Total culture change the fix for Chiefs

Article in the USA Today on how the Kansas City Chiefs are trying to rebuild their football team through new GM Scott Pioli and new head coach Todd Haley. After going 2-14 last season, both men believe the entire culture needs to be changed.

"The thing Todd and I share is we have a genuine passion and a respect for the game," Pioli says. "We're going to find people who care. Those that don't care about playing and playing well, won't be here."

"Part of it is not only changing the culture of your football team and your locker room, it's changing the culture of all the things that touch your football team and your locker room."

Says Coach Haley:

"I want guys who want to be here practicing and playing every day that I can count on that are the same guy every day," Haley says. "I don't even care if they're great.

"I don't want a yo-yo team and I don't want yo-yo players."

Rondo fast becoming Celts' leader

Jackie MacMullan has an excellent piece on Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. As I wrote about earlier this week, Celtics coach Doc Rivers 'gave Rondo the keys' to the team during the Game 2 118-115 victory over the Bulls. Rondo has had it tough since he teamed up with the Big 3 (Garnett, Allen, Pierce) due to the fact that since each player wants the ball, only one of them gets it:

Sometimes during the regular season when Allen gestured for the ball, Rondo stared right through one of the best pure shooters in the game to feed Pierce on the opposite wing because he knew he needed to keep the Truth involved. When Garnett established position in the post and signaled he was open, his arms flailing for emphasis, Rondo blithely glided past him, exploiting the seam in the defense the double-team on KG created.

Those decisions did not make him popular, but they made him respected.

"He earned our trust," Pierce confirmed. "When you think about it, [his job] is probably a little intimidating. I can't imagine being a second- or third-year player and trying to divvy up the ball between three All-Stars."

Rondo had always been confident, but has maturation process has taken time. His body language was a huge problem:

Two seasons ago, before the banners and the plaudits and applause, when Rondo was in charge of a team that won just 24 games, he'd throw a no-look bullet and when it was dropped out of bounds he'd roll his eyes in exasperation. If he set up a shooter for the open jumper and it clanged off the rim, the shooter was subjected to the Rondo stare, a look steeped in disdain and aggravation.

Rivers hauled his supposed floor leader into his office and asked him, "Do you know your teammates hate playing with you?"

Rondo displayed no emotion, but his coach's comments left him struggling to breathe.

"The point guard has to be the guy that brings energy to the team," Rivers chided him. "You can't be the guy that sucks it away. Your moodiness is affecting us. Change it."

Rondo retreated to his apartment to process Rivers' rebuke.

"It was a reality check," Rondo admitted. "I wasn't positive. If I threw a pass they didn't catch, instead of saying, 'Let's get the next one,' I'd make a face. It wasn't what I said. It was more my body language."

This was not a new refrain. When Rondo signed with Kentucky, coach Tubby Smith salivated over the potential of a "world class athlete" who he believed could clear 7 feet in the high jump or challenge the collegiate record in the 100 meters.

Smith's preseason drills included sprinting a series of 200-yard dashes. Rondo developed a habit of running at half speed, then casually turning it up a notch at the finish line.

"His teammates were working so hard, and at the last minute he's blowing past them," Tubby said. "They knew he was better. But when he wouldn't show it every time ..."

The kid wouldn't subscribe to Smith's walk-it-up style of play, so he often highjacked the tempo of the game, pushing his own basketball agenda. He set a school record for steals, but had no perimeter game and no patience for the mistakes of his peers. He was inconsistent; brilliant one day, barely engaged the next, alternately delighting and enraging his teammates.

"If you want them to respect you, you have to make them better," Smith said.

"But coach," Rondo complained, "they keep dropping the ball."

"Rajon," Smith answered, "then figure out a pass they can catch."

Rondo's indifference left Smith commiserating with his assistants late into the night. "We'd ask ourselves, 'How can we get Rajon to go beyond?'" he said.

Soon Ainge and Rivers were posing the same question. It all came too easily for Rondo, and it wasn't until the arrival of the Big Three that he met his athletic match. KG, Pierce and Allen demonstrated the one trait he lacked -- consistency. He dutifully (and silently) monitored their habits. He noticed each of them came to the arena at the same time every game day. Allen had a litany of specific rituals to prepare himself, including a pregame shower.

