Sunday, January 19, 2020

Basketball Coaching: Lessons from a Middle School Basketball Game

Learn from practice, a win, and every loss. Find progress and solutions, not just mistakes. Remember, mistakes occur at every level, including the NBA. In Why the Best Are the Best, Kevin Eastman discusses the Celtics allowing 32 points in one game against the Lakers through defensive mistakes. 



Vision: players begin to embrace "pass ahead" in transition (below). Because they are older (8th grader girls) and stronger, vision can translate belief. 



Defending the point guard: if we cannot contain the ball, it always ends badly. We're starting to show more will and skill. 

"Show your hands." Don't give officials a reason to call fouls. Riding the ballhandler with your chest deserves to be called.

Off ball defense. "Position in life is everything." The offense entered the ball to the wing out of twin low stacks.  



The wing looks to drive. The on-ball defender could be in a better stance; the point guard has not dropped to the level of the ball. Our center has the lane filled defensively. The near side block player will come off the opposite stack and curl (not open). 



"Rhyme time." Baseline out of bounds play (above). We cover the blocks and middle as the low bigs backscreen. "Big girls away come back into play" and #24 steals the pass to the cutter. 



"Spacing is offense...and offense is spacing." Against the passive zone (above), both corners are filled and the point guard hits the corner, who converts the open jump shot. 

Get yours. There's a time to be greedy. Be a greedy rebounder. There's a time to tip the ball to a teammate for offensive rebounds. 



Get yours. There's a time to be greedy. Be a greedy rebounder. There's a time to tip the ball to a teammate for offensive rebounds. Anticipation and aggressiveness make offensive rebounders. #24 passes and anticipates (above). 

Scoring on specials. "Zipper" turned into a quick 2 with a great "hockey assist." 



I recently showed the "Zipper series" and the players improvised to score our opening hoop.




What matters is that our players learn how to play. Profit from success and mistakes. 

Lagniappe: Why the Best Are the Best podcast

Lagniappe 2: Hoopskills Blog post with some Eastman gems