What Are Your Expectations?

If you expect to be the Conference Champion, then we (you) will have to fully embrace that mindset from the very first minute of practice this season and maintain that mindset until the final buzzer goes off in the championship game.

There are plenty of teams out there that want to be champions, but very few of them actually have the discipline or commitment it takes to make it happen.

Last season, Central benefited from our injuries & illnesses at the Final Four. In my opinion, I do not believe they were better than we were in as much as I allowed our team to be placed into a position where we weren’t adequately prepared in case we lost a couple of key players to injury. That was poor planning on my part.

If you look at the championship teams in any sport, they are usually the ones that are mentally stronger and physically tougher than their opponents. It all starts with discipline, planning and commitment. Yes, planning. I think you’ve got to literally plan to be the champions…like we did to begin the 2006-07 season. And for those that remember the mindset of our team right before the championship game against PCCS, we expected to win even though they had beaten us in the Regional game the week before. Our mindset going into the championship game was that we would NOT be denied.

We are going to start out with that clear goal in mind and understand that there are always going to be obstacles & hurdles throughout the season that will test our discipline and test our commitment to achieving that goal.

There will be injuries, both long-term (Lea) and short-term. There will be games lost that should have been won because of a lack of focus, and there will be shooting slumps to deal with. However, if we know this in advance and we have the poise and the confidence to know how to overcome these hurdles and have the expectation that we will overcome those obstacles, then we will be ready when our opportunity knocks again.

Expect Victory.

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