As a high school coach for 4 years, a college coach for 8 years, and a small (basketball-related) business owner for 3 years, I’ve had a chance to observe college coaches closely. I’ve also had the opportunity to listen to a large cross-section of knowledgeable basketball people share their observations and experiences dealing with college coaches. Over the years, a consensus has developed regarding areas where college coaches in general have a need for improvement.
A couple of points before getting started: one, this guest column speaks in generalities, and by no means applies to all college coaches. Also, it is meant to be constructive criticism, with the hope that at least one college coach who reads this will benefit from it. It is not meant to offend any individual person, and it’s certainly not meant to denigrate a profession that I love. Furthermore, when I coached in college, I was guilty at times of nearly every topic covered below, so I’m not trying to get on a soapbox and pretend that I’m holier than thou. I’m not. Finally, I wrote this primarily with NCAA Division I coaches in mind, and some of these criticisms are less applicable to coaches outside of D1, at least that’s been my experiences (largely confirmed by my conversations with experienced people in the basketball industry).
Authenticity
College coaches regularly burn the bridge with a high school or grassroots coach by building a relationship on an inauthentic basis. To attach specificity to that general comment, many college coaches will unceremoniously end a relationship with a high school or grassroots coach after that one kid’s recruitment is over. In life, sometimes the right thing and the smart thing aren’t the same thing, but in this case, building and maintaining genuine relationships with high school and grassroots coaches is both the right thing to do (phony not generally being an admirable character trait) and the smart thing to do (given that a high school or grassroots coach might have another kid you intend to recruit down the road, and given that a perceived slight can motivate a high school or grassroots coach to carve up your reputation and poison the waters with other coaches in that area); and yet far too many college coaches continue to approach relationships with high school and grassroots coaches from a position of short-term expedience rather than long-term authenticity. To the college coaches who feel they need to work on this area, try spending 10 minutes each day sending personal texts to high school and grassroots coaches who don’t currently have a kid you’re actively recruiting.
Communication
Communication is the essence of college coaching, and yet many college coaches do a poor job communicating in several key areas. For example, when practice is over, do you talk to the kid on your team who isn’t getting it done, or do you talk about him with the other coaches? It’s always amazing how many college basketball players who aren’t getting much playing time profess to have no idea why they aren’t playing more. As a coach, you may be thinking that a kid who doesn’t know why he isn’t playing has a classic case of “doesn’t get it,” and you may very well be right. However, Lafayette College head coach Fran O’Hanlon is fond of pointing out that “without learning, there is no teaching.” In other words, if a kid doesn’t get it, that’s because you didn’t teach it well enough for him to understand. As simple as it sounds, it’s important that all kids who aren’t playing know exactly why they’re not playing and exactly what they can do to change their situations; and until the kid makes the positive changes you’ve specifically prescribed, you have to keep communicating your message (and possibly changing the delivery, building an accountability structure, etc) until it resonates. I coached a kid for 2 years who was the biggest, strongest, and most athletic kid in our league, and he never peed a drop. And I will go to my grave believing that the reason he so fantastically underperformed is that I coached him badly and was never able to communicate my message with efficacy. As a coach, it’s important to accept responsibility when things don’t go well, and to strive to improve your communication skills and tactics, because without learning, there is no teaching.
Another common example where coaches fail to communicate involves tying up the loose ends once the decision has been made to no longer pursue a given prospect. Unfortunately, it’s all too frequent for a college coach to just quit calling and leave the kid and his family and his high school and grassroots coaches dangling in the wind. And when college coaches drop the ball and become non- communicative ghosts, they leave hurt feelings and ill will in their wakes. The old adage “a stitch in time save nine” is very applicable here. Having the common courtesy to communicate that you’re no longer interested might produce short-term angst, but not bothering to give anyone a head’s up at all produces long-term grudges. A case can be made that it’s easier and better to just pick up the phone and have a candid conversation with the kid or his parents or his coach, as having the courage to do the right thing and face the awkward moment now will prevent potential problems in the future.
Along the same lines, if a kid on your team is having problems, it’s 100% critical to keep that kid’s parents and/or high school coach and/or grassroots coach in the loop (not a daily regiment of snitching about a single missed class and the like, because then the kid won’t trust you, but it’s important to make the kid’s family and coaches back home aware of a developing pattern of behavior that is leading toward the kid’s possible self-destruction or dismissal from the team). First of all, if things aren’t going well, the people back home may be able to help you get the kid moving back in the right direction, and they clearly can’t help you solve a problem they don’t know exists. But additionally, a phone call that blindsides a kid’s family or coaches back home with awful and irreversible news will not generally be particularly well received. Not enough college coaches keep an organized schedule of updates that go out to each student-athlete’s family and coaches back home. Even something as easy to execute as a planned monthly update is tremendously appreciated, and it avoids all kinds of problems down the road if circumstances dictate a parting of the ways.
