There are plenty of good underdog speeches. There are plenty of inspirational halftime speeches for Hoosiers. Just check Youtube. But what should be said to the clear favorite? What should a coach say to the "better" team to make sure they play better - it's actually a very hard question. At least when facing insurmountable odds we know what to say... "this could be the 1 time in 100...".
The most important thing is probably to remind the players of all the times when they have confidently played well - that they've been here before and nothing can take the place of experience. But honestly, I don't know; I've never had a good halftime speech when I was the clear favorite. If you have some good ideas, let me know.
Games where you're the clear favorite are sucky games. I agree that it's important to remind people about their experience levels. What's most important though is keeping people focused and in the zone. Something Kevin Cissa told us when we played Cal-B at DUI was that your team gets no learned benefit from throwing 90/10 hucks that would usually be 50/50 hucks. If you can't focus and take a game seriously (even if you're the obvious favorite to win), you won't learn anything from the 90 minutes you play. Unless you throw throws that you would usually throw in a normal situation, you're just wasting time. And why not build chemistry with your teammates during the opportunities you play with them?
ReplyDeleteThat was the biggest difference I saw when we played Wisconsin. They took EVERY point seriously, especially when we broke them a couple times to pull within 4-3. They proceeded to outscore us 11-2 the rest of the game because they were focused and not willing to let us hang around for any attempt at an upset.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredibly difficult to not play down the level of your opponent. Personally, I despise playing games in which I know I'm much better than my opponent. It's not fun, and if I proceed to go out there and play my best and crush them, I know it's not fun for them either and that tends to be a deterrent to playing my best.
I think it all just comes down to having that killer instinct and using the threat of being upset ( ala Chaminade over Virginia, Jets over Colts, Northern Iowa over Kansas, to name a few) as motivation to not let it happen. We all focus on the reaction of the winning team in that situation, but the losing team walks away in complete shock, disbelief and disgust. Wanting to avoid those emotions could be pretty motivating, because most people have been on that side of the outcome before.