Basketball: URGENCY Gets More Minutes

Urgency is now. What does URGENCY mean to you? Intense within the moment. 

1. Kevin Durant wakes asking, "how do I improve today?"
2. Don Meyer lived, "do the next right thing right now." 
3. Everyone knows, "it's never the right time to do the wrong thing."
4. Urgency asks, "what does our team need now?"  

Nobody want to do the wrong thing - jogging back in transition, cheating the drill, taking bad shots, not cutting hard, not studying. But unless you play "possession by possession basketball," you lack urgency. If you want more minutes, play smart with urgency. 

Urgency chops wood and carries water. Urgency invests the time. 

Urgency transforms know that into know how. 


Urgency is now. Fully engage now. Prepare for now. Make it happen now...in the classroom and on the court. 

Legacy means nothing without the urgency of now. Legacy sums tens of thousands of nows. 

Procrastination comes from the Latin pro (for) and cras (tomorrow). 
Procrastination inverts and subverts urgency. 

What does sense of urgency mean to you?  


Lagniappe 1: Gordon Chiesa on perimeter decisions

The perimeter positions are decision making locations. The essentials 4 success are 1) talent 2) smartness 3) ball respect 4) dribble savviness 5) roving eyes. These competitors are intersecting skills, optics and timing.

— Gordon Chiesa (@gchiesaohmy) January 30, 2020

We need ball reversal without turnovers! 

Lagniappe 2: Horns Seal and Flex actions

The Kings look for the cut and seal first before continuing into flex. 

Lagniappe 3: Overloading is a standard approach for attacking zone defenses. 

Basketball: Unpacking Our Best Day - Belonging, Believing, Becoming

"We make our habits and our habits make us." 

What would our best day look like? What elements belong and are optional? How can we get there? And then what? 

Our best day brackets our impact on others and personal growth (revisit PERMA - above).  "Share something great." 

Coaching affords us a way to do something for others and for ourselves. Writing shares our perspective and scaffolds a platform to give and to get feedback. 

Coaches work on the upper 60 percent of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - belonging, believing, and becoming. Invest authentic praise on players, "I believe in you." Adolescence is hard; lift the burdens, don't add them. 

Essential. Winning the morning gives us a shot at winning the day. MasterClass, blogging, and study (continuing education) are three helpful starters. Aspire to inspire. Energize. We're obligated to energize practice, even when we're not at our best. Energy is contagious. Finish each day with gratitude (I fall short on this). 

Desirable. Exercise, mindfulness, and contemplation add depth to our daily mix. Do we teach restraint and live excess? Do we preach justice and live as dictator? Is our version of transparency something else? 

Build better habits by being specific. Opening my laptop in the morning triggers MasterClass study. 

And then what? Tracking. "Winners are trackers." Anson Dorrance (UNC Soccer) and Kirby Schepp (Manitoba basketball) run highly competitive practice tracking everything. Schepp even awards recognition for the best practice player each season. 

We'll never be perfect and that doesn't mean winning every game. Helping players to belong, believe, and become matters. 

Lagniappe: Does a strong team have to compromise on academics? Swarthmore says no. 



Lagniappe 2: Ball reversal. 

Last night we worked on ball reversal. We underutilize the whole court. Offense must complete at least three passes and ball reversal before shooting. 

Basketball: Don't Drink from a Firehose

Keywords: #PERMA, empathy, listening, process, #UnrequiredWork

A firehose of information barrages us every day. Even more comes at our students from their classes, classmates, families, and the Internet. 

Filter that into a manageable drink. What "bottom line" content and context belongs in our message?  

Learn positivity (self-talk). We control our responses to outside influences. According to Martin Seligman, positivity is a key component of well-being, along with engagement, relationships, meaning and purpose, and accomplishment (PERMA). We can orient ourselves towards happiness using mindfulness and gratitude. I remind myself with a pair of initials "PD" from Jon Gordon's Positive Dog. 

Empathize. Put yourself in the position of other team members. That frames the relevance of team defense, "helping teammates" on offense, and remembering Bilas' advice, "It's not your shot, it's our shot." 

Listen. Listening is a prerequisite for learning. Openness allows us to assess new concepts.




In our 3 on 3 work, learn multiple options as illustrated in this Oregon ball screen series. Pay attention to the details, the exquisite footwork, including not only 'typical' pick-and-roll actions but rejecting the screen and slipping. 

The screenshot shows the drive-and-kick possibilities seen by Sabrina Ionescu. 

Figure out your process. Plan your practices from your "drill book" or even a cheat sheet. 

Essentials for us include 5 versus 7 (pressure), Form shooting, 30 buckets (volume shooting competition), box drills, and 3 on 3 (inside the split)...small-side-games learning how to play offense. 

Do extra. Chase excellence with UNREQUIRED WORK. Work on your body, skill, and game understanding. As a player, can you jump rope for 5 minutes daily? Are you tracking your free throw percentage? Do you watch game film? 

Lagniappe: Kirby Schepp drills "teach them how to play" 

Use a confined space to practice cutting and passing. In the next iteration, add screening. Make them uncomfortable to help them succeed. 

Lagniappe 2: Fail fast and overcome failure. For us to succeed, reduce turnovers, improve shot quality, and disallow easy baskets (prioritize layups and transition). 

Basketball: Your Basketball Influences Are Endless Possibility

We are knowledge workers (says the guy who shows Beverly Hillbillies video). 

Our basketball vision evolves over a lifetime. Coaching, practice and play, camps, clinics, reading, and film study navigate the basketball waters. Learning across disciplines also permeates our basketball ethos (character), logos (logic), and pathos (emotion). 

Scorsese discusses how camera angles, lighting, character introduction, and other factors affected his career. He discusses Brando's appearance in Zapata as especially powerful.

As we appreciate the expanse of basketball, we understand the breadth of our ignorance. 

Ron Jaworski wrote a book about seven football games that changed the game. Is there anything similar in basketball? Moreover, what shapes our overarching vision?

Coaching. I should have seen this coming. Our first group has stopped the opposition on their first few possessions; opponents have a BOB. 

I've seen the Cavs run something similar for Kevin Love. Of course, Love doesn't bank it in from the top. What could we do differently? A lot, 1) Pressure the ball to make the pass tougher or 2) bring a guard behind the screen. No way to fight through. 

Practice and Play. We were not ready for a trapping 1-3-1 zone against a physical team with size. Because we haven't played zone (except initial defense on BOBs), our zone offense is erratic. So, we're now practicing zone amidst three hours of weekly practice. 

Protect the blocks and elbows. Contain penetration. Consider trapping the wings/corners if we have the personnel to do so. 

x3 in so-called "cheat" position prepared to bother wing before the "bump down" to the low position. 

x2 protects the near-side elbow and x5 has the near-side block.

x4 must be a strong defensive rebounder. 

And every minute we "spend" on practicing zone defense/offense steals from the "investment" of individual skill development (especially shooting). Cognitive dissonance beats us every day. 



When we move the ball quickly, quality shots follow. Notice how the zone defense aggressively loads to the ball. 

Camps. Time and money families can invest in camps is intensely personal. Camps are expensive. Coaching from different perspectives adds to a player's development. 



Search the Internet and find superior coaching from elite camps. Free! 

Clinics. It's the same deal with clinics. The Internet shares an array of global knowledge. Find topics to broaden our horizons. 


"Can they do it with their left hand, their right hand, with contact, and make a decision?" - Kirby Schepp

Reading. It's personal. Is basketball important to our players? There are costs for knowledge workers...paying attention and investing time. There are many great basketball books, educators, and basketball sites. When people provide great content, they should recoup their time with fees. But there's plenty of great free stuff. 

Film study. I learn by watching our team on film. "Experience is the best teacher, but sometimes the tuition is high." 

During a 90 second span early in the game, we went from leading 6-5 to down 12-6. A lost angle on a drive turned into a three-point play, and a pair of turnovers against the press, combined with one player losing her assignment dug us a hole. In retrospect, it wasn't superior opposition during that spell, just poor execution. Bad habits (throwing long against pressure) over a short period hurt us. 

But our players are stressed by academic competition, other activities, and pressures of early adolescence. If I have a choice between having them love basketball and love learning and each other, I can live with the latter. 

Lagniappe: "Great offense is multiple actions." These include spacing, passing, cutting, and screening. Chris Oliver illustrates this perfectly. 

