Saturday, June 30, 2012

Role of a Role Player


So much is made of the importance of role players that I wanted to give you a list of some of the things we feel are important to successfully fulfilling the role of a role player.  These are things we talk to our role players about repeatedly throughout the year -- not just a “one-time mention”.

    •   
 
Know and understand your role.  This is the joint responsibility of the player and the coach -- the coach for explaining the role in a “without a doubt of what it is” manner, and the player for understanding exactly what he is going to be called on to do.

    •   
 Be an All Star in your role.  We want to be known for having the best role players in the league.  We emphasize this to the point that our players know how important this is to us as a staff.  This is a very important part of our sell job to the player.

    •   
 Have the mental strength to execute your role.
This means execution in games
 and in practice -- not just in games.  We think this is important since it is during practice that players develop trust in each other.  We want to make sure everyone trusts that everyone will fulfill his role.  They will see that every day in practice.

    •   
 Understand that your role stays the same even if you go from sub to starter.  When injuries occur and role players go from being subs to being starters, they often try to increase their roles and begin to do things they shouldn’t do.  We talk to our guys to make sure they know that even though they may be starting, we still want them to  fulfill their roles.  It's when they try to do more that we find we get into trouble.

    •   
 Understand that your role is likely to be the same for years to come.  This is a tough one in that most players feel they may have sacrificed last year and that this year it’s their turn.  The coach has to do a great job of continuing to sell the player on the importance of his role and that the team will need it again this year.

    •  
 Improve in your role each year.  The best role players want to find ways to get better in the roles they have.  I read an article on Shane Battier where he talked about how he studies his opponents' high production areas of the floor and then works hard to keep them out of those areas.  He knows his role is to defend but he takes it a step further by finding ways to become even better at his role.  We don’t want players to get mad at their roles; we want them to get better at their roles.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Coach K on Practice

Practice
*Should be no longer than 2hrs (Not counting Pre & Post Practice)
*Eliminate as much standing time as possible
-Allocate all of your resources to get players as many reps as
possible (Especially on individual drills Ex. 1 on 1 Denial Drill)
-Good physical habits are not developed without reps
*Match-up players for drills so they don't end up going with the same
person every time
*Throughout practice, let players sub for each other…If you want a
definite group…then call for them
*Make drills and practice situations…Game-Like (including instructions)
-Don't walk and talk players through drill instructions (Not Gamelike)
*Have a 10 minute period where you have a "Sprint Practice"
-Change things a bunch
-Continually alter what you are doing on the run (Like in a game)
*Practice Game Situations
-End of quarter, End of Game, All Game Situations
*Simulate Halftime
*Vary the places and times you talk to your team (limited attention
span)
*Videotape everything that is 4 on 4 and 5 on 5
-You might focus on an individual player or specific drill
-Remember:HEAR-SEE-DO
*Free Throws
-Do Pressure Free Throw Drills
Post Practice Meeting with Staff
*Critique Practice
-"We did a good job with this"
-"I think we need more work with this"
-"Lets come back tomorrow with this"
-I was going to come back tomorrow with this, but I think it is better
that we do this"
-DO NOT BE A SLAVE TO THE PRACTICE PLAN

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Bob Huggins on Defense

 How do you get your players to play so hard?
o Run – in practice
o Sit – in games
 In practice, players would run 22’s but wouldn’t touch all the lines
o Set up a treadmill set at 17mph
o Make a kid run on the treadmill for 44 sec
o He can’t cheat the treadmill, and if he doesn’t run fast, he’ll fly off
 Tape a “help” line on the court every day
o From rim to rim, middle of the court
o Guys need to straddle the help line
o If they’re not at the help line, they go to treadmill
 DRILL
o 2v2 Sprint to Help Drill
o Coach up top
o Player at each wing (offense & defense)
o Pass to one wing, other wing must sprint to help line
o We do this every day during practice
o If they don’t sprint and straddle the help line, they go to treadmill
Nike Basketball Clinic – Las Vegas, NV – April 30 – May 2, 2010
Taylor Harris – Metro State College – tharri54@mscd.edu
 On defense, we want guys to be closer to the ball than their man is
 To get through the screen, throw your arm out and hit the screener
 Go back and look at game film regarding opponents passes
o Passes that hurt you are direct passes
o Not lobs or bounce passes
o Direct passes set up easy shots
 Philosophy: “You can through it over, under, or around us, but you can’t throw it through us”
Closeouts – We work on closeouts more than anyone in the country
 Closeout to outside, high shoulder
o Prevent middle penetration
 As coaches, do you do things in practice not knowing why you do it?
o Think about those drills that you do “just because”
o Do you have time for all those drills?
 Everyone speaks of spacing – what is it?
o 15-17 feet
o Close enough so you can make a direct pass
o Far enough where 1 guy can’t guard 2

 you don’t get beat off of 1st shots – you get beat by 2nd and 3rd shots
 Shoulders point to where the ball is going to be thrown – not the eyes
o Teach players to read shoulders, not eyes
 Key to rebounding: Staying lower than your opponent

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Anson Dorrance Video

I love this clip on Dorrance.  He is a AMAZING coach.  "The Man Watching" is one of my favorite coaching books I have ever read.... 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FessaWGsezE

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Kevin Eastman on Communication and Trust

What communication does for them:
1. Intimidates the offense (can play with other teams’ heads)
2. Gives you a head start at whatever your next movement is (i.e. fighting
a screen; early communication allows you to start fighting through a
screen before the screener makes contact)
3. Man guarding the ball has much more confidence
4. Wakes up a disengaged defense
5. Catches mistakes before they are made
6. Energizes our team (our best practices are our loudest practices)

ON TRUST
1. Trust takes time.
2. Trust takes consistency.
3. Trust takes proof. When you say you’re going to do something, you do
it.
• Also noted that teams that they believe that teams that trust each
other foul less often.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Nick Saban on Intangibles and the 4 finger salute

-“I think that intangibles are probably really important to being a good competitor and I think most people who have passion for something as important to them is what gets them to commit to something, and your mind kind of does whatever you tell it to do. So once you have the passion and the commitment, at least you’re going to be moving in the right direction when it comes to work ethic, discipline, trying to make good choices about what you do and what you don’t do. The effort, the toughness and the discipline to execute are probably the key ingredients to any sport…I think those part of your character and who you are, and I think the same ingredients would be necessary to be successful in anything.”

-“There are 3 intangibles that take no athletic ability that aids a player in being responsible for his own self-determination. Those 3 intangibles take the most time in coaching in my opinion. Those intangibles are effort, toughness, and assignment.”

-“I think the things that it takes to be successful are the same regardless, whether it’s passion, commitment, hard work, investing your time in the right things, perseverance, pride in performance, how you think in a positive and negative way, the discipline you have personally—you have to make choices in your decisions.”


FOUR FINGER SALUTE
The four-finger salute held up by UA football players at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Each finger stands for discipline, commitment, effort, and toughness. The thumb is pride.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Coach K on Game Prep

Game Preparation 
*Preparation for the next game starts directly at the end of your last
game 
*First, watch the tape of your last game 
-Make sure of what you think you saw during the game 
*Scouting report of your upcoming opponent with stats 
*First part of next practice is a team meeting 
-Have to have closure from previous game 
-Then, leave that location "Shutting the Door" 
-Switch to a different area and start talking about next game… 
"Opening the Door" 
-Give a real quick summary of the next opponent, then start practice 
-Offense and Defense can revolve around a few things the next
opponent will do 
-You can also work on areas in which you struggled in previous game 
-It is not all getting ready for the next team. It is getting us ready 
-"I want to take care of us before getting into elaborate game plans" 
-"Your kids don't know your plays…How the hell are they gonna know 
their plays?????" They should know tendencies 
-Respect your opponent; Whether it is the lowest team in your 
conference or the #1 team in your conference 
-"We PLAY in every game" 
-"I want our team to be GREAT every time we play 

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Lon Kruger Man to Man Offense

A very underrated coach is Oklahomas Lon kruger.  He has won at all of his stops (in college) .
 As a coach, create an atmosphere in practice for your best chance to teach and best chance for your players to learn
o What would you want to do if you were playing for you?
o We do this by being positive and encouraging
 Encourage an atmosphere for players to want to come early and stay late
 Create more confidence for your players
 Talk to your players, ask them questions
o Get your players to share ownership in the program
o Not my program and my team; it’s our program and our team
 Expect a lot out of your players
o Be fair, and consistent
 Your best player needs to be your hardest worker
o Needs to make the other players want to come in early and stay late with him
 Focus on the details
o We compete to win each and every possession of the ballgame
 Everyone gets to practice early
o Coaches and players work together
o Get game like shots before practice
o Always start our individual workouts with shooting
 In practice, don’t allow bobbled catches or travels – if they happen in practice, they will happen in the game

On offense, have an opportunity to get an easy bucket in transition
Good spacing allows you to get the ball inside
 You need to be able to reverse the ball
o If the ball never gets swung, you’re attacking the defense at its strongest point

 Win Battles
o Usually when we lose, we don’t need to do something different
We just need to work harder and execute more precisely
 Ideally, we want to get down the court and score off of our initial action (back cut action) – we’d rather not call any sets

 Players need a security blanket on offense
o Something they’re very comfortable with that they can go to in pressure situations
When you play a team for the 3rd and 4th time, they start to figure out your stuff
o You need to have counters so you have more options
o Counters give your players a chance to read and respond to situations
 Most of our screens are small on big or big on small

Friday, June 22, 2012

Herb Sendek Clinic


  • Subtle labels of being a leader means a lot.
  • Live in a state of gratitude
  • Coaching is an awesome responsibility as a leader and to develop leaders
    • Some go into coaching to wear a nice suit or be on Sportscenter
  • Fascinated with the art of communication
    • We are always communicating
  • Live in a state of awareness
  • Coach in a state of heightened awareness
  • Two parts to communication: sender & receiver
  • Speak loudly – though a whisper
  • Know the pulse of the moment
    • What does this team need now?
  • Dean Smith was a mystic – McDonald’s All-Americans
  • John Chaney – underdogs, fighters, in it with you
    • Both were communicating to their teams
    • Let’s do what we do
  • Through his whispers he spoke loudly
  • Listen and see as coach
  • Make the person you are talking to feel like the only person in the world
  • Get information on your players so you can be aware of your team
  • Tennis ball in a coconut – let the ball go to get your hand out
  • What are the voices in your players’ ears?
  • Head coach will tell an assistant to get with a guy he chewed out
    • Everyone sings the same song
  • Building relationships with players:
    • Note in players locker
    • Nice grades
    • Rebound for them
    • Signs in the bathroom
    • Talk to every player
  • When you make points in practice everyone must be listening
    • Standing still
    • Eye contact – stop speaking until you get eye contact
    • They hear a whisper better than a yell
      • Coach Wooden – a stubborn mule responds better to gentleness
  • Assistants: no notes during scouting report – let the players know that the coaches knew their business
  • Tim Grgurvich – sweat with your players
  • Riley’s Preparation:
    • Everything he would say was planned
    • Prepare, prepare, prepare
    • Communication before a game:
      • Angle you walk in
      • Speed you walk in
      • Posture you walk in
      • Volume of your voice
  • Timeouts :
    • 1 thing on defense
    • 1 thing on offense
      • Repeat it
  • Post Game:
    • The less said the better
  • Office Hours:
    • Jerry Wainwrights office is like Disney Land
    • We want our players to come see us
  • Find ways to have meetings with your players without having a meeting
    • Cafeteria
      • Our best times and most difficult times congregate around food
  • Vinnie Del Negro
    • Did not play his first 2 years
    • Saw Coach Valvano very often
    • “when you’re good enough, Coach V will play you”
  • Herb went to Turkey to learn more about the culture of the players he was recruiting
  • Do you communicate with your player’s circle of influence?
    • Stay connected
  • Anger is one letter short of Danger
  • Servant Leaders
    • Where are you on a team picture
    • Do you drive
    • Do you sit in the back
  • Two types of leaders:
    • Lets Everyone knows he’s important
    • Makes everyone feel like they’re important
  • Everyone use their leadership skills
    • Every man his own captain
    • Everyone must lead
  • Books:
    • Frank Luitz – “Not what you say; it’s what they hear”
    • Jerry Spen – “How to argue and win every time”
    • Dennis Waitley??? – “seeds of greatness”

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Kevin Eastmans Keys to a great shooting workout!

1. Catch and shoot work
2. Quick penetration—shot fakes
3. Shots from operatable areas
4. Mix in finishes at the rim
5. Game Shots-Game Spots-Game Speed
6. Perfect Form
7. Chart shots as much as possible
8. Never miss 2 in a row
9. Shooting stamina
10. Hidden workouts

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Anson dorrance on practice


To quote Anson Dorrance, one of the greatest soccer coaches ever: "Competition is key to developing players. The only practice environment in which you truly develop a player is a competitive arena." Coach Dorrance tries to make his practices a "Competitive Cauldron". More about Coach Dorrance is at the end of this article - he has won over 600 games, has a 90% winning percentage and has been Coach of the Year 8 times. Here are some of his tips:
-- In practice, encourage competition.
-- During practice, try to keep score in everything you can -- keeping score encourages competition, 100% effort, game speed, and is more like what player's face in a real game.
-- Competition is critical to developing each player's potential.
-- "Competition is key to developing players. The only practice environment in which you truly develop a player is a competitive arena."

The worst way to practice is, obviously, to just let the kids kick the ball around. There's no structure, no focus on improving skills, and no competition or pressure. Bad habits will be repeated and there will be minimal improvement.

The second worst way to practice is scrimmaging – there aren't enough touches per player, the better players dominate, and it doesn't provide a good opportunity to practice individual skills in a controlled way. Bad habits will be repeated and weaker players will see little improvement.

The third worst way to practice is "Drills". Drills don't involve pressure or competition and don't prepare players for a real game. In fact, drills train players to play slow, because they don't play the drills at Game Speed and under pressure.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Bob Knight on practice and other thoughts

 Have rules on how you’re going to practice
o Never let a kid step onto the court and shoot on their own
o They needed to have a coach, manager, or other player with them
o No free shooting on their own
 Have things in practice that are physically and mentally tough
o Drills where players will bang and bruise each other
o Drills that will challenge their mind
 Start practice with quick drills
o Drills that require hand/eye quickness, and get their mind thinking right away
 Don’t practice too long
o You get to a “point of no return” with practice time
o Start of season -> December = 2 hour, 15 min practice
o January -> End of the season = Never go longer than 1 hour 15min
 Drills that involve an individual skill – spend no more than 5 minutes
 Drills that involve the team as a whole – spend no more than 10 minutes

There are 3 phases to basketball
o Offense
o Defense
o Conversion
 Rule of defensive transition – no easy points, and don’t let them get to FT line
 Rules of offensive transition – get there without a turnover and get there with an opportunity to score
 Best coaches understand simplicity. With simplicity comes execution.
 A lot of this stuff I teach you is elementary, but most of this game is elementary
o How to prevent turnovers?
 Don’t throw the ball to the other color jersey
 Stress the importance of getting to the bonus before the opponent
o Game goal: make more FT’s than the other team attempts
 Spend more time on conversion of offense to defense and defense to offense
 Mental is to physical as 4 is to 1
 Make players responsible for knowing what they’re supposed to do
o Call a timeout in practice and describe the play you’re going to run
 Who’s going to get the ball and how
 Give players a notecard and have them take a quiz on what’s supposed to be run
 See if more than 50% of players get it right
 Shooters must be able to give a shot fake and drive right or left – both directions quickly
 Watch your players shoot FT’s
o Do their eyes follow the path of the ball? Good shooters do not
When you catch the ball, hold it for a 2 second count so you can see what’s going on

