So You Wanna Win the State Tournament? Then You Better Read This...

The state basketball tournament. It's my favorite time of year. All across the country, in big cities and little towns, teams are gearing up for "do or die" basketball. While one school moves on, the other gets ready for baseball season.

In Missouri, you have to win your district tournament (usually 3 games), and then you enter the Sectional round of the state tournament. If you win there, it's on to the Quarterfinal game. If you win there, your team (and entire town in the those small schools) makes the trip to Columbia for the state Final Four.

Altogether, you have to win seven games. During those seven games, you're going to play some games against teams where you know everything about them and they know everything about you. One of your starters dated one of the other school's cheerleaders and sometimes you see some of those guys at the mall, right? You're going to play other games against teams from the other side of the state that you've never seen before.

You're going to see some man defense and some zone. You're going to see teams that press and run and play fast. You're going to see another team that walks the ball up the floor. You're going to play a game against a guard who just set his school's all time scoring record. You're going to play another game against a team with the biggest post player you've seen all year.

It's the state tournament! Every game is different. Every game is a challenge. It's not supposed to be easy. Those teams that embrace the challenge and have fun when it gets hard are going to play well. Those teams that can't live in the moment, that can't channel their inner John Wooden "competitive greatness," are going to struggle.

The beautiful part, and the cruelest thing about the state tournament, is that those teams that play well, sometimes they lose. And those teams that struggle? Sometimes they win. It's unpredictable. It's awesome. It's unforgettable.

So as a coach who was lucky enough to make it to the Final Four three times and win the state championship twice, here is my advice to any coach or player reading this that wants to win the state tournament...

You have to be able to survive playing your "C GAME." It's that simple. If you play your "A GAME," you're going to win. If your best players gets hot, and the role players step up, and nobody gets in foul trouble, and you guard and you rebound, and there are no bad calls, and nobody gets hurt... Well yeah, you're going to win LOL.

You have to survive your "C GAME." What are you going to do when your leading scorer gets in foul trouble? What are you going to do when your team goes ice cold? What are you going to do when that ref makes a TERRIBLE CALL? How can you win your C GAME?

I'll give you one example of a C GAME that we won, and I'll give you one example of a C GAME we lost.

In 2002 our team made it to the Final Four. We honestly played our A Game in the district Finals and the State Finals. Neither game was even close. In between, we had some ups and downs, but none quite as bad as our state semifinal game.

It was the first time in 21 years that our school had advanced that far in the state playoffs. Our kids were playing at The University of Missouri, in front of thousands of people, and they were nervous. We shot 25% from the floor in the first half. Our leading scorer, Eric Henry, had seven turnovers. It was a brutal performance by our guys. Nobody shot well. We didn't play well at all in that first half.

Here's how we overcame it. We got 17 offensive rebounds. We played terrific defense (held their guards scoreless). We took care of the ball in the second half. We had other players step up and score for us. We won that game by 10-12, and like I said, we won by a lot the next day in the state finals. We just had to survive that one C GAME.

Years later, when I was the head women's basketball coach at Robert Morris University, our team was ranked #1 in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association poll. We entered the national tournament as the #1 seed.

We got to the quarterfinal round and played a team from Cincinnati. At any level of college basketball (D1, NAIA, etc), the difference between the #1 team in the nation and the #8 team in the nation is pretty slim. After all, both teams are giving our scholarships, and both teams have a roster full of players who probably used to be the best player on their high school team.

We had an eight player rotation. We got into the first half, and our leading scorer, Stephanie Brake, badly sprained her ankle. Then another one of our top players, LaToya Gipson, got into foul trouble. Then ANOTHER one of our starters, LaTonya Boyd, got into foul trouble.

Suddenly, our eight player rotation was down to five. We got behind early and had to try to dig out of that hole in the second half. The whole time we were doing this with a girl who had a heavily taped ankle, and we were having to be conservative (we had to stop pressuring on defense) because we were in foul trouble.

We climbed all the way back, were down 3, and came up with a steal. On a breakaway layup, our point guard Jasmine Mack finished and got fouled. AND ONE! Wait a minute. The ref didn't call a foul. He called a walk. Wave off the basket and the chance to tie. It was a bad call. It wasn't why we lost, but it sure did break our momentum.

The point of the story: One team was able to overcome adversity and win, while the other wasn't able to. It wasn't that one tried harder than the other. Both teams played HARD. It's just that in one situation, we were able to find something to hold onto (defense and rebounding). We didn't have to overcome as many "uncontrollables" in the game we were able to win. (Injuries and officiating... and to be clear, it wasn't the refs fault we lost. My point is, you can't control that part of the game).

If you're going to win the state tournament, you have to THRIVE in these moments. You have to be at your best when your best is needed. You have to love a tough challenge.

You also need a little luck. And maybe a good call or two. That was NOT a walk haha!!!

Good luck to everybody. Enjoy the ride. #JWT #WinOrGoHome