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Friday, December 20, 2024

Basketball - Activities That Worked

"These ideas made individuals and our team better." You should ask:

  1. What's the evidence?
  2. What's the disconfirming evidence?
  3. What are the activities? 
Evidence. Individual player development - from two groups of a total of 25 players (3 years each), two earned Division 1 basketball scholarships. Samantha Dewey is a junior at Richmond (transfer from Illinois) and Cecilia Kay is a freshman at American, leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and blocks. 

Team accomplishments of star players: Dewey won a pair of state championships in the prep school division at Brooks School. Kay was a four-time All-Scholastic, McDonald's All-America nominee, who played in two state semifinals, state final, and defeated last year's state title team twice. Her team was banned from the tournament last year because baseball team violations lead to a schoolwide postseason ban. 

Disconfirming evidence. Neither of the top players remained in the local basketball program, leaving for private schools. Without the top players, the local program fell on hard times with declining participation, losing records, and athletes migrating to other sports like volleyball and soccer. 

The activities.
  • Individual offensive skill development - three level scoring 
  • Press-breaking - advantage/disadvantage - 5 versus 7 full court (this functions as a form of scrimmaging)
  • Special situations practice - BOB, SLOB, ATOs for 15 minutes each practice, with 'three possession games" simulating close-and-late games (another form of scrimmaging, offense-defense-offense)
  • Small sided-games (3-on-3) on one side of the midline
  • Handouts. Wooden "Pyramid of Success" and Bilas "Toughness" traits
  • Off-season training (May-October) offered Tuesday and Sunday p.m.
Three level scoring activities: 



Basket attack. 

Wing attack - Pierce series. 



Don't work on everything to start. Pick a few like blow by and one dribble pull ups. Definitely don't invest time on step backs before players master basic attacks. 

Box drills. Master footwork with drive or shoot off the catch. 


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Thursday, December 19, 2024

Bell-wether, Belichick Principles

Steal ideas wherever you can. Tara Sullivan profiles the Belichick to North Carolina story in Sunday's Boston Globe.

Her observations play across a variety of sports. Here are excerpts:

▪ Do your job, a mantra he lived by, reminds players to focus on their own responsibility and not be caught up with what others are doing.

▪ Put the team above yourself.

▪ Collaborate. Teamwork comes first. 

▪ Pay attention to details and be prepared in everything. 

▪ Find and attack your opponents’ weaknesses, something Belichick made a career out of in the NFL.

▪ Be flexible in your game-planning.

▪ Impact young men by teaching discipline and structure.

These principle work across sports from high school to pro sports. Certainly these elements apply to 

creating players and teams with competence and character. 

Lagniappe. How do you measure character and competence? 

Lagniappe 2. Developing finishing skills around the room. 

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Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Basketball - Details

Think about important games you've seen, played, or coached where inattention to details changed outcomes.

The Chris Webber timeout (1993). Who tracks timeouts on your team? 

Transition defense. Do you send two or three to the offensive boards? Do other players understand their role in stopping the ball, slowing the offense, protecting the basket? 

Missed assignments. How many times have you seen an open player and two defenders looking at each other? 

Forcing weak? We lost a game in high school when we forced a player to their strong hand, another form of missed assignment. 

Delay game/situational basketball. A team lost a sectional championship, leading by one with 13 seconds left, 12 on the shot clock, when a player inexplicably took a jump shot. Everyone was not on the same page. 

Auerbach's worst loss. As a high school coach with a one-point lead, his inbounder threw an inbounds pass turnover, a behind-the-back pass. 

Never allow a score off a tap play. Sure, people will make open perimeter shots. But layups? It's a pet peeve. We used to score off this "lonesome end" play. 

Make timeouts count (1). Have one or two points of emphasis. We've all seen games lost coming out of a timeout.

Make timeouts count (2). Dean Smith tried to save three timeouts for the final four minutes. If it's good enough for him... 

Constantly apply pressure. Assert a mentality of scoring off BOBs and SLOBs. Yes, ball entry safely is the first priority. Don Kelbick says, "think shot first." Think "attack."  

Lagniappe. Find ultra-committed guys. 

Lagniappe 2. Optionality. 

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Write Better - Coaches Are Educators

Coaches are educators. The sooner we read and write better, the longer our chance to share quality. Prioritize excellence. Try these pearls from Gary Provost including his first chapter outline and a paragraph about vocabulary. 

