Coaching Profile: Rick Majerus

When you think of Rick Majerus, "quotable" comes to mind. But under the surface humor, a substantial man lived. His father, a labor leader, took him to Selma as a teen for a Civil Rights march that left a profound influence upon him. 

While coaching at Utah, Majerus's teams won ten league titles and reached an NCAA championship game. He also enjoyed a prolific broadcasting career. 

While attending Marquette, he got his first coaching job, coaching eighth graders...so he started at the bottom, although also serving as a student assistant at Marquette.

SI.com shared insights: 

• You must want it as much as he does. 
• Lock your eyes on the man when he speaks.
• If Coach calls your name? Run—never walk—and stand in front of him, eyes wide, like a puppy panting for a treat.
• You must know who you are as a player. 

He was hard to play for. "Of the 80 recruits Majerus signed with the Utes, only 33 survived to play as seniors." He was lovable...and hated...funny and crude. 

On a bus in Kenya, he asked a woman what people were saying. "They're saying there's a big rich American on this bus, and you're so fat that you're taking up a lot of space!"

Majerus was a menotr of Porter Moser of Loyola Chicago. "Moser said Majerus taught him how to pay closer attention to detail." He adds, "We’ve got to pride ourselves on development and the little things of the game. Coach Majerus had a great line: ‘It’s more important for me to teach you how to play than to teach you plays.’”

He held players accountable. "One of his main points and phrases to all of his players was, "I don't expect an A, but I do expect an A effort in the classroom, and in your conduct and character toward others.""

Coaching Notes (Highlights):

1. Halfcourt Offense – try to create a 6 on 5 game with 2 3 on 3 games going on at the same time
2. Switching picks – talk it, touch it, switch it; Use only two key words: 1. switch 2. stay
3. The best way to defend the post is to keep it out of the post
4. Receiving a screen
   The closer the screener is to you, the deeper you must take your defender to set him up
5. Help side defense
   1. Nobody cuts below you to the rim
   2. Nobody crosses your face without a bump
6. Pass to corner for only two reasons
   1. feed the post
   2. shot

Majerus on Triangle and Two

He died young a 64 with heart failure and had a septuple bypass far younger. "I'm a big barbecue guy." He would have agreed with my Navy mentor, "I am your mentor and your tormentor." 

Lagniappe. We model excellence. 

Lagniappe 2. More Majerus ideas.

• Foul Shots – All great shooters know their exact FT%; all bad ones preface with “about”
• Show your team films of the pros – they do it a lot better than you can demonstrate it.
• To judge a player’s hands
  a. Soft on catch
  b. Strong after catch
  c. Touch
• Great shooters miss long off the back of the rim.

Lagniappe 3. I say, "show me an overnight success and I'll show you a long night." 

Rehabilitation of Ankle Injuries Plus Maintaining Cardiovascular Fitness Through Injury

Injuries frustrate athletes. The mental effects can outweigh the functional limitations and pain. What can we expect after an ankle injury?

First, I reposted an old piece I wrote about ankle injury prevention. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

Next, recovery depends on the extent of injury but also on us. 

From Medscape.com

The disclaimer is to always consult your healthcare provider. 

You progress through range of motion exercises, stretching, strengthening, and balance and control exercises. 

When should you start rehab? Michigan Medicine recommends, 

"Start rehab with range-of-motion exercises in the first 72 hours after your injury. Continue with further rehab, including stretching, strength training, and balance exercises, over the next several weeks to months."

Sensory input is altered (nerve damage) early after ankle injury. Braces help correct that. Here is a comprehensive review of the benefits of ankle rehab including bracing. "The use of ankle taping and bracing has proprioceptive, mechanical, and injury-protection benefits and causes minimal to no performance decrements." I've shared previously that bracing (e.g. laced braces) is superior to taping. 

How do you start? Increase range of motion, "Trace the alphabet with your toe, which encourages ankle movement in all directions. Trace the alphabet 1 to 3 times."

