Fast Five: Don Showalter, USA Basketball

I wouldn't know him if he were in my living room. That's my loss. All he does is win. 

Don Showalter coaches the USA Basketball U17 Men's Basketball Team. He was the USOC 2012 Volunteer Coach of the Year. According to the USA Basketball site, his U16 and U17 teams are a perfect 38-0 and he sports seven gold medals. He was the National High School Coach of the Year and an Iowa Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year ten times. 

What makes him tick? 

Here are some dimensions he espouses:

Proof of playing hard: getting 50-50 balls, deflections, rebounds, charges, and communicating (NOTE: none of these are about skill) 

Beat the Zone (common in international basketball...and everywhere now).

Simulate the game. Wes Kozel shares a Showalter drill. Click through...

Run the floor. The U17 team averaged over 100 points a game this year. 

Up and back is logical with three lines. 

Continuous action, full court jumpshots. Goal to make 15 in a minute. 

Get stops in transition. Tandem defense, force to a side, stop the ball with back defender alert to the pass.

Offensive awareness to open the preferred 'shooter', with automatic options of pull up jumper, touch pass to weak side, or upfake and drive off the catch if defense closes out too aggressively.