"Rants and Raves" is an open forum for coaches to discuss topics, ranging from issues to observations on the state of college basketball and beyond.
 
 
Important Brush
By Kyle Macy, Morehead State

Two years ago Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson did an excellent column on the vital importance of leadership. His expose was much talked about among coaches. But Kelvin had a luxury that many coaches do not have. He had Hollis Price.

As has been pointed out over the years, the qualities of a leader supersede statistical accomplishments. How he or she leads by example and becomes a coach's third arm are what being a leader is all about.

Players like Hollis Price take that to another level because they were also All-American players.

Ask Kelvin what life without Price would have been like or ask Mike Krzyzewski how successful his Duke teams would have been without Shane Battier's leadership.

The statistical contributions of Price and Battier certainly would have been enough to make their respective teams threats in March, but they probably would not have been Final Four teams without their leadership.

Those are the ultimate rewards of great leadership, but now let me paint another picture, one without leadership found on the canvas.

It's not the type of artwork that you would find hanging in a gallery. To borrow an artsy term, it can be flat out ugly.

I am not going to name names here. Within this feature we will protect the names of the innocent, but I do want to point out the points made by numerous coaches that I have spoken with about this very subject and their team's lack of leadership.

And ugly was a word used, but it was highlighted by some less than flattering verbiage.

While the present records vary, the one thing that each of the coaches I spoke to had in common was lack of leadership, among their upper-classman.

For some that has resulted in abysmal starts and for others it has been the difference between currently being .500 rather than a viable factor within their own conference.

A quick glance at the standings will tell you 'only' where a team currently stands. And that is all they tell you. Unless you have been around that team every day you cannot draw any other conclusions.

Unfortunately, most people would just assume that a team with a 1-6 or 2-8 record is simply just a bad team. Some may look at who was on the schedule and conclude that maybe they are a decent team, which has just played a tough non-league schedule, but ordinarily that is where the analysis ends.

Did it ever dawn on anyone that perhaps they are lacking something, beyond talent?

By no means is it an indictment on those making such judgments, but I do believe you need to have a point of reference in order to truly understand and appreciate this concept. And that point of reference can only be -- having participated in organized sport.

Pick a coach -- any coach -- and he or she will be able to suck the oxygen out of a room, when addressing this subject. Likewise, those who played any organized sport would also be able to speak at length about the key ingredient that is leadership.

Here is a perfect example?

We began the season with two losses in our first three games. My coaching staff and I saw the writing on the wall before the season began, but had a difficult time in getting the team's attention.

My message was simple, "We did it your way and we are 1-2 now we are going to do it my way."

That got their attention. And each of the coaches I spoke with also 'got it' and could relate, as they are dealing with similar situations. But people outside the circle will -- more often than not -- come to a conclusion that Morehead State was just not very good.

In our case, we still have a ways to go, in terms of replacing some pieces lost to graduation, but we had a void in the leadership role, which needed to be filled.

Now does that mean that we are NCAA tournament bound, not by a long shot, but had we not addressed it our season could have gone south quicker than you could run your paint brush across the canvas.

Many coaches are labeled as being great leaders, but each of those coaches will tell you that the success of their teams really hinges on that third arm. Without an on-the-floor leader you will never reach your potential.

It is that simple.

One common factor among 'all' teams that have great seasons is leadership. You can talk about the team's talent all you want, but a room without a nice coat of paint is just a room with potential.

Leadership is the brush that brings it all together.

None of the coaches that I spoke with believed their teams had the makings of being ranked in the AP's Top Ten, but they all felt that they had a team that could be a major factor within their conference race.

But lack of player leadership has kept them from being better teams.

Excluding those teams that are forced to play daunting non-league schedules (they normally enter league play with unattractive records) and you will find that a great many of the teams with unimpressive records are in every game.

It's that one three or four-minute span, those two bad possessions or that final five minutes that are often the difference between competing for a league title and finishing near the bottom of the conference.

A great many of the latter find themselves in the low-rent district painting on cardboard because they lack the brush of leadership.

You really do need that third arm to paint the best outcome and if still don't get it then you probably don't have that all-important point of reference.