarlet Knights added perspective, he invited Special Olympians to practice. “My guys think they’re having a bad day if their shoelace breaks or if their Adidas gear doesn’t fit quite right,” Pikiell said. “I was able to show them, ‘These guys overcome real challenges.’”

-Seeing eye-to-eye with Sanders is not something that happened overnight. At his first team meeting after getting the job, Pikiell told the players their top priority should be getting in the gym for extra work on their own. “We harped on that from day one,” Pikiell said. “And it didn’t work.” He ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

kept harping, and the players, perhaps won over by his tactical acumen in games, started trickling in. Sanders was one of them, and his buy-in is a big reason why the staff feels like Rutgers is ready to take a leap forward this season. “Corey decided he was going to get into the gym,” Pikiell said.

“We’ve started to build that culture, and the guys are getting better.”

Arizona’s Sean Miller discusses Twitter shutdown, Romar, offense (Tuscon.com)

-“Lorenzo, he has a voice of reason. He’s great with our current players. He’s been through any situation in basketball you can think of. He played in the NBA. He’s from Compton (Calif.). He went to a junior college. He won a national championship as an assistant coach (at UCLA). He’s been there and he’s done that. So when you have somebody on your staff with that type of experience there’s not (just) one thing that he’ll add. I think he’ll bring his personality, and I want him to bring his personality. He’s going to make us better. We’re allowing him to come in and impact us really in every way possible. The biggest way is just who he is as a person. You feel that in the recruiting.

You feel that in talking to your own players within your own staff, the chemistry there, (with) the parents of players. So it’s nice to have him.”

-“We’ve talked about that and just the pace that his teams play with. They’re as good as any at getting the ball up and down the court. We want to do that and we want to be smart with it as well.

It’s amazing. Sometimes it’s just one thing you’re able get from a coaching perspective that really makes a big, big difference. You’re not in search of 15 things or 20 new things, it’s just one. Of course with his experience, all those ideas will be welcomed. But we haven’t talked a whole lot about that so far.”

Cronin, Cincinnati Bearcats have come a long way (Cincinnati.com)

-“When you’re struggling, you’re not going to suddenly get this guy that can make you win 25 games,’’ said Davis. “You’re trying to get guys that can help you have a winning season, then off that, you get the guy who’s going to help you win 25 games.’’

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

-“I was a recruiter,’’ Cronin said. “But the two guys I recruited for (Huggins and then at

Louisville) had cachet. Now I’m selling myself. Kids don’t know who I am.’’

-Sikes recalled preseason practice, when Cronin kicked his team out of the locker room and took away all its practice gear. The Bearcats practiced for a week in the Armory Fieldhouse, “in the smallest, tightest gear possible,’’ Sikes recalled. “It didn’t get washed. He came in and dropped it on the floor, all smelly."

The Mad Scientist of the NFL (Bleacher Report)

-Of course, while climbing the ranks of Washington’s offensive staff, mostly as tight ends coach,

McVay frequently popped into the office of defensive backs coach Bob Slowik, with questions about the defense. “That’s not a normal characteristic in this day and age in the coaching world,”

Slowik says.

-“As a young quarterback, as a young coach, we’re going through a lot of things for the first time together,” says McVay, who served as Washington’s offensive coordinator from 2014-16. “We’ll experience the good together and then we’ll also consistently stay together when we go through some adversity and stay connected. I think that’s important to have that support and know that we believe in each other, and we’re going to work through it—both good and bad.”

-To be sure, McVay is a player’s coach. He doesn’t walk into the Rams locker room like he knows all the answers. He often asks players for their input: What did you see? What do you think would be good off this formation?

-That’s been more or less his approach with Goff. “I’ve always told him, with a certain play, even if I might like it, I’m not the one executing it,” McVay says. “And if you don’t like it or don’t feel comfortable with it, then maybe I’ll try to explain why. And he’ll say, ‘OK, I like it.’ Or if it’s not something that he feels comfortable with, then we don’t do it. It’s about continuing to develop a rapport and a relationship where it’s not just, ‘What can I do for him?’ but what can I do to make him feel comfortable with the things that we’re asking him to do,” McVay says. “That’s a two-way street where communication goes back and forth.” ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

-“Every day he challenges you and himself to get better,” says NFL vet Jermaine Wiggins, who played for McVay on the UFL’s Tuskers. “He brings an excitement to the field, like, ‘Every day, we’re going to have a positive day. Every day we’re going to make plays.’ As a player, that really motivates you, when your coach has just as much energy as you.”

-McVay communicates the intricacies of plays with the composure and cadence of a professor, making eye contact from the left to the middle to the right side of the room to ensure every player feels like he is speaking directly to him. “A lot of guys can do the preparation. They can sit in a dark room and prepare like crazy, but they can’t present on installation day or go into an individual period and really present the techniques and the fundamentals you are trying to get across,” Jon

Gruden says. “Sean can prepare with the best of them. We burned the candles out at night preparing for games. Sean can do that and he can present.”