Zone attacks are best designed by reverse engineering how you would expect a zone to defend certain actions. This play takes advantage of zone coverage responsibilities to create a 2-on-1 advantage at the rim. Check out more zone quick hitters here https://t.co/kCl5IMhbMT pic.twitter.com/GBkHuMSIwm

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) January 28, 2020

Players kept disappearing from practice last night. Everybody can't need to use the bathroom, right? 

Basketball: "The Great Mental Models" and Lessons from a Screenshot

Think better. We all want to. What's the pathway? Here are some quotes from Shane Parris' book, The Great Mental Models. 

"The quality of your thinking depends on the models that are in your head." Remember INVERSION from Carl Jacobi. Opposite George from Seinfeld.

"We...tend to undervalue the elementary ideas and overvalue the complicated ones." Fall in love with easy. 

"Understanding only becomes useful when we adjust our behavior..." Education changes behavior. 

"There is no shortcut to understanding. Building a circle of competence takes years of experience, of making mistakes, and of actively seeking out better methods of practice and thought."

"It takes courage to solicit external feedback." Everyone benefits from coaching. I recently shared how Atul Gawande hired another surgeon to oversee his work. 

"Why do I think this? What exactly do I think? How do I know this is true? How can I back this up? How do I know I am correct? What if I am wrong? 

"To improve something, we need to understand why it is successful or not."

"The genie never gets back in the bottle. You can never delete consequences to arrive at the original starting condition." 

"Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results." - Margaret Atwood  Build better process. 

"Arguments are more effective when we demonstrate that we have considered the second-order effects." (What can go wrong?)

"We must ask ourselves the critical question: And then what?" 

"In a fat-tailed curve there is no real cap on extreme events." UMBC beats UVA. 

"No one likes to fail...But failure carries with it one huge antifragile gift: learning."

"Avoiding stupidity is easier than seeking brilliance." 

"He wins his battles by making no mistakes." - Sun Tzu  A game of mistakes...

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." - Carl Sagan

"I need to listen well so that I hear what is not said." - Thuli Madonsela

Coaching transforms the possible into reality. 

Lagniappe: DME (Defensive mistakes and errors)

Screenshot of a recent high school game with the ball in one corner. The purpose is solely for illustration. Coaches notice:

- Ball pressure, defensive position, and stance
- The post defender is playing behind the post. Is this by design versus 3/4 or fronting? 
- Are helpside defenders (e.g. Helpside I) engaged (vision, decision, execution)?

After post entry, she takes a dribble to the middle and then makes an excellent front pivot off the left foot for a layup. She makes a statement about how future post defense should deny easy entry. 

This BOB had potential but the pass got entered to the 2. 

Lagniappe 3. "Love your losses." Our team fell behind by 20 in the first half to a superior team...but did not quit. We closed the deficit to 8 with four minutes left but couldn't get closer. The message was to "raise your game" to match an opponent's skill and intensity. 

Memories

Basketball: Cultivate Character, Toughness, and Resilience in Players

"I value solid popularity-the esteem of good men for good action. I despise the bubble popularity that is won without merit and lost without crime." - Thomas Hart Benton

Inspiring resilience stories forge a path forward. Failure isn't final. 

Kyle Maynard beats congenital amputation every day. He chooses inspiration to defeat impairment. Learning to dress himself was as difficult as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. 

In Toughness, Jay Bilas crafts a chapter about cancer patients at the Duke Cancer Institute. He tells stories not only about hope but triumph. “I believe the most important thing in any endeavor is hope. You cannot believe it is hopeless, because if you do this, it is.” 

Doris Kearns Goodwin profiles four Presidents who overcame setbacks. Abraham Lincoln suffered severe melancholy throughout his life, yet became perhaps our greatest President. Teddy Roosevelt lost his mother and wife on the same day. FDR experienced a devastating paralysis yet became a beacon of hope for disabled Americans and our only disabled President. Lyndon Johnson suffered a massive heart attack shortly after becoming Senate Majority Leader. He rallied to craft important Civil Rights and social justice legislation for the elderly, poor, undereducated, and sick. 

