Explaining your way to mediocrity

I am just on my way back from a basketball game between Marquette University and the University of South Florida, which Marquette won 70-68 at USF. 

It seems to me that coaching basketball is, at its heart, an entrepreneurial activity. It magnifies the impact of team building and leadership on results.  And it reveals, if not character, at least orientation toward success.

Before the game (at USF) the home team passed out a program, from which I quote the following two paragraphs:

"Three of the first four conference road outings (No. 14 Connecticut, No. 10 Pittsburgh and No. 20 Notre Dame) came against opponents ranked in the top-25 at the time of the matchup. The fourth came at West Virginia, which dropped out of the rankings just two days prior to the game. 

Of the four road contests to date in BIG EAST action, only Notre Dame featured a destination the Bulls (USF) had visited in 2005-06. USF played UConn and West Virginia at home and didn't face PITT at all last year."

And they had lost every one of those games.  

This is an explanation for their fans of why the Bulls couldn't reasonably have been expected to win. Ranked opponents, playing on the road, didn't play them before, etc.

They lost to Marquette at the buzzer.  And afterward, USF Coach McCullum's radio interview focused on how well they had done statistically in this loss.  

How'd you like to play on that team? 

If it's company policy to explain away the failure to achieve goals because of external circumstances (in a bid to save a job, perhaps) how can the company team members be expected to set their sights any higher?  In those last moments, perhaps a backdrop in the minds of the USF players that, as had been explained in the program, they couldn't really be expected to beat a ranked opponent, may have been that little critical difference.  Maybe they just didn't believe enough.

Don't excuse your way to mediocrity.  Recommit to big goals, give credit where credit is due, and strive for excellence. Or get yourself a job playing piano in a bar.