-“More than anybody he’s willing to take accountability for things,” Goff says. “And when you see that from your head coach? You kind of take the identity of him. … I go, Man, I need to start taking accountability, and so does the other leaders and other players on the team.”

-“We’re focused on daily improvement and daily excellence,” McVay says. “If you’re going to ask your players to do that, I think it’s important for you to personify those core beliefs. And if you’re not really living those things? I think people can feel that.”

Fergus Connolly

-The best organizations managed to organize and structure the small things. They sit down and have a meeting separate to take all those things, organize them, make sure the player knows they’re organized.

-On gameday, the only thing that should be new to the player is the opponent they’re playing.

Everything else should be the exact same.

Jamion Christian, Mount St. Mary’s

-When players left vegetables untouched, “What vegetables would you eat?” They came up with two and that’s the only two the players saw the rest of the year. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Dave Fipp may be NFL’s most interesting coach (The Athletic)

-Running back Kenjon Barner remembers struggling with kickoff returns during his first or second season in Philadelphia. He went up to Fipp's office to find out what the coach thought. “I went upstairs to talk to him and asked him what he thought,” Barner recalled. “He said, ‘You’re sh*tty.’

Just like that. I’m looking at him, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, you’ve got to get better. You can be as good as you want to be.’ He’s that type of coach. You can respect that — a guy that shoots it straight, tells you exactly how it is, doesn’t beat around the bush, doesn’t lie to you. I went upstairs, and he told me how terrible I was.”

-“He knows how to use each player individually and how to touch them individually and get them motivated. So we play a lot for him. It’s exciting to make a play and he’s right there in your face jumping on you. He’s just such a motivational guy. He’ll joke around with you, but if you’re not doing your job, he’ll rip into you as well. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever had.”

-“But that’s a good thing because you’re allowed to go and assess where you’re at. He’s going to tell you the truth, and you have to get better. He has a lot of respect for that in the locker room. A lot of the bottom-of-the-depth-chart guys, you ask him, he’s going to tell you what you need to get better at.”

-His core special teams philosophy comes from Everest. The first step is making sure players know their alignments and assignments. Step two is teaching and drilling them on how to win their one- on-one battles. And step three is allowing them to cut it loose on gamedays. “You don’t see him yelling or ranting at players on Sunday,” Everest said. “It’s their day. You get six days a week to coach. And they get one day a week to go let it all out. If you need to make adjustments, you make them. You treat them like men and try to get the best out of them.”

T.J. Otzelberger: What I learned in my first year as a head coach (The Athletic)

-Michael taught me that even during difficult times, the most important thing for a coach is to stay connected to his players. We can’t just tell our players they are our top priority. We have to show them. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

-When I interviewed for the job at South Dakota State, I had an opportunity to meet with the team. I prepared for that meeting by spending time to learn about each player – what their nicknames were, their hometowns and maybe even a record they set in high school or stats from a big game.

That set an important foundation. Coming as a new coach, a lot of times you can fall into the mindset that you need to get on the road and recruit to bring “your players” into the program. The interview process taught me that investing in the players already in our program, especially early on, is vital to success because they are the ones who will build the culture. And when we brought in recruits for visits, our players were the best ambassadors for the program.

-Every player in your program wants to know you're committed to his development. I learned the importance of building time for skill improvement into my practice schedule. I wanted them to know I am invested in their future.

Matt Henry, St. Peter’s

-Break possessions down by Transition Offense, Non-Paint Touch, Paint Touch, Press Offense and evaluate points per possession.

Celtics make a strong case with their defense (Boston Globe)

-“Our guys are locked in and really trying,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “Again, we can play some pretty ugly basketball at times, but I do think we’re competing, which is really good. We’re more focused on understanding that you have to do your job well and if you do it, you have a chance. This league will humble you pretty quickly, so there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, so we just have to keep preparing the right way.”

Jaylen Brown and the thinking man’s game (Fansided.com)

-“Thinking and then overthinking. I really think that’s my biggest dilemma.” mutters Brown before a recent game against the . “I can analyze things almost too much, sometimes. And that’s not just in basketball, but life in general.” ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

-The loss was devastating and Brown, assuming the responsibility of being his team’s star player, defined himself by it. Here was an elite athlete that excelled among his peers both on and off the court, was highly recruited and seemingly well-adjusted. Yet, despite all evidence to the contrary,

Brown was convinced that he was a failure at just 17 years old. He needed help and sought it from

Graham Betchart, a mental skills coach that helps athletes see beyond the hidden obstacles that can seem insurmountable. Over the years, the duo would work together to overcome the issues that hardly anyone knew existed. Visualization techniques, meditation, even music — some of which was written by Brown himself— are just some of the skills the young man from Marietta,

Georgia has had to develop aside from the ones he shows off in front of thousands on Boston’s parquet floor.

