Toughness Defined by Jay Bilas

If you have not yet read Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court by Jay Bilas, I highly recommend you do. It is one of the best books I have ever read. So good in fact that it gave me the idea to share all of my favorites quotes and moments from the book. Below you will find that each Chapter and Section is marked to give you a reference of the topic the “quote” came from. Anything not in quotations is a direct remark from Jay Bilas himself.

I hope you enjoy what I have shared. It is only about 1% of what the book brings to life, but hopefully it is enough to convince you to read it in entirely.

Toughness is Defined

Toughness isn’t physical. It has nothing to do with size, physical strength or athleticism. It’s an intangible, an attitude, a philosophy…I believe that true toughness is a skill that can be developed and improved in everyone.

Toughness is a descriptor of how much energy a material can absorb before breaking. Being tough is being Unbreakable!

Coaching Mental Toughness

“Toughness is doing what it takes to make a difference.” – Tom Izzo

Kansas Jayhawks 5 Quick Post-Up

If you are looking for some hi-lo plays for your team, spend some time watching the Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks. He does a tremendous job putting his players into positions to create mismatches and seals and allow for simple hi-lo play. The Jayhawks ran this post-up action for Jeff Withey in the 2012 Final Four.

To see EVERY play Kansas ran in the 2012 Final Four you can do so in my eBook Championship Execution!

Kansas Jayhawks Elbow Back Triple

This is an offensive set that Bill Self’s Kansas Jayhawks ran in the 2012 National Championship game. I love this play because of the numerous scoring options tha are very simple to teach your players to run. If 2 does not have a shot on the catch & shoot flare he has the option to rip baseline for a drive, or pass to 1 coming off three screens.

To see EVERY play Kansas ran in the 2012 Final Four you can do so in my eBook Championship Execution!

 

Kansas Jayhawks 3 Wide X

This is a play that Bill Self ran a few years ago at Kansas to get the Morris twins working together for a pick & roll or post-up option. If 3 uses the pick & roll, 4 should pop as 5 continues to seal on the drive by 3. If X5 steps up to help this will leave you with a nice dump down or lob pass to 5.

Kansas Jayhawks : Horns Twist

Last night the Kansas Jayhawks ran this Horns Twist action versus Michigan in their OT loss in the Sweet 16. In this play, 5 (Jeff Withey) did a marvelous job sealing his man on top side for the post feed.