Unlike the NCAA Women’s Tournament, the WNIT has more trouble with TV coverage. Therefore, local channels are likely to broadcast the games.

View the first round schedule.

Try watching the WNIT online with a satellite tv program on your computer. Using free websites are ok, but they are slow, sluggish and not exactly worth the time.

For March Madness you can get discounts, there’s a $20/off the normal price of $49.99 offered now. You can not only watch the WNIT but also, NIT, NCAA Men’s and Women’s NCAA Tournament Online

You Can Download the Software by Clicking Right Here

Some Offensive Thoughts From Kevin Eastman

I’m always looking for nuances that help explain things. I like finding patterns and see how to apply them for added advantage. From some notes that I received a little while ago, here are some interesting “truisms” courtesy of Kevin Eastman, the Assistant Coach for the Boston Celtics

TRUISM # 1: There is a direct correlation between the number of ball reversals and defensive breakdowns. 

Our players have to understand that the hardest thing to do defensively is to close out — to be running out at a player from the help position. Having said that, we need to understand that an advantage our offense must look to create is to get the defense to close out as often as possible; we want the ball to be reversed from side to side. With our team I can tell you that our scoring proficiency goes up as the number of passes and ball reversals goes up. Of course we have a shot clock that forces us to shoot the ball quicker, but we still would like a minimum of 3 passes as we then know the ball is getting reversed. When we only throw 1 or 2 passes we find that it is very easy for the defense to load up to the ball

TRUISM # 2: The closer you run your offense to the basket, the more physical your screens can be.

We have found that the officials are more apt to let contact go when it is closer to the basket as they are used to seeing more contact down there as opposed to out by the 3 point line. We feel that is why the flex action is allowed to get away with some physical baseline and pin down screens, and why we have to be careful when setting a back screen out by the 3 point line. So give some thought to having some part of your offensive system where you run your stuff closer to the rim.

TRUISM # 3: The faster the ball moves, the closer the defenders stay to their man.

We have found that when we move the ball a little faster, the defensive players are more concerned with staying up with their man and tend to not jump to the ball and get in help position. We also feel that that leaves us with more room to drive it as the defenders are out of position just enough to allow us to get a good driving angle on them. I would say if you do not have a good scoring post man, you should look to move the ball a little faster at times and create driving opportunities. If you do have a good post man you would want to slow it down and give the post man a good look.

To see real change and gain significant benefits from their strategies, leaders (be it head coach or assistant) need to establish an environment of trust. Leaders who are trusted — even in times of great difficulty — are skilled communicators.

When leading in times of change and transition – new head coaches, assistants moving to a new school and staff – remember communications fundamentals including these:

• Communicate relentlessly. Communicate information, thoughts and ideas clearly — and frequently — in different media. Find many ways to share information; keep processes open and transparent.
• Listen. Good communicators are also good listeners. Allow people to air their gripes and complaints. Pay attention to what others are saying, thinking and feeling. What is said, and what is left unsaid.
• Explain. People are often skeptical of change. Share your thinking and the trade-offs you’ve weighed — not just the final decision or strategy.  Involve everyone in the process.
• Articulate expectations. Clearly explaining why, how and when things need to happen will set expectations and create a healthy level of stress and pressure. It also establishes a mechanism for monitoring and addressing performance.
• Be visible. If you communicate well, you won’t be out of sight. Find ways to interact with all of your stakeholder groups – staff, student-athletes, administrators and supporters.  Be willing to roll your sleeves up and get in there and work with them.
• Confront problems and conflict. Don’t postpone dealing with challenging issues or conflict. By avoiding the difficult people or difficult issues, you can do great harm to yourself, your team, your staff and your university.
• Be honest and sincere. Communicate truthfully and honestly, follow through with what you say and avoid deception.

Leading with Authenticity in Times of Transition,  CCL Press,  2005

Organizations today are awash in change. Managing change requires leaders to focus simultaneously on managing the business and providing effective leadership to the people. More often than not, it is the focus on the people side that loses out. This book offers a framework for understanding the issues and competencies that contribute to effective leadership during times of change. Its purpose is to help leaders determine how to choose and move among a variety of managerial approaches — to help them see what’s working, what’s not working, and what’s missing. In this way, leaders can more clearly assess their impact and learn how to meet the demands of both managing the business and leading the people.

Learning How to Be More Aware

When you think of a “perfect leader,” what comes to mind?  Who comes to mind?

You might picture someone who never lets their temper get out of control, no matter what problems they’re facing. You might think of someone who has the complete trust of their staff, always speaks kindly, listens to their team, is easy to talk to and always makes careful, informed decisions.

These are qualities of someone with a high degree of emotional intelligence or EI.  Wikipedia gives us this for EI:

Emotional Intelligence (EI) describes the ability, capacity, skill or, in the case of the trait EI model, a self-perceived ability, to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups.^[1] Different models have been proposed for the definition of EI and disagreement exists as to how the term should be used.^[2] Despite these disagreements, which are often highly technical, the ability EI and trait EI models (but not the mixed models) enjoy support in the literature and have successful applications in different domains.

In this article, they look at why emotional intelligence is so important for leaders – and how you, as a leader, can improve yours.  In our highly charged and emotional professional setting – EI can be critical to success.

Follow the below link for the complete article.

From:  Mind Tools  

The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Richie Adubato was the master at this.  My time with him in New York and Washington taught me so much about dealing with people.  It is truly a gift.  He was able to adapt to any personality and use his sense of humor, his huge basketball acumen and his genuine niceness to empower even the toughest personalities to do what he needed them to do and think it was their idea.

I think the Leadership 501 site is a great resource for positive ideas on evaluating and building leadership.

Eisenhower quote from Leadership 501

If you are not in one of the coaching “Family Trees”… Calipari, Summitt, Pitino, Auriemma, Knight, VanDerveer, Krzyzewski, Stringer, Calhoun, etc… How do you get noticed to even get a call back, let alone an interview for the next opportunity?  The same can be said of the first time head coach once they get there, how do they get noticed at a non-BCS school?  it’s almost a never-ending cycle.  Unless you set your mind right and keep it right, even after you have some success, it can be a never-ending struggle.  Give your head coach complete trust and loyalty – unconditionally.  Trust your head coach’s loyalty back to you, their respect to your development and the continuation of our profession.

Basketball advancement in this generation of coaches, especially in men’s basketball, has become all about recruiting… who is delivering the best players.  The ESPN’s hot young assistant list is all about coaches with multiple top ranked recruiting classes as the “recruiting coordinator” at a BCS school.  If you can bring a program players – you get jobs and move up.  For the sake of argument, we aren’t going to include advancement for those who operate through “working in the grey area.”  That’s going to happen, it always has and always will.  Don’t let your self worry about it or get involved.  Control what you can control.  With the recent NCAA rules changes, hiring – paying people “around” prospects – will be harder.

Understand, I’m not saying you should expect to advance, move up, if you can’t deliver players.  You have to be able to recruit.  You have to become a well-rounded coach too.  My next statement will definitely put me in the “old school” category, but the way I was raised in this profession was this: to work as hard as you can, to be loyal and supportive to your head coach, the staff, players and university and do the job you have today as though it is the last job you have.  If you did that, the next opportunity took care of itself. Those were the words Jeff Van Gundy spoke to me in 1985 when I became his assistant at McQuaid Jesuit High School.  Is that true today?  They were very true then and I believe they are still true today, but fewer coaches live by them.  It’s harder to believe it’s true when those that are working that way are by-passed for people that deliver players, advance and get jobs without having the experience.

That has all changed because of how recruiting has evolved and young coaches moving through the ranks because of their ability to deliver players.  It’s perpetuated by what I call the “Cycle of Coaching.”  Simply put, coaches are hired to be fired almost at any level.  In both the Men’s or the Women’s game the days of 20+ year careers at the same college or university are over.  Now, a 5-Year contract really means win in 3 or you’re probably done.  As long as that is the case, coaches that can deliver players will get jobs.  The “win right now” (or be fired) pressure will keep that in place no matter what the NCAA does to legislate parity in recruiting.

Below is a way to get noticed and get noticed the right way.  It may seem too “old school” for some and it may not get you the next job as fast, but when you do get there you’ll be prepared, you will have a solid group of loyal people in your inner circle, you’ll have built trust and respect amongst family, friends, parents, colleagues and prospects and you’ll enjoy our profession much more.

