How To Be Cinderella

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As the postseason is underway, whether it’s your conference tournament or the national tournament, here’s a few tips on becoming the belle of the ball.

  • Have realistic expectations – Good team are good at things so when you’re the underdog, you have to expect they’re going to do good things.  You have to try to take something away or create something irregular for them because that’s what’s going to win you the game.
  • Don’t just rely on just a slogan – I love the Rocky movies.  I’ve watched them a million times and I was fortunate to coach a team called the Tigers so I’ve heard Eye of the Tiger probably a million more.  But beyond the inspirational music, Rocky really did have a plan.  He fought Apollo right-handed before switching to lefty late in the match.  He worked on his conditioning in order to outlast Clubber Lang in the their rematch.  So, yes, get fired up from the music or t-shirt slogans but make sure you’ve got a plan mapped out as to how you can pull off the upset
  • Believe it – Now comes the esoteric part.  You’ve gotta believe this can happen.  In 2003, we had to play at #1 Hardin-Simmons in the sweet 16, they had already beaten us in the regular season but after watching film, I really did believe we could beat them and that came through when I spoke to the rest of the staff and the team.  And we did indeed, beat them.