Did It Ever Occur To You?

I can't help but notice the little noise regarding the Lady Razorbacks basketball program. Their 30 point loss in the conference tournament combined with the whatever number (9 wasn't it?) straight losses they sustained after a surprising conference start should be a great embarrassment to a program that was having 20 wins seasons, NCAA Tournament hopes each year, and had made a recent Final Four appearance.

This article reminded me of a quote from Gary Blair that I especially liked regarding his players missing 3 point shots -- "but I was wide open, coach..."

Blair's response, "did it ever occur to you there's a reason you are wide open?"

I told my rec. league team that many times on the basketball floor those things that seem easy to do are really just traps the other team wants us to snare ourselves in.

Speaking of Gary Blair, here's an excellent article about him. Apparently he is a little more appreciated in the Aggie world than he was by the Razorback women's athletic department.

Leaders who change things that are working fine just to put their "stamp" on things rarely succeed in doing anything other than just applying their "stamp." Unfortunately traditional measures of success -- wins, NCAA appearances, attendance, profits and shareholder value (Dude, where did those last two come from?) -- tend to suffer as the "stamp" tends to be the sole goal of the leader.