“We only lose if we quit. If you don’t quit, you never lose.”
— Kelvin Sampson

We’re not just here to win games - we’re here to grow.
From the moment we wake up before a tournament to the second we pull back into the driveway, every step of the journey is a chance to improve. We owe it to our young athletes to set clear, achievable, meaningful expectations - not perfection, just effort.
Our #1 goal?
Is to have every player play their absolute hardest on every single possession.
But how do we measure progress when the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story?
We count Little Wins - small, controllable actions that build a culture of excellence.
LITTLE WINS CHECKLIST

• Beat the other team to warmups.
  Be first. Beat the other team to layup lines and get out there with purpose and energy. Set the tone before the ball is even tipped.
• Leave the bench cleaner than we found it.
  Respect the space. Represent with pride. Our bench is a reflection of our standard. Clean it.
• Beat your teammate to help someone up.
  Sprint to your teammate who is on the ground. Be the first one there with a hand. 
• Never get beat down the floor.
  Offense. Defense. Every possession. Sprint. Beat them there, no excuse not to be able to do this. 
• Be louder.
  Communicate. Talk early, talk often. Cheer loud for your teammates when you’re on the bench. Yell on when your team breaks out of a huddle. Teammate hits a big shot, bench should respond with energy. Teammate locks someone down on D, bench should respond with energy. Teammate gets an and one, bench should respond with energy.
• First to the floor for loose balls.
  Dive. Scramble. Fight for every possession. Hustle is our identity.
  First to high five or lift up a teammate.
  Celebrate effort. Build confidence. Let your energy be contagious. Every time a teammate checks out of the game, give them a five, dap them up, or show them love - no matter what just happened. 

Play with pride.
Be proud to wear your jersey. Be proud of your teammates. Show love, support, and belief in each other - in the good moments and the hard ones. Don’t be a quitter or cry baby when hard times come, because I promise you, they will come.

These moments don’t show up on the stat sheet - but they build a winning culture.
If we stay consistent with our Little Wins, big wins will follow.
If we let the other team or our own habits beat us here, we’ll lose more than just games.
Let’s choose the Little Wins. Every rep. Every game. Every weekend.
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I recently posted a Tweet on this topic, which got me thinking more deeply about why you—or your son or daughter—might not be making the progress needed to reach higher levels of play. Below, I’ve outlined six common reasons I’ve observed in players that can limit their growth.
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At the core, it all comes down to thriving in a team environment and understanding your role. Mastering these aspects is key to taking the strides necessary for real improvement.

1. Unbalanced Approach to Development 

Of course, we want players to get in the gym and put in the work—whether that’s with a trainer, a teammate, or on their own. However, having a trainer or posting a workout pic on Instagram doesn’t guarantee success on a team or mean your role will—or should—change.
Many players fall into the trap of focusing solely on their own development and neglecting the team aspect. In extreme, but common circumstances, it leads to behaviors like not making the extra pass, forcing iso plays, and slacking off on defense. A good coach will bench a player who prioritizes their own stats or highlights over team success, and until that player can understand how to contribute to the team’s success in other ways, they will not realize growth or development simply because they are not playing. 

2. Trying to Emulate NBA / WNBA Players

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch the NBA/WNBA—what hooper doesn’t love watching basketball? The issue arises when players try to emulate the pros, thinking that’s what they need to do (or CAN do) to play. Professional basketball is entertainment, but success at your level often requires a different approach. Going back to our last topic of an unbalanced approach, this is often where players learn unnecessary moves and ideas. Rather, you should watch your local high school or college team as that is where basketball to a youth spectator is more relatable.

3. You Don’t Know Your Role on a Team

Going iso, not making the extra pass, and slacking on defense are all things that hurt your team rather than help it, therefore, if you’re doing this, you’re not improving. Not being aware of your role on the court often results in poor performance and limited playing time. Knowing your role is critical to becoming a better player. And youth players must understand and embrace the importance of critical roles outside of scoring, such as defense, rebounding, and creating opportunities for teammates. This primarily falls on a coach to communicate these roles, but we can't neglect the importance of a player accepting their role on a team as well as parents helping to explain their roles and to show high praises for stepping up and executing.

