Diary Series: Jonathan Holmes, Asst. Coach - William & Mary

Welcome back college basketball fans!  This is my third year discussing Tribe basketball via College Chalktalk, and once again I am looking forward to giving readers an inside look into what is happening with our program throughout the season.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends last week.  Like most teams, we spent the holiday break together, practicing and getting prepared for a road game at Howard University in Washington D.C.  After a mid morning practice, we had an incredible Thanksgiving meal as a team at the Williamsburg Lodge.  Afterwards, we gave our players the remainder of the afternoon off to get some extra rest or spend time with family members.  It was definitely a memorable Thanksgiving, and I am pretty certain that all of our players left the Lodge about 20 lbs heavier!

As we traveled the three hours or so up to Washington D.C. for our game against Howard, I spent a lot of time thinking about the first couple weeks of our season, and all that has transpired with our team since practice started in October.   It has certainly been a challenging start to the year, and I’ve learned that each new season takes on a life of its own, and it’s always important as a coach to be flexible and prepared for unexpected circumstances.  One of the biggest challenges that we have had to face so far in the early part of the season has been playing and practicing with a depleted roster due to injury.  I realize that throughout the course of a season guys are going to get banged up, sprain an ankle, miss a day of practice here and there, but prior to our first game of the season at St. John’s, ONLY four of our 14 players had not missed a practice due to injury.  You know it’s a tough situation when I have to come out of retirement just so we have enough players to scrimmage!  Thankfully, most all of our injured players have returned to action, but we are still playing without two guys who have started or seen significant playing time in their careers at W&M. 

My entry this month is not meant to be a rant about our injuries, but more so a discussion about the importance of responding positively when your team is faced with an unexpected situation like playing without numerous players due to injury.  I think Tony Dungy’s comments in his book Quiet Strength, are very profound.  He said, “You can't always control circumstances. However, you can always control your attitude, approach, and response. Your options are to complain or to look ahead and figure out how to make the situation better.”  Our team and staff have tried to approach the last couple of months with that same thought process in mind, looking at our situation and trying to figure out how we can make our team better despite the injuries.

The first thing we have attempted to do is to take a big picture approach to the situation.  It is November, and we are only a handful of games into our season, so the most important thing is to get the injured players back healthy without rushing them back before they are actually ready and able to play again.  We want to be playing our best basketball in February anyway, leading up to the CAA Tournament, so it is important to always keep the big picture in mind.  At this point in the season we know that all of our goals as a team are still attainable, but losing sight of the “process” at this stage of the season can certainly be detrimental to the development of the team.  Remember, the college basketball season is more a marathon than a sprint! 

Secondly, our staff has looked at the situation as an opportunity to develop our team’s depth.  Obviously with so many players out, it has forced our freshmen, and other inexperienced returning players to step up and fill the void.  This can end up being a huge positive for a team, even if there are some growing pains early on with the younger players.  Game experience is invaluable in college basketball, and the more players on your roster that have quality game experience, the better off your team will be in the long run.

Finally, we have tried to use this stretch as an opportunity to grow individually and collectively as coaches.  Sometimes adversity requires you to think outside the box in order to give your team the best opportunity to be successful, so we’ve tried to be flexible in our approach.  For example, we had five of our players, all 6’8” and above, injured at the same time.  As a staff we had to find a way to fill a hole at the 4 spot, so we decided to play one of our guards, Kendrix Brown, there when necessary.  Even though he is only 6’3,” Kendrix is our best defender, an excellent rebounder, and an extremely tough kid.  Sometimes you might have to move a guy to a new position, or implement a new defense, or simply find a new way to teach something that helps a player improve.  Again, it is ok to be unconventional in your approach especially when dealing with the unexpected.

Thanks for taking the time to read, and have a great holiday season!  I look forward to talking Tribe hoops with you again soon!

GO TRIBE!

Jonathan