Problematic Purdue
Looking for ways to uncover enthusiasm, leadership
Posted: Monday February 01, 1999 02:49 PM
We've been beaten by Indiana, Ohio State and Northwestern, so it's not a happy-camper time in West Lafayette, Ind. --- especially in the Purdue basketball office.
We've been very proud of what our past players have accomplished, usually winning 10 to 12 Big Ten games on the average, with players who are not always pro prospects, but usually very good college students who get better each year. So, the last two weeks have been a period of very high frustration for the coaches and, I'm sure, for the players, too.
Right now we're really struggling to get some leadership and some kids to step forward with enthusiasm, to get ourselves above the weakness of failing. Second, we're not playing defense in a frenzy like we have in the past. And third, we're not taking good shots on offense and executing with hard cuts, which we practice daily, good screens, which we practice daily, keeping good floor spacing, feeding the post and then taking what the defense gives us. Sometimes this means you have to dribble penetrate, sometimes you have to come off screens for shots, and then sometimes you have to feed the post and move and make things happen according to what the defense is allowing you to do. Our players over the years have learned how to do this, and it seems at this point we're kind of in a stalemate and we're not doing those things we instill and practice and allow us to win.
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"I feel fortunate to help this team get a win, but it's not about anybody. It's about Purdue. Purdue has a tradition, and we came here to carry it on and even make it better. ... So this is about getting this team together and on the right track. This is one step, and we need to make a lot more."
--Purdue guard Carson Cunningham, after defeating Michigan on Jan. 23
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As coaches, we have to step forward and really do a great job teaching our players over the next couple of weeks if we expect to qualify for the NCAA tournament. At this time, the prospect of receiving a tournament berth is rather shaky even though we're still rated in the Top 25, although we didn't play last week like a Top 25 team.
A lot of times when you develop a program of consistency, those players that didn't see how you did that don't take great pride in continuing it. It takes a proud defense, a smart offense and a playing-together-always-type philosophy. The kids think that they're going to the pros, or their selfishness is going to be a cancer to the team, and I'm not sure we're not fighting that a little bit right now. My coaching staff and I must get in there and sell and teach and be positive and instill what we've taught in the 19 years that we've been here.
I think the life skill I try to teach through basketball is that doing things right is hard if you haven't done it before, but once you start to make it a habit it becomes easy and then you become successful and then that snowballs and everyone is doing it. Right now, however, we have some resistance and things aren't going very well. So, we're going to have to get out and try to become really good coaches in these next two or three days if we're going to be successful up the road.
Practice made imperfect
The NCAA put a rule in three or four years ago mandating that you have to take one day a week off and you can only practice 20 hours a week. Frankly, I think that that is a hypocritical statement to what we're trying to teach in the competitive intercollegiate sporting world. In the early '80s -- and maybe even in the early '90s -- when we would get beaten badly at Champaign or Bloomington, Columbus or Minnesota or wherever because we've had our fannies whipped everyplace, we could come home that night and practice at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. That always seemed to be a good wake-up call for the kids.
If it was a Saturday night, then Sunday of course the kids could rest. And if it was a weekday, it would have been tougher because we would have insisted that the kids go to class the next day. Those demands on the kids probably made more of a man out of them, although they really didn't appreciate it at the time -- but later they did. But now with the 20-hour practice week and the constant worry of budgeting that practice time, the coach is curtailed in his activities that week and is kept from perhaps commanding the kids' attention when necessary.
I think this is a bad rule because coaches that have good compassion for the players aren't going to punish them or abuse them, they're going to teach and wake them up. And after a week of getting things done right you give them a day or two off on the road and reward them with more time to study. I would sometimes give them a day off from me, which they need -- time away from the coaches once in a while. And we need time away from the kids sometimes to be with our families, or to recruit or to just talk more basketball so we can help the players later.
I really think the limit on practice time is a bad rule because I think that one of the things that's happened in our country is that the discipline is not there. I think discipline has to be a "tough love" type discipline, where you're mainly interested in the player's future -- which we are at Purdue. We're interested in teaching life skills, we're interested in giving them a high-quality education so they can go out and support themselves in a career if they're not good enough to play basketball.
