“Winners find a way, losers find excuses”

I love this saying, because if you are going to win a basketball game, you have to find a way. Its easy to make excuses for why you didn’t get a stop or why you missed a sprint. It takes a lot to dig deep within yourself when you’re tired and get the job done, but this is the difference between winning and losing.

I have seen players who meet both sides of this. Hans Schur, Chris Hall and Michael Woo are perfect examples of people who will dig down and find the next level. Chris and Mike have pushed every player this year. They don’t make an excuse, they just get the job done. Hans was constantly working in the two years I had the privilage of spending with him. He never let guys do a half-ass job. He only accepted the best out of guys and I believe thats part of why he went from a walk-on to a scholarship senior and member of the 1,000 point club.

This can be applied in the business world as well, the person that gets to the top of a company is the guy who finds a way to get the job done, not the guy who finds reasons why it won’t work or who finds ways to cut corners.

Gene

“Good coaches tell their players to do something, great coaches teach their players.”

Since I’ve started working with Coach McMillin, I’ve always stated he’s a great coach, and this quote just validates that. He doesn’t just tell the players to do it, he teaches them how to do it and why they will use it. The players that absorb this are the ones who do big things. Coach Heskett did it as well, and Coach Hayes continues to do it. This is why I feel Coach Hayes is going to do big things in the coaching game.

I’ve really learned so much from every single coach that I have worked with at Lynn because they care. They take time to teach me what is being done and why. They have not been hesitant in giving me responsibility and that means a lot. I will always remember them no matter where I go in life. I owe them so much for what they have done for me.

They’ve let me get involved in film editing, film exchange, practice planning, drills, meetings, and so much more. This has helped me get ahead in my pursuit of being a coach, because now I am more prepared for what I am going to be getting into.

Gene

“Be careful of whose toes who step on today, because they might be connected to the asss you have to kiss in the future.”

This is great for people to think about, because you never know who will be successful in the future. The kid you always though was a dork in high school or middle school might turn out to be the next Bill Gates or John Wooden, and you may be looking for a job, and when you go to that person they will probably remember what you did.

Everybody has the potential to be great, some just decide to tap into it.

Gene

No, This post is going to get into a piece of great advice Pete gave me once. “There aren’t a lot of good people you come across, so build relationships with people who care.”

This advice is great to follow because good people are hard to come across. I have met people in the coaching profession who I want to continue build relationships with. Three of them, I work with currently. Coach McMillin, Coach Hayes, and Coach Crislip have been nothing but great to me. They have shown me some of the early ropes in coaching, and have trusted me in many tasks, such as cutting film, meeting teams that come to use the gym for practice, being a liason from the other managers to the coaching staff, and even helping with drills. 

This past summer, I met numerous coaches who I have stayed in touch with who I enjoyed working alongside and hope I get the opportunity to do so again in the future.  Josh Postorino and Mike Morrell at Clemson, Scott Robinson and Brian Settle at Memphis, Jordan Watson at Barton County Community College in Kansas, and of course Pete Gash at Indiana. I know that all of them will be bright stars in the coaching community.

Gene

“If you are totally commited, no one will ever question it.”

If you think about it, the harder you work at something and the more commitment you show towards it, the less people doubt how much you want it. If you coast through something, its obvious. The people who are the greatest in their respective fields, worked their way to the top. Michael Jordan didn’t grow up as the best in basketball, he had to work at it and improve over time. In fact, he was even cut from his freshman team in high school. Muhammed Ali didn’t just step in the ring the first time and dominate the sport of boxing. He practiced and continued to climb the ranks in order to be considered the greatest.

These athletes, and the rest of the athletes that are at the top of their sports have rarely if ever had their commitment questioned, because they showed that they wanted to be at the top. This is also part of the reason that a good portion of top athletes are considered role models, because they’re actions are ones that people should strive to emulate. (And yes, sometimes this athletes screw up, but they can be used as learning tools for kids.)

Gene

In my opinion, the hardest thing for a college person to figure out is not the knowing right from wrong, or what they want to do with their life, or how to make a budget, or a hard equation in pyshics.

I feel that the hardest thing is humility.

