What do I look for in a player?

This is asked of me all the time. I am looking for something that is special beyond just basketball for example to begin with. I am looking for a person who has their shoes tied, shirt tucked in, shakes hands firmly and looks you in the eye and can say yes sir/no sir.

This first impression is formulated in the first 7 seconds of us meeting. From that point on, if that first meeting is good, then I will give the player the benefit of the doubt for mistakes on the court. If the first impression is not like that, and I see a player with flip flops, hat on backwards, sloppy, can’t talk, shake hands, nor look you in the eye and has no respect, well I will be tougher of the mistakes that occur.

I want players at different levels to have different expectations. But there are some major principles that I want them to have to go along with the obvious skill sets. I want the players to chase their dreams, by using basketball as a tool to get an education. With our OC Magic program, www.ocmagic.org, the lessons are taught early to use basketball as a tool to get an education, from our very young players, learning how to shake hands, be on time, and have an appearance.

Our High School division, is more intense as I want them to be able to talk to me about other things other than just basketball. I want them to have to think on the court, and most practices I will stop the activity to see if they can explain back to me what is going on, to have court presence. For the Professional athletes, I hold them to the highest standard because I want them to think like business people. I want them to think that they are the CEO of their own companies and to think about profits/losses, and appearance and how they talk, act, walk and find solutions to problems, to have awareness and presence.

This is the question that I ask them: What do you desire? If it’s money, then we are probably going to have a difficult time moving ahead, as I am more concerned initially in their abilities to handle the media, the ups/downs with winning, the discipline of being on time for morning practices, fighting fatigue to get through practice, facing those who blame them for non performance, etc.

I want players to demonstrate that they can show me that they want to Chase their Dreams. Be that a High School player going after his/her dream of playing NCAA basketball, or the NCAA player who wants to now play professionally for a living. I want to see that. How can that be shown? Body language, smiling, having fun, enjoyment in the game, talking to teammates, accepting responsibility for things going wrong, interaction on the sideline, timeout discipline paying attention, thanking teammates for passes, help on defense, rebounding. How to enter the ball into the post, how to make a wing entry pass, pressure reaction, calm or nervous? There is so much that I pay attention besides if a player can make a basket.
Once I see that, then I will look at the footwork, the separation skills, the ability to use 2 dribbles in the half court, the ability to use the floor horizontally. How they play defense, do they cut the court in half, do they force to the sideline and baseline, do they not allow middle, do they get deflections.

As coaches tell me what you pay attention to? I know that with our next evaluations, this is what I am looking for.

Saturday January 31, 2015 at Schurr High School in Montebello, CA at 12 noon for Professional Players
Monday February 16, Tuesday February 17, 2015 tryouts for the OC Magic youth, 3rd to 8th grade.
Saturday February 25th, 2015 High School Evaluations.

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www.ocmagic.org

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John Saintignon has an extensive background of an experienced and successful basketball coach at the International Professional, NCAA Division 1, NCAA Division 2 and High School levels — and a three-time NCAA All-American as a player and a professional player. Coach Saintignon has been helping players and their families navigate through the NCAA process of helping them get a college scholarship, having wrote a book on the subject while at Oregon State University, “ What does it take to get a college scholarship?”, as well as preparing them for the court. Coach Saintignon trains the athletes and provides performance nutritional advice working alongside Advocare to help his athletes reach their fullest potential. FB: JSSportsNet and at www.advocare.com/130423949

Saintignon was the Head Coach of Fuerza Guinda of the FIBA Americas; Coach Saintignon led his team to a Playoff finish. During the 2011-2012 season of the NBA lockout, Saintignon was instrumental in getting NBA players into jobs overseas having placed Jarron Collins and Mardy Collins into the CBA in China, Salim Stoudamire into Italy, Sam Clancy into Argentina, James Porter into Japan, Calvin Hampton into Bahrain. Over a 100 players have come through Los Angeles to get player development training including the future Hall of Famer NFL Defensive end and Superbowl winner Simeon Rice who came out to LA to train for 3 days in strenuous basketball training with Coach Saintignon.

Saintignon has been a coach in high school, college and professional basketball in Arizona, California, Oregon, Mexico and Bahrain. Most recently, Saintignon was the successful Head Coach in the Premier League in the country of Bahrain in the Middle East since March 2010, leading his team to a Final Four finish. Prior to that he was the Assistant Coach at Cal State Stanislaus University in the CCAA Conference and an NCAA Division 2 institution. Saintignon was also the Associate Head Coach and Director of Player Development for the Culiacan Caballeros of the top league in the Mexican Professional Basketball League (LNBP). As a first-year franchise, the Caballeros went to the LNBP playoffs in a top 6 finish.

Prior to coaching professionally, Saintignon was the Director of Basketball Operations and Assistant Coach at Oregon State University in the Pac-10 Conference from 2006 to 2007. Before landing in Corvallis, Saintignon was a teacher and Head Coach at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Ariz. His previous high school coaching experience included being the Head Coach at Canyon del Oro High School in Tucson, Ariz. (2001-04); Bonita Vista High School in Chula Vista, Calif. (1995-01); and Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach, Calif. (1992-95).

Saintignon led his team at Canyon del Oro to the state tournament twice and was named the Coach of the Year in 2001-02. At Bonita Vista, he was also named the league’s coach of the year after leading his team to the CIF championship in 1999, the first CIF Championship earned in the schools history. At Mar Vista, Saintignon earned Coach of the Year honors by taking his team to the league championship in 1994-95, and the schools first since 1964.

As a guest speaker in Italy, Croatia, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Bahrain, Mexico Israel and Argentina, Saintignon has earned a reputation as an authority on player development and has produced several DVD’s on getting athletes better through individual training; “Advanced Guard Workout” is the title, as well as attacking on offense with his Secondary Break philosophy, called “On the Attack: Mastering the Secondary Break.”

Saintignon graduated from the University of California at San Diego in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, and a Master’s degree from Liberty University in Sports Administration. He played one season at UC San Diego and three seasons at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 1985-86, he was the Leading Scorer in the United States (USA) as he led the entire NCAA Divisions with 31.2 points per game scoring average. He earned All-Conference MVP and All-American candidate honors all three of his years at UC Santa Cruz as he scored more than 2,450 points in his career where he is the All-Time scoring leader in University history as his number was retired this year. He went on to play professionally in Spain and Mexico for four seasons earning various honors including several All-Star selections.

A native of Tucson, Ariz., Saintignon graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School where he was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in 1998. Saintignon has been married for 16 years to Angelica and they are proud parents of their two sons, Vicente (14) and Sebastian (11).