periods of time, but I don't necessarily think it would have had to be long stretches across multiple games. In all my time in and around sports, I've come to the conclusion that the one thing players care about above all else is playing time. If you're willing to take that away from them--to hit them where it hurts--they will generally conform to what you want pretty quickly. On the flip side, if you're not willing to take their playing time away, they won't take you seriously. They'll continue to do whatever they want because there's no real consequence. No method I know of--screaming and yelling, pleading, tough practices--has anything close to the power of playing time to send a message. You've got to be willing to bench people.