Fast Five: Knight Stalker

Model excellence. Beg, borrow, or steal it. Respect greatness and learn from it and Bob Knight belongs among the Great Ones. People got hung up on Coach Knight's demeanor and not his ability to teach and coach. They also forget the tens of millions of dollars he raised for Indiana University. It's never as simple as scarlet and white.

1. Just because I want you on the floor doesn't mean I want you to shoot. But you absolutely need to know "how to play" and that starts offensively with spacing.
2. Read screens.
3. Force movement with half-court four on four without dribbling.
4. Basketball is a game of mistakes. Bring the pressure with advantage disadvantage situations. But players have to listen and be able to execute. I've done this and...it's frightening. Was I speaking Urdu? "Get them to concentrate on what we want done."
5. Shooters shoot, passers pass, and everyone plays defense. We run this drill regularly and it's not pretty...because it's critical for players to set up cuts and wait.

NBA teams were sometimes reluctant to draft Knight's players because they were already so well-coached, some felt they couldn't improve more. We can always improve.