4. Too Focused on Scoring

If scoring isn’t your primary role, there are countless other ways to positively impact your team and tally significant minutes in a game. If you’re not an efficient scorer or that’s not what your coach wants from you, yet you’re still trying to be "that guy," you’re not helping yourself or your team. Instead, focus on excelling in the areas where you can contribute most. 
In today's game we need significant encouragement for our players to find other ways to contribute other than scoring! Parents, STOP encouraging your kids to shoot, shoot, shoot - especially if that is not their role. The highlight reel, mixtape, TikTok generation only sees scoring when they think basketball and it is the furthest thing from an actual game and our game will never be a game of individuals. We MUST demand that players find ways to contribute outside scoring and to know that it is as vital to the team's success as scoring may be. 

5. Only Showing Up To Practices & Games

If you’re only showing up to practices and games without putting in any extra work, you’re not improving. Get in the gym and put in meaningful, focused work. You should be able to get after it for a good 20 minutes. If you are consistent and put focused work daily that 20 minutes will go a long way. True growth happens when no one is watching, and it’s this unseen effort that separates good players from great ones. Too many players nowadays only show up for games and think that’s enough. You’re not getting better in games— that is when you showcase what you’ve been working on—it comes from putting in the work outside of games. 
And what seems obvious, but isn't to most, the ones who are putting in work are the ones who simply love the game. Those are the players who will always prevail over the ones who are on the team with expectations for a lot of growth and playing time just by showing up to practices and games. I asked several of our players, "who was in the gym over winter break," as we had a few weeks off. The ones who said they were are the ones who love the game, love being in the gym, and love to hoop! Those who weren't just trying to get away with the bare minimum. The true hoopers will prevail just through their love of the game! 

6. Excuses for Everything
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It is impossible to grow as a player if you fail to acknowledge your areas for improvement. Take accountability for your actions on the court—both successes and mistakes—and improvement will naturally follow. Every moment on the court, whether positive or negative, is a chance to learn and grow.

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Developing the mental and physical skill sets required to be succesful on and off the court, as stated in our mission, don't only come from repping out drills in practice and in the gym on your own. It also comes by deliberately searching for knowledge. Whether that is through books, mentors, coaches, or classes, to truly better your best you must be a sponge and seek knowledge. 

I figured the Holiday season would be a good time to showcase a book I know to be beneficial for growth on and off the court. 

Toughness - Developing True Strength On and Off the Court

​I read this for the first time when I was in high school. My coach would bring in excerpts of the book and read them to us in practice. I have revisited it many times since then. If you scroll down on this blog you can read a lot of the concepts in our post, "The Anatomy of Toughness" and learn how some of these lessons translated into success. All of the lessons remain true and practical, on and off the court. 

I look forward to hearing about what our players learned from this book. Please enjoy! 

Think about most video games. When you level up you unlock new missions, new games, new gear. Advancing in basketball is the same. Once you consistently make 10 left handed layups in a row you "level up." At the next level you can work on a reverse left handed layup, and once you make 10/10 consistently thereafter the same things applies in new moves and drills. Parents, coaches, players... it takes time. A ton of time. Be patient and enjoy the journey. ​

When I play Rec League basketball or pick-up at a random location these days, it usually goes one of two ways. The first, every player is a black hole, meaning once the ball is in their hands, there is no getting it back. Or second, nobody knows what a good shot is. Zero pass pull-up shot, after zero pass pull-up, not surprisingly, results in a total abomination of a game that stimulates ulcers in my stomach. 

