MVC – Confidence Key Late Season Runs

(St. Louis, MO) – Winning basketball games isn’t all about talent or coaching schemes. It often comes down to hard to quantify things like confidence, chemistry, and rhythm. Obviously talent and schemes are huge, but when dealing with 18-to-21 year-old men, those other ingredients are the X-factor in many collegiate basketball games.

It comes and it goes and why it does, no one knows.

Confidence = belief in oneself and one’s powers or abilities

Chemistry = the interaction of one personality with another: sympathetic understanding; rapport

College coaches work tirelessly to create such rapport, belief and expectations. When a team is playing well they people say they have momentum, when they struggle, it’s called in a slump. When a player is making shots off the break, they’re being aggressive, but when that shot is off people say he’s taking a shot  too early in the shot clock.

It is something of a ‘chicken and egg’ kind of question, but building trust amongst teammates takes time, repetition, coaching and learning one another’s strengths and weaknesses.

Heading into this week’s games, here are some confident thoughts.

Coaching Moves

Recently Missouri State coach Dana Ford decided to slow the pace of his team’s offensive sets. It improved their offensive efficiency and helped the Bears’ transition defense. His team has won seven of its last eight games and they are playing with great confidence.

Ford played to his team’s strengths. Point guard Josh Webster is a conservative distributor rather than flashy, play-making guard. MSU’s three-point shooters were give more opportunity to work to get open for shots and forward Tulio Da Silva could patrol the paint.

Bradley’s Brian Wardle and Indiana State’s Greg Lansing have tinkered with their lineups. The Braves have won seven of their last nine games and so people talk about their great chemistry. The Sycamores have dropped seven of their last ten so obviously they lack confidence.

Lansing says his team’s chemistry is slightly off.

 

 

Growing Into Roles and Confidence

Northern Iowa seems to have found their rotation and their rhythm. They’ve won their last two games and head coach Ben Jacobson says his Panthers finally seem to be playing with the confidence needed to compete in the MVC.

 

 

Valparaiso was playing gritty basketball and playing short-handed due to injuries. Coach Matt Lottich liked his team’s grit and tenacity. Their ‘us-against-the-world’ mentality had him proud. As his team has grown healthier, he says they’ve lost something of their competitiveness. Getting stronger, somehow made them weaker.

 

 

Illinois State coach Dan Muller said recently that his Redbirds react better to adversity than they do to success.

Elusive traits that create success are difficult to understand.

Shooters That Lose Their Edge

Then there are the players that for whatever reason, can’t make the shots they’ve made all their lives. Coming into the season, Indiana State’s Jordan Barnes, Illinois State’s Keyshawn Evans and Valpo’s Bakari Evelyn were expected to be all-conference players and provide steady point production.

Barnes set the INS three-point record last season (117) and owned a .421 a shooting percentage. His season started off well enough, but in Valley play Barnes resembles more brick-layer than marksman. He is making .219 percent of his long distance shots during conference work. Evans made .419 of his long distance attempts last season and has misfired all year. His .336 percentage from deep has removed the third leg of the ILS offensive stool.

Evelyn has struggled all year. His scoring average has dropped from last year’s 12.6 to this year’s 8.5. Coach Lottich says his job is to try to keep Evelyn confident.

 

 

The Home Court Advantage

Players usually play better at home and the visitors lose more often on the road. Why? Confidence. Players are used to the shooting backgrounds, the pregame ritual and thousands of people are telling them they are great.

Not so fast.

In this year’s Missouri Valley Conference season, the road teams are winning games at the highest rate in 22 years. They’ve already prevailed 29 times in 70 attempts, which is one more than all of last season. Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson says, for some unknown reason, his team plays better on the road than at SIU Arena. The Salukis are an outstanding 3-4 in road Valley play and a pedestrian 4-3 at home.

Who will win this crazy Valley race? Who will fight their way out of the Thursday play-in round? We don’t know, but once it’s settled, those players and coaches will be talking about confidence, chemistry and rhythm.

Or maybe they just need to make some shots.

Do Good