-What he seeks now, away from the bright lights, is mindfulness, to “just be in the present.” He explains the process, if not exactly robotically, in a somewhat detached manner as if delivered from somewhere none of us are quite privy to. Which is, perhaps, how it should be. “I always say

[it’s like] being nowhere and being now and here at the same time,” explains Brown of his pursuit.

“Being locked in at the task at hand and not worrying about what’s going on in the past or the future, just concerning yourself with what you can do at the moment. That’s tough to do. A lot of people can talk about it but not a lot can actually do it. Master it. Controlling my thoughts.”

-When asked of Brown’s growth, Stevens tempered the notion by saying, “I’m not really a ‘Where are they?’ relative to expectations.” Instead, he sees the formation of a unit that has simply done their job well. “They have come together as far as they pull for each other and they’re really trying to do what we [as a team] are trying to do. And I think [the young players] are benefitting from some of our veterans and their ability to not only show them the way, but also talk during the game. I think our communication is really good.”

-Brad Stevens: “Small hinges swing big doors”

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

How Patriots’ investment in special teams is paying off (NBC Sports)

"There really is a lot of communication on those plays," Belichick said. "Not a lot of it is verbal. It’s just visual recognition so that two or three of us running down the field together, we see the same thing and we know how we’re going to react to it, how I’m going to react to it, how the guy beside me is going to react to it so that you have the lanes covered and you defend the return they’re trying to set up. There’s definitely a lot of, let’s call it visual communication on those plays.”

The charcuterie board that revolutionized basketball (ESPN.com)

-In Kerr's mind, it's both simple and radically complex. He envisions elements from 's triangle, which called for passing from all five players. He'd loved how that system used Bulls forwards and centers as passers, perfect for Bogut, David Lee and others. Still, he doesn't want to abandon the high-screen-and-roll actions Curry had used in prior seasons to rain down 3s. Instead of employing a full-on triangle, what Kerr wants is a blended system.

-Transitioning from heavy isolation to heavy passing and movement would be dramatic, but

"there's a makeup in every player who's ever played," Kerr says, "that if you get to touch the ball and you get to be a part of the action -- whether it's as an man, ball mover, shooter, dribbler -

- the more people who are involved in the offense, the more powerful it becomes."

-When they sit down to analyze the previous season, in search of a Grand Unifying Metric, one figure stands out. "What about this one -- passes per game?" Gelfand asks. Kerr considers it. It has potential. It fits right in with the culture he hopes to develop. He looks at Gelfand. "What's a good number?" Gelfand knows the Warriors ranked last in the NBA in that category under Jackson in

2013-14. He also knows that many of their turnovers had come, counterintuitively, on possessions in which they passed the ball less than twice. The less they passed, the sloppier they played. He also knows that when they passed more than three times in a single possession, they led the league in points per possession on such plays. In essence, when the Warriors moved the ball, "we were," Gelfand says, "almost unstoppable." They just didn't do it very much.

-For weeks, Kerr has harped on the turnovers. In August, Kerr had visited Seattle Seahawks coach

Pete Carroll during his team's training camp and had seen, in the Seahawks' defensive meeting ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

room, a football on a rubber handle attached to a wall; as players came in and out, they'd hit the ball, trying to knock it loose. Carroll believed the habit would cause more fumbles. Ball possession,

Carroll preached, is everything.

-"The main goal," Curry says, "is to just make the defense make as many decisions as you can so that they're going to mess up at some point with all that ball movement and body movement and whatnot. But it took awhile for us to kind of get the understanding of where each other was going to be without having to call a set play or whatnot. So it took awhile."

Idan Ravin

-I have to learn whether they want to be great. If they do, I encourage them to be absolutely ferocious in their quest for greatness.

Jonathon Simmons’ goal: to become an ‘elite’ player (Orlando Sentinel)

-“I expressed that to Pop. I said, ‘I can be good over here, but I can’t be great.’ I want to be able to go against the Kawhis night-in and night-out. I even talked to LeBron James over the phone, and he was like, ‘We want you in Cleveland.’ And I said, ‘No, I want to play against you.’ I want to be able to play against elite guys and be able to, in a couple of years down the line, be just where they are.”

-“He’s really vocal,” Magic swingman Terrence Ross said. “He’s easy to talk to. He wants to win. He just pushes everybody to be better.”

-Vogel said: “It’s confidence and edge and all those words you want to use. But the biggest thing for me that ‘Simms’ has brought us is quality play. He’s delivered on the court. That alone gives everyone else confidence.”

Dan Dakich

-If you’re going to make it as a little guy in , you have to be a good layup-maker.

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Brad Stevens explained the crux of his coaching style (Boston.com)

-“I think the biggest thing is everybody has to coach to their personality,” Stevens said. “They have to coach to who they want to be.”

-The 41-year-old explained that he realized he’s “not very effective when [he’s] angry,” which led him to develop a much more encouraging method of going about things. Stevens said he feels better about the direction the team is moving when the coaching staff comes from a perspective of positivity. However, he is still not afraid to lay down the law. In a productive manner, that is.

-“Being positive doesn’t mean there’s not going to be criticism. That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be the need to be demanding and making sure we’re still on the right path,” he said. “But

I think you can do that in a constructive way, and I think you also learn how to go about that within your personality and within your preparation.”

-“I think that you can really coach people, and be even more constructively critical, if you’ve shown that you’re invested in them as a person,” he said.

-“For us, every day is about growing and getting better,” Stevens said. “Our jobs are taking the 15 guys on the team, focusing on what they do best, and helping them soar with what they do best.”

-“I think any time I turn on an NBA game, I learn a lot. I mean, it’s like going to class every day for me,” he said. “I watch the film, and I try to pick a part what they’re doing. And I try to stuff that we can use with our team. So right then and there, without even knowing people personally, you’re gaining a great deal from people you’re competing against, just by learning what they do.”

-“I think we all have been around successful leaders, managers, coaches, and you want to take what they did and make it happen again,” he said. “But I think that you just have to stay true to who you are, put your best foot forward, and work the right way. Let the chips fall where they may. If they aren’t in your favor, I think you can still be comfortable with the result if you go about it that way.”

The real Ricky Rubio is finally ready to stand up (The Ringer)

-“A lot of guys at his age, you think they’ve maybe reached a ceiling in their careers,” Snyder says.

“Either you’ve just developed all you can develop or you’re not hungry enough to try. With Ricky, ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

we have a guy who’s already a veteran and has had success in this league but who still has a strong desire to take coaching and improve. He’s someone who’s not necessarily at his ceiling.”

-“I don’t want to overanalyze his shot,” Snyder told reporters before the Jazz played Minnesota last week. “I think Ricky’s value to our team first and foremost is his leadership and his mind and his ability to get people involved. I don’t want him to define himself by his shot. I want him to get people involved, and when he’s got a shot, make the right read. Those are the things he’s really good at doing.”

-“The biggest thing we’re working on is his tempo,” Snyder says. “He’s so fast with the ball, but speed is not the answer for everything. If he learns how to change speeds, slow down at times, that makes his faster moments even faster. It will help his reads. It will get him in a better position for shots for himself or for others. I think when you see that, just the subtleties of working on tempo and angles, you’ll see that those things will make him a better shooter too.”

Joe Paterno

The bruises

The pain

The mud

The pulled muscles

The chalk talks

The long hours

Are all worth it

Because when you are a part of a team, you are better than you ever could be alone.

Mount St. Mary’s basketball recruiting strategy: Own the D.C. area (Washington Post)

-“I just think he’s a brilliant mind with all of this,” said Potomac Coach Keith Honore, who coached

Opoku in high school, of Christian. “The out-of-conference schedule attracts kids, his style of play is attractive, and he is smart to just really pound the streets in the DMV. That’s a testament to that staff’s hard work that they put in, and they are reaping the benefits of it.” ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

-This recruiting surge has a lot of layers. Christian pinpointed the team’s recent success on the court. Local high school and AAU coaches nodded to Christian’s ability to build relationships — he was the lead recruiter for Becht and Nnamene, a role usually assumed by an assistant coach — and the whole staff’s constant presence at events throughout the winter, spring and summer. The local players are drawn to the Mountaineers’ style of play: Christian wants his team to attempt 35 three- pointers a game, and then immediately jump into a relentless full-court press to frazzle opposing guards.

-“Matt and Collin, they saw guys from the area who they knew and I know that helped persuade them to choose Mount St. Mary’s,” said Darryl Prue, who coached Becht and Nnamene with Team

Takeover this past spring and summer. “Now, the next kids are going to see Matt and see Collin, and it will just continue like that. There’s definitely a ripple effect when you recruit a specific area hard.”

Dennis Smith Jr. represents both the present and future of the (Wash. Post)

-“You spend a lot of time teaching with film,” Carlisle said in response to a question about trying to ensure bad habits don’t creep in as a team struggles for results. “I spent about a half hour with him tonight before we had our meeting. A lot of it is just communication. If there are things that are going wrong you have to sub him out and talk to him. But he’s an important part of our team. It’s really gotten to the point where our winning is largely dependent on him playing well. That’s a great compliment to him and what he’s been able to establish, but it’s a big responsibility.”

Tracing Robert Covington’s journey (The Athletic)

-Cooper said it took only two workouts for him to realize that any questions some of his peers had about Covington’s toughness were misguided. “He just needed to get stronger,” Cooper said. “It wasn’t about him being afraid to engage and compete or any of those things. It was just a matter of, ‘Hey, if we can get some weight on him and go from there.’”

-“Over time you started like looking at his body and realized if he put his mind to it — he’s an athlete and good people, you could wind him up to play defense,” Brown said. “Then you thought ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

if you can do that and he can shoot, and we just sort of like watered down his version of what a good shot and bad shot is and really just let him play in a system, then maybe you could really have a chance to have a two-way player.”