Viktor Frankl survived. He spent four years at Nazi death camps, developing important theory and practice in Psychiatry. His Man's Search for Meaning is a classic that belongs on everyone's bookshelf. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

In Profiles in Courage, John Kennedy chronicled Thomas Hart Benton, a slaveholding Senator from the border state, Missouri. During a thirty year Senate career, Benton navigated a course between abolitionists and secessionists in favor of preserving the Union. He abhorred the patronage, graft, and favors of Washington. He adopted unpopular positions against the Annexation of Texas and the expansion into Oregon, opposing the expansion of slavery. Mississippi Senator Foote literally pulled a pistol on him during Senate debate, to which he opened his coat saying, "I have no pistol! Let him fire! Let the assassin fire!" Ultimately, the first Senator to serve thirty consecutive years lost his Senate seat because he was unwilling to abandon the Union. "I cannot do anything to dissolve this Union, or to array one-half of it against the other." He ultimately died without wealth, a broken man from cancer, but with principles and loyalty to the Union intact. 

John Maxwell's Failing Forward chronicles a myriad of failures turned into success. He shares a story about almost hitting Arnold Palmer on the golf course. And he reminds us that even iconic players struggle. 

Palmer took a TWELVE on the ninth hole of the Rancho Park golf course. His reward was this "doggone plaque." 


Don Meyer's recruiting trip ended in a catastrophic car crash. Falling asleep while driving, Meyer's recovery was miraculous, but also revealed an internal cancer. The coach with 923 wins earned his greatest victory by returning from both crash and cancer. Meyer's approach was consistent. "He challenged them to be disciplined, to be better, to demand more from themselves and from their teammates, to focus. He challenged them to be tougher, keeping a stash of walnuts -- with their almost impenetrable shells -- in his office to hand out when he wanted to make a point."

Everyone struggles. Everyone fails. Some optimists have the will and the skill to overcome. 

Lagniappe: Do not quit. 




Lagniappe 2: Understand basketball symmetry. Force offenses whenever possible to the corners (help from baseline and sideline). On offense, stay out of the corners (did anybody not see Rocky IV?). 

Forcing to the corners takes away the kicks for 3s.

Basketball and Minutes: Coaches Are Negotiators During Hard Conversations

Keywords: listening, empathy, mirroring, control

"I'm a salesman." - Chuck Daly

Coaches are in sales. Often we are negotiators. We distribute roles, minutes, and praise. Why not expand our tools and improve our skills?  

Former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss teaches Principles of Negotiation in his MasterClass. Here are tips from the MasterClass workbook. Let's use a framework of a player who shows the maturity to come and ask how they can contribute more.

Do all you can to show the other side that you are negotiating in good faith. "Thanks for stopping by, Susie. I'm interested to hear what you have to share." 

Become genuinely interested in what drives the other side. Understand their goals, motivations, wants, and fears. "Coach, I'd like to contribute more. What can I work on in practice and games to add more value to the team?"

Build trust-based influence through the use of tactical empathy; deliberately influence the other side's feelings. Build rapport and mutual understanding. "I appreciate how you work to improve and support your teammates. And I'm thankful that you want to do more. Everyone should want to become more. Let me understand how you see your strengths and areas needing improvement." 

Voss emphasizes that it's not just the message but the tone that matters. An assertive (my way or the highway) approach is "always counterproductive." He also favors approaches that accent positivity and defuse negative emotions. 


Use MIRRORING to get negotiating partners to open up. "I'm not happy with my playing time." Response, "not happy with playing time?" Mirroring can collect information and improve rapport. "She's right, the time you put in is key. Some basketball players put in a lot of extra time during the offseason, in the gym, on other teams. But they don't play the whole game here, correct." "That's right. Nobody plays the whole game here." "And how would it make you feel in soccer if the coach played everyone the same when you're a committed player who puts in the time?" "I wouldn't like it. It wouldn't be fair." 

Work to create an environment that produces the best outcome for both sides. "Use curiosity, deference, empathy, influence, positivity, and rapport to craft the best deal possible." "I understand that you're a strong soccer player. You must play a lot." "I never miss a chance to improve my skills. I work at soccer a lot and get a lot of playing time." (Mirroring) "A lot of playing time?" "I play a real lot. Sometimes I play the whole game." (Mirroring) "The whole game?" "Yes, the coach knows how much time I put in." 

DYNAMIC SILENCE allows the negotiator to hear more from the negotiating partner. In medicine, we sometimes call that FACILITATION. 

