“Life is a series of self-fulfilling prophecies” (Unknown).  Confident teams and players are more likely to see success because they expect to succeed and do the work required to achieve success.  Teams and players with a stand-by excuse fall short, as once the excuse is accepted, there is a reason to explain the loss, which makes the loss acceptable.  When the game is on the line, the team with an excuse to fall back on will lose focus or determination, and the team expecting to win and playing with the confidence of a winner, will ultimately prevail.

One of the most frequent excuses is a lack of a big guy or inside presence.  Everyone expects the Lakers to win because they have Shaq, and so a loss to the Lakers is somehow more palatable than, say, a loss to the Denver Nuggets.  This excuse trickles down and permeates every level, as unsuccessful teams and coaches often lament their lack of size;  “He’s too big, “We’re too small,” “They’re too strong,” “How are we going to stop him?”

Once a coach, player or team establishes this attitude and accepts this excuse, losses no longer carry the bite or sting they would if the team had no available excuse.  These excuses prepare a team for a loss.  As Knute Rockne once said, “Show me a good and gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.”

Height does not win basketball games.  If height were the greatest determinant, Manute Bol would still be in the NBA and Shawn Bradley would be an All-Star.  Even in a league supposedly dominated by big guys, Shaquille O’Neal will likely be the only all-star over seven-feet tall, while the East’s starting center will be 6-foot-7 Ben Wallace.

Legendary UCLA Head Coach John Wooden said, “More games are lost than are won.”  Teams lose games by committing turnovers, missing free throws and failing to rebound.  Occasionally, teams are simply outworked, out-talented or out-shot.  However, height is not a determining factor in any of these scenarios.

Field goal percentage defense is often used as the most reliable statistic to predict a team’s success.  However, a more reliable statistical category may be Possession Margin, determined by adding the offensive rebounding differential to the turnover differential.  For example, if Team A grabs 12 offensive rebounds and Team B grabs 10 offensive rebounds, Team A is +2 in offensive rebound differential.  If Team A commits six turnovers and Team B commits 10 turnovers, Team A is +4 in turnover differential.  Team A, therefore, is +6 in Possession Margin.  Stanford University remains an elite team year-in and year-out because they usually have a decided advantage in Possession Margin, regardless of personnel.  They rebound well and they protect the ball, two keys to victory.

Teams, coaches and players who blame their height deficiencies for their losses typically expect a taller inside presence to eliminate rebounding woes and provide interior offense and defense.  However, a smart, quick team can compensate for these deficiencies.  The Dallas Mavericks finished with the Association’s best record in 2002-03 without any inside presence, but compensated by leading the league in free throw shooting percentage and assist/turnover margin, while committing the fewest turnovers per game in the league and shooting a high three-point percentage.  However, there are other ways for teams to compensate for the lack of height and the perceived disadvantage inside.

First, defensive rebounding is a team skill, not merely the tall players’ job.  It is the product of positioning and toughness more than height.  Wallace leads the league in rebounding (and Barkley and Rodman before Big Ben) despite being small, at least by NBA post player standards.

Good rebounding position starts with positioning, which means solid defensive play.  The easiest opportunities to offensive rebound are against a scrambling defense, either in transition or when dribble penetration breaks down the defense.  A smart, quick team can eliminate many offensive rebounding opportunities simply by staying in front defensively, by using their quickness and using their speed to retreat in transition and stop transition shots and ultimately rebounds.

When defensive players are in good position as the shot is attempted, the rebound will be determined by anticipation and toughness.  If a small team is tough, and makes contact and boxes out, they eliminate the size disadvantage on the boards.  Since more than 80% of all rebounds below the professional level are rebounded below the rim, players have equal opportunity to snag every rebound.  The smaller team must hustle and use its quickness to get to all loose balls.

A smaller, quicker team actually has the advantage on the offensive boards in many circumstances.  First, smaller teams typically shoot longer shots and long shots produce long rebounds, giving the offense a better opportunity to rebound.  Also, quicker teams are more likely to use the fast break and dribble penetration to create shots, and each affords the offense an advantage in rebounding against a scrambling defense.  In these situations, anticipation and quickness aid the smaller team and negate the height disadvantage on the offensive boards.  Fresno City College (2003 California JUCO runners-up) is a good offensive rebounding team, despite having no true post players, because they shoot lots of threes, push the ball in transition and utilize dribble penetration to force the defense to scramble.

A small team can devise a defensive system to limit the impact the opposing team's post presence will have on the game.  A dominant post player like Shaq or Tim Duncan still has weaknesses that can be exploited.  Teams can use zone defenses or front the post to make it hard for the star post player to receive a pass.  Last season, when playing against Hanna Biernacka (LSU), one of the best post players in our league, we used our smaller, quicker small forward to front her and she almost never received a pass.  By pressuring the guards, and using our power forward (who was undersized) as a weak side help defender, their team wasn’t sure what defense we were running and we ultimately blew them out despite a size and talent disparity.

A post player is much easier to double-team than a great wing or guard because a post player almost always wants to receive the ball on the block, while guards can strike from anywhere on the floor.  Also, since somebody must enter the ball into the post, a quick team can apply great on-ball pressure, making the post entry passes more difficult.  Also, because the post player wants to receive the ball on the block, it is easier to devise a game-plan and double-team system, because the rotations will be the same almost every time, whereas with a great perimeter team, it is harder to define set rotations.

On offense, it is easy to compensate for the lack of a true interior presence.  The Mavs did it with tremendous shooting and protection of the basketball.  The Sacramento Kings do it with great ball movement, the Philadelphia 76ers do it by leading the league in steals and using Allen Iverson, possibly the second toughest player to guard one-on-one (the toughest being Shaq).  Duke University has ascended to #1 in the current NCAA polls without the use of a great inside game because they apply pressure defensively which results in easy baskets off steals and they penetrate and shoot very well.  UConn, the 2003 Women’s NCAA Champions, milked the talent of Diana Taurasi, but also played great percentage defense, forcing perimeter shots by fronting and double-teaming in the post and scoring offensively by being the best screening team in the country.

Unless a team has Shaq, Tim Duncan or Lisa Leslie, post play rarely decides a championship (Of course it’d be nice to have one of these players on your team, but only three teams do, so there is no sense worrying about not having one).  A great post presence is a great luxury, but few teams are so blessed.  Instead of using this perceived disadvantage as an excuse to underachieve, teams must compensate, using its strengths to nullify its weakness.  There are many ways to offset the lack of height, so there should be no excuses at all.