Contrary to informal games in other locales , whenever I walk into a gym in Cascade during the holidays for pick-up games, or a casual game at the local gym, I know I can expect a competitive, real basketball game--with ball movement, off-ball screens, communication, tough defense and good shots. All the players here seem to know how to play the game the right way. Playing basketball the right way requires a fundamental understanding of the game. In Cascade, this fundamental understanding comes from years of discipline and instruction taught by long-time head coach, Al Marshall, who coached Cascade High School teams to win over 700 games--the third highest in Iowa history. Coach Marshall narrows this understanding down to one word: toughness. 

When I sat down with Iowa Basketball Hall of Fame Coach Al Marshall, I didn’t really know what to expect. The only thing I was certain of was the subject we were going to discuss--toughness, one word that captures his whole philosophy, a word that was drilled into every practice with me and my teammates. Coach Marshall dissected the word toughness as if it were a high school cadaver science lesson; one action sparking the process of another like the way the muscles in our bodies work, but in a basketball sense. Imagine basketball concepts being broken down by an expert like a doctor explaining the practice of medicine to a novice. After talking hoops for a while and finally sitting down to conduct my interview, I saw Al had prepared five full pages of notes just on the subject of toughness. Looking back on my playing days under Coach Marshall and remembering how well-prepared he always was, I should have expected nothing less. 

Al’s coaching philosophy is simple: “build a team that centers its focus on fundamentals.” It wasn’t dumb luck that Al’s teams averaged 8.5 turnovers/game on the defensive end and limited opponents to 36%-40% shooting from the field. It wasn’t surprising to see Al’s best teams shoot 50%+ on the offensive end. “Practice does not make perfect,” according to Al, “practice makes permanent.” Create the right habits, focus on fundamentals, instill discipline in your game and you have a recipe for tough,  successful players.

Before talking about toughness and establishing a clear definition for players and coaches, Al thought it was appropriate to emphasize what toughness is not.

Playing Through Injury
 "People sometimes talk about and praise a player for playing with an injury-- this is not toughness, it is stupidity,” according to Coach Marshall. “If you’re playing with an injury, you’re naturally less effective. You must be tough minded enough to know when you can and cannot play. There is a difference between playing through soreness and playing through injury. If you’re sore, yes, you need to toughen up and fight through that temporary pain. But if you’re hurt, you need to allow yourself time to recover to be game ready.” 

I dealt with this reality in high school when I didn't communicate a toe injury I was going through. It had impaired my game for a month and I told no one about it. I didn't want to appear soft or let my team down, so I thought I would fight through it. Ultimately, I was letting my team down because I wasn't able to give 100%. I ended up sitting out a few practices coming up to the postseason which set me back at the most important time of the year. The same thing happened in college, but this time I immediately had the wisdom to rest for a week and come back ready to work. 
Looking for the Limelight.
Toughness is not looking to be the star or the center of media attention. Rather it is quite the opposite. Tough players stay humble and work with their heads down.
Missing Free Throws Down The Stretch
“When the pressure is on, true toughness comes out and I have never seen this exemplified more so than in shooting free throws down the stretch.” 
Being a Selfish Teammate 
"Tough players and tough teams know what it means to be tough together."
Worrying About What You Look Like on The Court 
Success doesn't come because of the way you look on the court or by the brand of your sneakers. Likewise for coaches, your chances of winning aren’t enhanced by the coordination of your staff's apparel. 

"In order to have toughness--to be mentally tough--I believe a player has to be disciplined" says Coach Marshall.  “Some kids think discipline is detention, getting grounded, or any kind of punishment.” I asked Coach what his definition of discipline is. His response is worth memorizing: "What I believe discipline means, and what my players heard often, is that discipline is doing what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, to the best of your ability, EVERY TIME." 

