After I got home from recruiting in Oregon yesterday, I did something I’ve done in the past with my teams. After we were done with the stretching and warming up period of practice, I told the team I was leaving. The assistant coaches stayed to conduct the rest of practice which was mostly made up of scrimmaging.

I wasn’t trying to be tricky or anything, I really did leave. But I had the video department bring me the tape of practice when they were done and I watched it last night at home.

So you’re asking yourself, Why would you leave practice?

Well, what I was trying to was to empower the team. I wanted to see where we are and if they are ready to “coach themselves.” You see, only when a team is empowered – when they feel like they can be on that court alone and still work together as one unit – will they be able to go where we want to go. During the Indiana game, I saw them looking toward the bench far too often. They need to be comfortable on the court alone.

So, without me repeatedly blowing the whistle and the scrimmage just going along with supervision from Coaches Robic, Strickland and Antigua I was able to assess where we are after 10 games and two months of practice.

What I found out is that we’re not where we need to be. The players began reverting to their old ways. The bad habits that were there a month ago re-appeared. Decision-making was poor, shot selection was awful. I saw players who weren’t ready to do their own jobs.

What I saw is a team, that if you allow them to revert to their old ways, they will do so.

At first, after watching the tape, I was upset. Then I sat back and thought about it. What should I be upset about? This is the youngest team I’ve ever coached. When I’ve done this empowerment exercise with other teams, they have been veteran-led teams.

This is a team that is still learning with each and every practice and game. If I do this again in say, February, and the team still looks they have never been coached by us, THEN I will be upset. But not now.

Now, it’s just another lesson for all of us that we will begin building on today in practice.

-CC-