Getting to Us: How Great Coaches Make Great Teams

by Seth Davis Narrated by Mark Deakins

Overview

What makes a coach great? How do great coaches turn a collection of individuals into a coherent “us”?*
*
Seth Davis, one of the keenest minds in sports journalism, has been thinking about that question for twenty-five years. It's one of the things that drove him to write the definitive biography of college basketball's greatest coach, John Wooden,*Wooden: A Coach's Life. But John Wooden coached a long time ago. The world has changed, and coaching has too, tremendously. Seth Davis decided to embark on a proper investigation to get to the root of the matter.*

In*Getting to Us, Davis probes and prods the best of the best from the landscape of active coaches of football and basketball, college and pro-from Urban Meyer, Dabo Swinney, and Jim Harbaugh to Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, Brad Stevens, Geno Auriemma, and Doc Rivers-to get at the fundamental ingredients of greatness in the coaching sphere. There's no single right way, of course-part of the great value of this book is Davis's distillation of what he has learned about different types of greatness in coaching, and what sort of leadership thrives in one kind of environment but not in others. Some coaches have thrived at the college level but not in the pros. Why? What's the difference? Some coaches are stern taskmasters, others are warm and cuddly; some are brilliant strategists but less emotionally involved with their players, and with others it's vice versa. In*Getting to Us, we come to feel a deep connection with the most successful and iconic coaches in all of sports-big winners and big characters, whose stories offer much of enduring interest and value.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This series of profiles is a brisk and colorful companion if you want to know how several of the best coaches in college hoops operate. . . . vivid.” –Tom Perotta, Wall Street Journal

"A spirited survey of some of the techniques of winning coaches in building winning teams . . . [Davis] provides plenty of useful information for aspiring coaches and committed fans." – Kirkus Reviews

"This refreshing look into the complex lives of coaches will appeal to an audience far wider than hardcore sports fans." – Publishers Weekly
 
Praise for When March Went Mad: The Game that Transformed Basketball
 
“A must-read book for anybody who considers themselves a basketball fan.” —The Washington Post
 
“A vivid portrait of a time when we knew a lot less about the sport and, because of that, loved it in a different way.” —The Wall Street Journal
 
“Excellent.” —Detroit Free Press
 
“The sports book of the year.” —Politico
 
Praise for Wooden: A Coach’s Life
 
“Superb . . . [Seth Davis] has written a virtual cutaway view of the history and evolution of basketball in the form of a biography. Davis takes us on bus rides over snow-covered roads to Friday-night high school games, puts us in the frantic and precarious whirl of semi-pro basketball barnstorming in the Midwest and, finally, gives us a courtside seat in the high-stakes pressure cooker of big-time college basketball.” ―Los Angeles Times
 
“A meticulously researched and evenhanded assessment.” ―The New York Times Book Review
 
“Mr. Davis beautifully captures the ties that bound a strong-willed coach and his players. His biography is superb—readable, well-reported and savvy in its understanding of basketball.” ―The Wall Street Journal

Kirkus Reviews

2018-01-10
A spirited survey of some of the techniques of winning coaches in building winning teams.A successful coach, writes CBS analyst Davis (Wooden: A Coach's Life, 2013, etc.), takes a collection of individuals and turns them into a single entity: an "us." By the author's account, the formula it takes to do so is "the PEAK profile," that being an acronym for persistence, empathy, authenticity, and knowledge. It would rob Davis of some thunder to get too deep into the formula, but suffice it to say that it has plenty of merit. Even if some of his case studies seem not always to embody every aspect of it, it's clear that "the real secret is that there are no secrets" but instead endless work and application. One of those subjects, renowned Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer, chooses to travel a tumultuous path, "fueled by his ADD inability to leave well enough alone," authentic to the core but perhaps a little shy at times of empathetic matters. By the same token, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski might "have been diagnosed with attention deficit order" as a kid, but he settled down when pressed into service as a player for the tyrannical Bobby Knight, he of chair-throwing fame, and has led his players by example. Jim Harbaugh combines depth of knowledge with a commitment to do good in the world, a "willingness—an eagerness, even—to apply his talents beyond the football field" into the realm of service to the poor. And so forth. Davis sometimes falls into jock-talk ("though he is no longer able to run alongside his players until he pukes, he still embraces every opportunity to feed his competitive jones"), and his narrative is more diffuse than its textbook-ish opening might suggest. However, he provides plenty of useful information for aspiring coaches and committed fans.Want to score big? Read a book, as many of Davis' coaches do. This one makes a good start.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169267228
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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