• Enters his first season on the bench at GW after
spending the previous eight seasons at Montverde Academy in
Florida.
• An excellent teacher of the game, Sutton has been coaching
nearly 25 years and has also had prior Division I coaching stops at
his alma mater, James Madison, and at Old Dominion
University.
• Sutton has helped develop standouts such as George
Lynch (North Carolina), Arron Bain (Villanova), Randolph Childress
(Wake Forest), Cory Alexander (Virginia), Exree Hipp (Maryland),
Serge Zwikker (North Carolina), Cameron Dollar (UCLA), Nate James
(Duke), Jason Capel (North Carolina) during his time on the
sidelines.
Diary Series: Kevin Sutton, Asst. Coach - George Washington ("Basketball IQ is the new TALENT")
Have you watched a basketball game lately and the game just left you wondering what happened?
Why did the player take that shot? Why didn’t the team call timeout? Why did they foul?
Have you ever wondered why so many time outs are called late in the game to diagram a play? Why doesn’t the team have a play for that situation? Why do games just end with no strategy employed?
For these very reasons, I have come to the realization that the NEW talent/skill in the game of basketball is BASKETBALL IQ! I define talent/skill as the ability to do something easily and quickly that sets you apart from others and makes you unique.
Examples of talent/skill in the game of basketball today are:
- Dribbling skills – Chris Paul
- Passing skills – Jason Kidd
- Court Vision skills – Steve Nash
- Shooting skills – Ray Allen
- Scoring skills – Kobe Bryant
- Rebounding skills – Kevin Love
- Defensive shot blocking skills – Dwight Howard
I feel that BASKETBALL IQ is:
1. Having the ability to process information at game
speed
2. Reading the flow of the game and determine if it needs to
be changed
3. The understanding of the importance of time and score
4. The understanding of shot selection
5. The understanding of his/her teammates strengths and
weaknesses
6. Knowing and developing an understanding of the scouting
report/game plan
7. Developing a relationship with the coaching staff to
better understand the system
8. Knowing your opponents
9. Watching tapes of your team, yourself, the opposing team,
and the person you will defend
10. Listening to knowledgeable people, reading about the game, and
studying the game
11. Having the ability to understand what was drawn/discussed in
the timeout, executing it on the floor and being able to make the
proper “basketball reads” if the play isn’t
there. This is especially important in late-game
situations.
12. Listening with your ears, learning with your eyes, and
communicating with your mouth.
I really believe that college coaches need to place an emphasis on recruiting BASKETBALL IQ just as much as they recruit the other seven talents/skills listed above. The teams/programs that find those players who have high BASKETBALL IQ are going to be the teams/programs that will consistently win the close games.
When games are close, a player’s BASKETBALL IQ becomes the REAL TALENT!
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