NCDS: Mark Vanderslice, Asst. Coach - Furman

By: Mark Vanderslice, Asst. Coach - Furman

It's conference time! At least for this week! The Southern Conference typically plays a Thursday, Saturday rotation once conference starts to take advantage of the schools that are close in proximity. These "travel partner" schools allow away teams to save time and money by playing back to back contests at virtually the same location. Although we are not quite at the heart of conference season, (begins Jan. 7) we have a taste of what's to come with two early back to back December conference games with Appalachian State and Western Carolina.

We just got back from Boone, North Carolina after playing a very tough, experienced Appalachian State team away from home. After coming off a road win versus a very fast paced UNC Asheville squad, it was extremely important for us to try and carry that momentum into conference play. With five days in between games, preparation became a vital component to our success over a tough, well coached, Appalachian program. As coaches it's very important to pay close attention to detail in how we handle the days leading up to the game.

Do you focus primarily on your team and work on your weaknesses from the game before? Do you give more time and attention to your opponent and the strategies that it will take to win? How many adjustments do you make to your base defensive principals especially with a fairly young team? Are your players flexible enough to adapt or will this deviation put them into sensory overload? These are just a few questions we had to ask ourselves leading up to the game on the road with Appalachian State. It is a constant balancing act of reading the players and adjusting to their strengths and weaknesses at that particular juncture of the season.

With five days to prepare we were able to treat the game more as a chess match, utilizing hours of film to breakdown our opponent. We scrutinized their team and each player's tendencies by communicating through visuals on film and transferring these habits to the court. Our hope was to minimize their strengths and put a spotlight on their weakness.

Once game day has arrived it all comes down to execution and effort on the court. One small adjustment we have made this year in our approach to game day has been to let our guys sleep in until shoot around. This means that with a 1 o'clock shoot around on the road the guys are free to sleep in as long as they please with breakfast at the hotel being optional. Typically we have always gotten the players up and moving around at 9:00 to 9:30 to get their blood flowing and to take advantage of the "most important meal of the day". The advantages are that with a 7:00 game, we can shorten up the day by letting them sleep in for a couple more hours.

The day can become very long and monotonous, and can even become draining to the mind and legs. Also, the obvious is the extra rest.  Many times we don't get enough sleep on the road because we are either arriving at the hotel later in the evening or we are getting the players up too early for breakfast just because that is something we have always done. Our initial fear regarding this idea was that the guys would miss a meal and therefore have less energy for the game. So far, we have seen that this extra rest has actually given the players more energy than the added calories from breakfast would have.

Fortunately we were able to escape with a hard fought win. Now with only a day between games we will be suiting up against Western Carolina at our place. Unlike our game versus Appalachian St. we only have one day to prepare. This means we have to handle our preparation in a much different manner in regards to strategy. How do we guard? What do we emphasize most?

Here we go again!  The questions continue! You've gotta love it! Its game time!!!!