Happy Wednesday - Make sure you’re taking game shots.

Cig Strikes Again - Are You Not Entertained?

Curt Cignetti walked into Bloomington and did something coaches at every level dream about. He took a struggling program and injected belief, standards, and direction. People talk about recruiting or scheme, but the truth is simpler. He built a culture that refuses to lose. He set a standard for how they practice, how they talk, how they compete. And the results showed up fast.

Every coach has been in that position at some point. Maybe not on a Big Ten stage, but inside your own gym. You inherit a group that hasn’t won much. You step into a program that’s lost confidence. You walk into a locker room where the standard used to be higher. And now it’s your job to flip the direction.

What Cignetti reminds us is that turnarounds aren’t magic. They’re built on four things:

1. The right people.
He brought in players who fit the mission. Not perfect players, but the right ones. At the youth and high school levels, that means developing the right habits, teaching the right values, and setting expectations early. Are you developing players into the right people?

2. The right systems.
He put in structure and clarity. Everyone knows the plan. Everyone knows their role. Great coaches win more often because they remove confusion.

3. The right support.
No one changes a program alone. Strength staff, assistants, trainers, administrators. He often thanks the President of the university and the Athletic Director for their belief and support. In your world, that might be your middle school coaches, your parents, your captains. Build the support system before the season tests you.

4. The willingness to adapt.
This is the separator. Plenty of coaches keep doing the same thing and hope the results change. Cignetti adjusted. He tweaked. He refined. He coached his system to fit his roster instead of forcing his roster into a rigid system. He took on a lot of transfers and players that came with him from James Madison. While the rest of the world was complaining about NIL and how college athletics were changing, Cignetti adapted and turned it into success.

When you zoom out, his turnaround is a blueprint for every coach, no matter your level. Your team can shift faster than you think when the leadership is clear, the communication is honest, and the daily habits line up with the vision.

The biggest lesson: You don’t need a perfect situation to win. You need direction, accountability, and the courage to change what isn’t working.

Turnarounds are hard. But they aren’t about talent alone. They’re about leadership first. Cignetti proved it on a national stage. You can prove it in your own program.

This season, ask yourself the same questions Cignetti probably had to ask about Indiana:

FOOL’S GOLD

Sometimes winning hides the truth. You can walk out of a gym with a W and still know deep down that your team did not play well, did not improve, and did not move any closer to the standard you set for them. I call it fool’s gold. It feels good in the moment, but it tricks you into thinking everything is fine. On the flip side, you can lose and still see real growth. You can watch your team compete with purpose, execute with focus, and show that the work you have been doing is taking hold.

This is why the process is super important. Are you playing to the standard you set for your team? Are you improving your habits? Are you honest about where you fell short? And do players recognize it or just the coaches? Wins can distract you if you let them. Losses can break you if you let them. Real growth happens when you evaluate the game with honesty and ask whether you were any closer to reaching your potential than you were the week before.

As coaches we have to stay aware of this tension. We have to guard against feeling satisfied just because we won and stay committed to the daily work that builds real confidence. Make sure you are focusing on the growth. Like Curt Cignetti said in his post game interview “I’ve got three weeks to get our team humble and hungry”.

Questions for you this week:

The Scouting Report is your weekly dose of resources that can help your coaching. Plays of the Week, videos, drills, etc. What’s the old joke? The best coaches are just the best thieves?

Shared Resources

Some good BLOB’s from the NBA:

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Let’s remind each other we’re not alone in this coaching journey.

That’s a wrap on Episode 21 of Game Shots. Thank you for subscribing.

My mission has always been, and will always be, to support coaches around the world who love the game and want to keep getting better.