Safely back home

It seemed longer than the nine days we were gone but that was probably because we got so much done within a short period of time. La Salle senior men’s basketball head coach Juno Sauler and assistant coaches Allan Caidic and Jun Limpot left Manila on Saturday night, Oct. 19, to fly to San Antonio via San Francisco for a learning trip arranged by Spurs assistant coach Chip Engelland. They were provided full access to the Spurs practices, something that is rarely done for visitors and never for media. I was lucky to join the coaches for this opportunity.

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich conducts his practices strictly on a closed-door basis. At the end of each practice, Spurs senior director of media services Tom James opens the gym doors to waiting media and brings over certain coaches and players for interviews. We attended five Spurs practices from Monday to Saturday. Friday was a day off for the Spurs so we drove to Austin to attend the University of Texas practice under coach Rich Barnes. During the period we were at the Spurs facility, we saw Popovich, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, among others, walk over to the media for on-the-record chats after practice.

Popovich, an Air Force Academy graduate with a degree in Soviet studies, is a stickler for discipline and conducts practice like a drillmaster. His military background is evident in the way he makes sure everything run likes clockwork. For every practice, he has a schedule that is given out to coaches, players and interns. Last Saturday, Popovich called for 11 a.m. practice. Players started to check in at the facility by 8:30 a.m. for warm-ups, stretching, viewing and limbering. By 11 a.m., they were all on the two adjacent courts with six basketball goals. This was what was on the practice schedule sheet: 11:00 Teach, 11:05 Warm-up, 11:10 125 Shooting, 11:15 Shell Drill, 11:25 Scrimmage, 12:00 Water Break, 12:05 Shooting, 12:15 Transition D, 12:30 Shooting and 12:40 Team Lift.

Popovich was particularly stern last Saturday. The Spurs were blown off their own court by the visiting Houston Rockets last Thursday and had Friday off. So Popovich was intent to get the Spurs back in focus. It didn’t matter that Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard didn’t play against the Rockets and that Popovich treated the preseason game like the exhibition it was. At practice, he growled at every mistake, penalized the whole team by ordering sprints for miscues and reminded the players that winning is all about precise execution on both ends.  Whenever Popovich got the players together in a huddle, they yelled “Defense” before breaking up so the emphasis for this season was crystal clear.

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The La Salle coaches were initially in awe of their surroundings at the practice building. But they settled down quickly. Popovich’s work ethic was contagious and it didn’t take long for the coaches to get their feet back on the ground and learn from what the Spurs were doing. There was something new to absorb in every practice – the Spurs’ push defense to force pick-and-rolls away from the middle, the eight-second offense to pressure the transition defenders, the shooting contests involving sub-groups of players in the six goal stations, the practice of taking one or two free throws after a series of drills (never in sets of more than two), the motion offense to free up shooters and the intense competition between the first and second units in scrimmages.

Whenever there were opportunities before or after a practice, Engelland brought VIPs to the corner of the gym where we stayed – Popovich, general manager R. C. Buford, Parker, Ginobili, Kawhi Leonard, Matt Bonner, assistant coaches Jim Boylen, Ime Udoka and Sean Marks and Becky Hammon. Buford even obliged the visitors with a 30-minute question-and-answer meeting in his conference room but it was strictly off-the-record.

At the AT&T Center where we watched the Spurs play Orlando on Tuesday and Houston on Thursday last week, we were given the royal treatment by the team staff. Obviously, Engelland is well-liked in the organization and as we were his guests, the Spurs staff went all-out to take care of us with special mention for internal communications coordinator Tanya Navalta, a Filipina born and raised in the US.

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Sauler said he learned a lot from Popovich particularly in relating with his players at practice. “I was interested in how coach Pop interacts with his players, how he gets things done,” said Sauler. “The drills are fundamental but the variations are very interesting. Using six shooting stations on two courts is an advantage. I saw coach Pop at his best as a teacher. Even if you’re dealing with pros who play at the highest level, you still have to teach things in executing what you want.” Caidic was impressed by the discipline of the players and precision in Popovich conducting every practice. “No wasted moment,” he said. “Even the water breaks are timed. I noticed in shooting drills, after a few sequences, they go to the line to shoot one or two free throws, never more than that. The practices are lively, the players are excited to do things. I think that’s important to motivate them.”

Limpot said he observed the techniques used in drilling the Spurs bigs. Aron Baynes and Jeff Ayres, for instance, were repeatedly drilled in taking left and right-handed jumphooks from inside the paint with the defender using a paddle or a padded stick to force a high trajectory. “It’s not that coach Pop wants the Spurs to be like robots but he runs the practices like a military man,” said Limpot. “I watched how they defend the pick-and-roll. Will the big call the switch or not? Coach Pop emphasized defense, particularly in transition.”

The three coaches gave nicknames to the new friends they made, matching their look-alikes – Engelland was Richard Gere or Freddie Webb, Baynes was Jondan Salvador, intern Dutch Gaitley was Bill Laimbeer, Matt Bonner was Chuck Norris, Jim Boylen was Bruce Willis, Ime Udoka was Vin Diesel, Nando De Colo was Andre Paras, Tiago Splitter was Freddie Abuda, Ayres was Rob Reyes, Leonard was Dante Gonzalgo, Danny Green was Bong Alvarez and Marco Belinelli was Sylvester Stallone. As for the coaches themselves, Sauler was Raymart Santiago, Caidic was Rudy Fernandez and Limpot was Doogie Hawser, M. D.

Yesterday morning, Caidic, Limpot and I arrived safely home after surviving an 18-hour delay of our flight from San Antonio to San Francisco via Dallas. Sauler is scheduled to fly in this morning. The coaches will attend a five-day development seminar, designed especially for them by the New South Wales Basketball Federation and New South Wales Institute of Sport, in Sydney on Nov. 4-11.