I needed a few days to settle from the way the season ended to get my footing before I committed my thoughts to paper. Dan's conversation with Tony pepped me up quite a bit, so here we go. Some of what I write may be less than flattering, but please remember, I have been to most of the games for more than five years and I care for the program and coaches and players deeply.
The pivotal moment of this season occurred with the first loss to Marquette, where we discovered that the team we thought was demonstrating amazing team play completely fell apart due to selfishness. From that moment forward, the team never really put that impression to bed, in fact, it dogged their performance the rest of the way, so much so that unless one of the senior stars was shooting the lights out, the team caved and lost or crawled miserably to the finish line against an opponent. This style of hit-or-miss performance is what characterizes bad teams.
Let me use an idea from Urban Meyer, which he defines in a recent book, called 10-80-10. The 10% are the true leaders of the team, who align with the team mission and by their actions and performance pull others along with them. Who do they pull along? They pull along players from the 80%, those who are good and willing team players, but not fundamentally the primary leaders (or who are *not yet* leaders). As to the least 10%, they are on their own journey and cannot seem to find a way to buy into anything. Its not that they are useless or worthless, but rather that expending energy with the least 10% is rarely going to yield a return (in team terms).
The way I view the entry into this season, I see the looming figures of DiDi, Daisha and yes Tara, who I consider to be the 10% from last year. DiDi was unquestionably the bedrock upon which all stood, the leader ne plus ultra. Wouldn't anyone of us follow her if she pointed to the mountain that had to be climbed? You betcha. She's a true leader. From the 10-80-10 point of view, Daisha completely aligned herself to DiDi and the two were as one, the exemplars of performance, grit, leadership and demanding of results. But the key to understand the 10-80-10 analysis is that DiDi referred to Tara as "my baby sister" during the awards last year, describing how Tara was always in the gym working and shooting every single moment and day that DiDi was. This is the behavior of someone in the 80% being pulled into the 10% leadership group.
The fourth member of this leadership group was Janee Johnson who discovered herself and her inner strengths entering into last season, and she herself is a "never-give-up" leader by example - rarely smiling, rarely emoting, just staying hotly focused.
The strength of these leaders pulled the best out of Tabatha and Tiffany, the latter finally beginning to blossom. Others were aligned to this, in particular, Kat Egan and Jordan Mosley, and Chizoba Ekidigwe finally was inspired that final season to "get her tallness". But these three are examples in my mind of the solid, aligned 80% being activated by the leaders.
Why so much time on last year?
DiDi, Daisha and Janee moved on and the establishment of the new 10% had to occur.
Interestingly, Lubirdia Gordon did some amazing growing up and put in serious hard work over the summer. My view is that she finally was grasping the depth of the motivation from the 10% example she had seen, and this drove her. Tara was already living this drive, and perhaps, Tab and Tiff might have been, but I am unconvinced as of today that this had taken hold deeply.
The most important thing I think I have learned this year with Seton Hall basketball (and sports) is the concept of "paying it forward" - that is - in this context - the actions of last year's team pay it forward to the team members of this year's team.
My take on WBB going 13-2 prior to hitting that iceberg against Marquette is that they were operating still in the glow of the pay-forward of the leadership from last year. They were playing fundamentally as a team and getting great results. But it was not built on solid ground.
(1) Tara was lost so her leadership example could not avail itself in time of need ON the court.
(2) Aleesha and Kena were truly seeking to be the 10% and were our best shot at having a true leadership core.
(3) It turned out that Tabatha and Tiffany are 80%ers, not 10%ers, and leadership for them turned out to be "shoot the ball" not "align with the game plan and team above all other considerations". This is not an indictment, this is reflection. I come at this knowing that most of us are 80%ers at best, and at times in our lives, we are not even as good at that.
The consequences I saw were these: (a) Lubirdia lost her fire at mid-season (b) Jordan Molyneaux regressed (c) Taylor Byrne and Martha Kuderer are freshman and have what it takes potentially this coming year, but were not ready in maturity and "team stature" to jump ahead of the senior stateswomen (d) Claire Lundberg seriously grew but her arc of growth has remained tentative, (e) Aleesha and Kena were frustrated with each other and the team, not really understanding why the team concept was not working.
Looking ahead, Quany is going to be a superb shooter and little Kaity Healy (who needs to learn the value of a bounce pass to overcome her size disadvantage) is a terrific hard worker, and I expect her as backup point to be linked closely with TT. And I am not even talking about our new freshmen.
So - my summary observations are these:
- Leadership of the 10% kind is the most important thing to establish entering into next year. My view is that the key triad, the sine qua non, will likely be Tara Inman and TT Smith, directly aided by Quany Jackson, Taylor Byrne and Lubirdia Gordon. If that group develops the leadership fire, the others will come along willingly as a team.
- The pay-it-forward result of the end of the season, where even playing a game in Storrs was considered pointless (and that made me angry to see even as I was sitting there in Gampel Pavilion), is a serious problem. Selfishness pays *nothing good* forward, and the new team must first cast this off their own backs before they can form as a team next year.
- Tony's comments to Dan and the wonderful reporting by 400SOAVE about Tony's interview on SOU tell me that coach and staff know exactly (a) this problem and (b) what they are going to do about it.
