The Swarthmore College men’s basketball team is having a very good season under the unique approach of coach Landry Kosmalski, writes Bob Ford for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Stick to the fundamentals.

This academically exceptional school could give in to fancy schemes, but it hasn’t.

“Keep it simple,” Kosmalski said. “When I was growing up, I read the books on the Boston Celtics and, when they were doing well with Red Auerbach, they had seven plays. The same seven plays every year. These are our seven plays. Stop them.”

He calls it the Karate Kid method, the repetition of the same fundamentals. He quotes Celtics coach Brad Stevens: “Champions do ordinary things at a championship level.”

The work has paid off. The Garnet have remained undefeated this season at 19-0 and is the top-ranked team in Division III.

The program has been so consistently good during this five-season run that it is hard to remember that Swarthmore finished with a winning record only seven times in the 65 seasons that preceded it.

Read more about Landry Kosmalski and the Swarthmore College men’s basketball team in The Philadelphia Inquirer here.

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