HOW IMPORTANT IS TEAM CHEMISTRY?

Once you establish a winning culture do you always have it … or can you lose it? Do Hall of fame coaches ever struggle to keep their players on the same page?

Rick Pitino is the coach of the Louisville Cardinals. He must know something about team chemistry seeing as he’s the only NCAA coach to lead three schools to the Final Four. His teams won two NCAA titles (Kentucky 1996 and Louisville 2013). He has taken teams to the Final Four in four separate decades. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. Pitino’s teams have won 722 games at a .740 clip.

Seven NCAA Regional titles resulting in seven Final Four trips didn’t help Pitino last year. Earlier this summer Pitino called the 2014-2015 team “one of the most difficult encounters” he has ever had.

“We hate distractions. There was no unity, no chemistry,” Pitino said. Sophomore big man Chinanu Onuaku said the Louisville team had cliques. “Everyone wanted to get theirs.”

Just so we’re clear:

Louisville had a very good team in 2014-15 that came up just short against Michigan State in the Region Finals. They had talent (Wayne Blackshear and Montrezl Harrell were on the 2013 title team). They had a Hall of Fame coach that makes over $4 million per year – that’s just under $85K a week!

So do we just give up?

No, we can develop a true team, a group that overcomes adversity and thrives under pressure. We can have a team that celebrates each other’s success. A team that communicates at all times and trusts each other. We can have a team that is resilient and gritty, that refuses to ever give up or give in.

Our next two posts will deal with defining and developing a winning culture.

Let’s start with a definition:

Culture is a set of shared values, attitudes, goals and practices in an organization.

Why do we see the same teams competing for championships year after year?

Think about it:

The San Antonio Spurs are tough to beat every season. So are the St Louis Cardinals. The SF Giants have won the World Series three of the last five years with good but not overwhelming talent. Duke and Michigan State are solid Final Four picks year in and year out. (Izzo getting Sparty to the Final Four last year was amazing evidence of their togetherness. Their talent wasn’t nearly as good as usual).

Everybody has talented athletes (obviously some teams have more than others). It takes more than your forty yard dash times and your ability in the weight room to reach your full potential. Champions see the world differently. They have a we, not me mentality. It’s a winning mindset that has a positive response for every imaginable situation. 

Jon Gordon in The Energy Bus gives the formula of E+R=O.

Events are things that happen in life, some that we control and some that we do not control.

R stands for our response. Our response to events will give us our outcomes.

As coaches we want our teams to respond positively to tough situations. The ball might be slick or overinflated (not in Foxboro). The gym might be freezing or the floor extremely slippery. The officiating might seem extremely one-sided. Your best player sprains his ankle and is out. Now what? These are all events that we cannot control.

What will our responses be? When we have a winning culture our collective positive response is stronger than any negative event we face.

Let’s look at Ohio State football in 2014 to illustrate E+R=O. Buckeye QB Braxton Miller was the two-time Big Ten Conference Offensive MVP. Two weeks before the 2014 season was to begin Miller re-injured his shoulder. The injury resulted in a second surgery and the QB was out for the entire season. That was a big negative Event. The Buckeyes responded by rallying around redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett. Barrett played extremely well. He shattered Drew Brees’ Big Ten passing records for touchdowns and passing yards.

Then another big Event. On the first play of the final quarter during the rivalry game against Michigan, J.T. Barrett broke his ankle. Now what? Would the Buckeyes be deflated by this turn of events? They would be facing Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game. If they lost, everybody would understand. Nobody wants to play an untested third stringer in a title game.

But what a Response! The OSU team beat Wisconsin 59-0. The Buckeyes trailed Alabama by 15 points in the Sugar Bowl but they rallied behind Cardale Jones to beat the SEC’s best. The Buckeyes then rolled Oregon 42-20 to win the first college football playoff.

They could have easily made/accepted excuses and given up. If you let down against a Nick Saban coached team, you will get buried. Ohio State showed resilience, toughness and work ethic. They trusted their coaches and each other. And the Outcome? They won the title.

Winning the 2014-15 college football championship was their next Event. What will their Response be to winning? Will the Buckeyes get fat/satisfied/complacent? If they do, they will get their heads handed to them. That’s the way football works. Will that first title make them hungry to repeat this season? Their Response will determine their Outcome.

We need a winning culture. We need a set of shared values, attitudes, goals and practices. We need a system that teaches character, competency and a crystal clear purpose.

What we need is a BLUEPRINT. We need all of our coaches, captains, players and managers to know exactly who we are and how we do things. We want to develop a team of captains. We have a Code that governs how we think, walk, talk, act on and off the field/court.

Stay tuned for the next blog about developing your core values.

– Coach T