The Final Four has been attended and The NCAA champions have been crowned. The questions we basketball coaches get asked are:
1. Do you get time off now?
2. What do you do with all of your free time now?
3. This is the slow time of the year, right?
The answer to all of those questions is NO!
The Spring for a college basketball coach my very well be one of the busiest times of the year. So much is going on within the game and around the game that as a coach you may find yourself totally absorbed with it all.
Here is a laundry list of things a college coaching staff has to deal with during the Spring. I have divided them into two categories:
I. Inside your program
II. Outside of your program.
Here are some examples that occur inside your program:
-Academic issues from the Second Semester as they reflect to the determination if a player will return or not.
-Player/Roster evaluations.
-Transfers
-5th year players who graduating and could return to your team.
-Players deciding to enter the NBA draft.
-The starting of Spring Weight training and skill workouts
-possible coaching changes(either coming or going).
-Spring signing period
-Recruiting of Juniors: home visit, school visits, Workouts, AAU tournament on the ONLY weekend of the month of April.
-Implementing improvements that will make your program better.
-Scheduling of games for next year.
-Job placement of your Senior players and managers.
Here are some examples that occur Outside of the program.
-Studying the transfer list and determine the value of accepting a transfer.
-Determine the value of accepting a 5th graduate student/player
– Keeping an eye on the “coaching changes”and it’s potential effect to your program.
The outside perception that “Spring” is a time for college coaches to recharge their batteries just doesn’t match the reality. The truth of the matter is that if we are dedicated to making our programs better, college basketball is a profession that requires long hours 12 months per year. Of course, as deeply competitive and driven people, we don’t mind the “Grind”-coaching is a calling and working in college basketball is a blessing, and we love what we do.
