March Madness is here, and sports minded people will be tuned into the NCAA basketball tournament. If you know anything about basketball you know there are some fundamentals of the game that never change.

1. Pick and roll. Watch any game and you’ll see it’s an integral part of every team’s offensive scheme.

2. Baseline defense. The offense player is always forced to the middle where there’s help. If you let the offensive player go down the baseline, you’re either gonna commit a foul or give up a bucket.

Of course, the game has changed over the years, but that’s just two examples of things that stay the same.

Let’s take it a step further. Suppose you wake up one day as the head coach of a basketball team that has two guys that are 7′, two guys that are 6’7″ and a 6’5″ guard. They are all lighting fast and can shoot the eyes out. Because of your speed and height advantage you’re romping all your opponents.

Even when the subs come in, you just keep scoring and winning.

Run and gun has become the norm and basics have left town.

Then one day you wake up and your top players have left school and all you have is a bunch of six-footers that can’t do much of anything right.

Their lack of discipline and basics sends you into a tail-spin and pretty soon you’re out of a job.

I hope you see the analogy here of where we are in the automobile business.

Maybe you need to get back to basics before you have to get back to basics.

1. Do a trade walk and lot walk, daily and weekly.

2. Press your average cost down.

3. Don’t let crap age on you. (Your luck on this subject is getting ready to run out.)

4. Attack your 10 most expensive units.

5. Do a save-a-deal meeting every day. (There’s only definition for the word every.)

6. Improve your speed through recon. Speed wins. The lack of speed kills. MY RECON TOOL.

7. Be a student of the game. Great basketball coaches are always studying the game so they can find the competitive edge. You should do the same.

8. Hire slow. Fire fast.

9. Dealer Operators and GMs should review every wholesale deal once it’s billed. Ask questions such as “How did we make $1500 (or lose $1500) on this unit?”

10. Gross always hides mistakes. You may be making some mistakes these days such as letting cars sit, but at the end of the day, the overall grosses are so good that nobody is paying attention

Number 10 is akin to you playing an inferior team. You give up the baseline and they blow the layup, and you start to think you can give up the baseline, no big deal.

A lot of what I share with you is a baseline. If you keep giving up the baseline, you’re eventually gonna get your ass beat.

That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs.