Giving Yourself a Head Start

Received this from Coach Kevin Eastman, assistant coach of the Boston Celtics. If you want to see a great web site go to: www.kevineastmanbasketball.com

Sometimes it is good to take a minute and think about success and how to get there. I can safely say if you commit the following thoughts to your everyday life, they will give you a head start on those you compete against.

The neat thing is that all of us have a choice each day to do with that day what we want. Some choose not to do much; some choose to talk a good game. And some choose to invest in that day. My eyes tell me those who choose to invest usually get that HEAD START we all would like to have. Enjoy and internalize these thoughts......Good Luck!!

1. In an effort to become the best, the best always give their best. Its not a very elaborate formula - just one that separates you from the pack.

2. A LITTLE MORE usually produces a lot more. A little more focus, a little more effort, a little more thought, a little more sacrifice - doing a little more produces a lot more. And a lot more allows you to become more!

3. Indecision is the single biggest thief of our goals, our dreams and often the opportunities we could have had. Don't sabotage your own success; be decisive!

4. Successful people seem to do all the things that unsuccessful people think they're too big for, too cool for, too good for. Nothing is too big or too small for successful people!

5. Simple truth about the best players and coaches in the NBA is that the best always want to get better. They're always trying to learn more; they never want to stay the same!

6. In a 24-hour day, is it important to you to improve? Make it mandatory to find a minimum of an hour to work on yourself. If you become more, you become more valuable! Spend the time you need to do a great job at your job, but don't neglect spending time on your own improvement. It comes back to help your employer in the long! To get more you must become more!

7. Someone is going to be the best at something on your team or in your company, so why don't you be that person? Being the best requires hundreds of sacrifices that the public or even your boss may never see. That's just the price of admission to join the BEST club.

8. Success requires hours and hours of sustained thought, work and passion. Everyone wants the success, but so many want it on their own terms. They don't want the hours and the preparation that goes into it. Take this daily challenge!!

9. Success is not free. There are down payments that must be made - in hard work, in high-quality work, in consistent work, in teamwork. You must be willing to invest in your own success!

10. Opportunities don't always knock on your door; they often sit around and wait until you recognize them. The key is to be prepared for that opportunity when it presents itself. Preparation is what turns opportunity into good fortune!

Who will cry for the little boy?

Was watching the movie Antwone Fisher last night....I love this poem...

Who will cry for the little boy?
Lost and all alone.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Abandoned with out his own?

Who will cry for the little boy?
He cried himself to sleep.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He never had for keeps.

Who will cry for the little boy?
He walked the burning sand.
Who will cry for the little boy?
The boy inside the man.

Who will cry for the little boy?
Who knows well hurt and pain.
Who will cry for the little boy?
He died again and again.

Who will cry for the little boy?
A good boy he tried to be.
Who will cry for the little boy?
Who cries inside of me.

Kevin Eastman: Thoughts on Defense

Five Things in Half-Court Defense:

1. Get back and SET
2. Be a great HELP team
3. Be a NO PAINT team
4. Be a no-corner three team
5. Be an alert & aware team

The best defensive teams can still defend in disadvantage situations.

Six Musts of Defense:

1. Communication:

• Talking intimidates
• It gives defense head start
• It gives man on the ball more confidence
• You can wake up a disengaged defender
• It catches the mistake before it happens
• Energizes the team

2. Trust

• Teams that don't trust foul more

3. Position

4. Awareness

5. Alertness

6. Multiple Effort Mindset

Three Must Haves of Communications:

1. Early

2. Loud

3. Continuous

Six Cant Haves of Defense:

1. Lack of the six must haves
2. Personal Defense
3. You cant have gambles - Leads to open shots and fouls
4. Dare shot - Dare offensive player to shoot
5. Close byes - going past offensive player on close outs
6. Helping with outside foot.

Five Areas of Consistency:

1. Focus
2. Effort
3. Positioning
4. Awareness
5. Alertness

You can play any defense and be good if you have four things:

1. Player commitment
2. Habits
3. Focus
4. Passion

Special Teams Mentality in Basketball

I am a huge fan of Coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State. I love the way his teams play on the defensive end as well as the toughness his team display on the floor.

Another reason for my appreciation of Coach Izzo is his innovations of other sports into his philosophies. Coach Izzo is a big fan of the gridiron. His best friend is Steve Mariucci, longtime NFL and college football coach.

He discusses how SPECIAL TEAMS in football have been emphasized by all the great football coaches. In Michigan State basketball, he firmly believes that the Spartans SPECIAL TEAMS have been a key ingredient in their success.

Knowing that so many games are decided by six points or less, and that the majority of NCAA Tournament games are decided by even less, Izzo, has decided to focus on five areas that would make up their SPECIAL TEAMS. Their goal is to have their SPECIAL TEAMS produce 15-20 points per game. If they achieve their goal, close games become very comfortable wins and, more importantly, devastating losses can be turned into exciting victories.

The Five Areas of MSU SPECIAL TEAMS are:

1. Jump Ball Situations
2. Baseline Out-of-Bounds
3. Sideline Out-of-Bounds
4. Free-Throw Situations
5. After Time-Out Plays

1. Jump Ball Situations:

We want to set the tone and tempo of the game from the opening tip. Our scouting report will cover if we can control the tip or, if we lose the tip, which direction our opponent tends to tip the ball. For example, if we feel that we cannot win the tip and our opponent consistently tips the ball in the back court, then we will set up a play to steal the tip and run a set action in order to get a high percentage shot immediately. Our mindset is to begin every game in the ATTACK mode and score our first basket before the defense has time to set up. You would be surprised at how many times a defense can be caught off guard on the very first possession of the game.

