Men's Health: The Secret to the Tigers’ Surprising Turnaround

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Another game, another unexpected outcome for the Missouri Tigers. This time it was a 72-57 win at home Saturday against #6 Baylor. A week before, it was a close win against archrival Kansas. Two weeks before that, it was a road win against Baylor at a time when the Bears were ranked #2.
These are games the undersized (only two players are 6-8 or taller) and undermanned (only seven scholarship players suit up) Tigers are supposed to lose. Especially with a first-year head coach, Frank Haith, who was widely considered to be a disappointing choice. (Are you underrated at work? Find out How One Celebrity Survived a Career Meltdown.)

So why are the Tigers an astounding 23-2 in mid-February, and about to become the #3-ranked team in the country?

Eric Kapitulik has a thought: Missouri attacks.

Kapitulik knows a bit about attacking, having spent eight years as a Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance officer, retiring as a major. Before that he was a four-year letterman in lacrosse at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Today he runs The Program, a business he founded that teaches athletes and corporate warriors how to become better leaders and helps teams become more cohesive. Among his company’s clients: the Mizzou basketball team.

Last fall Kapitulik and former Army sergeant Sam Cila put the Tigers through “Judgment Day,” a two-day team-building exercise. It’s like Outward Bound as imagined by SEAL Team Six. “The men at Missouri basketball, they wanted to be challenged, and they attacked it over the two days we worked with them,” Kapitulik says. “They’re good guys. They’ve got a high care factor.”

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The Tigers are just one of about 200 sports teams to sign on with The Program, and although their success so far exceeds expectations, Kapitulik is careful not to take credit for it. “We also work with plenty of teams that don’t accomplish anything,” he says with a laugh.

“Nobody from the outside is going to come in and fix your team,” he explains. “The teams we do have a big impact on are the ones whose coaches already believe in what we’re doing.”

For that, he gives all the credit to the players (“They’re talented young men”) and to Haith. “The ship sails the direction the captain points it in,” he says.

Still, there’s something different about Missouri this year that goes beyond talent and coaching. The players were never this good in previous years, and Haith’s teams at Miami never showed this kind of discipline, efficiency, and teamwork.

It may come down to a word Kapitulik uses more than any other: leadership. “What do great leaders do?” he asks. “They accomplish the mission, and they take care of their teammates. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. You make every decision with your teammates’ best interests at heart.” (If you’re looking after your ownbest interests, you need to know The 7 Secrets of Self-Made Millionnaires.)

That, more than anything, explains why Missouri’s players often pass up a good shot if a teammate has a better one. (They currently rank third in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio.) They also protect each other on the defensive end, pressuring opponents to cough up the ball (they’re 14th in steals per game) while staying out of foul trouble, committing six fewer fouls per game than last year’s team.

And there’s something else about this team that becomes apparent if you watch them often enough: With cold-blooded efficiency, they wait for opponents to make the kind of mistake that suggests they’re losing their composure. They’ll turn that single miscue into a series of turnovers and poor shots, time and again transforming a close game into a rout. (Transform your mundane workout into an incredible fat-blasting routine. All you need: The Men’s Health Spartacus Workout Series.)

At those moments, you aren’t surprised to learn they’ve spent time with people who once pulled triggers for a living.

Kapitulik is quick to point out an obvious difference in what he teaches vs. what he once practiced. “No basketball game is about life and death,” he says. But he also notes that the best military officers are often those who played sports in high school and college. Those who learn leadership in either milieu—catching balls or dodging bullets—tend to take it with them.

“Those same lessons will make you a successful person in life,” he says. “Life is a team sport.”

How the hell did we lose to the Ecokats? That loss might be worse than Okie Light.

KSU set the sport back 50 years with their offensive performance last night.

At the time they were decent.

They should be forced to become a Legend or Leader...

KU has the best D in the league, MU has the worst. That was the difference, champ.

Yes, that and the biased officiating was the difference.

If every team got to go over the back every other play like Worthless Withey, their defense would probably be better too.

Bob Knight is still laughing at Ty Turnover's pushoff.

Go easy on them easyb81. I'm sure if the Beakers would have lost, there wouldn't have been a word said about the officiating.

I was talking about your seeming inability to understand how KSU could possibly be so bad on the offensive end against KU when they curb-stomped MU with such ease. The difference is that you guys have a shitty defense and KU has an incredibly good defense. And as far as Bob Knight goes, he's known to say a lot of stupid shit (like saying KU goes 9 deep and that there's nobody better in the country at scoring transition points LMAO).

KSU has clearly regressed as the season has gone along, so that's the first aspect that needs to be considered. KSU is absolutely inept on offense right now. It's hilarious that you thump your chest over ku's defense in that game - did you even watch?

They just try to throw it at the basket and box out in hopes of getting second chance points off rebounds. They would look terrible on offense against any other team in the Big 12. And despite KSU's awful offense and getting some absolutely ridiculous calls (7-10 point swing at minimum), you guys still almost gave the guy away with Tyshawn pissing down his leg.

Frank Martin called it a Flop and was pissed that Rodriguez threw himself to the floor to try and get a charge called instead of playing defense another couple of seconds.. The officiating was not great unless you don’t mind a nasty muddy game like KSU likes to play but, to claim it biased for KU, at Manhattan, really? KU had 18 PF KSU had 16. When MU played KU it was 20-10 in MU’s favor. In neither case did the officiating determine the outcome of the game. MU has an excellent team this year all they need to do is go win the rest of their games and the conference championship is in their pocket. KU has that same opportunity. What could be better.

Yeah, I watched the game. The first half was the best defensive showing by KU all season long. And look, I'm not trying to thump my chest, it's just a fact that KU has the best D and MU has the worst D and I was simply trying to help you understand. Your juvenile stabs at Tyshawn (currently the best PG in the B12 conference) are not making you look any smarter.

Frank Martin knows better than to call out the Big 12 refs that are in ku's back pocket. He knows his role.

The ESPN analysts calling the game are as objective as you can get and they were over the top in their criticism of the calls ku got.

Actually that isn't a fact. According to kenpom Mizzou has the 6th best defense in the Big 12, which we combine with the best offense in the country.

Tyshawn couldn't even make the top 20 list of the best PGs in the country without ku getting on their knees and begging. How embarrassing. Guess who got on without having to beg? Flip Pressey. And Dixon might be better than him.

Sounds like MU shouldn’t bother to show up in Lawrence. Probably get calls 2-1 in their favor. Actually most teams try to foul KU because it is part of their recruiting process to get as many guys that can’t hit a free throw as possible. It has been that way for 30 years. Haith must have some pics of Bobby with farm animals or something. Never and I mean never have I seen Knight have this kind of love for any other human much less another coach. Not that I disagree that Haith has done an excellent job but, we might need to have a little larger sample size than one year with Anderson’s players. I do realize the following statement is mean but, Quinn started off pretty strong once upon a time too

Opp FG% (bolded to make it easier for you to understand):

1. Kansas
2. Texas A&M
3. Kansas State
4. Baylor
5. Texas
6. Texas Tech
7. Oklahoma State
8. Iowa State
9. Oklahoma
10. Missouri

And this is with MU playing pretty much the easiest non-con schedule in the country.LMAO