In the past 25 years of NCAA men's basketball, the names many hear the most often are Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and Villanova. Which program has won the most titles during that quarter century?
Connecticut. The Huskies are the Top Dog.
"Light bulbs, that's what I call them. Light bulbs. There's an intangible feeling a coach and a player have that you can delight in. When Armond Hill was at Princeton and he'd go up and down the court in warmups, that's excited me. Frank Sowinski walked onto the court in practice. I could be dead tired: I saw him, I felt good. Billy Omeltchenko. Craig Robinson. I call them light bulbs. They walk on the floor, the light goes on." - February 6, 1991.
"Every season ends in tears - tears of sadness or joy."
The best teams play for each other. Joy is fundamental. Exceptional teams don't walk onto the court with the idea that it's work. They play.
There's an old saying, "Play hard. Play together. Play smart." Remember the fourth part, "Have fun." Practice informs the laboratory where teams "build the monster."
Fundamental starts with fun. Not accidental. Don't ever tire of doing the little things, the details that foster improvement.
MUDITA - a foreign word and a vital concept. "Your joy is my joy." When every teammate does well, the team does better. Winning never gets old. Be happy for your teammate's success, for every player's success.
Nobody felt sorry for MVB not winning the ML12 Freedom Division last year. Nobody. Behind the scenes, plenty of people said, "they've won enough; they've won more than their share." Sympathy is in the dictionary.
Coach Ellis Lane told us, "I'm pleased but I'm not satisfied." Don't be content with a good performance. Demand your best.
Lagniappe. She is a "bad girl."
One volleyball Mom said, "There are only two seasons in our family - volleyball season and offseason volleyball."
"Writing is easy. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." - Ernest Hemingway
Everyone wants to play, earn a role, and be recognized. Coaches know who's been naughty or nice.
How do you play better?
Bleed on the Page
Writing is a fight. You either show up for it or you don't.
Build something. Every assignment is an opponent. Go after it. Study Hemingway — not to worship him, but to take what he knew and make it yours. He bled on the page. Now you bleed.
Learn the craft the way you learned to serve. Clarity. Simplicity. A strong verb hits harder than an adverb ever will. Really and very and truly — cut them. They are the shanked passes of writing. Use words that land. Sabine wasn't tall. Sabine stood like a monolith. You feel the difference. That's the difference.
Find your spot. Close the door. Kill the noise. A player who can't focus in practice won't focus when the score is tied and the gym is loud. Same here. Sit down. Do the work.
Care about the words. A first draft is ugly — Anne Lamott called it something unprintable, and she was right. Every writer has written garbage. The ones who matter didn't stop there. They came back. They cut. They rebuilt. They cared enough to make something true out of something rough.
You are not just an athlete. You are a person who does things with full commitment or not at all.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
Now write like you mean it.
Happy Easter! If you're playing today, fight for special.
Learn from exceptional leaders, like Lt General Hal Moore in "Hal Moore on Leadership."
Principle #2:
There’s always one more thing you can do to influence any situation in your favor. And after that, there’s one more thing. And after that, there’s one more thing. And after that, one more thing. The more ‘One More Things’ you do, the better your chances are for achieving success in any situation. A leader must create time to detach himself mentally and ask:
“What am I doing that I should not be doing? And what am I not doing that I should be doing to influence the situation in my favor?”
A leader is paid to do three things:
1. Get the job done and get it done well.
2. Plan ahead - be proactive, not reactive.
3. Exercise good, sound judgment in doing all of the above."
- "Hal Moore on Leadership"
Sport applications of Moore's second principle:
What am I doing that I should not?
🚨 10 coaches that will TEACH YOU MORE than any book or YouTube video will:
— Chris Steed (@steeder10) March 6, 2026
📝
1. Tuomas Iisalo - both sides of the ball, one of the most innovative coach’s I’ve ever seen. Will be an NBA superstar.
2. Brad Stevens- I’ve input every piece of my culture around what Stevens…
Sports parenting is often a thankless job. It's time-consuming and gawdawful expensive.
Adolescents often play offseason games at inconvenient times (e.g. early), when they're barely awake. And depending on how they played, their mood varies (IYKYK).
Here are a few tips that may resonate:
1. Be positive. Maybe the best words you can say or they can hear are, "I love watching you play."
2. Pack the gym bag the night before with a list (e.g. uniforms, sneakers, extra socks, extra shoelaces, tape, hair ties, band-aids, personal products, meds, contact solution, snacks, hydration, etc.).
3. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Fatigue shows up before thirst.
4. The most useful, least expensive training equipment is a jumprope. Jumping rope helps with coordination, balance, and stamina.
"We pay a lot of attention to detail. We're not sloppy."
Attention to Detail
Every great program 'suffers the details', sweating the small stuff. Bill Belichick emphasized detail. Nick Saban emphasized detail. Geno Auriemma lives the details.
Attention to detail supports sustainable competitive advantage. Attention to detail fine-tunes process.
Process is Old-Fashioned
Detail is old-fashioned. In the early 1970s, Coach Ellis Lane handed out mimeographs before every game with scouting reports of opposing team offense and defense, personnel, and three "keys to victory." His attention to detail helped him earn multiple championships and election to the New England Basketball of Fame.
Process Must Precede Conclusions
Never allow conclusions to drive your decision-making process. Process should drive conclusion. In the early 2000's, NASA's Mission Management Team concluded, despite engineering's safety warnings, that debris risk to the Space Shuttle Columbia was not significant. ‘You know, if there was any real damage done to the wing, there is nothing we can do about it.’ Columbia broke up during reentry. Seven astronauts died and careers died with them.