Add towel curls. "While sitting, place your foot on a towel on the floor and scrunch the towel toward you with your toes. Then, also using your toes, push the towel away from you."

Progress to stretching and strengthening exercises outlined in the above article. 

Some therapists recommend using marbles to work both muscles and ankle motion. 

The 64 dollar question. When can I return to play? "It depends." It's not simple because it involves not only the ankle, but conditioning, timing, and skills maintenance. 

"Achilles tendon stretching should be instituted within 48 to 72 hours of injury, regardless of weight-bearing capacity, in light of the tissue's tendency to contract after trauma."

This article addresses the injury, treatment, rehab, conditioning and integration. There's no one size fits all. It depends on the injury, which we could rename rolled, wronged, and ruptured. Many will have grade 2 injuries which may take four to five weeks to heal. 

Lagniappe. Staying in shape while injured. Maintaining cardiovascular fitness while injured is a challenge. Considerations include (with therapist approval): 

- Circuit weight training (without using the injured ankle)

- One-legged cycling (stationary bicycle)

- Swimming 

- Situps/"V - ups"

- Rope slams

Seated cardio workout.

Chair shooting (need a partner)

 

Basketball: Three Wishes? Taking Away the Magic Genie with Scouting

Syracuse keeps scouting simple.* How often youth teams see familiar faces varies. 

A magic genie grants three wishes. Belichick-like, Syracuse takes away your wishes. "Boeheim utters a variation of the same request: “Give me the best three actions they do. If we can stop their top three actions, they’ll try to beat us by doing something else.”"

We had lost, often close, every game to our neighboring rival (Wakefield). They used three strategies - a couple of players made threes, they ran give and go plays off the high post, and went to the low post against our substitute centers. 

In a twelve-team league, we had the number two offense, so even a few better defensive possessions could change the outcome. 

We faced a final matchup in the postseason, so we changed up our defense. We played a triangle and two with two guards staying with the two perimeter shooters, the triangle to contain the drivers (with our shot blocker), and I substituted our center out far less and played another shot blocker in her absence (I could have left her in the whole game). 

We also "stoned" their SIDELINE BOX SLOB going over the top to take away the corner 3. 

The girls executed the plan and we emerged with our first postseason win. 

*Hat tip Brook Kohlheim 

Lagniappe. "There is an opportunity to always question them." 

Collaboration creates edges. 

Lagniappe 2. Excellent video teaching the DHO technique and reads. All handoffs are not created equal. Create OPTIONS including the handoff, continuation, and backdoor cutting. And coming off the handoff, attack DOWNHILL. 

Basketball: "Every Play Has a Lesson" Paige Bueckers Meet Scott Norwood

"And then what are you prepared to do?" 

Attention to detail separates success from less. "Every play has a lesson."

Break down the granular detail of every offensive and defensive possession. Film is the truth machine. 

General

• Playing with purpose, fully engaged
• Aggressiveness/Toughness
• "Connection" (Teamwork)

Offense (quality shot each possession)

• Conversion
• Spacing
• Decision-making
• Player movement
• Ball movement (passing)
• Shot quality
• Rebounding/Conversion

Defense (no easy shots)

• Conversion
• Ball containment
• Position and loading to the ball
• Moving on the pass
• Help and recovery
• Challenge shot without fouling
• Rebounding/Transition 

Even top players get the hiccups (9 second clip)

Opening tap, UCONN-Iowa. Everyone in the building saw what was likely to happen. Bueckers gets a one-on-one. Her primary choices? Quick three, stop-and-pop, and hesitate and drive. Analytics guys lost their #$%&? 

The outcome of this play, a "Scott Norwood" was unfathomable. 

The nerves were palpable the first couple minutes of this game... 

The Castle with a Deep Moat and No Championships. Plus Yukon Do It...

In competitive markets, sustainable advantages are rare. Few companies have "moats" of unassailable strength - Apple, Google, Coca Cola. Basketball is similar. Don't be seduced by the latest idea. Think for ourselves and find tools to improve our teaching and our players.  