Adapted from the Center for Creative Leadership

The Right Way to Get Noticed

First off… Be Humble. Please.  It’s perceived that humility does not breed advancement.  I disagree.  Today’s new head coach is the consummate self-promoter.  Unless, as an assistant, you work for someone who really promotes and sells you – humility is a hard proposition to take a chance on.  It’s a catch 22:  the new head coach is promoting themselves, the young assistant is (presumably) bustin’ their tail for the program and that head coach and the head coach is still promoting themselves.  An assistant can’t promote himself or herself – it’s then perceived that they are “a big ego” coach.  What do you do?

“Many of the best, most talented individuals avoid self-promoting,” says CCL’s Cindy McLaughlin, co-author of The Truth About Sucking Up: How Authentic Self-Promotion Benefits You and Your Organization. “They are uncomfortable with it or feel like any kind of self-promotion is bragging or sucking up.”

This is very true in the coaching world.  So many of the well established, well respected veteran coaches understand this and work very hard to promote their assistants.  But what happens when that is not the case?  Trouble.  Why do some head coaches do that?  It’s a no-win situation for both sides.  Our profession is built on loyalty, on trust.  Head coaches demand it; assistants crave it for all the countless hours they pour into the head coach’s program.  Everyone needs it for potential advancement.  Without it, both sides suffer.

Generally, head coaches do not intentionally choose to NOT advocate for their assistants, to NOT help them advance – but in some cases they DO choose to not help because they do not want to lose the assistant.  Long time, veteran head coaches may be so removed from being an assistant that they have forgotten this from early in their own career.  Some never were assistants very long and this factor doesn’t play into their thought process.  Either way, you must have open, honest conversation with your head coach about this.  If you do, you will find out right away: this coach is going to help me or they aren’t.  Then decide, stay or go.  No matter what, stay loyal, don’t go negative (it is never any good for anyone and no one really wants to hear it anyway) and continue doing the job you have today as though it is the last one you will have.  Stay above anything you perceive as disloyalty from a head coach.  As an assistant, you never win the battle or the war – just move on.

Self-promotion doesn’t need to be viewed in a negative light, according to McLaughlin and her co-authors Gina Hernez-Broome and Stephanie Trovas. Interestingly, when self-promotional behaviors are done well — matching style with substance — they are usually interpreted as something else: effective communication, managing up, networking, information-sharing or relationship-building.  Do it with humility, do it openly and honestly.

To toot your horn in a way that is authentic and good for both your career and your organization, consider these points:

• Self-promotion does not have to be painful or over-the-top.

Ignore the braggarts and suck-ups. People who promote well understand the importance of publicizing the work done by themselves and their groups, but there are many ways to do it: speaking up in meetings, being clear (and accurate) about successes, improving communication with your head coach and fellow staff members, volunteering for visible roles. Don’t be obnoxious, but don’t be overlooked, either.

• Effective self-promotion isn’t about being someone you’re not.

In fact, your efforts will be more accurate and better received if you are genuine, substantive and (yes) imperfect. Authenticity is an important skill to foster a healthy and collaborative workplace. Without it, credibility is strained and trust is hard to come by.

• Understand yourself.

Get clear on your strengths and why they matter. If you try to self-promote and are off the mark, then you come across as either pathetic, ego-driven or having delusions of grandeur.

• Don’t expect others to notice your work without your efforts.

Doing a job and doing it well doesn’t ensure that others will appreciate and value it. Self-promotion is needed in some way to connect the dots between what you do and why it matters. The head coach won’t always make those connections by themselves.  Especially if they are busy self-promoting.  Help them.

• Don’t inflate yourself at others’ expense.

What might seem like a win at the time will cause damage to your reputation and limit your ability to work well with others. Plus, it’s just not nice.  We’re a profession of respect and loyalty.  To your head coach as well as the other assistants you are on staff with.  Treat the profession with respect and the others around you the same.  It will give back to you ten-fold.

• Promote what you deliver.

Back up your claims with real accomplishments, skills, experience or knowledge that deserve recognition and acknowledgment. If you tout yourself as detail-oriented, then be that person, plan the minutiae and uncover the mistake. Unmatched people skills?  Put them to use resolving conflict, coaching others and building a great staff.

When it isn’t working.  If you know that you are getting great results – there is proof in the pudding and it is not getting recognized and you’re concerned about your future, you have to take a new approach.

Begin by looking for opportunities to talk to your head coach about the accomplishments that have occurred that directly relate to your investment in that area.  Do it in a way that felt genuine, humble and reasonable.  Add yourself to the staff meeting agenda and made sure you speak up early in the meeting.  Start with a group accomplishment and a group challenge or critical issue. You’ll find information shared was the truth; it just hadn’t really been shared publicly before.

After a few weeks, your head coach will realize how you have played an important role in increasing the staff’s productivity. While the staff may or may not have actually improved, you will have increased your promotion of the staff and yourself so that, going forward, they were accurately assessed by the head coach.

Watching San Antonio vs. Washington.

Saw a nice inverted High Split used as a pressure release for PTG:  Used with good passing center (Duncan), with Back Door action into inverted High Split.

CLICK for DOWNLOADABLE / PRINTABLE Play

The coffee house’s, the corner bar, the chat rooms all asked… Why would the Grizzlies take this chance?  Everyone says they knew this would happen.  Not so fast.

Allen Iverson

From this…

Iverson Meeting with Grizzlies

Then…

Iverson Worth the Risk

To…

Iverson Takes Leave of Absense

Now the end game…

Iverson Grizzlies Part Ways

There’s a simple answer… you know “The Answer,”… what other 10-Time All-Star, former MVP was available for a struggling team at a bargain price.  In 889 career games, Iverson has AVERAGED 27.0 ppg… 24,020 points!  That, alone, is the reason.  Professional teams, at least in basketball, will spend whatever they need to to get more wins.  Iverson, potentially, gets you wins.  If they can get what they need to get more wins, for less… Go For It!   At a one-year, incentive based contract it was a no-brainer.  No harm, no foul.  A few million is nothing to risk for potentially 18 extra wins.  Could Iverson at 34 provide 18 extra wins?   He averaged 26.4 ppg in ‘07-’08, season before last at 32.   With the other new players on the Grizz roster… maybe.

The Grizzlies at 22-60 in 2008-09 a potential improvement to 40-42 in 2009-10 is was worth the risk.

The NBA’s Southwest Division:  San Antonia, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans and Memphis is arguably one of the leagues toughest.  The trouble with a 15-game improvement is that in the Southwest Division, Memphis wouldn’t have moved up at all based on last season’s finish.  They need a lot more help.

There are reports now that the New York Knicks have interest in Iverson.  Why not?!  New York is the Memphis of the Eastern Conference.  The NBA can’t afford New York to continue to be one of the worst teams in the league.  It is not healthy for the league.  Remember New York BEFORE the Patrick Ewing draft pick?  The league was not healthy then.  The league is much healthier now, but the economy could change that rapidly if it doesn’t improve.  Signing Iverson also may distract New York fans from the potential fact that the #1 overall pick might have been traded away this year.  Doubtful.  How would an Iverson signing impact LeBron’s thoughts of being in New York?  There are major questions here.

On another thought New York already had Iverson, right…. sorry, that was Stephon Marbury.  Different player, potentially the same result?

We will see where this continues or if it continues.

Developing leaders and leadership is what gives our coaching philosophy “legs,” empowers it into action.  Your players, staff and you yourself each have strengths and capabilities that will allow you an opportunity to succeed.  All the resources, strengths, talents, and knowledge – without proper leadership – will fail.  We see, every year, coaches that have had great success lose their jobs.  Winning a conference championship, advancing in the NCAA tournament does not guarantee longevity anymore.  A conference championship and trip to the NCAA’s one year, followed by a slightly better than .500 season and a trip to a non-NCAA tournament, followed by an under .500 year can mean a pink slip.  Those coaches did not suddenly become “less smart”; forget what they did a short time earlier to win.  What happens?  Leadership can play a role.

Leadership strategies are continually developing, especially in the area of student-athletes.  There are many philosophies in our student-athletes and staff’s types of learning styles.  The same is true in the instruction of different leaders and the personalities of different generations of leaders.

Every team is different.  Every team needs different types and styles of leaders.  Each season produces different challenges to that leadership model.  Continually developing varying leadership skills is important to addressing the ever-changing leadership model.  This is equally as important as staying current with any other coaching philosophy.  X’s & O’s, scouting, training have less relevance if the program lacks leadership and direction.

