You can't teach people mental toughness, especially if they are already adults, or nearly adults. Sorry, but Rice isn't a psychologist...he's a basketball coach. If the players can't dig deep and want a game more than the other team, especially on their home court...that's a PLAYER ISSUE...not a coach issue. Kids these days usually lack mental toughness unfortunately. Best example was Carter's 5 second call at the top of the key. You could tell he was mentally paralyzed...it wasn't a X/O issue...it was his ability to mentally process things...and that comes with toughness when playing in front of a noisy crowd.
I will say this though, Rice may be good with scouting pure talent and what not, but when it comes down to mental toughness, I don't think he gets a good handle on that before they come in. He needs to change his recruiting/scouting approach.
I will say this though, Rice may be good with scouting pure talent and what not, but when it comes down to mental toughness, I don't think he gets a good handle on that before they come in. He needs to change his recruiting/scouting approach.
