Last night, we got beat 52 – 18. The half time score was 25 – 12.

#ugh

Up until the last two minutes, when we were “only” down 20, I was pretty pleased. This is a team as a school we just cannot beat. I’ve coached here for 16 years, and there are two times that I can remember our team coming out on top: one time in a tournament where we won on the last shot of the game and last year when we won by 20. My wife also has the pleasure of beating this team once, filling in for me while I was traveling to Chicago with my brother to see the Cowboys get trounced by the Bears during a Thursday night game. (another #ugh).

And what makes this team that much better than our team (and most of the teams in our area)? Attitude. Plain and simple. They walk into a gym knowing that they will be competitive with the team they are playing, period. They are always well prepared, well coached, and rarely lose control. We are well coached (I think, LOL!), prepared, but we lose control all the dang time. We lose control of our focus more than anything else. We take a couple of minutes off from thinking, and suddenly we are down 15 points.

#anotherUGH

Teaching that attitude, that ability to own a gym regardless of where you are going is hard. You have to be humble, yet cocky, able to game your opponents, but not your teammates. It’s a difficult balancing act for certain, but one that this team does again and again. They have their off years, but consistently, they are near the top of our conference.

It also goes to a quote we worked with today in class:

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. – Jim Rohn

We talked about how as a reader, you have to keep pushing yourself to get better by doing what? READING!! Out of 76 students, 25% said they read for pleasure over the weekend. That doesn’t sound like a recipe for getting better.

We’ll trot this quote out before our game tonight, because I have girls who only pick up a ball during practice. Nothing in the summer. Nothing when they are at home.

Just. At. Practice.

You won’t get better at your jump shot by watching TV, just like you won’t lose weight, you won’t get better at reading, or anything else that requires a little bit to practice or grit to get through.

This blog has gotten distracted from it’s originally purpose: how to team’s gain that killer instinct, that ability to own a gym as they walk in? Practice. Practice. Practice.

We are 6 and 4 right now with two games left. Finishing 8 and 4 would be tremendous, but we’ll see if we have that instinct (we are getting better) and if it will grow over the last two months of this team’s travel season!