Basketball lifer focuses on an audience he can’t see
Rao likens virtual presentation to teaching a class
Mike Rao has learned all about setting a screen over nearly four decades of coaching basketball.
Rao, head coach of the Brock University women’s team and the 2019-20 U SPORTS women’s basketball coach of the year, has been part of many clinics. Over the years, he has presented demonstrations for developmental coaches when he was involved with Welland Minor Basketball Association.
The retired educator also opened practices to coaches when he was in charge of the senior boys program at Notre Dame College School in his native Welland.
But teaching such in-game strategies as screens while sitting in front of a computer screen in his home — and not standing in front of participants in a gym — is something Rao is still getting used to.
“I’ve done those things, but nothing virtual like this. It’s like talking to a wall, but I’m used to that,” Rao said with a laugh. “I’m just kidding.”
What made the adjustment to virtual from actual easier was a Power Point presentation he created for A Championship Season, his first webinar for the Ontario Basketball Association.
“I had it outlined, and I knew what I wanted to do. It was not really anything new, except you couldn’t see the audience,” Rao said.
He likened the experience to teaching a class.
“I’d pull up a clip and I would talk about it. I went through the points I wanted to go through, whatever my topic was,” he said. “I went from slide to slide. It flowed pretty well.”
This year the Badgers advanced to the national final for the first time in program history. The webinar focused on what went into a deep playoff run that fell one game short when Brock lost to Saskatchewan in the gold-medal game.
In the webinar, Rao touched on topics ranging from building trust and team-first scoring to self-evaluation.
“In the end, winning is not success. It doesn’t matter where you start, but where you finish,” he told his online audience. “Were you better at the end of the season than where you began? For me, that’s success.”
The format had Rao talking for about 45 minutes — “which I went over,” he said — followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers in a chat session. Participants whose questions weren’t answered during the webinar were invited to email Rao directly afterwards.
“I emailed them back if it was an easy answer, but in two or three cases it wasn’t,” he said.
He took a couple of hours on top of that to chat with a few coaches in a four-way conversation over the phone
“It was something new, but I kind of enjoyed it,” Rao said.
Getting the chance to talk hoops with like-minded people was the welcome change of pace for the basketball lifer during the unprecedented timeout caused by COVID-19.
“I much prefer in the gym, to tell you the truth,” Rao said. “The key for us, and for me, is really being in the gym and getting better every day, and that’s been taken away.”
COVID-19 has impacted recruiting for the defending national silver medallists. “It throws a big monkey wrench because the only thing you can really do is talk to some players,” Rao said. “You can watch some film. We missed out on seeing an awful lot of players, and we don’t have a lot of film on them. You can’t objectively see who you want, who you don’t want, what you like, what you don’t like.”
Can Rao get a “gut feeling” about a prospect over the phone or Skype?
“Not really. Over the phone, I can be very endearing but, in person, I’m something else, right?” he said with a chuckle.
“I think the phone and the conversation is something that is somewhat of an indicator, but I don’t think it gives you a true picture of what you’re getting, and what they’re getting.”
Seeing in person is believing when it comes to recruiting as far as Rao is concerned. “When you go and watch, those are the kind of players you look for: someone who runs your type of style, your kind of game. But this virtual stuff, they can dribble good, they can have some athleticism. But does that translate into what you want in a team? It’s hard to tell.”
Rao emphasized recruiting is a “two-way street.”
“You want a player that you want but also they have to want you. It doesn’t make any sense for me to recruit a girl who doesn’t agree with some of my philosophy, maybe the way I run practice,” he said.
“You have to find a school that you’re best suited for.”
Bernd.Franke@niagaradailies.com 905-225-1624 | @TribSportsDesk