A day with Hornets assistant coach (SB Nation)

-In a league that is trending toward more and more toward specialization, Silas’ coaching profile is broader and more diverse. He’s done offense with Nelson and defense with Clifford, two of the game’s great tacticians. He’s worked individually with guards, big men, and wings. He’s coached summer league.

-Things change. Under Clifford, the Hornets are known for preparation and attention to detail.

Before they get to the Garden, the coaches will have gone through a thorough scouting report that was compiled by one of the assistants. “Cliff is so detailed,” Silas says. “He’s got it down. If we have an opinion, we’ll give it to him. As the years have gone on he’s leaned on us a little more.”

-“He can do everything,” Clifford tells me. “It’s healthy for the team to not have to listen to the same voice 82 times. I have so much trust and he’s so thorough and knowledgeable in what he does that

I’m never worried. The preparation is going to be as good or better.”

-Clifford was immediately drawn to how Silas interacts with players. A special education major in college, Clifford notes something a former professor had told him about teaching: “If you gain the right type of communication with your group they will try hard to meet your expectations,” Clifford says. “That’s what he’s very good at. He has a way to gain their respect and establish the right kind of credibility so they know he can help them. There’s nothing more important than that.”

-They are his guys and they run the gamut of experience levels and roles. They all need something different from their coach. Silas is responsible for them and takes ownership over good plays and bad ones. The bad ones linger. Maybe he could have found another clip or talked through a coverage one more time. “You’re always thinking about your guys,” Silas says. “Every guy is completely different. You can’t approach it the same way. Some guys are better learners on the floor. Some guys need 20 clips, they want to see everything. Some guys want 10 of their good and ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

10 of their bad.” Each player gets his own individual time with Silas for a pregame shooting routine

and going through more film on the bench on a laptop. The order is set and never deviates.

Ron Everhart, West Virginia

-Assistant coaches don’t know what they don’t know.

Al Horford is the engine of the Celtics’ monster defense (The Ringer)

-“We’re focused on understanding that you have to do your job well and if you do it, you have a

chance,” head coach Brad Stevens said Thursday after beating the Warriors. “If you always do it,

then you have a chance to win that possession. And if you win that possession, you have a chance

to win the game.” It’s a coaching cliché to “take it one play at a time,” but there’s merit to it. The

Celtics are winning possessions, which accumulate into games.

The Biggest Mistakes New Executives Make (Harvard Business Review)

-Many new executives inadvertently set themselves up for failure within the first few months of their

tenure through their own actions. As an executive hired from outside the firm, you’ll naturally want

to add value and assure your employers and employees that you are the right hire. But based on

my work helping executives transitioning into new organizations, I’ve discovered common traps

new executives tend to fall in, even as they try to solve problems, make decisions, and improve the

company.

• Trap 1: Propose a new vision for the organization immediately. As a new executive, you’re

likely excited about your new job and have a lot of ideas. But there may be valid reasons why your

ideas haven’t been implemented yet. While you might have some ideas that you’re eager to share,

it’s important to absorb the landscape from your unique vantage point — an outsider — first.

Communicating a big vision sets in motion many resources that are required to execute it. It’s

better to wait a few months before deploying those resources than having to make radical

changes, throwing away work, and destroying morale. Take that time to observe the situation and

your company, and listen to those around you, including both colleagues and customers. If you’re ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

asked about your strategic vision, don’t feel pressured to respond before you’re ready. Saurav was

hired as president of a large Fortune 500 company. During his first week, an attendee at a

leadership event asked him about his vision. Rather than lay out an early plan, Saurav made a

thoughtful response: “I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you right now. I don’t think it’s my

place to lay out a vision at this point. This is my opportunity to listen and learn. Ask me in three

months, and I’ll have a different answer.”

• Trap 2: Make too many big decisions too quickly. Once your predecessor’s tenure was near its

end, many major decisions were likely put on hold. By the time you join, the organization may

seem ready to burst with pending decisions. But just as you should wait to implement a new vision,

you should hold off making long-lasting decisions until you know more. Create an interim

decision-making process and ensure transparency. Set expectations that these decisions are only

interim, and you might change course after the first quarter, once you’ve gathered more

information.

• Trap 3: Tell people how you did things better in your previous organizations. While you’ve

been hired for your experience and track record, once you’re on board, your new colleagues won’t

want to hear how you did things better in your previous organization. They believe their company

is different and that you don’t know enough about them right away to criticize. Instead, share your

own experience sparingly. If you must talk about how to do something differently, suggest it

directly — but only after you’ve asked enough questions to understand the company’s unique

situation and allowed others to share their opinions, so they know you’ve taken their viewpoints

into account.

• Trap 4: Prioritize external relationships over internal ones. With press releases about your new

role, it’s natural for people outside the company to want to connect with you. But by focusing too

much attention to external contacts, you’ll lose a chance to form critical connections internally and

better understand what you’re representing and how to do so.