Well - there you have it. I'll be with my wonderful bride, Mrs BP, in section 3 row B seats 1 and 2 next year cheering like crazy.
The pivotal moment of this season occurred with the first loss to Marquette, where we discovered that the team we thought was demonstrating amazing team play completely fell apart due to selfishness. From that moment forward, the team never really put that impression to bed, in fact, it dogged their performance the rest of the way, so much so that unless one of the senior stars was shooting the lights out, the team caved and lost or crawled miserably to the finish line against an opponent. This style of hit-or-miss performance is what characterizes bad teams.
Let me use an idea from Urban Meyer, which he defines in a recent book, called 10-80-10. The 10% are the true leaders of the team, who align with the team mission and by their actions and performance pull others along with them. Who do they pull along? They pull along players from the 80%, those who are good and willing team players, but not fundamentally the primary leaders (or who are *not yet* leaders). As to the least 10%, they are on their own journey and cannot seem to find a way to buy into anything. Its not that they are useless or worthless, but rather that expending energy with the least 10% is rarely going to yield a return (in team terms).
The way I view the entry into this season, I see the looming figures of DiDi, Daisha and yes Tara, who I consider to be the 10% from last year. DiDi was unquestionably the bedrock upon which all stood, the leader ne plus ultra. Wouldn't anyone of us follow her if she pointed to the mountain that had to be climbed? You betcha. She's a true leader. From the 10-80-10 point of view, Daisha completely aligned herself to DiDi and the two were as one, the exemplars of performance, grit, leadership and demanding of results. But the key to understand the 10-80-10 analysis is that DiDi referred to Tara as "my baby sister" during the awards last year, describing how Tara was always in the gym working and shooting every single moment and day that DiDi was. This is the behavior of someone in the 80% being pulled into the 10% leadership group.
The fourth member of this leadership group was Janee Johnson who discovered herself and her inner strengths entering into last season, and she herself is a "never-give-up" leader by example - rarely smiling, rarely emoting, just staying hotly focused.
The strength of these leaders pulled the best out of Tabatha and Tiffany, the latter finally beginning to blossom. Others were aligned to this, in particular, Kat Egan and Jordan Mosley, and Chizoba Ekidigwe finally was inspired that final season to "get her tallness". But these three are examples in my mind of the solid, aligned 80% being activated by the leaders.
Why so much time on last year?
DiDi, Daisha and Janee moved on and the establishment of the new 10% had to occur.
Interestingly, Lubirdia Gordon did some amazing growing up and put in serious hard work over the summer. My view is that she finally was grasping the depth of the motivation from the 10% example she had seen, and this drove her. Tara was already living this drive, and perhaps, Tab and Tiff might have been, but I am unconvinced as of today that this had taken hold deeply.
The most important thing I think I have learned this year with Seton Hall basketball (and sports) is the concept of "paying it forward" - that is - in this context - the actions of last year's team pay it forward to the team members of this year's team.
My take on WBB going 13-2 prior to hitting that iceberg against Marquette is that they were operating still in the glow of the pay-forward of the leadership from last year. They were playing fundamentally as a team and getting great results. But it was not built on solid ground.
(1) Tara was lost so her leadership example could not avail itself in time of need ON the court.
(2) Aleesha and Kena were truly seeking to be the 10% and were our best shot at having a true leadership core.
(3) It turned out that Tabatha and Tiffany are 80%ers, not 10%ers, and leadership for them turned out to be "shoot the ball" not "align with the game plan and team above all other considerations". This is not an indictment, this is reflection. I come at this knowing that most of us are 80%ers at best, and at times in our lives, we are not even as good at that.
The consequences I saw were these: (a) Lubirdia lost her fire at mid-season (b) Jordan Molyneaux regressed (c) Taylor Byrne and Martha Kuderer are freshman and have what it takes potentially this coming year, but were not ready in maturity and "team stature" to jump ahead of the senior stateswomen (d) Claire Lundberg seriously grew but her arc of growth has remained tentative, (e) Aleesha and Kena were frustrated with each other and the team, not really understanding why the team concept was not working.
Looking ahead, Quany is going to be a superb shooter and little Kaity Healy (who needs to learn the value of a bounce pass to overcome her size disadvantage) is a terrific hard worker, and I expect her as backup point to be linked closely with TT. And I am not even talking about our new freshmen.
So - my summary observations are these:
- Leadership of the 10% kind is the most important thing to establish entering into next year. My view is that the key triad, the sine qua non, will likely be Tara Inman and TT Smith, directly aided by Quany Jackson, Taylor Byrne and Lubirdia Gordon. If that group develops the leadership fire, the others will come along willingly as a team.
- The pay-it-forward result of the end of the season, where even playing a game in Storrs was considered pointless (and that made me angry to see even as I was sitting there in Gampel Pavilion), is a serious problem. Selfishness pays *nothing good* forward, and the new team must first cast this off their own backs before they can form as a team next year.
- Tony's comments to Dan and the wonderful reporting by 400SOAVE about Tony's interview on SOU tell me that coach and staff know exactly (a) this problem and (b) what they are going to do about it.
Well - there you have it. I'll be with my wonderful bride, Mrs BP, in section 3 row B seats 1 and 2 next year cheering like crazy.
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