Halftime is teams' make-it or break-time

otre Dame senior Cory Beussink chuckled at the thought of the flying crutch from his disgusted coach.

Beussink was a freshman on the junior- varsity team, and his coach, Brian Brandtner, had seen enough.

"We were losing to Charleston at halftime by about 20 points, and coach Brandtner came in and threw his crutch across the room," Beussink recalled with a laugh. "He broke his leg about a week earlier. He threw his crutch across the room and we came back and won."

With healing, the prop was later stashed away, but it served its purpose. It allowed a coach to express himself in seconds when time was of the essence.

Because at halftime you've got just 10 minutes.

Ten minutes to fix it, plan it, scheme it, teach it.

Ten minutes to admonish, maybe praise.

Ten minutes to get into young minds to fight complacency, appeal to pride and build confidence.

Basketball halftime is not all about entertainment.

The crowd enjoys the music, dance teams and occasionally comical and dramatic shootouts for prizes, but it's not all fun and games.

It's Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed sitting in shrouded corners, receiving instruction, strategy, water and sometimes an earful.

At times it can seem like the halftime activities are merely running sound interference for an irate coach. In the locker room the sound of the festivities can be so near, yet so far away as players inspect their shoelaces closely before an overheated coach.

"I've gotten upset before," Oran boys basketball coach Mitch Wood said. "I've kidded my pastor at church. I don't think it's something he'd want to use as a Sunday sermon. Sometimes it gets heated, and you want to get your point across."

At other times it can be a pat on the back for a well-played 16 minutes.

But players don't often count on words of praise halfway through the job.

"I think the patting on the back thing at halftime is really kind of a bad thing," Beussink said. "If the coach is like, 'You're doing so great,' you're not going to think we need to come out here and work harder the second half. And you're going to let down."

Or, as his teammate Tyler Cuba says, "We don't expect our coach to come in and say, 'Great half.' No matter if we're up 25 or five, there's always something that didn't go right or something we've got to change for the second half."A long timeout

A team's ability to execute a game plan goes a long way in determining the tone of a halftime meeting. Coaches often consult with their assistants, collecting information such as points of players from his own team as well as opposing players, along with rebounds and fouls.

Central coach Derek McCord takes stock in a hustle point chart that keeps track of statistics like charges, dives, steals and loose balls. It reinforces or sheds light on who's giving their all and who's not.

"The first two things I look at are the hustle point chart and rebounds," McCord said. "What we talk about first and foremost is rebounding."

Most coaches say defense is the most prevailing topic of halftime discussions.

"Defense is where you really see adjustments and things you need to do," Wood said. "Offensively, if you're not hitting, you're not hitting."

Poor shot selection might be an issue, but coaches are reluctant to fuss over poor shooting, which can further erode fragile confidence.

"I'm not going talk a lot about shooting," McCord said. "I don't want him to think about that."

McCord's Tigers, who were 4-21 a year ago, suffered one of their nine losses this season Tuesday night at home to Charleston. The Tigers were in a bit of disarray in the first half. They went into halftime down 13 points and their big man, Scott Chestnutt, had accumulated four fouls.

Point guard Will Johnson sat uneasily in the locker room as he waited for his coach's arrival. Johnson said the Tigers played about "the worst we could play" in the half.

"He hit that door, and I was like 'Aw man, we're about to get in trouble,'" Johnson said. "I thought he was going to chew us out. But he came in and kept it calm so he wouldn't get the team down."

McCord is a big believer in a positive approach in righting his team. He even refers to the "sandwich technique" when he approaches a flaw.

"I'll say something positive, like 'You're really boxing out, but look, the post guys are working hard and you haven't fed them yet,' and come back with something positive," he said. "That works for me. If there's something you want to address, put it right in the middle, but you never want to end like that."

Meadow Heights coach Tom Brown recalled a 17-point halftime deficit one of his former Viburnum teams faced when talking about the fragile nature of confidence. His jittery squad was facing Valley of Caledonia before a Mineral Area College game at MAC Fieldhouse in Park Hills, Mo.

"I just told them to go out and keep shooting because everything was in and out," Brown said.

The reassuring approach worked, and his team rallied to pull out a double-overtime victory.

"Honestly, what I do at halftime, I discuss who we have to stop, but I'm a big person on confidence," Brown said. "I have confidence in my kids."It's crutch time

A dry erase board is usually the tool of choice as a coach tries to illustrate how his team needs to capitalize on a player in foul trouble, stop a play defensively or stress a pregame strategy.

The talks are crisp and fast moving, dotted with quick questions to confirm coach and players are on the same page.

But chalk talks and a nurturing approach isn't always the best.

"There's times for Xs and Os, and sometimes it's a matter of regrouping and refocusing on the task at hand and motivating them to do better in the second half," Jackson coach Mike Kiehne said.

Translation: It can get loud. Coach becomes the halftime show.

"Sometimes it's more fire and brimstone when we need to pick it up," Notre Dame coach Darrin Scott said.

A coach might release frustrations that have been building more than just over the first half. It may stem back to previous games or practices. A good, loud rant can get a players' attention, get things in the open and purge everyone's system of whatever's ailing. Or it can be an emotional appeal to heart and pride.

Scott, mild-mannered by nature, laughed about a game last season against Central in which an inspired speech helped turn around his team. It not only included fire and brimstone, but a little water to put it out.

"That was one where I challenged them," Scott said. "That was the one where I think one of the kids came up to me later and said I spit on him."

Excess saliva aside, players understand the coach is just doing his job.

"We know if we're playing bad he's going to get on to us, but that's what we need," Beussink said.Women on board

But it doesn't always take a frothy approach to ignite a team.

Every coach has his own style and takes their audience into a consideration. Notre Dame girls coach Jerry Grim led his team to the Class 2 state title last season. His team may have incited a few more tongue lashings than they received.

"I probably don't use the language that a boys coach would use, not that there's a lot of cussing," Grim said. "But I don't think of them as girls. We work too hard at practices to be basketball players and to set ourselves up, and I don't just think of them as being girls. Whatever I've got to say, I say. But I probably won't put it as dramatically as a boys coach would."

But no matter what transpires, coaches acknowledge it's important to go into the second half on a positive note.

"You try to get focused and back in mind of playing basketball and back to the game plan," Wood said.

"The last thing I want to do is hurt their confidence," McCord said. "You want to let them know you feel we can still come back and win."The Clint Eastwood approach

Kiehne recalls his own playing days at Columbia College in Columbia, Mo.

Kiehne's squad went into halftime of its game at Missouri Valley College with the crowd singing "Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, hey, hey, goodbye."

Columbia College trailed by 18 points at the break and came back to win by 20 points, outscoring the home team by 38 points after halftime.

What was so inciting?

Was it the old flying crutch?

A rabid verbal tantrum?

A personal appearance by Norman Vincent Peele?

"The whole halftime the coach didn't say a thing," Kiehne said. "It was just us thinking, 'These people think they've got this thing won.' We knew we weren't playing as well as we could. There wasn't much he could say."

jbreer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 124