• Trap 5: Go it alone. At first you may not know who to go to for help. You may not want to look

indecisive by asking others for advice. And with the pressure to get work done fast, you may skip

delegating work to others, inadvertently signaling that you don’t trust them. This creates tension ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

with your people, and you may also miss out on valuable knowledge others have to share. To increase your chance of success in your first quarter, create a support team to help you learn about the organization and its culture. Partner with your support team to make a 90-day plan. Your support team should be able to help you with understanding how things are done here, how key messages are communicated, and who it’s important to talk to. Lastly, also seek out a different type of support team member: find out who has the pulse of the organization’s culture. Ask them if they’d be willing to be your informal cultural translator — they can help set context, explain what really took place during a puzzling interaction, or give you feedback when you have a cultural misstep.

Jim Larranaga, Miami

“My job is to find the weaknesses of the opponent & show my team how to exploit them”

The life story of Washington Huskies coach Mike Hopkins (The Olympian)

-“As a redshirt freshman, he got the crap beat out of him every day. It wasn’t even close,” Boeheim said. “He worked his way into being a captain and a really good player. That’s the kind of competitive guy you get when you get Mike Hopkins. Not many would have come through the other side. Most guys, today, they would have transferred to Cal-Pomona. Not him. He stuck it out and he started.”

Bonzie Colson: From Notre Dame role player to a Player of Year candidate (Chicago Tribune)

-Colson only played one minute in Notre Dame’s first four ACC games as a freshman in 2014-15.

-“I said, ‘You’ve always been the underdog, and for the first time, you’re not the underdog,” Brey said. “You’re a Player of the Year candidate. But you still have to play like that (underdog). You’ve got to get into that frame of mind.’

ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Jimmy Butler leading the young Timberwolves the only way he knows how (Yahoo)

-The voices of ’s players boomed outside a gymnasium in California as the final segment of a three-plus-hour training-camp practice concluded, with Jimmy Butler imploring his teammates after a drill: do it again. Thibodeau set a framework for the ’ new culture a season ago, and then the acquisition of Butler in June amplified everything.

“If you’re tired, do this [expletive] right,” Butler explained to The Vertical about how he drives the

Timberwolves. “Do it again. If you do this [expletive] right, you won’t be as tired because we only have to do it one time. We need to do it 16 times if we don’t talk, if we don’t get it right. These three-hour practices, I don’t have a problem with them. Hell, stay in this [expletive] until 8 p.m. You tired? [Expletive] that. Do it right. That’s the only way we’re going to win. When we spend time together, that’s what our time together is for. To get all of the terrible [expletive] habits out of the way. We have to be ready for what’s really coming.”

-So when Thibodeau called on draft night to inform Butler that Minnesota had acquired him, they discussed how the organization needed Butler’s culture-impacting traits. His old head coach welcomed Butler’s ways, and then one word ended the phone call: championship.

-“I hate to lose and I don’t like to put myself in positions to lose – a scrimmage, a game, dominos,”

Butler told The Vertical. “I’ll never accept losing and any team that accepts losing. We have to get that mentality here. It’s never OK to lose a possession. It’s never OK to lose a game, to lose any type of competition. When you accept losing, you’re OK with failure. I’m never OK with that, and that should never be OK with anybody associated with me or this organization.

-“Nobody cares about how young you are in this league. The culture that Thibs wants is not difficult: He wants you to play hard, he wants you to talk, and he wants you to guard. That’s all effort, the will to want to do it. If you want to do it, you will. If you don’t, you won’t. And it won’t fly, and you won’t play.”

-Butler rose from the No. 30 overall pick in 2011 to become an All-Star and a maximum-salary player, and it started with the regimen he established in his formative seasons. He’s a success story born out of absorbing lessons and wisdom from veterans such as and assistant coaches such as , and later from USA Basketball teammates and Dwyane Wade last year. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Meet Jimmy Butler, the basketball-obsessed alpha the Wolves needed (Twincities.com)

-“I always say, I’ve enjoyed the young guys we have, because they come in and they’re eager and they want to learn and they have a freshness to them,” Thibodeau said. “There’s a lot of energy.

The attitude is great. And then sometimes, as guys get older, they lose that.” Not Butler. “He hasn’t changed,” Thibodeau said. “As he’s gotten more experience and he’s achieved more things, his approach is the same — high energy, great preparation, all the things that have made him who he is today, what he’s been doing for years now, those are ingrained habits. So, I think as long as he continues to approach it that way … he’ll continue to improve. And that’s what makes him so good.”

-“At least from the outside looking in, it’s always been kind of like Jimmy became obsessed with this ability to work and to improve himself, improve his body and to hold other people with a higher standard,” Paxson said. “I think this day and age has something to do with players’ ability to do that (work), but he kind of even took that a step further.”

-“I do think the fact that he didn’t play early on, in his case was probably a good thing,” Paxson said. “Often times in our league, we kind of hand things to players and say, ‘Here’s your opportunity.’ Jimmy did really have to earn it. I think that first year under Thibs, when he didn’t play that much, I’m guessing he realized that I’m really going to have to put my heart and soul into this thing.”

