Chan Fraser-Pauls

I’m fired up to be back leading the @TPSBasketball program. This was a family decision & WE are all in. • Connection. Character. Toughness. Process > Outcomes. We will continue to build a program our community will be proud of.

In this business, there are highs and lows—but if you stay true to pouring into others, it always comes back around.

Your kid will forget the wins and losses. They will never forget how you made them feel in the car on the way home.

Show up. Be honest. Care. You swore an oath to yourself. Now keep it.

The great ones are not afraid to look stupid. They'll ask the "dumb" question, try the new move, and fail in front of everyone. That's why they get better.

6 important ideas on actual excellence: 1. There is no greater illusion than thinking the accomplishment of some goal will change your life. What will change your life is who you become in the process of going for it. 2. Caring is cool. You are not going to be the best anything—including the best version of yourself—with an attitude of nonchalance. Try hard and give a damn. 3. People overrate intensity and underrate consistency. Anyone can crush themselves and have a heroic day, a heroic week, or maybe even a heroic month. But that’s not the goal. The goal is to generate a heroic body of work. 4. Arrogance is loud. It comes from insecurity. Confidence is quiet. It comes from evidence. Give yourself the evidence. Then trust your training. 5. True discipline is not a chest-thumping, hype-speech giving, performative act of toughness. True discipline is being the kind of person who shows up and does what you need to do. It’s as simple—and as hard—as that. 6. Excellence is not a destination; it is a process of becoming. The real reward isn’t a bigger deadlift, a faster mile, or a sturdier table. The real reward is that you become a better version of yourself.

Winner!

Most coaches think culture is built in big moments. But the best coaches know it’s built in daily behavior.

There's no one to perform for. There is just work to be done and lessons to be learned, in all that is around us.

You can’t teach them if they don’t trust you. Relationship first.

A great teammate is willing to make the pass that leads to the assist.

The most underrated skill in basketball is poise. The ability to execute when you're tired, the ref missed a call, and the crowd is screaming.

Keep showing up. The goal is the path and the path is the goal:

Steve Nash once delivered 239 high fives, fist bumps, and pats on the back in a single game. Not by accident. Connection fuels performance.

Greatness is less about an event or outcome, and more about a process. And the process is often boring. It's a commitment to being brilliant in the basics, to showing up every day to get a little bit better, to being accountable to the standard.

Effort should be the price of admission to wear the jersey. If you have to coach effort, you've already lost.

The top of the mountain is narrow. All the life is on the sides:

It’s a coach’s job to ensure every person in the program has a joyful experience. Too many coach’s strip the love from those around them.

Two things can be true at once: 1. Outcomes matter. They may have financial repercussions and lead to new and better opportunities. 2. The top of the mountain is narrow. All the life is on the sides. The best way to climb a mountain is to care deeply and to do it with good people. Something I’ve found time and time again in my nearly two decades coaching, researching, writing, and reporting on excellence: Outcomes matter. They absolutely do. But a few years down the road, nobody sits around and reflects on the score. What people remember is the hard work, lessons learned, experiences, and most of all, the relationships forged along the way. “The wins and losses are all crap...All those wins or losses they fade away but those relationships stick with you forever and that's where the self-esteem and the self-satisfaction comes." — Gregg Popovich, the winningest coach in basketball history. The best coaches are not just in the business of developing performers. They are also in the business of developing people. This is not some let’s all hold hands and sing Kumbaya talk. This is reality. This is the mindset and practice of nearly all the greatest coaches across fields. Research shows the best way to get the most out of people—as a coach, as a teammate, as a parent—is to have high expectations, tell the truth, and do it on a foundation of deep caring and support. It’s the combination of these qualities that makes for great performance. Excellent coaching means: Caring deeply. Paying attention. Repeated practice. Learning from failure. Staying curious. Steadfast dedication. Getting close. Showing up, again and again and again. Which is to say that excellent coaching looks a lot like love.

Let’s go! @AlexJSchwartz & the Vols are headed to the Sweet 16. Nothing like March Madness.