Diary Series: Andre Gray, Asst. Coach - UNCW

I started my first blog quickly mentioning my rules, and promise to have a little fun and go into full details about the rules I follow when evaluating players in my next one. Why don’t I recruit players who can’t close their mouths when standing still? Why is my running speed very important as it relates to evaluating players? Or, why is less more when it comes to gear and equipment? Find out the answers to these and more in my next blog.

I hope all of our readers have had a great holiday season and are ready to enjoy an exciting conference season.  This is the beginning of the dog days of conference play and when teams start to separate themselves and really start forming an identity.  Team identity is forged by the identity of its leadership and role identification. By now hopefully the team understands who will get the most shots and who will get the ball in the clutch depending on what type of basket is needed, the so called “go to” guy.

But what I think separates teams is the other guy, the guys who win games and never get to talk to the reporters but still take pride in their job. The guy you can count on to guard the other team's best player, the guy who will jump in there and grab the big rebound, the guy who will go in there and set the screen which free up the scorer, the guy who will step in there and take the big charge, the guy who make the on time on target pass, the guy who’s happy just playing his role and resting the starters, the guy who will jump in his teammates faces when they need it, the guy who will hug his teammates when they need that too, the guy who pushes the starters every day in practice, the guy who is the first to chest bump his teammates when they make a big play, the guy who will sacrifice and dive on the floor for that 50/50 ball. In my experiences as a player and coach when you have a lot of “go to” guys and not enough “other” guys you probably will not be a championship team.

As for us, we started the season extremely slow. Some of it due to a very tough non conference schedule, some of it to being extremely young, and some of it is simply not making winning plays. We bounced back to win seven of nine and are now sitting in the middle of the conference standings at (3-3). 

This is my first season going through the tough CAA Conference and I have been very impressed with the level of coaching and talent in this league.  The overall athleticism of the league has been impressive and the way the better teams in the league use their length and athletes to defend. We are about to enter a stretch of five games in 11 days that will be sure to test our young team. This could be a very good thing in the players' eyes because of few practices and lots of games but will definitely test the sleeping patterns and the ability to adjust quickly of the coaching staff.  I am confident that we will continue to learn to compete and act like champions and that the teams that I have yet to see in the league will be just as impressive as the ones I have.  I wish everyone good luck, except the nights when we play you and look forward to wrapping up another exciting college basketball season.

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