I love basketball, but March Madness doesn’t usually affect me, or should I say INFECT me, all that much. I like the intensity of basketball. I especially enjoy it if one of the teams has some particular meaning to me. I served as the president of two universities where basketball fever was pretty intense. I certainly got intense. Referees! What can I say? But that’s for another column. Even so, I do not get all that revved up over bracketology. I seldom watch very many of the NCAA tournament games because I almost never have an emotional investment in any of the teams. However, I do occasionally find myself ensconced in my Archie Bunker recliner with a night off, plenty of not very healthy snacks and the relaxed mindset to just enjoy a game that’s not likely to give me a heart attack, horrible refereeing notwithstanding.
I recently enjoyed just such an evening when North Carolina played Notre Dame. North Carolina won and won pretty handily but that is not what got my attention. Both teams were wonderfully talented. I suspect several future NBA players were on the court that night. At least one player could probably play there right now. Yet neither was that what really engaged me. Great players. Excellent coaches. A terrific game. Yet I was enthralled with something else.
The chemistry of the North Carolina team was incredible. They were all talented. So were the Notre Dame players. Also I do want to say, both teams seemed to have good chemistry. Yet it was North Carolina that seemed to connect at an almost unconscious level. I had the feeling the entire game that every player on the UNC team knew where every other player was at all times. What makes a “no look” pass possible? Player A has to know without looking Player B is there, right where he’s suppose to be. Player A must also have confidence in Player B; that will catch such a pass, handle the ball and finish the play with a basket. That’s chemistry.
Every team in the NCAA tournament has some level of chemistry or they wouldn’t be there. The University of North Carolina team I watched that night seemed more connected, more melded into a cohesive unit than any team I’ve watched in some time. I’m NOT making a prediction. I’m out of the sports prediction business. When Buster Douglas whipped Mike Tyson that ended that. Anything can happen in sports, or this year at least, in politics. So I’m not saying North Carolina will win it all. They may lose before this can go to press. All I’m saying is that on that night, I saw a team that seemed to have some kind of magical connection. That is team chemistry and if they have that in the final four they will be tough to beat.
I said something similar to a man seated next to me on a plane the day after the game. His response, “I guess I see what you mean, but I would just call that good coaching.”
“Sure,” I agreed. “But what that means is that to some extent or another, chemistry can be coached.”
Great leaders know that a team loaded with egotistical Lone Rangers and talented prima donnas can and often does lose to a less talented team with great chemistry. North Carolina has an embarrassment of riches as far as talent goes, but they have combined all that talent with chemistry. Without some talent, team chemistry will take you only so far. Great leaders will recruit the best players they can get. Still, at some point or another you have play with the players you’ve got. What then? Even if your team is not yet made of all-Americans, you can make them better than they ought to be. Chemistry doesn’t just happen. I’ve had teams with sweet chemistry that I hardly had to work at. I’ve also had at least one where it was a constant and often discouraging process. It won’t always come easy but chemistry can be taught. Here are some keys to building chemistry in your team.
I. Teach and reward unselfishness. Praise the assist at least as much as you praise the fancy slam dunk. Praise the player who makes the others look good. Does your CFO work hard to make teammates successful? Or does she just want to prove she is smarter than they are? Teams with good chemistry are teams that know when give up the ball to a less talented teammate who is in a better place to make a better shot. Great coaches know a great pass is better than a good shot.
II. Teach them to praise each other. Your praise as a coach is important but when your players praise each other you’re on the road to championship chemistry. Encourage mutual encouragement and forbid, absolutely forbid the negative judgmentalism and back biting that destroys chemistry. One key here is to teach your most talked producer to be verbally encouraging to the others. THAT can be very infectious.
III. Teach them to appreciate each other’s unique giftings. The seven-footer must know that the little point guard who gets the ball up court is capable of ball handling he can only dream of. Likewise, the point guard who thinks he’s the whole show is a serious liability.
IV. Teach them to trust the program as well as each other. In other words, they need confidence in each other’s skills but they also need to know that what you’ve taught them, the offensive plays and the defenses they’ve practiced over and over again will work. They have to believe in each other. They also have to believe in you and what you’ve taught them.
I had the feeling watching that great UNC team that no matter what Notre Dame threw at them, they said, oh yeah, we learned all about this. We practiced and prepared for just that and we know what to do here. Furthermore, even if we don’t, the man on the bench knows and he will call a time out at exactly the right moment and tells us.
What I saw on the court in that game was a chemical compound that had been perfected in practice after practice after practice. Chemistry doesn’t happen on game night in front of a world wide TV audience. It happens in practice sessions when nobody is watching.
I do not know if UNC will win it all. What I do know is that team, that night, was greater even than the sum of its considerable parts. And THAT is chemistry.
