Breakthrough Wednesday

At last, results

As coaches, we often find ourselves waiting for those breakthrough moments.

You know, when the players finally get it - or at least, partially get it. When we get to see the results of all our labor.

And I guess it can be the same way for reporters - or whatever it is I am these days - as I attend these college basketball games, observing, listening, asking questions, and writing about what I see and hear.

For the wait can be frustrating at times, especially this time of year - mid-season, mid-winter - when we trudge to our cars, and wait for them to warm up as we drive to practice with one recurring question going through our mind: “What will it take for my players to get it?”

Because, I think it’s fair to say, most days we don’t see great progress, but instead often ask ourselves if coaching works at all, if it even pays off, if our players will ever change their bad habits and learn what we are trying to teach them.

And then it happens.

Wednesday was one of those days for me, on all counts.

It began with my afternoon middle school basketball practice, which, quite surprisingly was by far my team’s best of the season. Seemingly out of nowhere, my players were doing so many of the things I have been trying to get them to do all season - competing for loose balls, playing to win drills - not just going through the motions - playing with intent, playing off of two feet, being strong with the ball and pivoting until they found the an open teammate to pass to, showing the right amount of aggression and patience when driving.

I was like, “Oh, my, did (Insert name of most frustrating player) really just jump stop in the paint, pivot and make a good pass out to a shooter? No way.”

Now I say “out of nowhere” even though, yes, my practice plan Wednesday included a combination of new and old drills, with tweaks, designed to get just these kind of results. But that’s nothing new. That’s pretty much what I try to do every day, every practice, after lying in bed the night before thinking of ways to crack the code.

Then Wednesday night I went to the Butler/Providence game and the breakthroughs continued.

It was a big night for the Friars, who came into the game having lost five of their last six games and eight of their last 10 after opening the season 5-0.

It was little more than a week ago (Dec. 31) when Providence was trounced by Marquette at home, losing 78-50, in a game in which the Friars trailed 47-20 at the half.

Providence won Wednesday’s game, 84-65, in convincing fashion, but that wasn’t the whole story. Butler came in losers of seven in a row, so a Providence victory was far from a surprise. Now here come the breakthroughs.

First of all, on Sunday, in its first game after the Marquette debacle, Providence almost upset two-time defending national champion Connecticut, on the road, losing 87-84, in a game the Friars led by as many as 14 points in the second half.

Now we go to the post-game press conference following the Butler win. I feel the need to mention here that I have found these post-game sessions quite frustrating. A lot of that is because I am not there looking for the same kind of information as most, if not all, of the rest of the people attending. They are TV and print reporters and they are looking for a narrative, a story, to tell their readers and listeners. They want to know about the individual players, and human interest stories, and are following the wins and losses and the plot lines of their teams’ seasons. For the most part, they don’t want to hear about the intricacies of coaching and all the Xs and Os.

But then we had a breakthrough moment, as Providence head coach Kim English, ended up talking about his team’s own breakthrough moments. And it happened, again, a little more than a week after English had spoken quite honestly following the Marquette loss about how his players needed to figure out “Who we are” and emphasized that even though they know what they need to do on the floor they were just not doing it yet. The synapses were not firing.

“If we are taking care of the ball, if we are defensive rebounding, if our shot quality is good,’’ he said, sighting some of the reasons for the improved play. “Too many moments this season it hasn’t been that way, guarding shooters with our hands down, free throw rebounding, getting to loose balls, being disciplined at the end of your drive, passing and cutting. But, honestly, that’s the journey of a team, that’s the challenge of a coach, to get your guys to do what you work on every day, and to find that shared purpose.

“It was a big focus of our summer, finding shared purpose, but sometimes you have to go through some adversity, to find it, until they believe. And I know in this league, when we are watching games, and watching the best teams in this league. I always think Connecticut, I think Marquette. I think Villanova, I think Creighton. When we are watching film, and we are watching those teams do the things that we preach. And we are losing games, it slowly starts to seep in.

“And shared purpose, they have to want to do it as much as we do. They have to want to stay down on shot fakes as much as we do, they have to want to disallow threes as much as we do, they want to have to cut as much as we do, and when we get that we are winning.

“And I tell them, it is not taught until it’s learned. I can think we went over that as much as I want to, but it’s not taught until it’s learned. So we have had to slow down and be more intentional in practice, make sure it’s understood. So that when you get to the moment of truth, those things are firing. And THEY see, because that’s what matters most ... And we will keep working until there’s true shared purpose in our group.”

It is not taught until it’s learned. That is coaching. That is what it’s like to coach. That’s what breakthroughs are all about.

Now I should note that between my middle school practice and the Providence game, I went to my varsity practice, where I gleefully announced to the head coach that my middle school team just had by far its best practice of the season.

“Uh, oh,’’ he remarked, reminding me how often we coaches are humbled by such moments, when our best practices are followed by our worst games.

In other words, the breakthroughs don’t always last, or last long, and then we must go in search of the next one.