Themes of Teams

It's been quite the unique experience this year -- one that encompassed the completion of a college head coaching season, and the fortune to view another very special program put it all together after years of maturation, sacrifice, and commitment. MIT clinched its first ever NCAA tournament berth with a conference tourney championship today, and I was able to witness the win in person. Knowing what the team has been through and understanding what it took to get to this historical point is extraordinary. Being a part of an exclusive club, one that is dedicated to the highest standards in academics and one that competes on the court, is truly incomparable.

I am very proud to be a piece of that precious moment -- to not only have been through battles alongside the same players, but to also share in the celebration. To have the seniors on the team call me out to the court to cut down a string of net symbolized noteworthy admiration and appreciation. A true team, a group of individuals who epitomize energy, excitement, and work ethic, is what was in Worcester this weekend. Fusion like that does not simply occur. It happens as the result of dedication, discipline, and a distinct understanding of how to maximize every player and coach.

As a spectator, one could recognize the trust and teamwork on the floor. Players were looking for each other, either to drive and kick or help out on defense or recover, box and board... play after play was picturesque from a team standpoint. Although not perfect, there was an overall sense of direction, as if every baller was connected to the same soul. The three seniors commanded competitiveness and underclassmen stepped up in their roles. There was no way the team was to be denied.

Understand that the process was not instant -- it took years of team building and imagining ways to enhance the culture of the program. Unparalleled off season practice, senior leadership, and an unwavering collaborative effort produced a team that otherwise could have been flaky and shaken. Development was apparent and devotion dominated.

Recently, there have been other stories of team building:

Joe Girardi is advanced and aware. He is not afraid to put away the bats and take in some pool.

Kenyon College created a sensational swimming program, one that is both creative and conventional.

The championship run of Trinity College's squash teams is unbelievable -- both in numbers and know how.

In all of these examples, it is shown that a program is in constant construction -- in setting new foundations and constructing stronger ones from what is already solid.

Sometimes, it's amazing how quickly a hired crew can assemble a building -- yet it's more astounding to comprehend the actual time it took to communicate the overall vision and locate the ground to dig.

Development and Devotion - A Program Needs Both

Posting Time

It's been as tough to find time to post as it's been tough to win another game. Since my arrival at Caltech in late September, I have tried to play "catch up" as the program has instituted several new approaches that will hopefully help its development -- everything from new gear to a new recruiting philosophy to community involvement. We have placed an emphasis on enhancing the culture of athletics and forced a focus on commitment. One of the major challenges, as I was told before moving 3,000 miles away from Boston, was the constant issue of maintaining solid practices due to the rigorous Caltech course load and unavoidable, yet unfavorable, sleep patterns. I am proud to say that these have not been noticeable problems. Though many players may stay up much later doing work than the average college student, they also sleep in longer. There has not been an identifiable fatigue factor in practice this year because we emphasized time management and allegiance to our team -- and the responsibilities that accompany the role of being a citizen within our program.

Though one may not be able to tell by the outcomes of our games, we are gradually developing skill sets and evolving as an entire unit. I knew patience and persistence would be values of which to take hold, even tighter than imagined, yet the development (especially of our younger members with no previous experience) is truly fascinating. And the fact that we come back, day after day, for two-plus hours of practice, ready to work and sweat, is a testament to our players' personas and strength.

Keep it Going

This is an exciting time as we anticipate our last half dozen games and await word of our recruiting efforts. It will be our pleasure to host the first men's basketball alumni event this weekend while the university's president and wife serve as our honorary coaches. And, in a couple of weeks, we will honor the six players who will graduate this year in a pre-game ceremony on senior night.

In our best road game this year, and perhaps Caltech's last several years, Travis Haussler scored his 1,000 point -- and it was great to have his father in the stands as he did so. There are so many moments that bring joy to this club, despite not putting up outstanding team numbers. Only one who is with us everyday can truly understand the impact the team and its values have on each individual student-athlete. These are players who make up some of the brightest minds in the world. They go out to compete to the best of their abilities. Can we improve? Absolutely. Especially with a clear vision, an understanding of the system, and tremendous leadership -- from the seniors onto the underclassmen who will take over when a new crop of players arrive in the fall.

Fortune in Southern Cal?

If we're fortunate, we'll eventually have a Jimmy Bartolotta, as we were lucky to get at MIT. He is the consummate competitor and one who will drive a program to be good with a work ethic that cannot be topped. We knew how good he had become -- and now the New York Times does, too. When I first saw Jimmy in a high school video, it was not necessarily his basketball skills that grabbed my attention -- it was his mindset, his leadership, his focus. I could see all of those characteristics in the way he played the game. By the time he came for an overnight visit in Cambridge, we had spoken many times. He already had the basketball knowledge and determination we needed -- he was a true student of the game who had already experienced success in high school. We needed his mental and physical prowess in our program -- I even made a home visit to his house in Colorado to demonstrate our utmost interest in him.

During his first year at MIT, he told me that he wanted to be the best player from the institute -- ever. Well, he has accomplished that. He now has more than 2,000 career points, easily the most by any Engineer, and he also recently set the all-time steals record. Besides those categories, he ranks at the top in almost every other one as well. How many players do you know that shoot over 50 percent -- from 3-point range? Oh, and also are at the top of their conference in blocked shots?

It's not the statistics that tell the whole story, though. It's his attitude and mental toughness. He works more than anyone. He studies film. He reads about competitiveness. He makes others play and practice hard. He will not take "no" for an answer. That is why his team is on its way to the best mark in history.

Moving On and Moving Up

I have always wondered how people are able to move from one job to another so suddenly...coaches get other positions, players get traded, workers get transferred. Well, I'm in the midst of it right now as I have been named Head Men's Basketball Coach for the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA.

It is going to be an exciting and challenging era as we create the new wave of Caltech basketball -- and I am really looking forward to it.

As a coach at MIT, I have always marveled at the abilities of our student-athletes to achieve success both on and off the court. Building a program with high caliber academic players is truly invigorating.

Being in the LA area, maybe I will get the opportunity to meet Kobe Bryant and quiz him about his mind -- after all, bball guru Sonny Vaccaro believes he is brilliant:

"Kobe has his own mind," Vaccaro said. "He's bright. He could have gone to MIT and been successful. I watched his formative years. Even when he left Adidas, he did it because it made good business sense. He made decisions. He's never been afraid."

"Kobe is his own man. One of the most unique people I've met in my 69 years."

Had Kobe gone to college, I suppose he would have been a true student-athlete...

Does Preparation Become Excessive Perspiration?

A tennis pro colleague of mine called to my attention Thursday’s Boston Globe article about Red Sox infielder Dustin Pedroia. For those of you who don’t know, Pedroia happens to be hitting extremely well these days. He also has a pre-game regiment that many major leaguers may not want to admit for fear of receiving an accusatory, “Why aren’t you doing that, too?”

The All-Star second basemen in Beantown thinks nothing of personal records or Manny-esque drama. Rather, he prepares for games with focus and a drive to enhance performance for the betterment of his team. And that mindset helps set him apart.

As does Ray Allen’s, although his pre-game plan borders on clinically obsessive-compulsive (see Jackie MacMullan’s April article). Think Nomar tightening and tapping in the batter’s box, only expand the scene to the entire day (check out Ray's itinerary from Men’s Fitness). Allen’s awakenings may cause some folks to fatigue just thinking about his schedule, one that specifies the type of bread and ounces of water he consumes after his 200 pre-team meeting warm-up shots.

Some players think nothing of their teammates’ rituals while others have joined in the action. But when does preparation to this extent become unnecessary? I suppose it’s really just up to the athlete (especially one who gets paid and has time to participate in long-winded activities that consume the entire day).

My long-time friend, Mike Gambelunghe, was a two-sport star in high school and college, and he would often go out to the field on game day mornings and visualize the action. He then proceeded to eat his favorite meals and watch game film. MIT All-American Jimmy Bartolotta wears his special shooting shirt, listens to his personal playlist on his iPod, and has other idiosyncrasies in his routine to create comfort as he prepares for basketball contests.

There is no exact equation for preparation, although production of a good sweat is key for getting the mental and physical juices flowing. As the body warms up, the mind warms up -- and as long as an athlete is gradually getting into the ideal competition zone, who can criticize?

Performing at the top entails understanding ones own limitations and cues – if an athlete can create a credible routine that works, then credit that person with a clap and a dap. Even if others believe it may be excessive.

Players want to be pushed. That is why they keep going back, day after day, putting themselves in a situation where they will be asked to run more, jump higher, and possibly be chastised in front of their peers. So, prepare to perspire. Just make sure it’s controlled and conducted in manners that minimize the chance of injury or other health issues.

Creating Character(s)

All of this character talk makes my gears shift, my wheels turn, and my head crave diesel so I can get as much out of each fill-up as possible. There are quite a few situations out there that cause wonderment and raise the question: can a character have character and does character cause character? Confused? Me, too.

John Wooden said that sports do not build character -- they reveal it. Others believe losing in sports reveals character… and then may proceed to help build it. And, others state that winning reveals it as well, whether one is empathetic and congratulatory to the losing side or finds success construed with semi-illegal videotaping of opponents.

The Patriots built a franchise with the mindset that putting the right individuals (or characters) together creates an overwhelming character-istic that is necessary for a championship team – proof that an outlandish or hard-to-figure character can be pulled into a scene of mutual respect, dignity, and glory without disrupting the foundation that was built. (e.g. Corey Dillon – check. Randy Moss – check.) And then the team is tainted with the taping allegations. Oops. Is the character of the franchise intact, leaving one of the characters a bit frayed around the edges like his sweatshirts?