Detail Touches Every Team Member
Detail (process) touches everything.
Lagniappe 2. The two best servers (in my opinion) in MVB history were Alyssa DiRaffaele and Cassidy Barbaro with aggression and consistency. Neither had a jump serve. Both had pace and movement on the ball. That said, a lot of you have a jump serve. In the video, Coach Artie explains the "jump toppy" and rationale. The analogy for baseball/softball players is pitcher extension. Release closer to the batter and shave microseconds off of reaction time.
Derrick White looked surprised when I announced to him that he was the subject of my postgame story last night, after he tallied 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists: https://t.co/6dtYiUN7G2 pic.twitter.com/8vvz3a8OdP
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) April 2, 2026
Coaches and bloggers are always on the lookout for special players. Derrick White fits the mold.
He was lightly recruited out of high school and only had a breakout season as a senior at Colorado. He was a back end of the first round NBA draft choice. Traded to the Celtics, he was "discovered" and became both an NBA and Olympic champion.
In the video above, after getting an assist late in the first half, he sprints back and takes away an easy layup just as the horn sounds.
How do you want to be remembered as a player?
As someone who:
Because long after the stats fade, what remains is this:
Did you play for yourself - or did you play for the team?
Derrick White’s answer speaks without words.
Coaches say the same things using different words.
Geno Auriemma shares what he looks for in recruits and his non-negotiables.
— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) April 1, 2026
"When I watch them play...plays their butt off every possession. They come down here, they get a rebound, they outlet it, and they get a layup at the other end. Then they run back, block a shot, go down… https://t.co/cyCTGJIlTZ pic.twitter.com/GYZcIXO2yN
Coaches discuss players' intangibles:
Become more than the sum of your individual skills.
For some players "C" > "A" Plus "B."
MVB enjoyed many players whose "whole" was greater than the sum of their parts.
View on Threads
All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own. This blog is not an official publication of any City of Melrose Institution.
""When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less" is a central exchange in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. This statement reflects Humpty Dumpty's belief in absolute control over language, asserting that meaning is entirely subjective and determined by the speaker. Alice challenges this notion, questioning whether one can make words mean so many different things, to which Humpty Dumpty replies that the real issue is which party should be master - a point that underscores the power dynamics inherent in communication." - Brave AI
Think and communicate better.
Our speech or writing may be unclear, misunderstood, or open to interpretation. The more specific, the better the chance that others understand us. We can say, "she gives great effort" with sincerity or sarcasm, depending on our tone or body language (e.g. eye rolls).
Volleyball application. As a mentor or player, be alert to confusion. When unsure, ask for clarity.
People hear what they want to hear.
When you broadcast a sporting event and say, "Suzie Jones had an excellent performance tonight," some will hear, "you didn't say anything good about my daughter" or "you mean Suzie had a standout game amidst a sea of mediocrity?"
Volleyball application. Find out. At Annapolis, plebes learn the "five answers" - yes, sir, no, sir, aye aye, sir, right away, sir, and "I don't know but I'll find out, sir."
Get clarity.
"What did you mean by that?" can be humbling or embarrassing. We may have been distracted, unfocused, or couldn't hear. But if we want to understand and not just respond, clarification helps. And we have to ask for that unless a speaker reads confusion in our expression.
Volleyball application. Be sure that you're on the same page. Don't be caught in, "The Valley of Death." (The poem refers to The Charge of the Light Brigade where miscommunication led to a fatal ambush.)
Truth isn't always well-received.
Lefty Gomez, at the end of his career said, “I’m throwing the ball just as hard as I ever did. It’s just not getting there as fast.”
Form begets function. Mediocre technique underperforms relative to having good technique. If we apply the achievement equation (ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME), then working on form benefits achievement.
Volleyball application. Coaching isn't criticism. Coaching intends to help you improve, not to damage your ego or self-esteem.
"Chase perfection to catch excellence." Ask your coaches where and how you can improve.
Lagniappe. If I wrote, "Exposure to nature makes us both happier and kinder," that could be an opinion or actually based on scientific research. Or that could be a "think again" moment exposed by a favorite book, "Deep Survival" by Laurence Gonzales about the hazards of nature.
Lagniappe 2. There's no "one size fits all." You may hit off the high hands, line or crosscourt, cut, tip, or push off the block.
The best of the best are elite athletes with exceptional skill and decision making.
Build quickness, verticality, and power.
"A rising tide lifts all boats." Working out with teammates raises everyone's game. Your teammates become friends for life.
Have a written workout plan. Follow it, monitor, and see results. "Seeing is believing."
"I think of this organization as winners...we're coming to win."
What is your mindset as part of MVB? Here are a few ideas based upon three decades of sports parenting (MVB 2002-2005), observation, and writing. Mindset matters.
Team first. Everyone can be a great teammate.
"Fight for your culture daily." Share. Learn. Mentor.
The best players make everyone around them better.
"You become what you believe."
"We make our habits and our habits make us."
"Champions do extra."
"How you do anything is how you do everything." Take care of business at home, in school, and in sports.
"Sport rewards explosive athleticism."
Impact the game. Compete. MVB greats are fierce. MVB showed exceptional competitiveness against an elite team.
Be ready. It's always too late to get ready.
Everyone can lead. Leadership is more than title.
Everyone gets opportunities. Not everyone can convert them into performance.
Lagniappe. Dawn Staley didn't have an easy path to star player, NCAA championship coach, or US Women's National Team Coach.
She is tough and fair.
View on Threads
