Gonzaga-Hoosiers-Dawgs
T
he NCAA Division 1 national title between North Carolina and Gonzaga was kind of like David and Goliath. Gonzaga and Butler Universities have played for the national title in the last two years and are not considered first tier NCAA D-1 programs. Would anybody at the first of the season considered Gonzaga to play for the national title? Gonzaga was not even mentioned by the EXPERTS!
I was visiting with our Dawg football leadership group and I asked them to name the top basketball programs in America. They said North Carolina, Kentucky, UCLA and Kansas. They did not say Gonzaga or Butler but yet both programs have played in the biggest game of all of college basketball in the last two years.
Do you think programs like Gonzaga and Butler can recruit “head to head” with those aforementioned programs? What if Texas or Baylor was recruiting a player from Little Rock and Gonzaga wanted the same player? Which college would the recruit choose? I doubt it would be the Zags. Yet, Gonzaga played for the 2017 national title, not Baylor or Texas.
What does this example spell out to teams all over the country? In my opinion I believe it tells everyone talent is extremely important but more important is team leadership (chemistry). Butler and Gonzaga had great players but they were not the nation’s top “blue chip” recruits. In recent years we have witnessed TCU and Baylor build their programs very similarly in football.
Milan, Indiana, High School was very similar to Gonzaga and Butler. Milan, in the 1950’s, had very good talent but they were not thought of like the big Indiana high schools. When the “Hoosiers” movie hit theaters in late 1986, Bobby Plump and his teammates never dreamed how much the Hollywood adaptation would change their lives, not to mention the traffic in the tiny town, population 1,900. The movie became as revered as any champion in sports history, an unforgettable example of David beating Goliath.
We continue to see these type of stories from unexpected teams and I believe it is because of the unique team leadership and chemistry. In the small little Indiana town of Milan, the gym seats a whopping 2500 and in the gym are two banners hanging, State Finalist 1953 and State Champions 1954. Today in the Butler and Gonzaga gyms, there are banners saying “Runner-up” National Champions.
At this time of year I gather our leadership group (players) and start setting goals for the up-coming football season. What can we do next season? How good can we be? What is our competition like? Lots of questions but the important ingredient to becoming a great team is unifying the players and coaches.
How can a Gonzaga team play for a national title and not compete for the biggest recruits in the country? This reminds me of what an executive in the music business told me about an artist making it to the “big time”. He said your talent has to be good enough. Then he said but the key is artist must have the proper finance backing to make it big!
This is similar to having a great athletic team. The talent level has to be adequate but the financing ingredient for athletics is perfect technique and level of play in athletics.
So, how good will the Dawgs be in 2017? I will have a better idea after spring training. Then I will be able to determine the desire of the players desire to win and execute perfectly. I’m ready for some football, are you!
Thought for the week, “Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal”. Author unknown