Monday, June 18, 2012

Nick Saban on Mental Toughness

-“Mental toughness is a perserverance that you have when you can make yourself do something that you really don’t feel like doing. You don’t really feel like getting up, but you get up. You don’t feel like practicing today, but you practice. And, even in difficult circumstances and difficult surroundings, you can stay focused on what you need to stay focused on. So it really is a mental discipline to be able to stick within whatever circumstance you are in and continue to persevere at a high level and not let other circumstance affect how you perform.”
-“You make a choice in playing a play as hard as you can or not. It’s a choice- are you going to run 10 yards as fast as you can or not?”
-“I will not allow my players to put their hand on their knees or show in their faces they are tired going into the fourth quarter. If they do, they are going to get their butts whipped. If they do that, they are showing the other team they can be beat.”
-“There’s not one person in this room who feels like doing what we do EVERY SINGLE DAY he wakes up. It’s just not possible, we demand excellence and that’s hard and there will be days you wake up and you don’t feel like doing it. It’s important that you make yourself do it because it’s the path to getting what you want.”
With the help of motivational speaker Kevin Elko, Saban charged the Alabama players with task of putting together a team affirmation—a positive assertion repeated by players to keep them focused on all the small things needed to achieve the long-term goal of a national title.
 TEAM: 100% effort and accountability
 OFFENSE: Be capable of an explosive play on any given snap
 DEFENSE: Never give up an inch
-“The mental toughness training was geared toward showing players that their minds were as important to football success as their bodies.”
-“We often stated to them [Alabama football players] that you could place two athletes side by side at the pro level and the only difference between them is how they think.” –Alabama staffer
-“To wear a player down, everybody wants to play hard in the beginning of the game, it takes a long time to wear a player down, so you have to have a tremendous amount of mental toughness to be able to do that, to sustain it yourself.”
-“The difference between my first 2 Alabama teams wasn’t talent or ability, but the psychological disposition in terms of confidence and believing in themselves—knowing they could do it and FINISH it. There was an expectation that second year that if we did things a certain way, we could beat anyone in the country.”

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Roy Williams on Offense

Point Guard’s job is to go as fast as he can from top of the key to top of the key
 Make a commitment to run every single time
 We practice taking the ball out of the net
o Coach stands in front of FT line, shoots the ball
I am by no means a huge Roy Williams fan, however he does have some good thoughts on transition & early offense
o Post player takes ball out and quickly outlets it to manager at the 28 foot line
 Make or miss
 Outlet pass
o Point Guard
 As you catch the ball, make sure you can stop on a dime and change direction
 Don’t risk committing the charge
 Primary Break
o 2 or fewer defenders
3v2 or 2v1
Shot within 2 passes
o 3 or more defenders
Secondary break

Everybody on the team must like the shot that’s taken by a player
Poll the team in practice during play
How many people on blue liked the shot that was taken by Joe?

 Post players: Deception
o Pretend like you’re catching the lob
o Tyler Hansbrough was so good because when he was in the post, he fought the hardest and demanded the ball every time

Cherish the highs of coaching
o After we won National Championships, the next day I was on the road recruiting
 Didn’t celebrate the successes
o With a subpar season, we dwell too much on the negatives, we need to balance that out with celebrating the wins

Friday, June 15, 2012

Ben Jacobson- Attacking Man to Man Defenses


 Coaching requires you to build a solid foundation and have solid expectations
Don’t shift your views if a shot is made or missed
3 concepts of man to man offense
o Spacing
o Pace
o Screening
 When attacking man to man defense, what do you want to accomplish?
o We want to find a way to force help
o Force a 2nd defender out of position
We let our players have lots of freedom
o We want them to play with lots of confidence
 Ali Farokhmanesh had the confidence to hit the shot in Kansas game
 We don’t run a motion
o We set lots of ball screens and run lots of set plays
Offense is about how hard guys are cutting away from the basketball

Utilizing the dribble hand off
o If your PG hands the ball off to a player on the wing, consider running him off a double screen to the opposite side of the court
o Guy receiving the ball quickly reverses it, and you could have the PG open at the post or corner

 How do you teach the timing of the ball screen?
o Repetition is most important
o Emphasize patience
o Wait for screener to set feet

