Beilein became one of seven coaches to earn NCAA tournament bids with four teams after doing so at West Virginia, Richmond and Canisius.

It’s safe to say the guy who has never been an assistant coach can coach.

“Coach Beilein deserves 90 percent of the credit because he did a great job in getting us to believe,” standout forward DeShawn Sims said. “Believing has been lost in Ann Arbor since the last time we went to the tournament.
“Once you teach people to believe, it’s easy from there.”

During the meeting, Coach Guillen says he asked what he “needed to change to make the ballclub better, my expectation for them with the ballclub, different ideas.”

“I want them to take charge with the ballclub. Last year I was a little [too] involved with [players' problems]. But I have to be open. I wanted to know if [something] bothered them or not. If nothing bothers [those veterans], then I’m not going to [get involved]. You have to be aware of what the players think and what are the expectations for them.

They want me to be me. It was no big deal. Before spring training starts, I always talk to the players about what I have to do to get better, what I have to do to make sure the team is better.

After the meeting, Coach Guillen made it clear who is accountable in the end, saying:
“I’m the leader of this ballclub. I’m the face of this thing.”

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How much passion does he have to play the game? You can take some great athletes and if they don’t have the passion to play at the highest level it won’t work out. Some of them are great athletes, but if they don’t have a passion to play at the highest level, some of them hit The Peter Principle and can’t play at this level because they can’t adjust and something may be missing.

But once they can play the technique, they have passion, they’re a team player then the guy has a good chance of improving with our coaches and becoming a good football player.

The mental part is also important. If a guy can’t think it will be tough. Some guys get it and some guys are rep guys that need the reps to learn. That is coaching. Our job is to give him the best edge to being successful. The players are looking for help in becoming a better player. That is our job as coaches.

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road – long before I dance under those lights.”

At 19-4, winners of six of their last seven, Mizzou has already won three more games than all of last season. According to this story in today’s St. Louis paper, increased intensity in practice is one reason for the Tigers’ turnaround.

“Coach [Mike Anderson] (pictured above) is a strong believer that road games are pretty much won by toughness,” said junior guard Zaire Taylor. “He always says, ‘When you go on the road, we need men,’ and that is pretty much the mentality we’ve been taking in practices.

The reason we’ve won our last two games is because of our practices. Ever since we lost at Kansas State, our practices have been like wars. We’ve been taking (hard work) that we’ve been bringing in practices and we’re bringing that same energy into games. The practices have taken a step up.

When I go home from practice now, I feel more bruised than I do after games. The competitive atmosphere is real high. You wouldn’t know we are teammates by the way we get after each other.”

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Trust comes from consistency. You have to work beforehand to develop it, but even then, what I’ve discovered is that you don’t create trust. Trust comes from your people, not you. When your people see you at the head of the column, being the first one in, facing each danger alongside them, you simply create the conditions that make trust possible. You can’t make trust, you can only make trust possible. That’s because trust is people’s response to you when you act in ways that show them you’ll benefit from following your lead.

As this article describes, Portland GM Kevin Pritchard began setting the groundwork at the 2006 NBA draft when he “took out a red pen and wrote: ‘We’re Back!!!’ on a board in a hotel room.”

Pritchard’s background has prepared him well for his current role in Portland. He played four seasons at Kansas for Larry Brown and Roy Williams before playing four seasons in the NBA.

He coached at the college level and in the minor leagues, then scouted for the Spurs under GM R.C. Buford. He’s also worked in player personnel and, in 2005, coached the Blazers on an interim basis. In 2007, he took over as POR’s GM.

“I first wanted to change the culture, have both talent and good guys,” Pritchard said. “It’s all about team, putting individual awards and statistics last and put the team first. I can only control what I can control,” Pritchard said. “There are a lot of opinions out there. We focus on us. We try to do the best we can do, learn from everything that happens and move forward. We have a very good coach and guys that play the right way. You have to get lucky and gel together. We need our young guys to grow. And they are growing.”

According to this note from the Atlanta paper, UGA football coach “Mark Richt deserves at least some credit for inspiring the Bulldogs. At the behest of interim coach Pete Herrmann Richt came and spoke to the team before their Friday afternoon practice.”

“I called Mark and asked him if he’d come over,” Herrmann said. “He’s as respected a person as we have on this campus and I wanted him to, you know, say a few words about what he loves. He loves Georgia. He loves the coaches here at Georgia, he loves the athletes, and he talked about that. And he talked about playing it all the way through.”

During his talk with the team, Coach Richt wrote “GATA” on the board. Translation: “Get after their [butts].”

Said one Georgia player, “He said we have to play for us and that’s what we did.”