If you can control the tip, I would suggest coming up with two different quick hitters your team can run and feels confident in. We end every game-day shoot around executing our tip play, always concluding the practice on a made basket. Its great for the teams confidence to know that they have a plan to start every game with a quick lead.

2. Baseline Out-of-Bounds - Attack When They Relax:

We take great pride in scoring on what we call our BLOBS (baseline out-of-bounds). You will be pleasantly surprised at how many baskets you will score if your team develops a mentality that they have a great offensive advantage when taking the ball out along the baseline. We work on our BLOBS every day, spending ten minutes of practice time. We execute our BLOBS at game speed, calling out which option we want the shot coming from. We will also scrimmage live on BLOBS, with each team getting five opportunities to score. Again, we constantly emphasize how important this aspect of the game is to our teams success.

In many cases, we will put in special plays for each opponent. If our opponent had a difficult time guarding a BLOB in their previous game, we may steal that play and put it in for that specific game. One thing we will always do in this situation is review that play on game day and inform our players that we will run that BLOB on the first out-of-bounds opportunity.

3. Sideline Out-of-Bounds - Get an Open Three:

Many teams main objective in their sideline out of bounds (we call them SLOBS) is to get the ball into play safely. Again we differ in this philosophy because we want to use every potential scoring opportunity to attack the defense in a situation that they might not spend a lot of practice time on.

At Michigan State, we try to run our variety of SLOBS to get a quick, open three-point shot. Many teams defend SLOBS by flattening their defense and we have found success in screening this defensive set and bringing our shooters to an open area for a high percentage three-point shot. SLOBS are a great time to catch the defense relaxing and reward your offensive execution with a great looking shot from the three-point line.

4. Free Throw Situations - Turning a Miss into Points:

A main emphasis in our championship program has been on dominating our offensive backboards. In many games, our best offense has been the missed shot. Obviously, it would be great if our team never missed a free throw, but since even the best teams only shoot 75% from the free-throw line, we decided to also emphasize attacking the offensive glass during a free-throw situation.

Im sure every coach can recall a game that was won or lost on an offensive put-back off a missed free throw. Although there are many different techniques or actions you could use to attack the glass on free throw situations, the most important point is that you get your players to go to the boards and go hard. Just like the chart we use to determine the percentage of how often we go to the offensive boards in our offensive sets, we also use the same chart for our free throw situations.

5. After Time-Out Plays - Execution and Discipline:

There may be nothing more frustrating for a coach than to call or diagram a play during a time-out only to have it improperly executed on the floor. To combat this problem and to increase the focus and execution of our after-time-out plays, we will periodically call time-out during practice to diagram and set up a play. We will do this at any time during practice, during a drill, after sprints, or even when the team is shooting free throws. The players will grow accustomed to increasing their concentration and executing a play during this important time.

We have had great results because of this practice habit. In our 2001 regional final versus Temple, out players executed and scored on seven of our nine time-out plays. All the credit should go to the players because they conditioned themselves to be successful in those important situations.

There is no doubt that one of the reasons why our team has been so successful in these SPECIAL TEAMS area is because we emphasize them every day in practice. We will work on at least two of our SPECIAL TEAMS every day in practice and also cover all five areas during our game-day shoot-around. Our players are highly motivated and take great pride in turning what some would consider boring aspects of the game.

Player Checklist

This time of year, we are looking to improve our individual development. Here is a great checklist for players:


ATTITUDE:

____ I am teachable

____ I learn by watching

____ I am enthusiastic

____ I am a good listener

____ I concentrate in practice

____ I am a hard worker

____ I set specific goals

____ I am developing my strength

____ I am team oriented

____ I encourage others

DEFENSE

____ I have a defensive attitude

____ I am aggressive

____ I work from a good defensive stance

____ I have my hands up and active

____ I pressure the ball when it is passed, dribbled or shot

____ I deny my man the ball.

____ I jump to the ball on the pass or dribble

____ I use a pistols stance when I am in help

____ I block out on every shot

____ I look to take charges.

____ I get to loose balls

OFFENSE

____ I move without the ball

____ I catch the ball with my feet in the air

____ I face the basket in triple threat

____ I work low and on balance

____ I dribble well with both hands

____ I use pass fakes and shot fakes

____ I know how to set and use good screens

____ I know and use the steps to the shooting progression

____ I know and use the steps to free throw shooting

____ I know my rebound responsibilities

Wisdom from Rose

I don't have a picture of Rose, so I thought I would use a picture of the greatest woman who has ever lived, Mother Teresa.

I received an e-mail the other day about a lady who got it right....Here is the story!!!!

The first day of school, our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up here entire being...

She said, Hi Handsome. My name is Rose. I am eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug???

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, Of course you may! and she gave me a giant squeeze.

Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age? I asked. She jokingly replied, I am here to meet a rich husband, get married and have a couple of kids...

No seriously, I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

I always dreamed of having a college education and now I am getting one! she told me.

After class, we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milkshake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this TIME MACHINE as she shared her wisdom and experience with me...

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I will never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her speech, she dropped her 3 X 5 cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed, she leaned into the microphone and simply said, I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for lent and this whiskey is killing me! Ill never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.

As we laughed, she cleared her throat and began. We do not stop plying because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything, I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody! Can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.

She concluded her speech by courageously singing...THE ROSE.

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At years end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those moths ago.

One week after graduation, Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it is never too late to be all you can possibly be.

REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. If God brings it to you, He will bring you through it.

Good friends are like the stars........You don't always see them, but you know they are always there!!!!