The point guard's own pregame routine now includes five showers a day: when he wakes up, after shootaround, after his nap, after he completes his pregame warm-up at the Garden and after the actual game. Before Garnett went down, Rondo also began joining KG on the bench in the pregame huddle, waiting until Rivers declared "Let's go!" before standing up. It was something Garnett had done since he arrived in Boston.

"Then one day I look over and there's Rondo," said Allen. "We laugh about it, but you know what? He's learning, watching all the time. Some guys try to get through this league by the seat of their pants.

"But he's become much more aware of what his team needs," observed Lakers point guard Derek Fisher. "He's learned that sometimes passing up an open shot is the best thing he can do.

"That's what separated him from other guys this season. He's fine with 8 points and 10 assists or 18 points and 10 assists. That's maturity."

Tyrone Nash seeks consistency for Notre Dame

Article in the Chicago Tribune on Notre Dame sophomore Tyrone Nash. Nash was kicked out of practice last week for not giving his best effort. What resulted afterwards were three spirited practices, a better effort out of Nash, and a 33 point victory over # 7 Louisville to snap Notre Dame's 7 game losing streak:

"My job is not to score," Nash said. "My job is to play defense, work hard and, if I get the opportunity to score, then take that chance and try to score. My job is to rebound, make the right passes and screen, be the glue of the team. Keep things going."

Thus Brey raised a familiar specter: missing the physical presence of Rob Kurz, who has graduated to the NBA. Before practice Friday, Head Coach Mike Brey was set to show his team clips from Louisville in which, as the Irish coach put it, Nash "really crushes people with screens."

"That was a bit of the Kurz presence we need against those bodies," Brey said. "And we have a bunch more coming. If he can do that consistently, that can really help us."

Consistency is at the root of everything for Nash. He has 11 games of 10 or more minutes played and nine of three or fewer. Brey eventually may regret limiting Nash's minutes before the Irish lost seven straight — but then again Brey noted Nash hasn't always had his "engine running at the highest of levels."

Hence getting bounced from practice for having no bounce in his step. At the time, Nash returned to his dorm room to clear his head. Whether it keeps clearing a path for the Irish is the question.

"It helped make me realize you have to cherish every moment in practice because what you do in practice is what you do in the game," Nash said. "I don't hope it happens again, but if it has to happen again for us to play like that, I'll let it happen."

Better practice, better Bluejays

Story out of the World Herald today on Creighton Basketball and their improved work ethic in practice recently. Whether they bring the consistency everyday remains to be seen:

Dana Altman has long been an advocate that perfect practice makes perfect. That's one reason the Creighton coach has told anyone who would listen the last couple of months that his basketball team wouldn't overcome its inconsistent ways until it started getting more consistent in practice.

Altman acknowledged after Wednesday's 79-68 win over Drake that he has seen some improvement in his players' approach to daily drills. Several players also said they sense a greater devotion to practice.

"Guys are going a lot harder, guys are showing up earlier and staying late after practice to get it done," guard P'Allen Stinnett said. "The attention to detail, and the focus during practice is a total 180. A lot of times, Coach would have to tell us not to walk from drill to drill."Now, guys are hustling from drill to drill.

Guys are picking each other up, we're talking to each other more in practice and in the locker room. We're just getting along much better. I don't know if that comes along with the winning, but it's definitely much better."

No player understands Altman's expectations better than Dotzler, the senior guard from Bellevue West. He said there's still room for improvement in practice.

"At times, we've done a better job and guys are working hard," Dotzler said. "But Coach wants consistency, and if we're going to make a run at this thing, we still need to be more consistent in practice."

Suns need a sense of urgency

I posted below how the Warriors are playing some good basketball right now. The opponent that they beat last night, the Phoenix Suns, are in a freefall right now, losing 8 of their last 12. The Suns are loaded with talented names, like Shaq, Steve Nash, Amare Stoudamire, Grant Hill, Jason Richardson, etc. However, they are still trying to find an identity and consistency on defense:

"I don't feel like we're competing as hard as we need to," Suns guard Steve Nash said. "I don't feel like we're hustling all the time. If you're not playing a hot team and not playing at their level, you can hustle and outwork them and we didn't do that. Same old. We missed (defensive) coverages. We didn't hustle as much as we need to. It's a lack of competition. It sucks."