Even with the best coaches, a college basketball program flies or dies with the quality, the character, and the chemistry of the players. When Bob Cousy coached Boston College, he knew that offering NBA insights and the BC academics wasn't enough. Some other schools offered parents jobs and players "experiences" (read, girls) and BC couldn't match them. A "college education" doesn't mean much if your plan isn't GPA but NBA. This isn't new. 

The Princeton 1996 upset win over UCLA "feels" like the high water mark for the Tigers. Was it? 

A "Princeton Offense" Google search of 0.43 seconds yields over 64,000 results. Add "NCAA champions" and the number drops to 468. The team experiencing the most success with the Princeton Offense was...Princeton, with 13 Ivy Titles. Yet, the best Princeton team was Bill Bradley's 1964-1965 team under Butch van Breda Kolff that went to the Final Four. But the combined number of NBA and NCAA titles won with the Princeton offense is zero. 

I'm not "anti-Princeton" but pro development. Carleton Ravens coach Dave Smart says, "Don’t just do it because somebody else does it." The "castle" for some elite teams is the college, the "moat" is the coach, and the "sharks" are the players. Some wide and deep moats sit home watching the Tournament. Filling your moat with lemon sharks won't get the job done (but can make you a lot of money...see Abilene Christian).  

The Triangle Offense produced 11 NBA titles, often courtesy of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. It generates too many midrange shots to be relevant today. 

"Princeton" advocates argue that players who run motion well, back door cut, and have perimeter shooting skills excel with this offense. Skilled players run every offense better. What's a better investment for young players, fundamental and athletic growth or tens of hours learning more options off the Chin Series? 

These aren't novel ideas. "After all, how useful really is an offense that takes all of a team’s time and attention to institute, if it comes at the cost of your defense, transition game, rebounding and player development?"

This diagram (from the article above) serves as a checklist for a tactical and technical framework:

• GEOMETRY Spacing-player movement-ball movement 
• FOUNDATION Decisions-effort-skill 

Our best hope for more productive offense includes having smart, skilled players who buy in to our process and make good decisions. The "novelty" of the Princeton Offense and coach Pete Carril helped. Players who went to Princeton met those criteria, which explained their success.  

Lagniappe. Billy Donovan's "95" is the 95% of the time you don't have the ball. Kirby Schepp demonstrates (less than 2 minute clip)

Lagniappe 2. Drill. "Force to tape." (from Kevin Eastman)

Lagniappe 3. (Dave) Smart tips via Basketball Immersion

-Teams usually play zone defense because they don’t cover well in man (hiding a weakness). That has always been true with our developmental teams. We play man until we absolutely prove we can't.  

-Philosophy of Carleton’s man offense is to get the ball to eight feet from the rim, cause defensive reactions and closeouts, get to smart open space, make good decisions, exploit the advantages gained.

Basketball: Doubling the Post, "Life is About the Management of Risk"

"Life is about the management of risk." 

Every decision calculates risk and benefit. Sixteen years ago, I watched a sectional championship evaporate...maybe a state championship. Both teams had all-scholastic point guards and literally "identical twin" towers. 

Figure 1.

The responsibilities are simple, written out in the "game plan." The post doubles across, x3 drops to take away the block/layup and x1 "zones" the top and opposite wing. But three times, x3 didn't rotate and one team scored a layup. A one-point loss with three uncontested layups. We only get so many bites at the apple. 

Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas Jayhawks faced UNC in the 1957 final. Carolina often triple-teamed (above) Chamberlain, holding him to 23 points. Carolina won 54-53 in triple overtime. 

When we double the post, we plan to limit a dominant post player or force bad decisions and execution from less skilled ones. 

Doubling the post forces help and rotation on our defense. Take away the post and give away the opposite wing (see Figure 1 above). 

In Del Harris's Winning Defense (Masters Press, 1993), he points out the pros and cons of doubling the post. Here are some highlights:

1. Too much of any technique is counter-productive because good teams adjust.

2. The ability of post players varies. Some score well or pass well, and some do both or neither well. 

3. Teams that shoot well may take advantage of passes out of the post.

4. Double teams may weaken the defensive rebounding. 

5. The game situation may define whether or when to take chances. 

Sometimes video helps us visualize. 

UCONN is facing zone and Syracuse doubles the short corner. The ball goes to the cutter, but note how the opposite wing is open although the help is late. 

There's no "black and white" decision, but it's important to manage risk. 

Lagniappe. David Thorpe with Chris Oliver

Quotes: 

"I'm pretty much paid to be objective all the time..." 

 “We’re all looking for special people, right? At every level, until you get to the highest levels of the league in the NBA, you aren’t going to get the guy you think you’re going to get . . you’re going to keep trying and you’re going to pass up on a lot of other kids that can help you win games.” (Character)

“You had to feel safe to make the mistake . . if you’re not going to make the mistake in practice, you’re not going to ever be good enough to even try the move in a game.” 

“I think our job is to help players fall in love with the sport because a necessary ingredient to being good at it is to really work [at it].”

“Right now the two best guys in the league at sudden stops and sudden starts are Luka Doncic and James Harden so if it’s good enough for those guys, how are we not doing it?"

“It’s something we talk about in all aspects of life, embrace the suck. It’s okay to be bad at something. It’s not okay to just accept it unless it’s not important. And if it’s not important, what are you worried about?”

Basketball: Searching for Consistent Improvement and Information to Save Lives

"You need a membership to those places where you are most likely to achieve your goals." - Joe Holder 

Frequent growth places - the library, the weight room, the gym. Life rewards improvement. Study harder, get better grades. Exercise more, feel stronger and more energetic. Investing in ourselves costs us - time, recreation, money. 

But what hinders us? How do we bypass distractions? Consider these, including meditating on it, incrementalism, forgetting perfection, and embracing the suck. Write our program, the habits that make us. 

Joe Holder, MasterClass

Plateaus interrupt the ascent. For example, when we lose weight, it's not a straight line. Usually, there's a metabolic reset and then additional weight loss if we continue the program. Overcome plateaus. 

Tom Brady didn't become Tom Brady overnight. He had setbacks along the way, including missing an entire season with injury. He went a decade without winning a championship. Persist. 

Drill. Reverse, Catch, and Drive Drill from Giorgio Gandolfi, The Complete Book of Offensive Basketball Drills

Cut (fake) toward one side and then reverse to the other, where a ball sits on a chair. Grab the ball, reverse pivot, and attack the basket, scoring on one dribble. Alternate sides. Add difficulty by using time constraints. As a single player workout, it also conditions. 

Set Play. UVA attacks the Syracuse 2-3 zone. Syracuse back defenders chase high which UVA attacks with screens and passes to the corner. 

Summary:

• Frequent the growth places.
• Overcome distractions.
• Work through plateaus.
• Persist.
• Discover a new individual drill 
• UVA beats the Orange zone

Lagniappe. "Stay in your lane." As a physician for 40 years, I am. 

"When you get to where you are going, the first thing you do is take care of the horse that got you there." - Anonymous

Lagniappe 2. “Coronavirus Today” - “Science isn’t enough to save us.” 

1. “Personal, pervasive, and permanent...” https://www.npr.org/2021/03/24/980776808/how-to-talk-and-listen-to-a-teen-with-mental-health-struggles

2. The ABCs of the CDC and the 3 foot rule. Good enough? https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/03/experts-3-foot-rule-schools-problematic-light-covid-variants

3. The myth that COVID-19 is not an issue for children and schools has long been dispelled. https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2021/03/covid-cases-in-massachusetts-schools-increase-again-with-682-students-and-228-staff-members-testing-positive.html

4. “Helmet ventilation...a therapy whose time has come? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2778089

5. Prior infection is only partially protective. Variants are important in this. We need to be wearing masks indefinitely for these reasons. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2100362?query=featured_home