Hi – I'm reading "100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Updated): Proven Professional Techniques for Writing with Style and Power" by Gary Provost and wanted to share this quote with you.

NINE WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR WRITING WHEN YOU’RE NOT WRITING 

1. Get Some Reference Books 

2. Expand Your Vocabulary 

3. Improve Your Spelling 

4. Read 

5. Take a Class 

6. Eavesdrop 

7. Research 

8. Write in Your Head 

9. Choose a Time and Place

"The only way to make your vocabulary more accessible is to use it. If you want all those short but interesting words waiting at the front of your brain when you need them, you must move them to the front of your brain before you need them." - from 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing 

You're all in on better volleyball. Fantastic! Pledge to invest time and effort in communication - written, verbal, and nonverbal. 

Want more ideas? 

  • Write a fast first draft and then revise. Writing is rewriting. 
  • Limit jargon if you choose a wide audience. Newbies won't know pin hitting or pipe attacks. 
  • Use strong verbs. Banish adverbs. 
  • Read your writing aloud. If it sounds awkward or pompous, it is. 
  • Experiment. Write in the style of another author, such as Hemingway or Shakespeare. You can also ask AI to do the same as a model. 
  • Get an AI writing critique from ChatGPT. 
Maybe you like volleyball better than writing. Over the long haul, writing well serves you well, just as serving well will help your volleyball. 

How you do anything is how you do everything. 
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Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Basketball: Fix You


Coaches try to "fix you." Many ways that works and many ways that it doesn't. 

"You have to want to be fixed." Commitment, coachability, desire all count.

Coaches and players need shared vision. "This is what good basketball looks like." That is what we must do to approach that. 

Coach Knight wrote, "The Power of Negative Thinking," because he knew that "basketball is a game of mistakes." A critical mass of mistakes - bad shots, missed assignments, turnovers, fouls - sinks the most well-meaning team. 

"Have the grace to forgive yourself." Even the most conscientious, diligent coaches and teams have "rough patches." Expecting consistency from young players with limited experience is a "fool's errand." The wrong message or the wrong tone can lead to a death spiral of team. "Never be a child's last coach." 

"Do the work." Progress is not linear. There are stops and starts and plateaus where nothing much seems to be happening. But it is. Celebrate small victories on the path to progress. Positivity is fuel. 

Players cannot be fixed unless they want to be fixed. Give and get feedback and keep communications open. 

Lagniappe. Teach spacing and energy. 


Lagniappe 2. Basketball is a game of advantage and execution. 

Lagniappe 3. There's a video of PP out with his wife where he sees a kid on a playground and goes over to play with the kid, one-on-one, NBA guy versus a young teen. Pure joy. 

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Monday, December 16, 2024

Basketball - Avoiding Stupidity

Charlie Munger, Berkshire co-founder, championed common sense such as 'avoiding stupidity'. He argued: 

"It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent."

This is reminiscent of Knight favoring "the power of negative thinking." Bad decisions, physical and mental, inhabit the core of bad basketball. 

Create a short list of avoiding stupidity and teach relentlessly. Green offense, red defense, yellow effort

1) No forced shots

2) No "shot turnovers"

3) Reduce turnovers, "zero percent possessions."

4) Stop retaliation fouls, e.g. fouls after a bad play or opponent success. Don't double down on bad decisions. 

5) Never foul a perimeter shooter, especially three-pointers.

6) Never miss an assignment. Coaches hate hearing, "my bad." 

7) No "dead man's defense," six feet under the ball. Defense starts with ball pressure. 

8) The ball scores. Don't watch a teammate get beat without help. 

9) Don't get consistently beaten in transition. It's about recognition, conversion, and effort. 

10)Don't ball watch allowing rebounds and loose balls to go uncontested.

These are only some of the "low hanging fruit" that separates contenders from failure. 

Lagniappe. Urban Meyer championed E + R = O (event plus response = outcome). Respond better. 

Lagniappe 2. Chris Oliver shares a counter of Zoom Action. 

Lagniappe 3. No worries. Players don't invest enough time concerned about what can go wrong when it's allowed. Have conversations about what we must do and what we must not do. 

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Sunday, December 15, 2024

Basketball - Belief Updating and Decision Making

"It's what you learn after you know everything that matters." 

Decision-makers come with a set of beliefs, fixed or changeable, surrounded by a maelstrom of ideas - supportive and conflicting. How do decision-makers improve by sticking with the 'good', adding 'better', and rejecting what doesn't work?

That's the science and system of "belief updating." This 'feels' like a good starting place for AI. I prompted ChatGPT to provide an overview on belief updating.

Introduction to Belief Updating

Belief updating is the process of revising one’s beliefs or opinions in response to new evidence, insights, or perspectives. At its core, it is a method for maintaining intellectual flexibility and ensuring decisions are grounded in the best available information rather than in preexisting biases or assumptions.

Why Belief Updating Matters

  1. Combats Confirmation Bias: Humans naturally favor information that supports their existing beliefs. Belief updating challenges this tendency by encouraging openness to evidence that contradicts preconceptions.
  2. Improves Decision-Making: Decisions are only as sound as the information that supports them. Updating beliefs ensures choices align with reality, not outdated or incomplete ideas.
  3. Encourages Growth: By regularly refining beliefs, individuals evolve intellectually and adapt to new circumstances.

Key Elements of Belief Updating

  1. Recognize the Baseline: Start by identifying your current belief and the reasons supporting it. This provides clarity about what you think and why.
  2. Seek New Evidence: Proactively search for data or arguments, especially those that challenge your current belief. This step minimizes the risk of confirmation bias.
  3. Evaluate Evidence Objectively: Assess the credibility, relevance, and significance of new information without emotional attachment to your prior stance.
  4. Adjust Confidence Levels: Instead of thinking in absolutes (e.g., "I’m 100% sure"), belief updating often involves adjusting how strongly you hold a belief based on the weight of new evidence.
  5. Iterate Regularly: Beliefs aren’t static. Continuously reexamine them as circumstances and evidence evolve.

Bayesian Thinking and Belief Updating

Belief updating is central to Bayesian reasoning, a statistical approach that provides a formal framework for incorporating new evidence into prior beliefs. In simple terms:

  • Prior: Start with an initial belief (e.g., "The weather tomorrow will be sunny").
  • Evidence: Encounter new data (e.g., a forecast predicts rain).
  • Posterior: Combine the prior and evidence to form an updated belief (e.g., "It’s more likely to rain tomorrow than I initially thought").

While Bayesian updating can seem abstract, the underlying idea—adjusting beliefs proportionally to the strength of new evidence—can be applied in everyday decision-making.

Practical Applications

  • Personal Growth: Revising long-held opinions when presented with compelling counterarguments fosters intellectual humility.
  • Leadership: Good leaders adapt strategies in response to new information, avoiding rigidity.
  • Conflict Resolution: By updating beliefs in light of shared evidence, disputes can be reframed as collaborative problem-solving.

Belief updating is not about abandoning conviction but about having the courage and discipline to align beliefs with reality. It requires honesty, curiosity, and a willingness to embrace change. In doing so, it unlocks more objective, fair, and effective decision-making.

An initial takeaway: 

  • Our "belief set" is a starting point. 
  • Are we flexible enough to adjust to make better decisions?
  • New evidence surrounds us. How credible is it? 
  • What adjustments belong in our new belief set? 
  • Can we stay open and readjust to even more data? 
Apply this to basketball theory and practice. 

1) Injury management. A player gets a generic pull or sprained ankle. Traditional teaching is RICE - rest, icing, compression, and elevation. Recent experimental data challenges the belief that icing was superior for muscle injury. "A single session of HWI 41 , rather than CWI 11 , improved the recovery of the late-phase rate of force development following EIMD in physically active males. This suggests that in athletic contexts where a rapid force development is a key performance determinant, hot bath should be preferred over cold bath."

A "knowledge gap" exists among treatment options. Cold decreases pain and initial inflammation. Heat increases flexibility and relaxes muscles. 

2) Triple threat or something else? Kelbick's idea of "think shot first" pressures defenders. Open on the catch and 'stampede' attack on the catch both have merit.  

3) What's the best offense? At one point, thanks to Michael and Kobe, people believed the Triangle Offense was best as it won something like 11 of 24 titles. Was it the offense or the superstars? Someone tries to sell the Princeton Offense everyday online. It's the Bitcoin of offense. Because the Celtics won a championship, should everyone run spread (five out)? Of course not. 


Be open to learning and updating our beliefs. 

Lagniappe. "Orbit" 

Lagniappe 2. Results.  

Lagniappe 3. Take advantage of ball-u-man. 

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Saturday, December 14, 2024

Basketball - Reality Check on 35 Points

Friday night in Massachusetts, fifty high school girls basketball scores were posted in The Boston Globe. 45 of 50 teams won with over 35 points. I'm surprised that it wasn't even higher. Winning with 26 points in a 'shot clock state' seldom happens unless the losing team has abysmal offense.  

Winning without offense is like eating soup with a fork. What derails offense? 

For practical purposes, start with the Four Factors of Dean Oliver: SPCA

1) Shoot well

2) Protect the ball 

3) Crash the boards

4) Attack the basket

I watched the first quarter of a game that went poorly. Applying the above, here's part of the analysis:

1) Shooting. The team scored one two point basket.

2) Turnovers. The team had 13 turnovers, over half the possessions. 

3) Rebounding. The team got outrebounded at both ends. Successful teams almost always get over 75 percent of the defensive rebounds. Defensive rebounding is positioning and toughness. Offensive rebound is anticipation and aggressiveness. 

4) Free throws. The team took two free throws, making one. 

Another way to analyze is via individual possessions. Apologies for regressing to the early 1970s. What destroyed individual possessions? Problems posed without possible solutions seems so political. 

"Dribbling the air out of the ball." When all you hear at a game is the ball bouncing, it's a bad game. "You don't get paid by the bounce." Practice halfcourt 4 on 4, no dribbling. Pass and cut or turnover the ball on five second calls. This teaches players to move without the ball and to set off ball screens. 5 versus 7 full court is even better because of the "advantage-disadvantage." 

"Paint touches" Paint touches imply dribble and pass penetration. Kirby Scheff has documented the points per possession value of a combination of paint touches and ball reversal. "Movement kills defense." Paint touches and ball reversal force defensive movement and long closeouts. Long closeouts provide option to attack the basket and catch defenses in help and recover situations. When scrimmaging, have sessions where you disallow shooting until there's been a paint touch and ball reversal. 

"Standing around." There's a saying, "if you stand around, then you'll sit next to me." Cut urgently. Make passes on time and target. Scrimmage with 0.5 second decision-making with a pass and cut mindset. 

"Turnovers." Zak Boisvert divides turnovers among decisions and execution. 

My impression was that bad passes and 'fumbles' were the biggest culprits. Practice passing with weighted basketballs mixed with regular balls with a passer and catching line. You learn to catch the ball and pass quickly or duck.

Bad spacing. Bad spacing shows up on both offense and defense. Teams that are overwhelmingly right-handed also violate space, especially when running offense from the sideline. Teams that don't load to the ball and drop to the level of the ball don't 'shrink' space. Your coach taught that boundary lines are extra defenders, right? 

"Be hard to defend." Hard-to-defend actions include pass-and-cut (give and go), urgent cutting (back door cuts), simple and complex screening (e.g. Iverson action, screen-the-screener, Spain action, etc.). Some teams might try Zoom action (downscreen into DHO). Emphasize spacing with whatever spacing you prefer (five-out, horns, four-out one-in, two guard fronts). I favor small-sided games (e.g. 3-on-3) with no crossing the midline. 

Player development. How much of practice should be devoted to individual and small-sided offense (shooting, pick-and-roll, individual basket attack)? As much as you need. "We can't run what we can't run" and teams seldom win scoring in the 30s or below. 

Elevate individual player offense. 

Lagniappe. "The magic is in the work." 

Lagniappe 2. Did we have bad workouts? Of course. 





 

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Excellence Takes Time

Society needs more voices from strong women. 

Excellence is hard. Grueling. Your parents work hard every day to create opportunities for you. There's no guarantee. And you have no 'manual' for excellence.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says, "you can't skip steps." Keep grinding day after day and eventually results come.

Be process-focused. Student-athletes do what they don't want to do today to achieve so they can do what they want in the future. 

Some of you work out with a teammate. You don't need a gym to work on your footwork, your athleticism, your resilience. 

Coach Lawson preaches competence. Moreover, great student-athletes thrive on competence and character. Character shows up as attitude, commitment, determination, energy, persistence, teamwork. 

"Greatness stays with a man." The foundation you build today stays with you. 

  

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Friday, December 13, 2024

Basketball - Self-Correction, Notes from a Podcast

Tuesday is try something different day...podcast application...

Rethinking with Adam Grant and Malcolm Gladwell (TED podcast)...this is a change of pace to encourage thinking out of the box. Derive value from discussions with other viewpoints. 

"The fastest way to make something go away is to say, 'I was wrong'," says Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell has written, "Revenge of the Tipping Point." "Yes, I was wrong." (Have the courage to admit to the team that I was wrong).

"You made me rethink 'nonfiction sequels' - Adam Grant

Gladwell didn't see how to revise the original "Tipping Point" without a rewrite. (What basketball topics need rethinking?)

Epidemiologists NEED to look for problems. (Epidemiology is the study of health and disease in populations). 

Strategic optimists see themselves succeeding and study hard. (Why do anything if we don't believe we can succeed?)

Grant says, "there is too little grading," from his diving training. Feedback allows for correction. 

Gladwell says the only time to send out work for evaluation is when it is unformed. He admired his father's willingness to change his mind. 

Gladwell got critiqued on his chapter in The Tipping Point on New York crime and Bernie Goetz. He realized that he had been uneven in not evaluating both parties. (Think about issues from both sides of the argument to evaluate better.)

There was a school with a high suicide rate. Why? A monoculture where there was a singular group of success, academic, athletic, etc. If you didn't belong, there was no home for you. We need a home. Schools with jocks, nerds, punks, goths, etc. had many 'homes' for students. A strong culture "had a dark side with that uniformity" said Grant. (Culture matters for social animals). 

"Diversity is a matter of numbers," says Gladwell. Have enough diversity and it impacts culture. "Symbolic representation is almost as bad as none."

Gladwell got some things 'so wrong' that he went to debate school to improve. (As coaches, we've all been there.)

"Apologies are good for failure of competence but NOT for failures of character," Grant about an article from Peter Kim. (I think character and competence are solid themes to build a team around). 

"I am so afraid of failing that I take that issue off the table," by self-sabotage Gladwell shared. 

Gladwell promoted sports because it 'requires daily investment' and prevents self-handicapping. You can't drink if you want to run cross-country. "Athletics are essential...but you don't have to be good at it." Value comes from discipline, teamwork, fitness...even if you're not skilled. 

Grant says, "success does come from being good at a domain where others aren't." 

Gladwell says you can learn grit and resourcefulness without being good. "I realized the beauty of mediocrity," as an older average runner instead of a Canadian champion. 

Gladwell says he writes to encourage people to think in different ways. He believes in 'receiver culture'. (Great advancements can occur when someone sees a deficit and a solution.)

"Would you accept a place in a society if you knew nothing about it?" Rawlsian... would you want to be coached by _____ ? John Rawls wrote, "The Theory of Justice." 

"The most complaining about society takes place by the most affluent (relative to the least affluent)..." We might think about the Alabamas, Georgias, and Clemsons. Gladwell can't fathom this. If you have a billion dollars and can't stand your neighbor, move. It's the "asymmetry of complaint problem."

Grant, "how does a high achiever disidentify with success?" Gladwell says that is a central question of aging. We need more worlds...a diverse set of values and goals. 

Grant, "what's something you'll never change your mind about?" (Find players who care as much about success as you do). 

Lagniappe. Communication isn't always yelling. 

Lagniappe 2. Sell the fake. 

Lagniappe 3. There is always a price to be paid.  

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Thursday, December 12, 2024

"Don't Get Drunk on the Boxscore"

Players 'show up' in different ways that don't ink 'the book'. 

  • Play great defense with ball containment and denial 
  • Contest shots
  • Block out 
  • Fight for loose balls 
  • Take charges 
  • Set great screens 
  • Talk on D
  • Get in the passing lanes 
  • Space the floor
  • Balance the floor 
Impact winning. Everyone wants 'numbers'. Who doesn't like seeing more on the box score?

At the end of the day, players decide what matters most, the scoreboard or the scorebook. 

What kind of player do you want to be? 

Lagniappe. Horns.  

Lagniappe 2. Learning to work. 

Lagniappe. Play off two feet when possible.  

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Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Basketball - Copycats

"Better ingredients, better pizza." - Papa John slogan

Sports tend to function as 'copycats'. A team like Golden State flourished with a superstar triad, innovative coach in Steve Kerr, and volume three point shooting.

The NBA has evolved with both rules changes and the application of analytics, e.g. the Four Factors. 

The Celtics got over the hump with a pair of top 15 level players in Tatum and Brown, and complementary 'top 35ish' talent in Porzingis, Holliday, and White. Better talent, better basketball. 

From Statmuse

The 2024-2025 Celtics take more than 20 percent more threes than most NBA teams and are third in NBA scoring behind Cleveland and Memphis. 

That doesn't mean that "our" team should copy that unless we have the shooters to create high effective field goal percentages. 

NBA top five effective field goal percentage from Statmuse


Effective volume of threes works well combined with low turnover percentage as the Celtics had the second lowest TOV%. 

Watch a high school varsity game and chart three point and turnover percentages. Poor teams blend low perimeter shooting with high turnover rates making winning almost impossible. It's a combination of poor offensive discipline and execution in two key areas.

The great Pete Newell said, "most copies are poor reproductions of the original." For that reason, using artificial intelligence to design your offense using NBA statistics is flawed. 

I follow the American University women's program where I have a former player. "American University's women's basketball team currently ranks lower in both three-point shooting and turnover efficiency compared to most Division I teams. Their three-point shooting percentage is approximately 26.4%, placing them near the bottom of Division I rankings," most recently at 290th. 

Key points:

  • A copycat approach has to be an effective copy of success. 
  • It takes a lot to assemble a "reasonable facsimile" of excellence.
  • "Most copies are poor reproductions of the original."
  • Applying statistics from elite basketball to lower levels is flawed. 
  • Tracking discipline and execution allows you to trend success and struggles. 

​Lagniappe. Attacking the front foot... 

Lagniappe 2. Create space with athleticism and technique.  





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Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Winning Basketball - The Genius of Munger

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway partner Charlie Munger shared the secret to their long-term success:

"It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent."

Apply that to our basketball coaching. Today. 

1. "Every day is player development day." The daily one percent improvement yields a 37-fold improvement over a year. Commit to the fundamentals every day with efficiency, volume, and competition. If you can't teach skill development, then get help. 

2. "The quickest path to improvement is better shot selection." Bad players and bad teams take bad shots. One year our shooting percentage was 20% better just by tracking and sharing the data with players. Fewer "$#7t shots" and "shot turnovers." I saw a high school team score three points in a quarter last season with 19 possessions, ten turnovers, and 1 for 9 shooting. 

3. "The ball is gold." Value the ball. Take care of the ball. Stop throwing away the ball. Another game I saw a high school team commit over forty turnovers in one game. "You get what you accept." Do the math. If you have sixty possessions and waste twenty, then you have forty potential scoring possessions. Most high school teams aren't shooting fifty percent, so, even at forty percent you'll score in the thirties. That loses almost all the time. 

4. "Stop fouling." Lack of technique, discipline, and sometimes smarts results in bad fouls, retaliation fouls, fouling perimeter shots...including threes. Why turn thirty percent shooters into sixty or seventy percent (free throws) shooters? 

5. Make free throws. I saw another high school team lose by one while going 22/45 from the free throw line. Coach broke up practice with four rounds of ten with the winner for the day facing him for the right not to run sprints. 

6. Handle pressure. Bad teams can neither apply nor withstand pressure. My favorite 'pressure' practice is 5 versus 7 full court, no dribble. It mandates proficiency in passing and cutting. Teams that break pressure can punish opponents with 'numbers'... 3 on 2s, 2 on 1s. 

7. Condition with the ball. There are plenty of excellent drills that condition while building skill. Condition within drills and scrimmaging. Are we coaching basketball or cross-country? 

8. Manage tempo. Shorten the game by playing slower with a lead and lengthen it by playing faster. Obviously, a combination of lesser talent and faster play is tough. 

9. Never give players excuses to lose. Competition becomes a habit. I'm not coaching NIL players who are counting checks not GPA. Create a culture of competition in every drill, every scrimmage, every sprint. I've coached multiple players who were both outstanding players and exceptional students (high school valedictorians). Model and expect excellence. 

10.Win special situations. When the game is on the line in the last few minutes, have actions that create high scoring chances in BOBs, SLOBs, ATOs. It drives me a little crazy to see teams not exerting pressure on the defense. Have at least two of each (special situations and 'go to' actions against man and zone defense) on your play sheet. 

Lagniappe. Courage balances recklessness and fear. 

Lagniappe 2. One of the reasons players migrate from basketball to volleyball is this reality. It's a collision sport. 

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Monday, December 9, 2024

So You Want to Coach Girls' Basketball?

Become a storyteller. Consider the Heath Brothers' (Made to Stick) model of SUCCESs - simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, stories. Memorable stories may contain humor, pathos, or lessons. 

'Good kids' make bad mistakes like bullying. One had it in for a teammate and the coaches would have none of it. One cited classic Maya Angelou: 


The girls had taken a pounding without physical or mental toughness. The head coach was too upset to address the team. He asked me. "That was an unacceptable failure to respond. How you play reflects how you live." Almost a year later a player told me, "that how you play is how you live stuff really got to me." Sometimes they listen. 

Before tryouts, I'd sit each group on the baseline and ask for a volunteer. Some hands would fly. Then, I'd say, "That's not good enough. When a coach says, I need a volunteer, be up when you hear 'vol'." Be memorable.

The 7th graders had made the playoffs and got seeded up into the top group against a top seed. The opponents had a trio of near six-foot players. "It's cute how the moms are wearing the uniforms." The kids played hard, losing by nine against the 'triple towers'. I couldn't have been prouder because of their effort and resilience. Playing the right way won't always win.  

The 6th grader girls had a couple of practices and we got an invitation to scrimmage against another team. They croaked us with give-and-go, backdoor cuts, and better finishing, fifty-something to fifteen. The next year we had a few new players, a lot more experience, and got invited back. The girls played tougher, never quit and hit a three at the buzzer to win 45-42. We didn't get invited back. Losses bring lessons.

We won a Saturday road game by three over a bitter rival and had a rematch at home the next day. Our best player was absent at a family event. Before the game, I asked the girls for "one more." "Get one more rebound, one more defensive stop each and we'll be fine." We won another close game because they delivered. When you want more, ask for more.

Our top player got hurt preseason with season-ending knee surgery. She came to almost every practice with her composition notebook, taking copious notes, learning the game. In high school, she transferred to a private school, winning a pair of state titles and earned a D1 scholarship. Get the most out of practice and get in your notebook. 

On the road, I wanted to start aggressively with a full court defense. The opponents were quicker and better and went up 6-0 within a minute. An official looked to me and yes, I took a timeout. We trailed by twelve early and although we closed to within six late, we lost. I apologized to the team after the game. "The loss is on me. I put us in a hole. I'm sorry." Don't be in a rush when you don't know the landscape. Be accountable and take ownership. 

Love our losses; losses bring lessons. 

Lagniappe. "What did we learn?" 

Lagniappe 2. Watch video and learn.  

Lagniappe 3. Practice your handles with purpose...from Drew Hanlen. 

 

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Sunday, December 8, 2024

Basketball- Nobody’s Coming to Watch Us Coach

We all know this coach. 

Brad Stevens isn’t coming to watch your middle school team looking for NBA or G League coaches. So you’re 20-0 beating 11 year-olds with zone traps and a short rotation. BFD.

You think your recruited point guard and big run the PnR like Stockton and Malone. Send your application to MENSA. 

You alternate 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones looking to trap the worst guard on your opposition. You won your last game 66 to 6. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee is considering your nomination. 

How are your graduates doing in high school and beyond? What was the experience for your players? What did they learn about sportsmanship? 

  • Teach young players to play basketball over running plays. 
  • Your short rotation and eight hours of practice per week will beat our team with thirteen players and three hours of practice. Every time. 
  • Screaming at the officials because you didn't get every call is embarrassing. 
  • Pressing up thirty points is also disturbing.
  • Running up the score "because you can" against the bottom of our roster must feel so gratifying. 
Make the team and player experience positive. Add value in developing players and modeling excellence in teaching, behavior, and sportsmanship. 

But you weren't the guy who put starters back in with three minutes left against our subs so you could win by 25 instead of 15. And you weren't the guy with three six-foot girls in 7th grade who said, "we would have beaten you if we made any shots." And you didn't get tossed in the first 45 seconds screaming at the refs when the score was 0-0 and nothing had really happened. Or you weren't the coach who knocked out four of our seventh graders with injury playing 'gorilla basketball' even though you still lost. 

Don't be the guy who humiliates himself thinking he has humiliated the other team. 

Lagniappe. Learn the reads. 

Lagniappe 2. Practical magic with advantage... 


 


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