Coach emphasized the importance of discipline during practice:
Do what you are supposed to do. Practice game-like drills at high intensity. Never give an effort that is less than 100%. 
When you are supposed to do it. Repetition = consistency. Getting the right amount of reps in every day. 
To the best of your ability. Go hard and hold yourself and your teammates to high standards. Practice at game-like speed. 
Every time.  You create habits by repeating the same process over and over. Are you tough enough to practice the same things repeatedly until perfection? Ultimately this translates into you being prepared for any game situation. 
Contrarily, if you aren’t disciplined and have sloppy practice habits, those too, will translate and you will be unprepared to play in-game. The final four-minute-of-the-game test is where toughness is revealed. You must be disciplined. 

Fundamentals 
“Fundamentals are the building blocks of the house. It’s like the foundation of your house. Toughness is the finished product. You can’t have the finished product (toughness) without the foundation, without the fundamentals.” 
Take, for example the last four minutes of a close game. This is where toughness is exemplified and where practice shows. “If you have good habits, they will emerge. If you have bad habits, those will emerge.” The team with good habits will, more times than not, win; and the team with bad habits will think they are plagued by late-game misfortune. The team with good habits knows their win came from discipline and attention to detail on fundamentals; they were gritty, they were tough down the stretch when it mattered most. 
Fundamentals to focus and build on according to Al:

1. Footwork - pivoting (front and reverse). Incorporating these things into each drill and series. Posts, especially young posts, need to spend the majority of their skill-work time devoted to footwork. 
2. Shooting - shooting only game-like shots each time you're in the gym. Coaches, instill good practice habits into your players by showing them how to practice the right way when they are by themselves. 
3. Defense - sitting and staying in a defensive stance with hands up in any defensive drill you do. 
4. Passing - when you're working out with your team or another person, make solid crisp passes each time you pass the ball. Are you disciplined enough to practice this the right way every time? Sloppy passes in practice = turnovers in the last four minutes of a close game. 
5. Catching the ball – catch it with two hands low and in a position to make a play.  
6. Rebounding - box out. Drills or in games, it does not matter. 

Practicing Fundamentals = Skill Development 

When the pressure is on, these habits will come to fruition, i.e. they will contribute to the outcome of the game: 

1. When you're being denied hard on the wing, setting up a defender and executing a great cut to get open or opening up a passing lane for a teammate. Are you tough enough to get to your spot? 
2. Shot selection. Are you tough enough to take only good shots? Are you open? Are you in range? Are you on balance? Are you prepared to shoot with hands ready to catch a pass? Your practice habits show in your shot and a good coach can pick you apart just by seeing what a player’s shot selection is like. 
3. Knowing your matchup on defense and executing the scouting report. 
4. Making free throws down the stretch. 
5. Taking the last shot in a game and living with the outcome of a make or miss. 

The final four minutes of a game are when discipline and fundamentals are revealed. If your team is disciplined enough to carry out what they have been taught, they will win the majority of close games. An easy way to tell the difference between a tough team and a weak team is looking at the record books and seeing the wins and losses in games decided by five points or less. Tough teams have more W’s in those games while weak teams have more L’s. Tough teams pay attention to detail. 
Team Toughness 
Take individual toughness and multiply it by five and you have team toughness. “It is great when you have one tough player on the team,” says Al, but "having two is better. Having three is great. And when you have all five players on the court at the same time who are tough--that is when you find the greatest success as a team.”

• Go after rebounds with BOTH HANDS
• Step up to the line and knock down pressure free throws, especially when tired
• Talk on defense and let their teammates know you are ready to help
• Close out to a shooter under control
• Stick with your team’s defensive principles, and doing it under pressure
• Have a sense of urgency to stop the other team from scoring
• Get on the floor for a loose ball
• Take a charge
• Get down in a stance and STAY THERE
• Finish plays
• Set up their defender and make hard cuts
• Get their teammates together and keep them together on the road - lead
• Don’t allow themselves to get screened - go around it or through it
• MOVE ON TO THE NEXT PLAY, AND DISPLAY POSITIVE BODY LANGUAGE TO GIVE CONFIDENCE TO THEIR TEAMMATES
• Sprint in transition, both on offense and back on defense
• CATCH AND FACE THE DEFENSE AGAINST PRESSURE, NOT CATCHING AND DRIBBLING 
• Take good shots and have the judgement to pass up challenged shots
• Block out in free throw situations every time
• TOUGHNESS IS MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DISCIPLINE UNDER PRESSURE, TO DO THE RIGHT THING EVERY TIME.

