Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins took an unusual tact in the offseason to improve his craft.
He chose to visit Alabama's Nick Saban, the only coach in major college football history to win national championships at two schools (LSU and Alabama).
He phoned the Crimson Tide's fifth-year coach and asked if he could visit him to observe. Saban was more than happy to invite Hollins to Tuscaloosa the week of Alabama's Sept. 3 season opener against Kent State.
"You're always learning how to be a better coach, how to organize better, how to delegate responsibilities, how to motivate," said Hollins, whose 11-10 team snapped a four-game losing streak with a gritty 90-87 overtime victory over the Nuggets on Tuesday at FedExForum. "You want to learn from the most successful guys.
"I know a lot of basketball coaches, and they may show you a few drills. But they aren't telling you what they talk about in the locker room or at practice or when they talk to their players."
Saban didn’t find Hollins' visit out of the ordinary. When Saban was at Michigan State from 1995 to 1999, he and basketball coach Tom Izzo often exchanged philosophies and ideas. When Saban was on Ohio State's staff in 1980-81, he recalled Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight visiting retired Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes.
"All of us as coaches, no matter the sport, are responsible for searching for better ways to manage the attitudes and the personalities of the athletes we coach," Saban said. "That's what Lionel was doing on his visit. He was also looking at how we organize things and how we define things, so everybody has an expectation of what they are supposed to do, what they can be responsible and accountable to."
Hollins had full access to every coaching staff meeting -- offensive, defensive, special teams -- as well as overall team meetings.
"The one thing I took away from my visit is good coaches are all the same," Hollins said. "They are detail-oriented, and they preach the same message every day.
"Successful are all hard-nosed guys. They seem to be control freaks, because you have to be the leader of the team in order for the team to have success.
"If a leader is wishy-washy and the team is doing one thing one day and another thing the next day, it doesn't work."
The Grizzlies trailed the Nuggets by 11 points with 9:41 left Tuesday before doing the things that made them a playoff team last year. Despite lousy shooting, they clawed, they scratched and they scrapped on defense, and they sent the game into overtime because of guard Tony Allen's play at both ends of the court.
"I just wanted 48 minutes of multiple efforts," Griz coach Lionel Hollins said. "If the Nuggets were better than us, then they were just better than us. I have no issues when we play hard and lose. If we would have lost that game, I would have been proud, because of the effort we gave."
Much was made about the Grizzlies' players-only postgame meeting following their sluggish 10-point loss to the Spurs on Monday night.
"Guys were able to talk to each other face to face, call each other out, be accountable to each other," point guard Mike Conley said. "Everybody accepted what everybody had to say about each other, what we need to do to get better. You listen to constructive criticism and be a man about it."
Hollins said he had no problem not being involved in the postgame meeting.
"That's between them and them," Hollins said. "They didn't tell me what went on in their meeting, and I don't care, as long as they worked out what they had to work out."
Hollins said he didn't say much to his team after the loss to the Spurs and he didn't have a game-day shootaround on Tuesday. He just reviewed film of the Grizzlies, not the Nuggets.
"I left them (the players) alone last (Monday) night and today (Tuesday)," Hollins said. "Sometimes, you've just got to get away and reflect yourself, and not have somebody tell you something. You've got to figure it out yourself."
QUOTE TO NOTE
"We had guys making hustle plays all night long, guys diving all over the place and leaving their hearts and souls out there. I told our guys, 'That's who we are, that's how we got to where we were last year.' We can never let down." -- Griz coach Lionel Hollins on his team's relentless hustle and energy in Tuesday's comeback win.
ROSTER REPORT
SF Rudy Gay, who scored just one point in 34 minutes in Monday's loss to the Spurs, bounced back with 20 points, 13 rebounds and five assists against the Nuggets.
"This one was ugly, but we needed it to get over the hump," said Gay, who had two steals to tie Shane Battier as the Grizzlies' all-time steals leader, with 523. "We started slow, but it's not how you start, it's how you finish."
G O.J. Mayo matched well with the Nuggets' Andre Miller, so he stayed on the court most of the night, even working as the backup point guard.
"I just felt (Griz rookie backup PG) Josh Selby didn't have the experience to handle Miller," Griz coach Lionel Hollins said.
Mayo, who had 18 points, made big play after big play. He penetrated and fed Tony Allen for a tying dunk that sent the game in overtime. Then in the extra period, Mayo gunned in a 3-pointer with 35.1 seconds left that gave Memphis the lead for good at 98-97.
"We decided last (Monday) night (in the team meeting) that we needed to change our effort," Mayo said. "If we lose leaving everything on the floor, then we can sleep on that. But when you lose by 10 to 15 points and not play hard, then it's hard to sleep."
SG Tony Allen is at his very best in chaotic situations. And when the situation called for crazy against the Nuggets, who entered Tuesday's game with the NBA's second best road record at 7-3, Allen brought it.
He had eight of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. The biggest of his eight rebounds was grabbing a ball away from Denver center Nene in overtime and finding Mayo for his go-ahead three. He also had four blocked shots.
"I just hang my hat on defense," said Allen, voted in the offseason by NBA general managers as the best perimeter defender in the league. "(Boston coach) Doc Rivers instilled that in me (when Allen played for the Celtics for six seasons through 2009-10), because we had other guys who could score. That role just sort of stuck with me. I'm a below-radar guy. I ain't looking for no kudos."
MEDICAL WATCH
PF Zach Randolph (partially torn medial collateral right knee ligament) is out until March.
PF Darrell Arthur (torn Achilles) is out for the season.
SG Sam Young (back spasms) is day to day.
