Coach Beilein, University of Michigan Head Basketball Coach, offered some thoughts for his players useful for traders. U of M was preparing to play the mighty University of Connecticut. UConn was ranked #1 in the entire country, as is their natural right. And U of M was a middle of the pack Big Ten school. U of M has about 2 players that might be able to crack UConn’s rotation. That might be generous.

I went to UConn. My first year there there was no big-time college football. The previous year UConn had won the NIT and the campus was a buzz about basketball. UConn has won two national championships since. UConn now has a big-time college football program. Today as I write, UConn’s athletic department is superior to U of M’s. Who would have ever thought we would see that day? With the days of the Fab Five firmly behind U of M their task to defeat UConn was momentous.

Essentially at our core, SMB Mentors are coaches. We coach our traders. And I have read just about every book on coaching, from Pat Riley to Tony Dungy. And I learn a great deal from watching coaches interact with their players. Coach Calhoun is a great coach, yet yells and screams at his players and everyone is sight. I have blogged that I wish I could try that for a day on our desk. I think that might be fun. Yet again who has done a better job of building a college baskeball program than him? Tony Dungy, who just retired, is religious, calm, thoughtful and a Super Bowl champion coach. Who wouldn’t want to play for a man like Coach Dungy?

When you study great coaches they all seem so different, yet they aren’t. They all have a few things in common. 1) They care about their players. 2) They drill the fundamentals. 3) They are themselves. 4) They find players to fit their system.

I have always admired Coach Beilein. I have watched him coach at West Virginia for years before he took the U of M job. His teams stand out for their superior spacing, and ball movement on offense. Their 1-3-1 zone is confusing. Anyone who has played a ton of basketball knows that a 1-3-1 zone should not work at the D1 level. Yet it does. He is a great coach. And U of M most likely will be a powerhouse in the Big Ten soon.

So before the game here is this great coach, with an undermanned team, offering advice. Coach Beilein preached that his players ought to focus on 4 minute intervals. They should try and win as many 4 minute intervals as possible. What a great idea. If his U of M players thought about beating UConn over 40 minutes, in a hostile environment at Gampel, they would have felt overwhelmed. But if they just concentrated on playing well for 4 minute intervals, then this was a task that was achievable.

As traders this is what we should do. Our goal should not be on a given day to put up huge numbers. That can be daunting. But what we can do is make One Good Trade, One Good Trade, and One Good Trade. If we are struggling and have ten things to improve, this may seem impossible. But we can all focus on making One Good Trade. And ironically doing so will contemporaneously help you improve those other ten things that needed work.

UConn won as expected. But U of M hung in there for most of the game. And I have to say I see a lot of Stu Douglass in my own game, save he is actually really good and can shoot from a good ten feet further than me. Coach Beilein did an excellent job of preparing his team.

Looking forward to the Sully interview on “60 Minutes” later tonight. Looking forward to our new class going live this week. Looking forward to Spring Training starting as well. Looking forward to some homemade turkey chili that is stewing presently. Not looking forward to the long run I am about to start in Riverside Park.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Best of luck with your trading.