Coach printed these traits off and gave them to his players. I find them invaluable. At any level, these can be extremely useful for both coaches and players. They do not just appear. It takes months and even years to instill discipline in your team! Be patient, if you focus on fundamentals, you’ll find these things coming naturally.

The Anatomy of a Successful Team Shot 
A successful shot involves a team of five mentally tough players. Teams that understand and practice TEAM SHOTS, tend to shoot in the upper 40 to low 50 percentiles. Look at the Miami Heat under Erik Spoelstra, Kentucky under John Calipari, Michigan State under Tom Izzo, and Duke under Coach K. Very similar shooting percentages, very similar success. There is a reason, they practice and preach discipline. 
Basketball is an up-tempo game, and to win that up-tempo game requires balls to go through the hoop. So, in order for you to score and have successful team shots at a rate greater than that of your opponent, it is important to do the following EVERY TIME down the floor.

It starts with the individual....
Does the player set up their defender and cut hard to the ball? 
Does the screener set a solid screen, every time? 
Does the person targeted for the shot come off hard, shoulder to shoulder off the screener, every time? 
Does the passer deliver the ball on time and on target? 
Does the shooter, meeting all criteria for a GOOD shot, catch it ready to score? 

The anatomy of a successful team shot stems from each player's consciousness that it takes all five players on the court working in motion to reach the above outcome, each possession down the floor. Teams shooting in the 50%-range understand this, and know it takes a team effort to shoot at a high clip. 
"For teams, tough teams that is, the players that set screens and make passes accept their roles on the team." Al also says these players are acknowledged by both coaches and players when they fulfill their roles.
I looked through some of Al’s seasons where his teams shot 50%+ from the field and found a predictable stat. In each of those years, the players that shot 50%+ from the field were taking the majority of the shots. The best shooters were shooting the ball the most. It is simple. Set your team up with a foundation for what a good shot is, and let your best shooters shoot the ball. 
The Right Acknowledgement
"Tough teams are tough together." He would often stop practice and exclaim to a screener or a passer how they had done their job perfectly after setting a good screen or making a selfless pass, which would inspire confidence in those who were undertaking these roles on the team. Anyone who played for Al knows that he didn't just say things to make you feel good, he would only do this when you had performed to the team’s standards--which always felt good and would increase the likelihood of the player performing that role again. 
Knowing your Role 
To make this same process happen 60-70 possessions per game it is all about players accepting their roles and holding teammates accountable. Like I mentioned above, there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of dirt work that goes on behind the scenes (hard screen, exploding off screens, posting up hard). Naturally, every person wants to be the focal point the fans and media see--the shooter. As that may be desired on many teams, not everyone on tough teams wants to be the number one scorer or is tough enough to handle it. According to Coach, and witnessed by many at his practices, the best players and shooters are held to the same standards mentioned above in the criteria of a good shot. Al was on his best players from the moment they had laced up their shoes for practice until the final whistle had blown. It wasn’t that he had anything against this player, or was jealous of his basketball gifts, rather he was setting that player up to handle difficult situations and set a standard for the rest of the team. If  ‘so and so best player’ was getting reamed for not coming off hard on a screen one time, other players want to step up their game to support their teammates and hold themselves to the same standards.

Players wanting to be great:  Are you tough enough to handle hard coaching? Can you respond to constructive criticism? You must be willing to take on the role as a leader and lead by example.

Role players wanting success: Are you tough enough to accept your position and sacrifice for the greater good of the team to win basketball games? Are you conscious enough not to step out of your role, especially in the final four minutes of a close game? Are you tough enough to support every other member of the team and their roles? 

