NCAA Basketball

Chris Bosh Scolded The University Of Miami Basketball Team, And They Later Became Really Good

The Miami Hurricanes basketball team hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2008. They’re now No. 2 in the nation. New coach Jim Larranaga — the guy who led George Mason to the Final Four in 2006 — knew the Canes needed a spark when he took over in 2011. So he brought in a local celebrity, noted superclutch basketball WINNER Chris Bosh, to scare his players into becoming a winning squadron. Here is exclusive audio footage of the speech.

Ok, that was a joke! But seriously, this was a headline in the Palm Beach Post, and it wasn’t the newspaper being sensational; it was them accurately reporting Larranaga’s belief.

Harsh critique from Chris Bosh spurred No. 2 Hurricanes’ turnaround

Please, explain.

According to coach Jim Larranaga, a short speech given by Bosh to UM’s players in the summer of 2011 provided the spark that has a resulted in unprecedented success for the second-ranked Hurricanes (22-3, 13-0 ACC) this season.

You read that correctly. Larranaga — an excellent coach and a very smart man — attributes Miami’s fantastic 2012-2013 season, at least in part, to harsh critique from former Yellow Jacket Chris Bosh in the summer of 2011. Note: Miami lost in the second round of the 2012 NIT.

So, what powerful, slow-acting knowledge bombs did he drop on Miami players that managed to have little effect in Year 1 but drastic effects in Year 2?

“It was the best five-minute talk I’ve ever heard,” Larranaga said.

Bosh began by saying how difficult it was to live with the regret of not playing well enough against Dallas in the championship series and how he planned on “killing himself” during the offseason to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Bosh, Larranaga said, then turned his attention to UM’s players.

“He said, ‘You guys don’t work hard enough. You don’t deserve the success you’d like to have. You can’t compete at the highest level of college basketball with the effort that you’re giving,’” Larranaga recalls Bosh saying. “It was just music to my ears because that was the message we were trying to deliver. Coming from Chris Bosh, it meant a whole lot to the team.”

Fortunately, Bosh did not actually kill himself… and a national title contender was born! But could this phenomenally slow-acting advice produce even further effect? I don’t know. I’ll fill you in during 2014.

[Palm Beach Post]