Hoop Masters Blog

Take Me To Your Leader January 27, 2010

Take Me To Your Leader

By Jerome Green

Edited by Vicky Sun

Recently I’ve heard many high school and college basketball coaches lamenting the fact that they can’t get players to step up and assume leadership roles on their teams. This seems to be a pervasive issue with coaches all over the country. I was watching a roundtable discussion on the Big Ten Network this week and the panelists debated why Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Northwestern were having difficulties with player leadership. The key issue that the coaches mentioned was a lack of communication within the team. An example of this was the way Illinois coach Bruce Webber banned his team from talking to the media because they don’t talk to each other in the locker room.

Jim Jackson stated, “The problem is that kids come to school and it’s not in their personality to be leaders.” In response to that statement, Dan Dakich said, “ You should never leave college the same way you entered college”.

Dakich feels that leadership can be taught. So if you want to win, if you want to learn, then becoming a leader is part of the process.

Being a leader comes with responsibilities and my sense is that we have a generation of players who don’t want to be burdened by that role. Players may say they want the title of being a leader, but not many of them want the pressure that goes along with it. When I was captain of my high school and college teams, I remember having the responsibility of being the first at practice and the last to leave. My coaches held me to a higher standard. If the team wasn’t acting right, the coach came to me and told me to fix it. I was fortunate none of my coaches were screamers, but boy were good at giving me an icy stare. The look that meant, step it up.

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