CALIBRATED QUESTIONS encourage your partner to see your side. "How am I supposed to do that?" For example, as Susie wants more minutes, asking how that will happen reminds her of the limited number of minutes available. "Tell me how you can get more minutes?" "I have to play better defense and cut down on turnovers."  "I'm happy with your effort. And we track how everyone is doing, based on game film. You have potential and as you have more success, you can earn more time. I believe in you." 

People need to be heard and feel valued. They may not be satisfied with their role. We shouldn't want them to be. But they need our attention and openness to changing situations. 

Lagniappe: Samuel Davies summary of Never Split the Difference shares negotiation insight that you can use today. 

Do you really want to use the word fair?
Labeling shows understanding.
Arrive with our negotiating partner at "that's right." 




Lagniappe 2: TED Talk from Chris Voss discussing negotiation and "Dick Heart's Air." "The bad, the mad, and the sad are everywhere. They're us." 

Lagniappe 3: Xs and Os - Basketball and Realtors ("Relocation, relocation, relocation")

Relocation for drivers can create opportunity for you. 

Basketball: Preparing for Life, from Wooden to Goodwin

"Do your best to project in your mind a successful performance." - Usher 

See yourself unfolding a successful life. Coach Wooden said, "make every day your masterpiece." Share something great with everyone. 

Let ritual rule. Have pre-school, pre-practice, and pre-game habits. Simplify. Your rituals extend throughout your life... mindfulness and gratitude, reading and study, stretching and exercise. Prepare for success.

Cultivate the 'right amount' of activation, neither lethargy nor mania. High performance demands 'optimal' arousal. 

Replace time wasting with productivity. James Clear suggests making time wasting harder...put the television controller in a draw behind a book you're reading. Plan your craft and craft your plan. 

  Alan Stein, Jr.'s podcast with Clear is epic. 

Tend your garden. Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about Lyndon Johnson's affection for senior senators, "he assisted them with committee preparation, provided concise summaries on issues, showed overt and lavish respect...their gratitude couldn't adequately express itself with anything less than total support." Johnson meticulously watered the flowers and reaped the reward by becoming the youngest Senate Majority Leader. 

Be intentional. If ambition drives us, plot a course to reach our destiny. If educating drives us, plan lessons so well that students arrive early for the best seats. 

Be here now. Focus here and now to forge the dream. Time will always be our precious commodity.  

Lagniappe: #Basketball IQ. This Youtube video asks viewers to choose among actions in almost real-time.




Lagniappe 2: Bucks stuff (old but still applicable)

Lagniappe 3: Lincoln Lessons from Doris Kearns Goodwin

- Acknowledge when failed policies demand a change in direction. (Gen. McClellan fails.)
- Gather firsthand information, ask questions. (Lincoln meets the troops.)
- Find time and space in which to think. (He finds retreat at the Soldier's Home.)
- Anticipate contending viewpoints. (His cabinet is the Team of Rivals.)
- Assume full responsibility for a pivotal decision. (Owns the Emancipation Proclamation.) 

Basketball: What Makes Good Teammates?

Samuel L. Jackson in his MasterClass

"I don't want to hire a room killer." - Judd Apatow (Writer, director)

Everyone wants good teammates. But are we willing to be one? What makes a good teammate? Actions define us. 

"Susie" struggled and left the court in tears. "I'm the reason we lost." She wasn't. Bella went to her with a big hug. "We win together and we lose together." That team won a lot; connection forged their success. 

Coach Roy Williams went to scout a player. The player fouled out...and sprinted to the water cooler to get water for his teammates. He didn't sulk; he used the brief intermission being positive. He got a scholarship to Carolina. 

Alan Williams (Teammates Matter) a walk-on at Wake, tried out again before his junior year after a coaching change. When he went to the tryout, his Deacons teammates were there cheering him on. A good teammate earns energy and support for having been a good teammate. 

Andrew Smith wasn't an impact freshman at Butler. But he became a player that mattered on a Final Four team. Coach Brad Stevens eulogized Smith, a cancer victim at twenty-five. “He never complained. He was always a great teammate. He tried to help everybody else live a little bit better. And he taught us all how to prepare for our time.”

