FARMINGTON – Whether it’s in a game on the basketball court, the football field or the baseball diamond, a little break in the action is necessary.
That’s a lesson I’m sure is taught in coaching clinics and locker rooms.
And whether it’s a family situation, a quarrel among friends, or a situation among rivals, sometimes a step back is the smart choice.
I’m learning that lesson as a stepdad as well as a new husband. And it definitely works both ways.
During a Connie Mack local qualifying tournament game last week between the 505 Panthers and the Frackers, a coaching call made in the second inning of a game may have gone a long way to determine a winner five innings later.
Panthers coach John Kuhn saw that his pitcher Taylon Laxson was in trouble after a pair of hitters reached base in the bottom of the second inning. The Panthers, leading the game 1-0 at that point, took a moment from the dugout and spoke to his pitcher to get Laxson back on track. After an intentional walk to load the bases with two outs, Laxson struck out the next batter, eliminating a threat that could very well have changed the final outcome.
“(Laxson) tried to make two intense plays in a row at first base, and I’m pretty sure it got his heart rate up and he was a little amped up,” Kuhn said. “Once he settled down, he was awesome again.”
That got me to thinking about how other coaches handle situations when a simple moment to step back changed outcomes of games.
It also got me to thinking about how those simplest of moments might have impacted relationships, families and friends.
We all need those moments to get the heart rate back to normal. Those brief seconds of time when things begin to spiral out of control and how the presence of cooler heads and experienced minds can alter an outcome.
Kirtland Central boys basketball coach Brian Dowdy recalled one incident in particular that altered an outcome of a game against Farmington High School.
“We were down six with a minute-and-a-half left in regulation,” Dowdy recalled. “Farmington had one of the best point guards in the state in my opinion and a very good and disciplined team overall. I called a timeout to set up a press. Our game plan was to not press, get back on defense, and pack in the paint to make them shoot outside.”
Dowdy’s strategy was based on what he had seen earlier in the game.
“I noticed they had been careless inbounding the ball and bringing it up the floor because we had no pressure the entire game,” Dowdy said. “We set up a press and created three turnovers in a row, and we scored each time. That sent us to overtime and finally into the win column.”
The timeout is a wonderful thing at times, which is probably why coaches only have a few of those precious moments during a game.
Timeouts are valuable. They’re not always going to swing your win probability one way or another, but according to Brian Burke, an analytics director for ESPN, research has found that each timeout is worth about 3.1 points of win probability.
Coaches get six timeouts a game, meaning that can stack up. And while it’s a bit overdramatic to say timeouts swing every game, they definitely affect the tightly contested ones.
Coaches don’t have a great deal of time to get their point across during a basketball timeout. In most instances, the time it takes to cover one aspect of the game is about the same time a referee is blowing the whistle to get the teams back on the court.
Tom Adair, head coach of the Farmington High School girls basketball coach, recalled one such incident when he was leading the Bloomfield girls basketball team.
“We were playing Piedra Vista, and we’d never beaten them. They were up by one point with six seconds left. We fouled one of (Panthers head coach Joe Reed’s) best players, who was shooting free throws. I called time out to freeze the shooter and told the girls that she would miss the front end of the one-and-one and told the girls what I wanted them to do,” Adair said. “It happened exactly like I drew it up. Destiny Walter got the rebound and passed the ball out to Kimmie Morgan, who passed back to Walter and she made the layup before time ran out. We won by one point.”
So before you begrudge a coach for taking a timeout, or you wonder why a parent or loved one needs to take a deep breath in the midst of a confrontation, remember there’s a lot going on in the heat of the moment.
Cooler heads are usually better prepared to prevail.
