Atlantic 10 Conference Best Practices: George Washington's Ideal Recruit

This blog is all about inspiration. We're spending 5 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic 10 You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Thus far we have seen George Washington put faces to skill development (here), Dayton celebrate success (here), and U Mass give recruits access into athleticism development, here.

Let's move.

It's time to return one more time to the George Washington Athletics website and then enter Coach Hobbs' site, here.

Today, we turn our attention to the middle callout, Hobbs Coaching Philosophy, here, shown below...

As you can tell, there's quite a bit of information laid out in front of us. I've written before on how important it is for coaches to take the time to describe their beliefs and style of play -- and not to assume that "people know and don't care." It's critical. Here's what Coach Hobbs says about his system:

“As a coach my motto is 40 HARD. That means during the course of the game, we are committed to playing as hard as we can for as long as we can because every ossession has an impact on the outcome of the game. I am committed to full-court pressure defense to dictate the pace of the game and a fast break up-tempo style of offense to take advantage of our athleticism and mismatches as we attack on the offensive end…."

But then, he goes a step further where most (or really all) coaches seem to stop. He takes that style and then connects with it. He applies it to who he wants as a student athlete, here:

"I look for athletes who are committed to outwork the opponent and who want to improve all facets of their game as well as develop their basketball IQ”

So we see not just a style of play but also what that means in recruiting. And as a recruit we feel a deeper connection and a sense of whether we fit or not, based just on that point. It's something we can all learn from -- what do you stand for, and what does that mean in terms of the team you want around you?

How could this be better? Add a little bit more to this. I'd love to have Coach Hobbs take that style of play and give (or show) examples that he feels are representative of what he's after. It could be from a big game, or it could be from practice. Show us what embodies the program!

What's up next? Atlantic 10 week continues for one more day, tomorrow. We will continue unveiling peaks into things I found fantastic across the 14-team Atlantic 10 landscape.

And, don't forget, you can follow along via this blog, or hop over to Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.