Brad Stevens discussed former player Ronald Nored. “He could not dribble, pass or shoot...think about that for a second. He played in two national championship games, he played about 25-30 minutes a game. He wasn’t a very good ball-handler. He couldn’t shoot, right? And he struggled to not turn the ball over.” Stevens said he approached Nored’s high school coach. The high school coach told him, “He’s the best leader and giver I’ve ever been around.”

Being a good teammate doesn't stop at the edge of the field. Everson Walls and Ron Springs became the first professional sports teammates to share a kidney. Walls donated the organ to Springs. When I was a Navy doctor, former high school basketball teammate J. Michael Joly performed an ACL reconstruction on me.  

Leaders can be great teammates, too. Franklin Roosevelt contracted "polio" (possibly Guillain-Barre Syndrome) in 1921 and struggled with paralysis throughout his life. He traveled to Warm Springs, Georgia in 1924 and later founded a rehabilitation center at Warm Springs. In addition to being a patient, as "Doc Roosevelt" he led patients in exercises and even played water polo with them. 

Good teammates show toughness and togetherness. In Toughness, Jay Bilas shares the importance of selfless actions for the good of the team - like communication, sprinting the floor, shot selection, and getting loose balls. 

Good teammates are like good spouses. Teammates don't fight with each other; teammates fight for each other. 

Good teammates connect, raise energy, play selflessly. They make everyone around them better. Being a good teammate shows humility. "It isn't about thinking less of yourself. It's about thinking about yourself less." Everyone can't be a great player; everyone can be a great teammate. 

Lagniappe: Teammates struggle together. "We all want the same thing, a great moment, a great scene, a great movie." - Ron Howard

Lagniappe 2: Isolation actions from Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion)

Basketball: The Idea Factory, 3-on-3 Development

Pete Newell asserted, "teach players to see the game." At practice we have a developmental offense segment. It brings part of the playground experience to practice. 

We often play the game in 'parts' from one-on-one to three-on-three. Teach players to create against live defense. Sets draw lines on paper that allow players to author great manuscripts, works of art. 

Monday night we worked some simple actions. We had only 9 players, divided into three groups with the 'off' group shooting free throws and rotating in. 

Frame 1. Scissors/X action. By convention the passer cuts first. Set up hard cuts. The wing wants her defender caught in the traffic/trash. Young defenders have trouble with these actions. Quality shots follow. 

Frame 2. Post entry options. The wing sets up aggressive defenders for a back cut AND finishes the cut. The post has isolation or the guard can get a late handoff. Ideally, the post delivers the bounce pass 'down the lane line." 

Frame 3. Wing entry sets up the UCLA cut, the roll of the post low, wing isolation, and the wing ball screen. The guard cutter must leave the area to move her defender away. 

Yes, this is "elementary" stuff. "Falling in love with easy" creates big defensive headaches. 

Players learn to see a range of possibilities from a triangle (including the origins of the triangle offense)... and relate to the power of time and space...with on time and on target passing. 

But we're not here, yet. 

Lagniappe: Off-ball screen video from Igor Kokoskov.

Basketball: High School Game Lessons and a Shooting Drill

Broadcasting high school games reveals lessons for players and coaches. 

What balance of spontaneous versus scripted offense creates the best scoring chances? There's no universal answer and it depends on a team's skill, IQ, and ability to generate early offense. If you can't create shots, lean into scripted action. 

This variation of reverse action created a high quality chance for Melrose. 

Stoneham moved the ball well against the Melrose zone, scoring on high-low action. 

Defense. Does the opponent have a player or action to take away? Do you have a game plan against that? One player hit three open threes in the first half, keying a seven point halftime edge. 

Offense. To pass and stand guarantees a lack of points and a fresh defense. "Movement kills defense."  

Rebounding. Players got in trouble from poor pivoting after rebounds leading to held balls.  

Special situations. Avoid violations by initiating the play when the passer receives the ball from the official, not on slapping the ball. Practically every game both teams run America's Play.

Everyone has their own version to set up a corner 3 for the inbounder. 

Comeback game. Create the tempo necessary with personnel suited for a comeback game. Many coaches choose a specific comeback team.

Dos and Don'ts. Saving the ball under your own basket often creates an easy basket for your opponent. Don't. In a close game, every possession matters. We coached a girl years ago who always seemed to make the right play. She's a third year at Annapolis, still making great choices. 

Lagniappe: Fisher "two-ball shooting" (adjust distance for age)