Florida Gulf Coast has taken March Madness by storm with their run to the Sweet 16. The Eagles obviously play an exciting brand of basketball. Everyone loves the dunks and lobs, but there is much more to their success than that. Here are four things we can learn from Florida Gulf Coast:
- Success is earned: In his pre-game speech, shooting guard Sherwood Brown said “We earned the right to be here, nobody gave us nothing, now we gotta go out there and take what’s rightfully ours.” When asked about how he developed his program, Coach Andy Enfield’s answer was hard work, improving everyday, and accountability. A foundation based on work ethic, commitment, and accountability will produce improvement. Improvement breed’s confidence, the confidences to know you’ve earned the right to be successful.
- Prepare to beat the best: Florida Gulf Coast played an extremely difficult non-conference schedule which included VCU, Miami, Duke, St Johns, and Iowa State. I think it’s safe to say that having those elite teams on your schedule would create a sense of urgency and desire to improve. The only way to be your best is to prepare to beat the best. Similarly, Tom Izzo at Michigan State is known for scheduling grueling non-conference schedules and his Spartans continuously make runs to the Final Four.
- You’re either in or out, there is no such thing as in between: When you watch how hard they play, how they treat each other, and how well they execute their system of play you can see that Florida Gulf Coast has bought in. They’ve bought in to their coaches, their teammates, and their system of play. When all the members of any organization believe in each other, know their roles, and are prepared execute those roles, amazing things can happen. However, none of this is possible without total buy-in. There is no in between with buy-in: You buy-in or you don’t.
- It’s better to do a few things great than to do several things average: The Eagles are committed to their style of play. They push the ball and try to score within the first 6 or 7 seconds of the shot clock and if nothing is there, they get into some NBA quick hitters. Nothing about their system, offensive or defensively, is very complicated. They keep it simple and focus on being great in a few key areas.