NCDS: Bobby Lutz, Asst. Coach - Iowa State

Almost all of us are now in the new season: recruiting and off season player development.  Regardless of the outcome of the 2010-11 season, new hope begins as we look to the 2011-12 basketball year.  For us at Iowa State it was an interesting and entertaining first year for Coach Hoiberg and our program.  We won more games than in the past 5 and finished 16-16.  There were many good moments upon which to build our foundation for the future yet we finished last in the Big 12 as predicted by every league coach.  We lost so many close games proving the importance of valuing every possession and working on late game and special situations.  Even spending time on these specific situations doesn't guarantee victories, but as coaches we have to do everything we can to simulate for our players in practice what they will face in games.  Perhaps the best predictor of success is recruiting and developing great players who can make plays when the game is on the line-to simply make winning plays.

I was amazed in my first year in Ames at the support of Cyclone Nation for our team. We had lost 10 games in a row when Nebraska came in late in the season and we had over 13,000 fans to cheer us to victory.  I can only imagine what Hilton Magic will feel like when we are moving up the standings in the Big 12, hopefully next season.

And there is reason for optimism, due to some key returners and our much heralded and well-documented group of redshirts, not to mention our new recruits for 2011-12. As we begin the 2 hours per week of player development a new team begins to form and roles have to change as next year's team begins to evolve and take on a new personality.  For us it is somewhat unique as we will be traveling to Italy in August for a foreign tour of games which will allow team chemistry to develop on and off the court.  So this becomes stage one with all the current student-athletes involved in workouts, pick-up, etc. as new roles are assumed.  During summer school we will begin phase two as our recruited players will join the team for school and pick-up games since workouts are still not allowed until we begin the 10 days of practice leading into our August trip.  Obviously those practices are phase three and are equally important to the trip and games that will follow.  A perfect year for us to do this with all the variables and potential we have for next season.

Most teams could benefit if their players could understand the importance of accepting roles based on their current ability (while always working to layer their game and improve) and doing what the team needs them to do in order to succeed.  Doc Rivers recently was quoted saying, "I think you get a lot of young players who say they want to win, and they do, but want to win as long as it's comfortable for them. But very few players want to get out of their comfort zone to win."  Ray Allen added wisdom to Doc when discussing his scoring average dropping from over 26 per game before the Celtics to 17 after joining the team,"You cannot come to a team like this and try to win on your own terms.  It was no longer needed for me to shoot 19-23 times here.  So you have to temper how you pick and choose the shots you are going to get, and how else you can help win a game.  Now, I might have to set a good screen, or get a big rebound or make a sharp cut so someone else can go down the lane for a layup or be open for a 3.  But that's winning on this team's terms, not on my terms."  The challenge is to get our players to understand and embrace this type of philosophy in a society that stresses instant gratification and "getting mine".

See you in Houston.

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