Defining Roles The Dean Smith Way

 

We always hoped that roles for the players would unfold naturally and be defined in practice. These were intelligent young men. They usually knew which players were doing best in practice. Their own strengths and weaknesses were exposed. All of them knew that playing time at Carolina was earned by practice performance. But sometimes roles weren’t easily identified. Sometimes the competition for playing time was extremely close, as was the talent of the players and players honestly didn’t know where they stood. 

On such occasions I had to step in and help the players understand their roles as well as what was expected of them. That was accomplished with candid, one-on-one conversations between the player and me. After the first blue-white scrimmage, which was usually held about three weeks after the start of practice, I met individually with each player. I told each player where he stood at that particular time and what he could expect as far as playing time was concerned. I emphasized that things could change, so he should strive to improve with each practice. I tried to be specific in telling him the areas where he needed the most work. Giving up, pouting, excessive griping, or complacency was not an option. During these one-on-one talks I never set up a player to be in direct competition with a teammate for playing time. I never said, “in order to beat out so-and-so, you must do the following things…” 

We didn’t do it that way. It would have made it hard for those two players to share the same goals for the team. They would have been too self-focused and concerned about doing better than their teammates in order to win playing time. Individual goals would have surpassed teams goals, to the determent of the whole. The key was to get the players locked in on team goals and shared dreams.

—Adapted from The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching