A Perfect Season

I had heard about my next group of basketball players since they were in the fifth grade. The high school varsity basketball coach ran summer camps every year, and he assured me they would be the most talented group I had coached up to this point. He was right. They were incredibly gifted players.

The patterned offense was scrapped and I let them "run and gun." As soon as they scored, we put on a full-court press and often were able to steal the ball right back and score again. Even though the press was called off by the fourth quarter, my A-team scored over 70 points in two different games. That's incredible for a middle-school basketball team. The quarters are only six minutes long.

The regular season only had six games on the schedule. Our average margin of victory was over 20 points per game. We were undefeated and drew a bye in the first round of the playoffs. We won the semi-final game easily, and faced a very determined opponent in the championship game.

South Middle School had been a fairly easy win for us during the regular season. Their coach made some adjustments and we found ourselves in unfamiliar territory at halftime: we were losing by ten points.

In the huddle at halftime, I said, "You guys know what to do. I'm going to let you figure it out," and I walked away.

At first the team was stunned by my response. As I was walking away, I heard Phil, one of the team leaders say, "Coach is right, guys. We do know what to do. Let's put the press back on."

I had called it off because we were not in the lead. A press is usually more effective when a team has the lead.

I heard a murmur of consent and smiled as I went to the water fountain. I knew with our speed and ball handling skills, most teams could not break our press.

By the end of the third quarter, we were leading by ten points, and I called off the full-court press. It was obvious South was demoralized and there was no need to humiliate them. We won the game easily and finished our championship season undefeated.

The next season we were still good, but our record fell to 4-2. All of the other teams grew and improved their skills considerably. The boys were bitterly disappointed, but I learned a valuable lesson from them: It's harder to stay on top once you get there. After this, I was always on guard for complacency in the players.