Great Article About Toughness

Wow... just read this article by Jay Bilas of ESPN about toughness.

Not only is it a great read, but man... I really see a lot of that in our Pilots. Seriously... our team is really well coached.

I love that he calls people out for the chest bumping and celebrating and whatnot. That is the thing I probably hate the most about sports. I refer to the old cliche, "Act like you've been there before."

So I just read the whole article...and what I got from it mostly is that tough players are the fittest players. Pretty much everyone of his examples was about not being lazy or using proper technique. Things that are much easier when you are actually fit. It comes down to practice, if you practice hard, you will be better off to play hard. Stuff that sounds like coach Rev is having the team do.

Stonehouse,

Great find! The first two guys I could think of on the team were Ethan (11-3 with lately) and Kramer. Not the most talented player's in the WCC but two of the toughest. Nik for being the "Star" player of this team is one tough" give it every thing guy",even though he might not be as gifted as his Dad or older brother. I think alot of this attitude of Rev's has rubbed off on Campbell,Stohl,Robin, and Luke too. Even as easy going as Jasonn is I heard how he "hammered" the San Diego player last night assuring no three point play .

Rev has done a great job establishing a tough hardnosed team out of bunch of alleged 2nd teered players and JUCO transfer's.Their not just a good defensive team any more with TJ running the offense they can score too .

mattywizz wrote:So I just read the whole article...and what I got from it mostly is that tough players are the fittest players. Pretty much everyone of his examples was about not being lazy or using proper technique. Things that are much easier when you are actually fit. It comes down to practice, if you practice hard, you will be better off to play hard. Stuff that sounds like coach Rev is having the team do.

Actually, the Bobby Knight quote in the article implies that it's not necessarily true that the toughest players are the fittest players. The Knight quote was something like, "You just want to be comfortable out there." (The section is called: Play so hard your coach has to take you out.) Actually, I thought that the article implied that the toughest players were those who scrapped and played their hearts out and didn't care about how many minutes they got. They play and don't necessarily pace themselves, and the coach has to take them out of the game because they are exhausted. They were the players willing to take charges and do all of the intangibles that it takes to win...among other things. Lots of great points in that article...

It seems to me that the whole drive of an athlete is to be on the field/court.

You are useless to your team sitting on the bench. If you want to contribute, get on the court, stay on the court, and make it impossible for your coach to consider taking you out for very long.

Training and fitness make that possible. Toughness and drive help your cause and his decision making. Playing for the TEAM and not for stats or other false glory wil be the ultimate decider.

don't worry, the coach will figure out if someone else should be there instead. when that time comes, accept his decision with grace, trusting he will do the best for the team and for you. It's the coaches job to gain your trust that his decisions are fair and for the betterment of the team.

Don't make the choice for him by being unmotivated, ill prepared, and not fit.

Well said Geezer. Wow, you are starting to change my opinion of all those "old goats" J/K that come into work. My philosophy has changed dramatically over the last several years. I had previously thought age brought more wisdom. But,listening to some of these gentlemen I wasn't to sure about that saying anymore.

Thanks for proving me wrong. I'll stop groveling now.... .


MesaPilot1

*Mesa, Arizona- Snowbird Capital of the World *

AJ- you are right about players not pacing themselves, but the fitter you are the longer you can do so. So Fitness may not be a prerequisite for a "tough" player, but it does helps you become a "tougher" player.

Also, most of my sports background is from sports where you don't sub in and out like basketball. Fitness level really does influence how "tough" one can be. But I guess in basketball it is not as much of an issue...but if I were coaching, I would always take the player who is willing to train harder and be more fit.

Don't kid yourself- Fitness in basketball may be more of an issue than in some other sports (like football). You are often trying to dominate the guy standing across from you. If you are more fit than he is, you can play at a pace that is still aerobic for you, but will be in the anaerobic range for him. The body only allows full effort anaerobically for maybe 30 seconds or, at most, a minute. a player that isn't fit will be useless after that, and the next time he comes in he will start his shift with a lactic acid buildup. His muscles will contract, and you'll see him bent over hugging his shorts. You'll just be warmed up.