-“I understand the chip he’s had on his shoulder, I understand his defiance toward his opponents and that type of thing. It’s what’s made him great,” said Paxson, who traded Butler this summer.

“We’ll miss that (in Chicago). That’s what makes him great. You have to feel good about the people in our league that make themselves into great players, the ones that have earned everything that they’ve been given. That’s unique. A lot of guys tend to lay down sometimes and have these expectations to be given things, and he certainly hasn’t done that. He just continues to work at it and find ways to be better.”

-Butler’s only competition, Lee said, is with himself. “Meaning that he realizes that he’s to a level and he’s trying to exceed that level,” Lee said. “And the question that he asks himself on a constant basis is, ‘Am I doing that? Am I getting better? Have I plateaued?’ His career is a reflection of that. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Every single year he’s been in the league, he’s gotten a little bit better. Whether that’s reflected in the numbers that he has or whatever it is, there’s been a constant state of improvement. And I think for him, I think he’s interested in ‘How far can I take this?’ ”

-But what Minnesota needs the most is a leader. This pack needs Butler to be its alpha, a role he appears ready for. Paxson said success empowered Butler in Chicago. As he ascended to new heights throughout his career, he became more confident and forceful. “He’s always seemed to me as the kind of guy that once he kind of set a bar for himself, he expected everyone else to work toward that same level,” Paxson said.

-“You can’t be scared of a little conflict and what somebody else may think of you on the floor, because you want to win, you want to play at an extremely high level,” Butler said. “Nobody likes losing and we want to get out of that (losing) mentality as soon as possible here. If you can’t take a little constructive criticism … it’s a grown man’s league, so you’ve got to be alright with it.”

-That all stems from Butler’s will to win. He admits, when he first came into the NBA, he wanted to prove he could play with anyone — mission accomplished. Now, he wants to win at the highest level. He wants a championship. He thinks he can get one in Minnesota.

Bryce Love, Stanford’s one-man first down (SI.com)

-In November 2011, David Shaw suffered the worst defeat of his first season as Stanford’s coach, falling 53–30 to Chip Kelly’s Oregon team. Shaw determined the Cardinal couldn’t rely on the “win with cruelty” philosophy that fueled the Jim Harbaugh era. They had the beef they needed at the line of scrimmage, but beating the Ducks required something else.

“We need to be big and physical, but we’ve got to be able to run,” Shaw recalls telling his staff. “We need enough athletic ability—enough speed.”

Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson quest to keep his edge (ESPN.com)

-Brey: "Hey Bonz, maybe you just revert back to being a junkyard dog," Brey remembers telling him. "Go get a couple put-backs, get fouled. Let's get into junkyard dog mode."

-Colson scrapped his way into a featured role in Notre Dame's shape-shifting offense during three ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

years as an underdog with a knack for finishing shots. The Irish want their new poster child for the positionless to continue expanding his scoring repertoire, but they'd like him to do so without him veering too far from the dirty work that got him here. They also want to keep kindled their emotional leader's fiery attitude, but at a pace that doesn't turn new expectations into a hindrance.

Trying to prove people wrong is healthier fuel than trying to prove them right.

-"I guess we're famous for it," Brey said. "What's he play? I don't know what he plays. I think we always call them basketball players."

-Colson Sr. says he "shut that down right there." He had witnessed too many players in his own coaching career take a turn for the worse after flirting with the NBA and returning to school. Too often, he said, they end up playing for scouts or agents or other hangers-on rather than for their current team. "Bonzie," Colson Sr. told Brey, "needs to concentrate on playing the way that you and your staff are telling him to play. That's what's gotten him this attention right now."

Frank Vogel reflects on early coaching days (NBA.com)

-Thank God, too, for O’Brien in Vogel’s case. O’Brien, a coaching lifer who now works as an assistant coach for the 76ers, took an early liking to Vogel and brought him along with him at coaching stops with the , the Celtics, 76ers and Pacers. O’Brien, who declined to be interviewed for this story, taught Vogel the art of breaking down film, devising game plans and how to counter what foes throw at teams. Vogel said O’Brien’s tireless work ethic showed him what it takes to be a coach at the game’s highest level. To this day, Vogel is often in his office as much as four hours prior to practice, pouring over film and formulating plans for practice and games.

-``It’s not an easy thing to do, but the relationships that you build as an assistant coach really helped with that initial (interim) period and strengthened what we were trying to do when I talked about what we needed to tinker with and get us on track,’’ Vogel recalled. ``They had confidence with my voice because I had been with them a couple of years as an assistant. There’s no medicine like wins. We started off 7-0 and that obviously strengthened what we were doing.’’

-``That’s a big part of the job, especially in times like this,’’ said Vogel, whose Magic face the Pacers ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

in Indianapolis on Monday night. ``We’re doing the right things – keeping our guys confident, keeping them moving in the right direction and keeping them understanding that winning is hard in this league, especially when you haven’t done it as a group. You keep everybody lifted and engaged, make sure their attitudes are in the right place and address frustration.”