Loyalty
If a kid isn’t good enough as a basketball player, that means that you as a staff blew either the evaluation or the player development. That isn’t the kid’s fault, that is your fault. However, there are way too many college coaches engaging in the practice known inside the industry as “clearing cap space,” which is the process of convincing a kid you don’t want anymore to “voluntarily” decide to leave so the coaching staff doesn’t seem like they took the kid’s scholarship.
It goes like this, “Son, first of all, we are not pulling your scholarship, because we made a promise to your mother and we are good and honorable people and we would never do that, BUT, son, you’ll NEVER play here. I mean, NEVER, EVER, NEVER!! Do you understand? The kids we’re bringing in are better than you, and I just can’t see you playing here, EVER. Well, OK, good talk, son. Sleep on it, pray on it, and let me know what you decide.”
Of course, most kids take the hint and “decide” to transfer, and college coaches who clear cap space get to believe they didn’t do anything wrong. Well, guess what, it is wrong. And, of course, some kids fail out of school, some kids get kicked out of school where the kid’s fate was out of the coach’s hands, and sometimes, a kid behaves so badly that a coach can and in some cases should feel well justified in getting rid of him. But we’re not talking about that here. We’re talking about a good kid who isn’t a good enough basketball player who for all practical purposes gets his scholarship yanked. To reiterate, kids can’t offer themselves scholarships, and kids don’t coach themselves, so the coaches should accept at least some of the responsibility. And “clearing cap space” shows a lack of loyalty, and I would even go so far as to say a lack of an understanding of what this profession is supposed to be about.
P.S. When an incoming coach convinces players to leave who were recruited by the previous staff and who have not yet played for the incoming coach, that should not call into question the incoming coach’s loyalty.
Humility
College coaches speak at coaching clinics all the time, but most don’t attend coaching clinics, and the ones who attend do so primarily for networking purposes rather than to improve themselves as coaches. Indeed, it’s rare to see NCAA Division I college coaches sitting in the first 3 rows taking detailed notes at coaching clinics (they do take detailed notes at the various networking/job attaining seminars, though). And while high school coaches attending college practices regularly take notes in order to improve themselves as coaches, the reverse is seldom true. In short, there’s a consensus of informed opinions that way too many college coaches display their arrogance and their insecurity by preferring monologues to dialogues. It’s important to understand the difference between confidence and arrogance: confident people believe in themselves enough to seek and value input from others, whereas arrogant people’s insecurity causes them to take all suggestions as personal criticisms and all questions as attacks. Confident people see the value in lifetime learning, and arrogant people never seem to know what they don’t know. Too many college coaches, while outwardly confident, allow arrogance to dominate their characters, but the best kind of leader adopts the spirit of a humble servant and lifetime learner. If there’s a college coach with whom this passage resonates, make a point moving forward to spend 10 minutes after a high school practice listening to the coach share his coaching philosophy with you. Not only are these spontaneous mini-clinics a chance for meaningful professional growth, but you might make a friend out of that high school coach, and there’s no such thing as too many friends.
Diligence
If a group of folks knowledgeable about recruiting came together and wrote a book called The Top 100 Rules of Recruiting, following up on every lead and leaving no stone unturned would be pretty high on the list. And yet, college coaches are, on average, just plain miserable about returning phone calls and answering emails from people they don’t know. Of course, college coaches are legitimately very busy, and the volumes of emails and phone calls can become overwhelming. Additionally, there is no question that the higher the level of play, the less likely that random emails and phone calls are likely to produce leads that can actually help your program. And, it goes without saying that nobody is perfect, in this area or any other area. But that is a reasonable excuse to be a little or even a lot slow replying to inquiries, not to ignore the inquiries permanently. With all of that having been said, though, let’s speak the plain truth: if you are a college coach who habitually ignores messages and emails, you are unprofessional and irresponsible, and your lack of diligence hurts your program in more ways than you know, because you’re not currently bothering to discover the lost benefits. And, there’s a simple solution, if you are too busy or if you’ve made a strategic time management decision to focus on leads with established reliability or whatever the case may be- delegate the responsibility of processing and summarizing your office voice mail and your work email to a GA or a manager or a secretary or a volunteer (having a small staff at the D1 level is a choice, not an excuse, since there’s a waiting army of surprisingly competent volunteers who would jump at a chance to join any D1 staff, in any position, on a completely unpaid basis).
I hope those thoughts are helpful to someone… thanks very much to Coach Raveling for the invitation to share some ideas, and thanks very much to Coach Raveling’s audience for reading…