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Buzz Williams

“Character Revealed”
1. “Life Lessons”—every Sunday outside of the season, everyone
involved in the program meets for 1 hour and 18 minutes and
discusses life (led by Coach Williams).
2. “Story Time”—the night before every game, he tells the team a story.
(Coach Williams talked about his love for great stories and how this
activity calms his nerves the night before a game)
3. “Boot Camp”—they have boot camp 15 days before the first practice.
This is an emotionally draining series of conditioning drills without a
basketball. Players choose teams each day, so it is always competitive
and requires thinking and strategy. “This is when we become a team.”
Players, who, for whatever reason, do not complete boot camp, do not
get practice gear until it is completed.
4. “The Words We Use”—A set of vocabulary words that becomes the
language among those in the program. All players and coaches speak
this language, keeping everything consistent and clear. Says that while
it can be overwhelming for young guys in the first month, it is a great
way to assimilate them into the program.

• Core values for the program:
1. Get back in transition—no easy baskets
2. Keep the ball out of the paint—no layups
3. Defend without fouling—great ball pressure
4. Paint touches—Great shots—Throw aheads

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Mark Fox- Adjusting to becoming a head coach


-Do your current job well and you will advance.
- Great advice- keep 2 shooters on the floor and schedule well.
- Assistants have 2-3 issues, coach has 12 issues.
-Assistants must learn all aspects of the game.
-Sometimes best assistants are guys that knew nothing when they started.
-Coaching and Teaching- offense & defense- transition, man, zone
-Rebounding
-Player development- Posts & Guards
-Pick brains of respected coaches
-Team Travel
-Scheduling
-Media
-Radio Shows
-Admissions
-Discipline
-Fund-raising
-Video
-Academics
-Eligibility
-Camp
-Organization
-Mgmt. of Staff
-Team Building
-Scouting
-Budget Mgmt.
-Equipment
- Must get exposure to all of these areas.
Recruiting- Challenge to sell yourself vs. sell your head coach when you move a few inches down on the bench.
-Your knowledge isn’t good enough, unless you share it.
- Staffing- Find guys better than you in every capacity.
- Gain understanding of what head job involves.
- Let your asst. coaches coach- on foreign trip, he let each asst. coach 1 game- was a great experience.
- Have to understand life of head coach and the management skills necessary- must stay sharp on detail when you are head coach because you get so busy.
- Gain more experience- do more individual workouts, do more with post-players, etc.
- Most challenging aspect for him was changing mindset of players in current program- be professional, be prepared.
- Skill development- learn from the pros in the field.
- How can you help a PG or C get better?
- Must build the “Loyola Experience” in your facility and throughout the program- how are you telling your story, what do others say about your program?
- “Expect Greatness”

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Tom Crean Thoughts

Tom Crean is definetely  a program builder.  He has built 2 programs that are top 10 programs in the nation now (Marquette & Indiana).  His work ethic and pursuit of knowledge is second to none.
1. Team and Player Development
2. Recruiting
3. Game Management & Game Marketing
Need to commit to player development. Developing skills is the most important thing a coach can do.
“Just Coach the Team”- sign on his office wall.
- You have to be more than a recruiter to be a Head Coach. If you can only recruit, you will get fired quickly.
Assistant Coaches- Must be known for something: recruiting, scheduling, offense, academics, marketing
1. Skill Fundamentals workout- isolate skills
2. Strategies/Schemes
3. Contingency plan on the floor
Who is the best in your conference- look at them and find a way to make your team better.
- Need two ball-handlers vs. press
- Your team must be skilled enough to compete vs. all types of teams
Study leadership/football coaches/Frank Beamer VA Tech special teams
Frank Beamer owns special teams and they are the best in the country.
How do you score in all different situations?
You must have a plan.
Head coaches should totally understand special teams- every out of bounds situation, FT’s, after time outs.
Van Gundy- studied last 5 minutes of every game. Breaks down film to help his coaching.
Contingency plans- How obsessed, how detailed are you in every situation?
Cannot pick and choose ownership- will get you beat!
- Can’t pick what is passionate to them.
- Assign roles, but everybody must be involved
- Agendas = jealousy and disloyal coaches

Monday, June 11, 2012

Nick Saban on motivation

-“We’ve had to live with this loss for 365 days, and we’ll have to live with it for another 365 days if it happens again.”
-“How much capacity do you have for success? How much do you believe in yourself? What do you expect to accomplish?”
-“Big thing you worry about after success is how players will focus on process of improvement and how complacent they will be with what they accomplished.”
-“I don’t care what you did yesterday. If you’re happy with that, you have bigger problems.”
-The power of losing: “Losers are more willing to polish their techniques, to practice hard and do whatever it takes, even into the wee hours, to become the absolute best.”
-“A loss can be a thunderbolt. A tremendous negative that can serve as a turning point.”