Your leadership strategy, the strategy you use to grow leaders, teaches what kind of leaders we need, what skills they possess and clearly states how our leaders conduct themselves, both as individuals and within the team unit.

To understand and develop the leadership of an organization, several factors should be addressed:

• The quantity of leaders needed, what does your team need?  More than just “Captains.”  Identify the non-basketball related weaknesses of the team and address them (if possible) with leadership, varying strategies and leaders.
• The qualities desired in selection — What are the most important attributes, which players provide broad leadership ability, are there leaders with a deep background within the team?, is there experience?
• The skills and behavior – Innately, do team members already possess skills and behaviors that are needed to implement the goals and vision of the team and create the desired culture?  This will become imperative when the team sets up their Standards of Behavior.
• The collective leadership capabilities – team leaders working together within the team.  How each works with all team members to push forward the accepted behaviors, the self-policing, carrying on the agreed upon covenant (promises team members commit to) while adapting to the changes that occur throughout a season and how they support the guidance of the coaching staff and/or head coach.
• The desired leadership culture – One of inclusion of all team members, bringing everyone into the fold.  A culture that breads responsibility and accountability amongst team members, fostering opportunities for the growth of other leaders (especially younger student-athletes) to continue the on-going leadership culture across multiple years of the program.

As coaches, we tend to devote our teaching of leadership and focus on only the first three of these ways of describing leadership. Omitting collective leadership and leadership culture, we have overlooked what makes leadership come alive within a team and the factors that often determine whether our ultimate success will be achieved.

A good leadership strategy takes all of these factors into account.

Very few coaches have an explicit leadership development strategy. Is it any wonder that without one, coaches find that they don’t have the leadership talent they require?  Find that success comes and goes from year to year?  And, unfortunately, find themselves searching for the next stop on the coaching carousel.

Adapted From the Center for Creative Leadership

Latavious Williams from Rivals.com

Latavious Williams made history Thursday when he became the first high school player ever to jump straight to the NBA D-League.

The Tulsa 66ers chose Williams with the 16th overall pick. Tulsa is an affiliate of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

His high school coach said Williams turned down a $100,000 guaranteed contract to play in China in favor of entering the NBDL Draft because he felt it gave him a better shot at reaching the NBA. The average D-League salary is between $35,000-$40,000.

“He had a contract on the table that could’ve paid him $100,000 or better in China but he had to weigh the pros and cons,” said Carlos Wilson of Humble (Texas) Christian Life Center. “It came down to taking the money and getting some financial stability for now, but still you’re a long way from the NBA when you’re in China. Or taking the least amount of money and being a step closer instead of four steps closer.”

The 6-foot-8, 205-pound Williams initially committed to Memphis in May but faced academic hurdles that endangered his eligibility. He then announced in July that he would play overseas instead.

“Obviously if a kid has a chance to play professionally and have a chance financially to better him and his family, again, you have to support the kid because that’s No. 1,” Memphis head coach Josh Pastner told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in July.

Brandon Jennings skipped college last year to play professionally in Italy and ended up being chosen No. 10 in this year’s NBA Draft by Milwaukee. He is now the leading contender for NBA Rookie of the Year honors.

Jeremy Tyler, a 6-10 junior from San Diego, is suffering through a rocky time in Israel and plans to enter the 2011 NBA Draft.

Two American college guards, Nick Calathes of Florida and Terrence Oglesby of Clemson, opted to leave college early to play professionally overseas.

But Williams made history by jumping to the D-League, which he hopes will eventually lead him to the NBA.

“Somebody from the NBA is going to see your every move,” Wilson said. “I think that was it. It was basically closer to making it to the NBA.”

According to Tulsa’s official Website, three players on the Thunder’s opening night roster saw playing time with the 66ers last season.

Kyle Weaver averaged 17.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, and nine assists in two games, while D.J. White averaged 18.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks in six games on assignment in Tulsa. Shaun Livingston played 11 games for Tulsa, averaging 9.3 points, six assists and 3.5 rebounds per contest, before being called-up to the Thunder on March 31.

In addition, Ramon Sessions of the Minnesota Timberwolves played on assignment during the 2007-08 season, while Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova and Orlando Magic forward Brandon Bass each played on assignment during the 2005-06 season.

Williams hopes he can follow in their path.