According to the dictionary, humility is defined as the quality or state of being humble.  Pretty much, not being satisfied with what you have achieved.

If a student gets a 95 on a test and people say “Hey great job on that test!” the student feels satisfied and tends to stop improving because they feel its good enough (I’m guilty of this), instead of saying “How can I do better next time to get that other 5%?”

In college sports, one of the best examples of someone who has humility is University of North Carolina’s  Tyler Hansbrough. He is the reigning Associated Press Player of the Year and ACC Player of the Year. He returned to UNC instead of going to the NBA, partially because he enjoys being a college student, but also because he felt he wasn’t that ready to play in the NBA. He has the two awards and went to the Final Four last year, so he has proved that he is a talented player, but he still wants to get better.  

Another example is Stephen Curry of Davidson. Curry led his team to the Elite Eight and almost to the Final Four, before losing by 2 to eventual National Champion Kansas. According to an espn.com article about him, students state that he is still approachable and available to fans.

“Stephen deserves all of the attention,” senior Max Paulhus Gosselin said. “But he’s humble about it. He handles it great. It could have changed him, but Steph isn’t that type of person.”

If  you stop being humble, you will stop progressing in whatever it is you do.

Gene 

While this may seem easy enough from the outside looking in, playing at that pace is harder than it looks. I have seen glimpses of it in my time here at Lynn. In the article, one of the assistants, Patrick Sellers, echoed that getting players to play hard is one of the most difficult things in coaching. There are some players that I have been around who don’t need a coach to get them to play, but I have seen just as many who no matter what coaches have said or done, think that their ways work, then learn the hard way that they don’t, and yet still don’t play hard to correct it.

I think Coach McMillin does an excellent job of knowing what each player responds to and coaching them as individuals rather than grouping everybody together. Coach knows what a championship pace is and relates that to our players in a way that is simplified and easy to understand.

3 weeks until tip-off!

Gene

I feel that one should do what they want with their lives. Since my family owns a business, there are people that I’ve come to love and respect, that expect me to finish college then go back to Arkansas and take over the store. But that’s not what I want to do. Now yes, after awhile, I would like to do that, but I love sports and I want to become a basketball coach. Thats what I love. I love teaching and I’ve learned so much in the past two years from our coaches and the coaches I met at camps. That’s why the store isn’t my first option. As much as I love the store and the employees (past, present, and future), I need to do something that I wake up everyday and get excited about, and right now that’s basketball. Now maybe in 20 years that will be the store, but its not right now.

This summer, when Coach Tim Heskett called me and told me he wasn’t going to be coming back to Lynn and that he was getting out of coaching, he said something that has stuck with me, and will continue to stick with me, “If your heart isn’t 100% in something, then get out of it.” It’s only a couple of words, but they are so true and so powerful.

So again, “Live the life you love, not the life others want you to love.”

Gene

A great quote about motivation comes from Vince Lombardi, one of the best football coaches ever: “If you believe in yourself and have the courage, the determination, the dedication, the competitive drive and if you are willing to sacrifice the little things in life and pay the price for the things that are worthwhile, it can be done.”

Michael Jordan, highly regarded as the best basketball player was quoted as saying: I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiam to win. – Michael Jordan

“You can listen to the expectations that others have of you, but the only ones that count are the ones you have for yourself.” – Tiger Woods

This quote really hits close to home for me, because I have a lot of people telling me what they expect me to do in life, but my expectations are different than what they have for me. Some of the people at the store, expect me to finish college, go coach for a couple years, and then come back to Arkansas and take over the store. While these expectations are understandable, this is not the expectations have have for myself.

My expectations are to graduate college, coach for about 30 years or so, then move back to Arkansas. Right now, when you are talking about basketball stars from Little Rock, the main two that people from Little Rock talk about are Derek Fisher and Joe Johnson. The expectation that I have for myself is for when people talk about Little Rock basketball they mention the two of them as well as myself as the three greatest associated with the game to ever come out of Little Rock. And like I said in my last blog, I am going to put in the work and time to try and make this happen.

Well, if I get more quotes I’ll post them up.

Gene