In 2008, Steph Curry was an offensive juggernaut in the NCAA, he was averaging nearly 29 points per game for his school Davison.
In a game against a rival team Loyola, coach Jimmy Patsos, had the monumental task of designing a defence to try to stop Curry.
Coach Patsos had a clearly defined problem, stop the best scorer in the game. What was he to do?
A Plan
His solution was to run a triangle and two. This means that two defenders would guard Curry the whole time.
The drawback to this strategy is that it would leave the other 4 Davidson players defended by only 3 Loyola players.
Coach Patsos was right to start by looking at other ways to stop Curry. Nothing appeared to work so you have to think outside the box.
Strategies are by definition bets on the future so they are inherently risky. There are so many unknowns that you have to take a leap of faith to start them.
The Progress
As the game progressed, Curry responded by staying in the corner on offence. This allowed for the other Davidson players to take advantage of the defensive mismatch.
Davidson started to build a lead.
The Adjustment
Coach Patsos did not change the defensive plan.
They kept in the triangle and 2. Davidson’s lead kept growing.
The Outcome
Curry was held to 0 points. However, here is the key point. Davidson won by 30 points.
The Acknowledgement
Even after his team got beaten like they stole something, Coach Patsos was defiant, he was proud that his was the only team to hold Curry scoreless.
Don’t Finish Where You Start
When you are creating a strategy, you are going to have incomplete information. You are making hunches and assumptions.
As you progress down your path you will find out new things, discover that some assumptions were correct, and more importantly, that some were very wrong.
Because of this, you tweak, change or completely throw out your strategy and start again.
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Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe 