I love college hoops.
I am from Tobacco Road, and college basketball isn’t life or death around here.
It is much more important than that…
In this post, I’m going to tell you exactly why teams win.
There are basically two ways to win in modern day college basketball.
The Kentucky Method
First, you can try the Kentucky method of out-recruiting people. Put enough five stars on the court and good things are bound to happen right?
Of course, this method is bound to have high peaks and low valleys. You are relying on young players, which is always dangerous. Your team doesn’t have enough time to develop experience and continuity, which is a valuable asset come tournament time.
The only teams that can be consistently successful with this method are the upper echelon teams. The other 300 D1 programs have to take another approach.
The problem is – most of them don’t. They try to win the recruiting game against the programs that are hyped by ESPN 24-7. This is how they spend their time, money and energy. They can’t win that game. This is why you see the same teams at the top of the polls every year.
Building Team Chemistry – Why Teams Win
There is another way to win– and that is taking advantage of the way the current game is played.
The college game sucks right now because of the atrocious officiating. A player on offense has to get maimed to get a foul call.
I am watching the Indiana/Temple game as I write this, and the Indy PG just took a shot to the head with no foul called. It would have been 15 yards and a fine in the NFL.
This happens every single game. The game is more physical than ever. This levels the playing field and is why there is so much parody.
Smart coaches know there is a better way. They recruit good players who are good shooters and play hard defense. They fill their team with these types of guys. These guys may not be the 5 star players coming out of high school, but they can become 5 star players by the time they are seniors.
By the time they are seniors they have been through the wars of tournament play. They have had four or five years of practice. They have grown to form bonds with their teammates because of these shared experiences.
Leaders develop on these teams, because they have had time to learn how to lead. Also, they are now 23 year old grown men going against 18 year old boys.
And more times than not, the experienced leaders will beat the young hot shots. This is why teams win.
This is very similar to how our fraternities play out.
Make your Fraternity a Team
A chapter with a couple superstar brothers does not make a great fraternity.
How many times have we seen a couple young, hot shot brothers come into the chapter and attempt to take it over by their sophomore year?
It doesn’t matter if they are successful or not, because the damage has already been done. No respect was paid to the older brothers and as a result they drift away.
Sure, they still may come to an occasional party or pay their dues, but they are not contributing at the level they should be.
When they drift away they take years of experience with them and leave a huge leadership hole in your fraternity.
If you really want your fraternity to be great – if you want to win – you need to cherish these guys. You need to cultivate a fraternity where the upper classman lead and teach the young bucks how to lead.
Also, how many times have we seen a chapter with one or two superstars and a room full of duds? These superstars aspire for their fraternity to be more, so they work extra hard and do 95% of the work that needs to be done.
On the surface, these superstar brothers can create a facade that the chapter is doing great and achieving great things. In reality though, only one or two brothers are achieving. The rest are apathetic and the foundation of this chapter is sturdy as a house of cards.
Build your brotherhood team the right way. Celebrate the elders and show them the respect they deserve. Teach the young guys to spend their early years working hard in preparation for when they become the old guard. Keep everyone engaged, because success depends on everyone contributing.
This is why teams win.