Remember last year when our players would walk up the court on offense? There was a reason for that. Some players weren't fit, some played too many minutes. They used the time walking up the court to get back into the aerobic range. It's nice to see the other team doing that this year. The combination of better fitness and the ability to get more players on the court is the difference.

Of all the players I've watched over the years, Bill Bradley was the best example I can think of for that theory. He never stopped moving. Other teams had to platoon players against him, and that meant he was often playing against the second or third guy at his position.

mattywizz wrote:AJ- you are right about players not pacing themselves, but the fitter you are the longer you can do so. So Fitness may not be a prerequisite for a "tough" player, but it does helps you become a "tougher" player.

Also, most of my sports background is from sports where you don't sub in and out like basketball. Fitness level really does influence how "tough" one can be. But I guess in basketball it is not as much of an issue...but if I were coaching, I would always take the player who is willing to train harder and be more fit.

Look, I'm not saying that I agree. I'm just stating that in that one paragraph of the article the writer stated that point. I wholeheartedly feel that the toughest players are very fit. I agree that a player on the bench is somewhat useless to the team. However, the point of the article was that tough players leave everything on the floor. So, yes, you have to be fit to do that. Another way of stating the same point is that tough players leave everything on the floor, and they don't care about their minutes. They care about wins over stats...

Here's a quote of that part of the article. Let me know what you think:

Play so hard, your coach has to take you out: I was a really hard worker in high school and college. But I worked and trained exceptionally hard to make playing easier. I was wrong. I once read that Bob Knight had criticized a player of his by saying, "You just want to be comfortable out there!" Well, that was me, and when I read that, it clicked with me. I needed to work to increase my capacity for work, not to make it easier to play. I needed to work in order to be more productive in my time on the floor. Tough players play so hard that their coaches have to take them out to get rest so they can put them back in. The toughest players don't pace themselves.----Jay Bilas, ESPN


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Remember last year when our players would walk up the court on offense?--Purplegeezer.

I think that's what Bilas means when he says the toughest players don't pace themselves. Call it fitness or call it pacing yourself or effort... Pacing yourself is useless if the pace is extremely slow. It's just semantics. Anyway, we're better this year.

James, I didn't mean to sound argumentative, I was just trying to add to what you were pulling from the article and say that a fitter player is tougher because he can do it longer (that sounds dirty, I am leaving it just like that).

No worries. Like I said, it's just semantics... I think we're stating similar points in different ways now. Time for a Hef.

mattywizz wrote: a fitter player is tougher because he can do it longer

Put this on a tee shirt with a team picture and I see a HUGELY profitable venture. It would be Pilots Slip It In good.

Lol, let's all remember the source. While I do respect Jay Bilas I believe he has Zero coaching experience. He was an excellant player at Duke and this led to a small "European" experience. He has rosen quickly in many people's opinion through national exposure on TV. In other words he's a well-spoken knowledgeable ex-college player who doesnt "homer" for Duke or Coach K too much.

I would like to put the question to Adolph Rupp, John Wooden, Dean Smith ,Bob Knight , Coack K, Roy Williams,Lute Olson ....etc, etc.... those who have vast more wisdom and knowledge of College Basketball than Jay Billas will ever have in his whole life. Their knowledge about the intricacies of College Basketball and toughness pertaining to conditioning would be interesting I know Rupp is deceased, but I believe these other guys would come up with a far better answer than Bilas. At least it wasn't an article by that Gonzaga "Shrill" Katz. Bilas posed a good topic of which raised a fair amount of speculation. He was a Heck of a tough player at Duke too which gives him some first hand knowledge. ESPN is lucky to have him. I enjoy his column too.Pretty good for a Lawyer, and at least he's not out chasing ambulance's .


MesaPilot1

I believe Bilas was an assistant for Coach K about 10 years ago - not sure for how long, but I do believe he has coaching experience (obviously not a ton, though). I love listening to Bob Knight talk about the game on espn. It's so obvious how much knowledge he has of the game when he speaks about it.

Do you really believe that 54?

I'm a believer, baby! I can't stop myself!