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Hubie Brown thoughts

Some more thoughts from Hubie Brown
-Great coaches aren’t afraid to be innovators
-PLAYERS make the system, not the coach. You NEED players—During the Chicago
Bulls’ run during the ‘90’s, eight newly-hired coaches installed the triangle offense in their
new job, none, zero, lasted more than 2 years. What happens when you don’t have the
players?
-How do you ram home your emphasis?

Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins. I have a shooter on each unit no matter how bad
of a defender he is. We can hide a bad defender, we just need him to make the necessary
rotations.

-Key halftime stats: offensive rebounds (& points off), fast break % (& points off) and
deflections (Why do I love deflections so much? Because it shows that we’re working and it
tells me we’re bothering them from making the pass to the spot they want)
-Reward your guys: tell them how much you appreciate them
-Give your players a chance to talk
-Never end a drill without a basket. It does 3 things: 1. improves their confidence 2.
conditioning, forces them to chase the ball down 3. enforces good habits, conditions them
into making scoring a reflexive action

-A coach must pay extreme attention to the last 6 minues of a game. Ask yourself:
1. Did we get high percentage shots for our shooters?
2. Did we get to the free throw line?
3. Turnovers
-The day after a loss, a coach must break those key plays in the last 6 minutes to explain to
his players why we won/ why we lost

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Hubie Brown on what kills potential

What kills a player’s potential?
1. Low pain threshold
2. Low IQ (basketball) for what we’re running
3. Selfishness
 4. Can the person do the intangibles (charges, loose balls, pass aheads, rotations
5. Drugs and Alcohol

Friday, June 8, 2012

Sean Miller on set plays

Philosophy is to score with a quick strike mentality
Get the ball out & up the floor before the defense is set
Look to attack & draw fouls
1st look is transition, then play after transition & then another play
Move yourself & move the ball
Set plays on dead balls, AFT, Late game situations
Have plays with versatility… Different plays from the initial set
5 important offensive statistics
Asst – TO ratio
FG%
3 FGA
FTA
Offensive Rebounding %
Different plays from initial sets
Create different initial sets to get same plays
Tough scouting
Promotes execution
Easy to Organize

Thursday, June 7, 2012

boston celtics culture

Maybe its because Kevin Eastman  is one of the most open coaches in terms of sharing information, but the Celtics have a special culture with Doc Rivers at the head coach and the big  3 (4 if you include Rondo)

Premiums in Boston Celtics
1) Talent
2) Character, not characters, Rasheed Wallace wasn’t allowed to get a technical foul
in 4th quarter or when the game was on the line
3) Work ethic
4) Discipline ourselves to be discipline
5) Competitive drive (motor)
6) Focus
Culture – 7 day a week, 24 hour a day (thing)

3 core covenants
1) Winning (success)
2) Personal sacrifice
3) Accountability to yourself and your team
a. Once these are defined, communicated, and understood, then move on to
standards

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

pete gillen keys to scouting

Four Keys to Scouting Your Opponent  
-Pete Gillen, University of Virginia/Providence College/Xavier University
1.Read the point guard
-Do we have the advantage? If we do, how can we
capitalize on it? If not, how can we get him out of
sync?
  -Cut off the head!
2.What do they do best?
-What can we do to limit that?
-Don’t let them beat you with what they do best.
3.How can we score against them?
-What pace is most conducive to us winning? Play an
up-tempo game? In the half court?
4.Turnovers
-How can we win the turnover battle?
“I wouldn’t trade my 36 years in the coaching business f

