Important Characteristics of Successful NCAA Division III Basketball Players and Programs as Perceived by their Coaches

All NCAA Division III head men's basketball coaches were surveyed to determine how important they believed 20 specific mental attributes were to the success of players and how 6 specific academic related items were to the success of programs. Means of a five point Likert-scale from very important (5) to very unimportant (1) were analyzed. Mental attributes of players considered very important at the highest rates were mental toughness (82.7%), coping against adversity (73.3%), self-confidence (74.1%), in-game decision making (81.0%), and training hard to improve performance (76.7%). The academic related item considered very important at the highest rate was having an academic support program (72.4%). Coaches should further emphasize the aforementioned items in order to improve the success of their players and programs.