6. COVID-19 cases are now rising slightly in the US. Look at the map of the US and Florida, especially Miami. “Canaries in the coal mine.” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

7. This. Is. Not. Over. India. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/26/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/

8. “Science isn’t enough to save us.” I saw a patient recently who occasionally ate breakfast with a COVID denier. “It’s a hoax, a conspiracy.” The person refused to wear masks or socially distance. He died...from COVID-19. Beliefs can kill. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00731-7

Basketball: Applying Process Improvement to Basketball (and a COVID-19 Bonus)

Great process wins. Work smarter not harder. If Six Sigma revolutionized sports, you'd think the secret would get out. Just as if one offense produced an edge, everyone would adopt it and the edge would disappear. The Triangle Offense went the way of the Model T.  

What is Six Sigma? Villanova published an overview using the acronym DMAIC. 

In math, sigma represents one standard deviation of a "normal" distribution. 

If we could improve to "two standard deviations" from the "norm" we would be in the top 2.5% of a category, such as turnovers. If we could get to six standard deviations it would approach (not quite reach) the equivalent of hitting .400 in baseball (.260 mean plus 1 standard deviation of .020). 

Maybe the closest example of process brilliance would be Dave Brailsford and marginal gains as told by James Clear leading Britain to multiple gold medals and Tour de France titles. 

Let's look at an NBA paradigm first. The Celtics encouraged "swing" Jaylen Brown to take more threes and fewer mid-range shots. 

DEFINE. The goal is to score the highest points per possession.

MEASURE. Brown is shooting 51% on midrange shots, 1.02 points per shot. He shoots 38.8% on threes, 1.16 points per shot. 

ANALYZE. Will a shift in Brown's shot selection result in net offensive gains? What other adjustments (e.g. more cuts leading to layups) lead to higher net offensive rating? 

IMPROVE. Raising points/possession depends on multiple factors including types of offensive play and players. It's not as easy as "more threes."

The NBA has detailed data available. LeBron (in orange) scores high points/possession on cuts, rolls, putbacks and transition. Durant (blue) scores highest on putbacks, cuts, transition, and spot ups. Remind players to "do more of what works and less of what doesn't."

CONTROL. Followup the change, documenting the improvement and consistency of gains. 

We could use the same types of analysis on transition (offense and defense), play type (e.g. pick-and-roll), turnovers (committed and forced), percentage of assisted baskets, and so on. We might ask players for their input seeking buy-in. Lacking "stat power," focus on the Four Factors (EFG%, rebounds, turnovers, free throws). Years ago, as an assistant, I tracked and reported team shooting percentage and turnovers. We improved on both as players saw we expected better performance. 

Lagniappe. Deception matters. Paige Bueckers looks off defenders and picks up assists.

And again. She knows where the ball is going on the cut. 

Super Triple Bonus. Coronavirus today...the truth is out there. 

“Coronavirus Today”

1. Coronavirus cases are rising in Massachusetts. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting

2. Coronavirus variants are rising in the US. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/health/coronavirus-variant-us-spread.html

3. College athletes are not immune. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/sports/coronavirus-college-sports-football.html

4. Last week the US administered about 2.5 million vaccine doses per day. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/health/covid-vaccine-states-distribution-doses/

5. Vaccines have been around since 1796. This article traces some of the history from smallpox, to rabies, yellow fever, polio, and more. Vaccines have prevented hundreds of millions of deaths from viral and other diseases. Yet, vaccine hesitancy is still an issue. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2034334?query=featured_home

6. Getting more from N95s? “Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation, moist heat, and microwave-generated steam processing of filtering facepiece respirators are effective means for decontamination and are simple to implement.” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777342

7. “Of the 36,659 vaccinated HCWs, 379 (1.0%) tested positive for COVID-19 1 or more days after vaccination, 71% of them within the first 2 weeks after the first dose. Of the 28,184 HCWs who received their second dose, 37 (0.1%) tested positive, 22 of them 1 to 7 days later. Eight tested positive 8 to 14 days later, and 7 did so at least 15 days later.” Vaccines work in HCWs! https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/03/risk-covid-very-low-vaccinated-medical-workers-study