Coaching Example - Bad Shots 
An effective strategy Coach used to help players understand good vs. bad shots:  Before the ball goes in the hoop on a bad shot, Al would say, loud enough for everyone to hear, “bad shot.” Now, even if the ball goes in, the player knows it wasn’t the best shot the team could’ve gotten in that particular possession. It is good to stop bad shooting habits in their tracks so you can instead focus on what a good shot is and how to achieve it every trip down the floor. Shooting a 20% shot and not addressing it is taking away the possibility of more 50% shots you could be getting. There are limited possessions in each game, so why waste them on bad shots? 

“When a player comes down the court and makes a bad shot (zero pass pull up jumper, one pass fadeaway jumper, etc.), I would stop him and say, ‘do you think that was a good shot?’ Of course the player would always say, ‘why yes I do, did you see that swish?’ I would propose a wager to this player - “If we did that same play and you took that same shot 100 times, for every time you make it, I'll give you one dollar. For every time you miss, you give me one dollar.” Al says the realization of that player's 15% shot would be a net loss of $75 to the coaches pocket. Of course this was not a real bet, but the wager would give the player perspective on the bad shot, and he would understand that just because he made it, it wasn’t a good shot. 

The Anatomy of Tough Defense 
Defense is controlled by a few things, attitude, effort and preparation. 

Attitude - Are you in the right mindset on defense? You need to want to play defense and you need to be mentally tough to be good on defense. 
Effort - Are you tough enough to play hard defense all game long? This comes to discipline in practice. Are you able to sit in a stance? Can you get a big stop down the stretch? 
Preparation - Are you able to carry out the scouting report? 

These are questions Al asks. If you’re wondering why, as a good offensive player, you don’t play and you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions, you have your answer. You must be able to defend. It is essential. 
Carrying out the scouting report is the most important discipline on the defensive end. Coach goes on, “We know the other team has a great three-point shooter that is not as effective off the dribble. We know this! If we are in a zone defense, is everyone clued in enough to know the shooter is in your area and you're there on the catch so he can't shoot? And again, EVERY TIME!! Are we, as a team, tough enough to force that player to score off the dribble?” It is vital, for the sake of winning, to be clued in on the scouting report at all times, and know where the best player on the other team is on the court.

“I think the final step in a team being together is when all the players buy in, to the extent they hold themselves accountable, because they don’t want to let their teammates down.” 

A few things Al saw in all of his toughest teams were, “1) We won the vast majority of close games, especially tournament games. 2) Several times we won a conference championship where we would split with a team during the regular season and we would win all of our other games. The other team would lose to somebody they should not have lost to, handing us the championship. In the case of close games, we were used to our discipline (doing what you are supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it, to the best of your ability, EVERY TIME) so we were able to close out the late stages of games.  In the case of beating a team we should have beat, we played possession by possession basketball and respected our opponents by playing hard.” 

I often wonder if people really understand what toughness on the basketball court really means. Taunting a player after a blocked shot, or pointing at yourself after a made basket are deceiving perceptions of toughness that we often see after ordinary plays. I see players in today's game, at all levels, trying to prioritize their image or worrying about what they look like in the eyes of the crowd or on TV. Seeing players concerned about how they look for their pre-game Instagram or Snapchat picture is the tell tale sign of weakness. Your focus on the task at hand, the game, is long gone the minute you start to worry about what you look like on your fans' social media feed. 
I hope that we are not confusing toughness with what someone looks like online.

I was lucky to have been taught many valuable lessons on how to exhibit toughness on the court by Coach Marshall. I still utilize many of the lessons to this day, like seeking the toughest road, because I know the road less traveled, although difficult, leads to the best results, the most growth and the highest satisfaction. 

I, along with many people from my small hometown can be thankful we were taught the game the right way, the tough way.