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

mike dunlap thoughts

-Don’t trust winning/ Find out about yourself when you lose
-Be who you are/ What do you believe in? -
- Pete Newell- “Keep an open mind”
- Innovate within your system
-Assistant coaches want to change things prematurely
-You find out what your players learn when they talk to the media
-Mistakes happen on 3rd reversal pass
-Opinions must be supported with facts & #’s
-Get the ball to the sideline- “ 4 in the box”
-“Repetition leads to clarity”
-Watching more video leads to the game slowing down in your mind
-There is a 17% decline in shooting %  on contested shots
-rebound without hesitation
-Get “perfect” out of your coaching vocabulary
-Over coaching takes away from aggressiveness•
-Positional meetings with staff- football concepts

-Bad practices are usually a reflection on the head coach
1. Attitude
2. Energy
3. Bad planning

-When doing individual improvement- be specific
-Assistant coaches must be positive & have energy
-Video should be short & sharp
-Allow players to like watching video- you can’t kill them every time they watch
video or it will become a negative for them

Monday, June 4, 2012

Nick Saban on Self Discipline


-“At some point you’re going to suffer through 1 of 2 things: the pain of discipline (because it’s not always easy to be disciplined) or the pain of regret (because you’ll always be disappointed what you accomplished if you didn’t suffer the pain of discipline).”

-“Discipline is to do what you’re supposed to the way it’s supposed to be done.”

-“Everything you do, everything you have, everything you become is ultimately the result of the choices you have made. You have the power to direct your life. How will you use it? What’s your choice?”

-“You have to have discipline to do things on your own. There’s not always going to be someone to make you do it. You have to have discipline to do it yourself.”

-“There’s no easy way. I never said it would be easy. Never said football would be easy, I never said school would be easy. It’s going to be difficult—most things worth having are!”

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Kevin Eastmans 6 S's of leadership and coaching


1) Survival – next day
2) Shit hitting fan – react, solid quick decisions
3) Success
4) Significance – speak
5) Satisfaction – sofa is an acronym, stands for sitting on fat ass – wrong thing to
do
6) Sharing – with young coaches just breaking in

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Steve Pikiell- From Last to first

5 Star Coaching Clinic 5/7/11
Iona College New Rochelle, NY

• Cores
◦ Offense – spacing, ball reversal, post touch, shot selection
◦ Defense – no middle, no layup, good defense
◦ Taking ball out of bounds – we are scoring on out of bounds plays
◦ Transitions – get easy baskets
• Keep things simple
• Teach 1 thing and apply it to multiple things
• Transition
◦ Pass ahead
◦ Reverse on skip passes
• Keep terminology simple
◦ 1 word should give an automatic response
▪ Again = re-screen
▪ Opposite = run it on the opposite side
• Run Flex down (traditional Flex) and Flex up (set up screens/back screens)
• Save an out of bounds series for the end of the year
• Save an offensive series for the end of the year
• Empower your assistants
• Zone offense: Knockout
◦ guys have to hunt shots
◦ catch the ball and peek at the rim
◦ everyone has to read the knockout guy
Notes by Jim Ponchak, coachponchak@gmail.com, www.twitter.com/coachponchak 59

Friday, June 1, 2012

USA Olympic Basketball: Gold Standards


What we do all the time and what we hold each other accountable for
1. NO EXCUSES
We have what it takes to win.
2. GREAT DEFENSE
This is the key to winning the gold.
We do the dirty work.
3. COMMUNICATION
We look each other in the eye.
We tell each other the truth.
4. TRUST
We believe in each other.
5. COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
We are committed to each other.
We win together.
6. CARE
We have each other's backs.
We give aid to a teammate.
7. RESPECT
We respect each other and our opponents.
We're always on time.
We're always prepared.
8. INTELLIGENCE
We take good shots.
We're aware of team fouls.
We know the scouting report.
9. POISE
We show no weakness.
10. FLEXIBILITY
We can handle any situation.
We don't complain.
11. UNSELFISHNESS
We're connected.
We make the extra pass.
Our value is not measured in playing time.
12. AGGRESSIVENESS
We play hard every possession.
13. ENTHUSIASM
This is fun.
14. PERFORMANCE
We're hungry.
We have no bad practices.
15. PRIDE
We are the best team in the world and we represent the best country.