"Gotta guard somebody," Shaquille O'Neal said. "I've been saying the same thing the whole year. It doesn't matter if we run or slow it down. We've got to guard somebody. We have principles on defense. You get broken down and you help. You better help the helper. You can't really get broken down all the time. We've got to guard a little bit better. Until then, who knows?"

Said Grant Hill:

"The effort wasn't there tonight. Quite honestly, you can't coach effort. They came out hard and we didn't. We've got to get this thing right. We've been saying that forever. I've thought about it a lot. I can't put my finger on it. We're not playing with passion. I'll accept responsibility. I wasn't good tonight. We just don't play hard all the time. When we do, we usually give ourselves a chance to win. When we don't, we don't have any energy or enthusiasm."

Two Pains: By Kevin Eastman

From Celtics Coach Kevin Eastman:

The Pain of Discipline

Being disciplined is a great characteristic to have, but a difficult one to maintain over time. It’s not easy to work out day after day after day. It’s not easy to get in the weight room day after day after day. It’s not easy to do go to work and grind it out day after day. There is a pain factor involved — physical pain, mental fatigue (brought on by boredom of doing the same hard things over and over again), emotional pain from sometimes working your tail off every day and not being successful. The types and intensity of the pains will vary, but the constant is that they will be there!

In our careers it’s not easy to keep reading and studying the books, articles and reports or to continue to figure out how to become a better coach, salesperson, manager, CEO. Success is a disciplined process, not an overnight miracle.

Speaking from personal experience with our team last year, I think one of the reasons for our success was that we were willing to recognize and deal with that pain, to work through that pain, to invest in and commit to the grinding process that you have to go through to become successful in any meaningful challenge. For every NBA team, that challenge is to become the World Champions!

The Pain of Regret

Simply put, when all is said and done, if you haven’t invested in the discipline needed to be successful, you will look back and regret not having done everything within your control to make the outcome a successful one. This is the ultimate pain of regret. We know lots of people who do this — the ones who are constantly saying things like, ”I wish I had…” rather than ”I’m glad I did…”

So you, your team, your company all have a choice — do you choose the pain of discipline and continue to do everything possible (whether it hurts or not) to become successful? Or do you choose to shortcut things? Maybe you aren’t consistent in your energy and enthusiasm, or maybe you don’t maintain the focus needed to succeed. In any case, if you don’t choose the pain of discipline, you will regret it.

Buc Ball

Tampa Bay Bucs defensive cordinator Monte Kiffin has created a defense over the last 13 years that has dominated the NFL known as 'Buc Ball'.

"Buc Ball isn't for everybody," said Kiffin, a native of Lexington, Neb., who played in the defensive line at Nebraska and later served as the Huskers' defensive coordinator in the 1970s. "You have to buy in to what we do. I think Brooks says it best."

Kiffin is referring to future Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks. What Brooks is saying could be said for every single sport when it comes to defense. Says Brooks:

"Buc Ball is more of a state of mind," Brooks said. "It's believing what we do, buying into it. It's maxing out every play - whatever your maximum ability is. For instance, if you run a 4.6, you run a 4.6 every play. If you run a 5.0, you run a 5.0 every single play. Max out."

If your job is to take on the fullback and turn the play in to a strong safety, that's what you do, and trust that the strong safety does what he's supposed to do. Not try to turn back the fullback and make the tackle. That might mess up everybody."Buc Ball also is about accountability.

That's the one word that hasn't wavered my entire career here, no matter who you are or where you come from. When you become a Buc, you buy into accountability. That goes beyond football."

"If it's not your style of football or the way you carry yourself, you won't be here long," Brooks said. "You won't get the chance to play Buc Ball."

Ray Allen on teams thinking they are just as good as the Celtics:

“It’s one thing to talk about it,” Allen said. “Like last year for us, there was a lot said about what we were doing. We knew where we wanted to go, but I think we had to go out and do it. We had to get it. We had to grab it. There was not a moment’s rest for us. Every night we had to prove what we were capable of. Now, we’re still in that same mode, and teams that are saying they’re just as good or better than us, they have to prove that. And for us, we’re here and we want it every night. We look forward to the challenge every night.”

- Ray Allen