8. COVID vaccines prevent deaths. It doesn’t get clearer. "The odds of dying after getting a Covid-19 vaccine are virtually non-existent. According to recent data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, you're three times more likely to get struck by lightning...The findings also illustrate a broader trend in online misinformation: with social media platforms making more of an effort to take down patently false health claims, bad actors are turning to cherry-picked truths to drive misleading narratives.” https://www.npr.org/2021/03/25/980035707/lying-through-truth-misleading-facts-fuel-vaccine-misinformation

Basketball: Ten Questions to Engage. Seek Solutions. Why Arkansas Should Listen to Petula Clark

Sustainable competitive advantage partly comes from asking better questions. What questions do our players ask themselves? Success in life comes from finding an edge and prosecuting it relentlessly. 

1. Where do I see myself in five years and what am I doing to get there? 
2. "What does our team need now?"
3. How do I improve today?
4. (After a game or practice) What went well?
5. What went poorly?
6. How can I do better next time? 
7. What is the central lesson to be learned from this? 
8. Am I accountable or am I blaming others? (Attribution bias)
9. Am I spending my time or am I investing it?
10. Am I doing my best? (From Tom Brady's favorite, The Four Agreements)

"If you always do your best, you can never judge yourself. And if you don’t judge yourself you wont suffer from guilt, blame or self-punishment."

Lagniappe. "Every day is player development day." Reverse engineer what high-level players do. Players, find something to gain an edge every day. 

This applies across sports. 

Great video breakdown on the success of Oral Roberts. 

Ball pressure and taking away the pick-and-pop are the keys to containing ORU. "The help can never be beaten" will be critical. ORU and Arkansas know each other well. Anybody remember Petula Clark? If I were the Razorbacks, I'd be playing this song until the players were sick of it.

"Make it stop." 

Basketball: Grow Your Offense. Attack Explosively and Have Fewer Bad Days

"But coach, I don't know where to start." 

Make plays. Be explosive in attacking the basket. Be confident as you prepare to MAKE PLAYS. As you make plays, wins increase as does your role. 

As coaches, we covet explosive, skilled athletes. First, become consistent in catch-and-shoot and shot fake and drive. Graduate to more complex moves. You don't need a full quiver, but establish yourself as a force...off the bounce, with elite footwork, on the perimeter. 

Study these "trimmed" videos, none longer than thirty seconds or so. Then work on adding to your arsenal. 

OFF THE BOUNCE

Separate and Finish: Change of direction, change of pace. 

Steve Nash liked BTL, float, and explode. A crossover would work, too. 

FOOT FIRE Make your footwork elite. 

Out-quick the defense off the catch. 

 

Olajuwon. Now you see him, now you don't.

Reverse pivot hard attack. (Multiple options)

The box drill "base move" reverse pivot leads to a basket attack. A counter occurs spinning back (above). 

PERIMETER WINNERS 

Side separation dribble, three-pointer. (Tatum)

Do you have something to elude the hard close out or fly by? 

Paul Pierce Stepback. 

The offseason is here. Will you invest your time or spend it? 

Tips: 

1. Practice with a teammate. Drag someone with you into the top 10 percenters.
2. Track. "Winners are trackers." Paper works as well as a spreadsheet. 
3. Take cellphone video to study. 

Summary:

• Make plays to increase your role.
• PICK (moves) STICK (to training) CHECK (progress)
• Score off the bounce.
• Develop elite footwork.
• Win the post and the perimeter.
• Elevate a teammate with you.

Lagniappe. "Turn and fire." I did this as a kid (fifty years ago). Face the basket inside the foul line. Flip the ball over your head. Turn, catch on the bounce, face the basket and fire. Find the ball, sight the rim, and release quickly. 

Lagniappe 2. Be like...KD.