Round Two

Can you believe it's already the second round of the Big Sky Conference race? It's as competitive season as ever. For coaches, it's a great way to keep your athlete's attention as every day matters. Here are a few tidbits for Round Two: More shooting. Yes I know that one's easy since we aren't the best perimeter shooting team YET. Fundamentals make a huge impact in the second round. More carbs! If you have athletes like ours you have to do what you can to keep the weight on. We got described as "wiry" once. I took that as a complement. More ice tea. That just sounded good. Less reps in the weight room. Less is more certainly pays off when you still maintain the strength while lifting a strong percentage of your max. The motivated, the focused, the hungry, & those that don't get bored with the process will finish on top. Habits of Excellence shine in round two! Coach Bin

Fun Matters

Maintaining "court" conditioning is a challenge when you only play 5 players at a time and maybe have a bench of 11-13 athletes. Our rule at MSU is that if you don't play 15 minutes per game you have to do an extra cardio workout the following day. Our athletes do a great job of motivating each other during their extra workouts as they understand the importance of being ready when their opportunity comes. With that being said, I have been in their shoes when I played in the WNBA and did a few extra workouts of my own which can get monotonous. So to change it up on Friday in between games I decided our staff should play against our players who didn't get many minutes in the game instead of them doing their usual bike & treadmill routines. I figured Kalli wasn't playing so I wouldn't end up with two stitches again. The result?? Coach Barney with a fat, black and blue lip from Peyton Ferris. (Barney is also her position coach so I am wondering what that was all about). Coach Starr concussed twice. One by a brick that came off the front rim, her cat-like reflexes are a little slow these days. And one ultimately by herself as she got wrapped up with Kayla Dewit and paid the price. The first game was played until the coaches actually scored. I won't say how long or how many points the team had before that occurred. The second game I started to get my feel back and made my first reverse lay up without hitting the bottom of the backboard. The third game our trainer brought out the stretchers. By Saturday we couldn't move. Kellee said the only thing on her body that didn't hurt were her eyes. Lindsay Stockton said I had a "dirty jumper" and then informed me that was a compliment. The good news? Our players and coaches had a lot of fun and remembered why we love this game so much. I think in another two weeks I will be over being sore and then we'll try it again, Go Cats!

Resolutions & Reality

Hopefully you all had a chance to see the best FRIENDS episode ever on New Year's Eve when Ross and Monica did "the routine." For those of you who didn't I suppose you had bigger plans for your evening. My New Year's Eve was spent with my "adult" kids on the court preparing for conference play this week. I am sure they will tell you that's exactly who they wanted to spend it with as well. Don't worry. It's not like I had them on the court for Midnight Madness. New Year's tends to bring on many new resolutions but let us be reminded that change does not occur without the greatness of habit. Much like I tell my team, you can't show up game time and expect execution if you haven't seen it all week. Proper habits don't get their due appreciation. I think it's because of their consistency that people overlook their importance. In our world today, we get thrills off the glamour, excitement, but true success is the result of basic, consistent, and powerful habits. Ask yourself today what your habits are. We all have them. Is it a habit that over time produces excellence or do we need to replace it with something else? Happy New Year Coach Bin