So, right now we're really going through a frustrating time. It happened in the late '80s, but we regrouped and came back and had, up until now, pretty good success with our program -- averaging 12 Big Ten wins a year. Let me assure you, a dozen Big Ten wins per season is tough to do in this league, but I don't know if that's going to happen this year because of the inability of some of the players to understand that the team is more important than their selfishness. I attribute some of that selfishness to immaturity. I also think there's a lack of understanding of the "big picture." I think it's a certain up-bringing where maybe some of the players were allowed to feel good about mediocrity. I don't know. I don't have all the answers. But I do know that I don't like it and I've been brought up to try my best and treat people right and work hard at what is right -- and that's what we're going to try and do with this basketball team.
To the e-mailbag
Coach Keady! Where do you think is the toughest place to play in the Big Ten? I'm a student at MSU and a member in the IZZONE, a crazy group of 940 students who get raucous at the games. There was an article recently in an Ann Arbor, Mich., newspaper that said that the Breslin Center was like "watching basketball in a biker bar." What are your thoughts about the Breslin Center? Do you think it's the toughest place to play?
Eric Lacy, Lansing, Mich.
For a lot of years the toughest place to play for us was at the home of whomever the potential league champion was supposed to be, like Michigan State was this year and Illinois was last year. And, of course, Bloomington is always a tough place. I've always thought that the Breslin Center was great. Fans have always treated me great there, the students are always tremendous there, and it's always a high-volume, very aggressive, competitive, great Division I basketball scene. I think it's very tough to win at the Breslin Center, but I've always been treated great when we go there. The comments you referred to from Ann Arbor are like what we hear from Bloomington in our rivalry. They say things that try to hurt you because they may not really mean them, but they just say them because you're their rival and they say things just to get you, although they may now really mean them. But that's something you just have to deal with and try to get through.
How do you prepare for each new team you will face? Do you watch a lot of film, and put in new plays and defenses for each new challenge? Or are most things set for the season?
Michael Fouts, Lafayette, Ind.
We probably do it in a very thorough way. We watch a lot of tape, but we don't put many new things in -- like defenses -- because that's too hard to do, and you just try to execute what you're doing correctly. Once in a while we might put in one new play or one out-of-bounds play or something, but not very often. We're more interested in executing our offense at a higher level, playing defense more in a frenzy with intensity, and continuing to improve through better shooting techniques, better block-out techniques, better stance and defense, and improving our enthusiasm and getting those players in there who want more minutes and have been really improving and allow them to expand their time. It's not really what the other team does as much as it is what we do and how we do it.
Coach, what is your policy on spending time, energy and resources to recruit a player that probably won't be around for four years?
Matt McPhail, Boston
My philosophy on that is: If I knew he'd only be around for one year, I would not recruit him. If he was going to be there two years, I would probably work real hard at getting him because that means he's great, like Glen Robinson, and I think he'd be worth it. So, one year? No. More than one year? Yes, I would be for that.
Do you have a secret on maintaining your program at a very high level year after year? I thought that last year's Purdue team was a "championship" team and this year's team was a "rebuilding" team, but it seems like your team is always ready to go for the Big Ten title if not the Final Four! Do you have any secrets?
Michael Salaya, Manila, Philippines
The word "rebuilding" is usually not one of the phrases we use around here. It's "reload." But it looks right now like we might be in the middle of a rebuilding process because we're really struggling. But we don't have any secrets other than hard work and hopefully positive leadership from the coaches. We also have great commitment for the "big picture," not only for Purdue and its philosophies, but also for life skills for our players and making sure that they get their degrees. Our secret is to treat our players right, treat them like my parents raised me -- with love and good discipline -- and understand that if you're a failure it's your fault, not necessarily somebody else's. Don't give excuses because that's a negative thought. We don't allow our players to get away with that.
From the season's first tip-off to its final buzzer, Purdue coach Gene Keady files a weekly column with CNNSI.com. In his 19th year as head coach of the Boilermakers, Keady provides an exclusive peek into the highlights, lowlights and sidelights of a full college basketball season. Follow one of the nation's top coaches within one of the nation's top conferences this season "From Midnight to March."
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