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Friday, January 17, 2025

Basketball - Peeves, Pet and Otherwise

"Then again, people don’t see what they don’t want to see." - Karin Slaughter in "Broken" a Will Trent novel

Becoming a coach doesn't mean forgetting every flaw, minor, or mind-numbing mistake. And my opinion and three dollars might buy a coffee. 

Coaches' eyes only tolerate so much "bad basketball." If we want less bad basketball, make a list and then edit to something actionable.

Adopt a framework, like the Four Factors, the Dr. Fergus Connolly Game Changer, or an old guy "get off my lawn" approach. 

Four Factors
  • Shooting - Doc Rivers called them "shot turnovers." My coach called them "$hit shots," and college fans chant, "airball." Coach Knight said, "just because I want you on the floor doesn't mean I want you to shoot." Jay Bilas's quote, "It's not your shot; it's our shot." 
  • Turnovers - "Protect the ball." Nobody wins by handing the ball to the other team, especially live-ball turnovers. 
  • Rebounding - You won't get all the rebounds, but if you don't block out or "hit and get" then you won't get enough. It's worse if you're small. 
  • Attacking the basket - Forget NBA statistics with 40 threes taken a night and dreaming of 40 percent makes. If the data shows you make 20 percent threes with 25-30 percent turnover possessions, the math won't work. And if you come off a ball screen leaving four feet of space, the screen did nothing. 

Game Changer
  • Skill - There's not enough. How much is the fault of COVID or not good enough teaching or not enough fundamental practice? I don't know. But across the board, the skill level isn't high enough. On defense, there's not enough ball pressure and not good enough ball pressure. Neither help nor recovery are good enough. And stop playing "snowman defense" with arms out like a snowman. 
  • Strategy - "Technique beats tactics." But if you're going to have strategy, make it better with hard to defend actions. Pass around the perimeter and take a three is fine...if you make a lot. That's not high school basketball as a whole.
  • Physicality - Sport rewards athletic explosion. Without vertical or lateral quickness or strength, what exactly do you have? Get in the gym. Nick Saban has a quote, "Everybody wants to be the beast, but not everybody is willing to do what the beast do." 
  • Psychology - I can't look inside players' heads. Kids need more of it and that's a hard product to manufacture. 
"Get off my lawn." 
  • "Get back (in transition)." "We're handing out free lottery tickets." 
  • "Don't dribble the air out of the ball. Do they pay you by the dribble?"
  • "Play harder." 50-50 balls don't exist. More deflections. Solid screens. Take charges. "Win this possession." And play every possession like that. 
  • "Stops make runs." No stops, no runs.
Keep it simple. Make it clear. These are what we have to do or stop doing to win basketball games. 

As Brian Scalabrine would say, "You gotta play good basketball." 

Lagniappe. "Have their back."
Lagniappe 2. "Compete." 
Lagniappe 3. Simplify. But if we lack the talent, make it simpler. "We can't run what we can't run." 
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