How survived the Bobcats, changed his pace and grew into a true star

(CBSSports.com)

-"Everybody knows where Kemba's chair is," Williams said. When the Hornets settle in for a film session, there is always a front-row seat for the franchise player. "No one sits in his chair. He sits dead in front of the TV every single day."

-This is not an accident, nor is it an indication that Walker has poor eyesight. "The leader has to be in front," Walker said. "I just want to show everybody that I'm locked in. If I'm locked in, they have no choice but to be locked in as well."

-: “You’re going to play the game you prepare to play.”

-"From Day One, Coach Cliff, he told me I could be an All-Star in the league," Walker said. "From that day on, he turned me into one."

-It took Walker about 50 seconds to explain what is going through his head when he initiates a pick-and-roll. First, he is focused on getting the defender in front of him off- balance and away from his body, so the pick takes him out of the picture. "Then it's either I'm getting by the big," or, if the opposing big man has good position, "that means my teammate" -- usually or Zeller -- "should be open on the roll," he said. If a weak-side defender steps up and picks up the roll man, then his man should be open. "It's many different reads," he said, and they have to be made in a split-second.

-Once doubted because of his poor percentages from deep, Walker participated in the 3- point shootout last season. Once labeled a gunner, Walker has become one of the most efficient players at his position.

-"His finishing has obviously improved a bunch, but his jumper has really made his game to where he's really hard to guard," Silas said. "He used to be someone who would just go, go, go. Now he ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

can play different paces, he can shoot the 3, he can get in the paint, he can finish. He does it all."

-"It's right at the top of the league," Silas said. "And that's a big jump from when he first came in.

'Cause when he first came in, teams were just going under his pick-and-rolls and they'd force him to shoot the jumper or they'd make him get all the way to the baseline and now he'd have to try to make plays around size. And now he dribbles through and does a lot of new things that he's developed over the years."

-"He's kind of established the culture here, man," Williams said. "If you come to Charlotte, Kemba's the guy that you follow, man. You just kind of naturally do it. You see how hard he works, you see how great of a player he is and you just kind of follow suit."

Justin Fuente: How Virginia Tech coach followed Frank Beamer (SI.com)

-Fuente asked Beamer to speak to the team the day before the game, and he wanted to make sure the ex-coach felt welcome at the facility whenever he might like to visit. “We’d gone this long, and he hadn’t been around, and I really felt like he needed a specific reason to come,” Fuente explains.

-In one of his first team meetings after leaving Memphis for Virginia Tech, Fuente had pointed out the difference between the Hokies teams of 2012–15, which earned bowl berths just barely, and the teams of the decade that preceded them, which won 10 or more games every year but one.

“It’s our job to get back to that,” he told his players in the spring of ’16. “Nobody’s in here pointing fingers at who’s responsible. We’re just saying, this is all of our job to get it back to where it was.”

-He’s helped his new coach navigate recruiting in Virginia—“I tell you what’s been nice,” Fuente says, “When you walk into a high school in the state of Virginia with Bud Foster, it’s instant credibility”—explained who to trust and who to take with a grain of salt, who exactly was on the other end of that last phone call. But he’s been, he says, respectfully standoffish with his new boss.

This is Fuente’s team, and he’s not going to dog him with stories of Tech’s glory days—unless he’s asked.

-Before last season, Fuente and Ballein brainstormed ways to honor Beamer. The coach wore No.

25 in his time at Virginia Tech, and Fuente says he knew he wanted to do something more creative than just paint that number on the field. After days of kicking around ideas, a plan took shape. ZAK BOISVERT – NOVEMBER 2017 COACHING NOTES

Every game, the coaching staff would pick one player who excelled on special teams to wear an honorary No. 25 jersey. The practice was renewed this year, and each player gets a t-shirt version of the jersey after his game, and a plaque to honor him is posted in the tunnel at Lane Stadium.

Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente knows how to find fine QBs; this time it’s Josh Jackson (USA

Today)

-“It’s a good question,” Cornelsen said when asked how he and Fuente have been able to hit on three consecutive quarterbacks, none of whom were expected to be stars out of the gate. “It’s probably a combination of a lot of different things. We do put a huge emphasis on making sure that what we run and what we call fits what our quarterback can do and can handle and have success with. That’s something that is always really important to us. That’s part of developing with a new quarterback is figuring out what he feels good about and what he can do and what he knows, what he can actually process out there in real speed on game day.”

Kyle Korver Q&A (CBSSports.com)

-If you listen to it, it's challenging. I try to minimize all the things that influence my thinking. I don't spend a lot of time on the internet reading about our team. When things are challenging, I think part of the message that we've been talking about on our team is just look yourself in the mirror and see what you can do better. Let's not worry about everybody else's problems, let's not worry about what someone else is doing right or wrong. If we all focus on what we can do better, that's really what's going to pull our team out of this little phase that we're going through. When you focus on not as much, on the smaller things, on the details, on yourself, then you don't get worried about anything else.