The Red Sox patterned the same character theory. Bring in players that will fit the mold of the already established character-types. I supposed Manny was a character for a long time, then stopped being so much of one for a short time, and then couldn’t really maintain the desired sports definition and blew up his newly-found image faster than a Tyson Gay sprint. Solution: ship him out to LA where he can be near another character, one who was fresh, then frazzled, then forgotten, then fake, and then formed.

All of a sudden, Kobe Bryant is a great guy as well as the best basketball player on earth (unless you’re a Lebron fan). Did you catch the halftime “family” show during one of the NBA finals late-nights? Kobe with his loving wife and kids on a couch in their living room (actually, and not surprisingly, it looked like a familiar Jordan scene in his Rare Air book). Most recently, Kobe was interviewed about the Olympics redemption squad and its chances of winning back the gold. And his response as well as various teammates’ featured all-too-familiar chemistry terms. Is his reincarnated character shining through? (By the way, I wish Fran Fraschilla would explain the FIBA officials’ “three or four times a game you’ll scratch your head with bad calls” commentary – are they characters officiating with less than 100% character or do they have something against the US characters?).

Kevin Garnett seems to have great character. His flagrant f-bombs aside, he cares about winning, his teammates, the staff, the fans, and his friends. Didn’t he buy all of the Celtics players gifts (suits) during training camp as a token of his humanity and inner self?

I recently finished The Assist, the book about Jack O’Brien and his championship Charlestown teams in Boston. O’Brien, although a character in his own right, had a knack for not only building character out of characters, but also teaching them how to reveal it.

By definition, character entails the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. We often think of someone with character as good, people who do right by others and are positive role models. Conversely, we may think of characters as people who don’t necessarily conform. When we recruit at MIT, we look for student-athletes that demonstrate character in the former realm – upstanding citizens who are coachable. Yet, I also envy the character who will take his role seriously with a bit of flavor, as long as its bearable and regularly controllable rather than distracting and perplexing (see Dennis Rodman as a “Bad Boy”, as a Spur, as a tamed Bull, and then as a, well, I’m not sure). We refer to the latter as personality and creativity, and maybe even as leadership if molded in the right way.

The bottom line: I believe that playing, coaching, and watching sports helps to develop character and build characters, all the while teaching us how to reveal our character to other characters.

Characterize that.

Engineering Athletic Focus

(Doc's column from the May publication of In Motion, MIT's department of athletics, physical education, and recreation newsletter)

“Being at MIT puts tremendous amounts of time constraints and pressure on [student-athletes].”

No doubt, this opening statement by a junior MIT student-athlete is as true as the Pythagorean theorem. More than 800 students compete in MIT intercollegiate athletics and it’s safe to assume that the majority would agree with the athlete’s proposition. He speaks not in discontent or criticism, but with the sincerity of Tiger Woods in the golfer’s quest to be the best. “I want to be what I’ve always wanted to be: dominant,” he once stated.

Woods isn’t afraid to inform the world of his idea, just as our student-athletes know they are in Cambridge for a reason. For that, they endure lack of consistent sleep for, well, years. Awareness of the unsettling hurdle is one thing; understanding how to increase and maintain focus during practice and competition is another.

A common strategy for improving concentration during an athletic event involves the integration of a mental trigger mechanism. The trigger can be a word (“Go”), a phrase (“I can do this”), a feeling (“smooth”), or an image (“picturing a successful action”). Whatever an athlete chooses as his or her trigger, it needs to be easy to recall and, hence, generated with a minimal amount of effort. “I use a lot of positively reinforcing visualization,” commented a graduate student-athlete. “I think that I have found success with focusing my mind on the motions I want to achieve and then [partnering] that up with a lot of physical practice.”

Being able to trigger desired experiences and outcomes with a mental tool allows an athlete to minimize possible distractions and re-center her mind on the moment. A trigger is especially useful at MIT because of the limited amount of actual practice time. A sophomore elaborated, “Because of our pretty intense schedule and workload, we often don't have as much time as other teams to work on our game on the court. As such, we have to work on our mental game to get that edge over the other players at other schools.”

As we continue to motivate, teach, and demand the best out of our student-athletes, a pitch or prompt to them about triggers may be helpful. And it may just work for you, too.

Full Court Press

• FOR RECENT MAJOR PRESS, CHECK CALTECHBASKETBALLBLOG.COM
• From Bethlehem to SportsCenter in Albany Times Union
• Numb3rs in the LA Times
• Q & A on College Fast Break
• Preview from the Pasadena Star News
• From the Basketball Interview Challenge
  
• To Caltech in the NCAA News, TrueHoop, and d3hoops
• Statistical Highlights in TrueHoop
• Doc on Athletic Intelligence in SLAM Magazine
• 20 Second Timeout Interview
• All-Star Game in Boston Globe
• Doc to Coach All-Stars
• Bartolotta Named All-America
• First Ever Josten's Finalist
• Past Standout D'Auria in Globe
• MIT Wins Kainan Invitational