Basketball Math You Will Like!

Mathematics is everywhere, whether we see it or not. Our morning coffee brews with a ratio of coffee to water. During a blizzard (today), the cost of snow removal will depend on the depth of the snow. 

Examine how mathematics can help us:

1) The Four Factors. Dean Oliver's research that shooting percentage, rebounding, turnovers, and free throws drove outcomes. Additional research uncovered that the differentials (offense versus defense) further amplified results. 

Effective field goal percentage:

It currently correlates especially well with point differentials.

"The Four Factors measure two different areas: efficiency and opportunities. EFG% and FTAr (effective field goal percentage and free throw attempt rate) measure efficiency, while OREB% and TOV% (offensive rebound percentage and turnover percentage) measure opportunities."

2) Less is more. It's not intuitive that multiplying two negative numbers yields a positive. But if a player has a negative defensive rating, the less time he's on the floor, the greater the benefit to the team. 

3) Cursed? Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. It's not a player's fault that he makes great money. Projecting production isn't easy. And a behavioral economics concept called "The Winner's Curse" explains that competitors often overpay for assets that can't equal the cost. "Basic economics assumes that individuals seek their selfish best interests and work with unperturbed rationality to identify and pursue those interests, yet this position is very difficult to prove."

4) Home court advantage. Don Meyer said, "It's not who you play, but how you play." The NBA bubble provided a natural experiment to analyze what contributes to home court advantage. Is it fan support, pressure, officiating or other factors that impacts outcome? A study from Pomona broke that down. "In the bubble, the away team’s win percentage increased by 3 percentage points. The free throw shooting percentages increased by 2.3% and there were 9% fewer fouls for the away team and 5% fewer for the home team." The authors found that the biggest factor on outcomes was the quality of the teams. That doesn't mean that other factors don't matter. "In another study using the NBA’s database of calls from the last two minutes of close games (games within 5 points or less), researchers have found that the home team benefits the majority of the time from correct calls, incorrect no-calls (referees letting teams get away with infraction), and incorrect calls (referees making a mistake on their calls). With more incorrect calls and a higher quantity of calls made against the away team, this study reaffirms that due to the judgmental crowds, the officials are more influenced (Roeder, 2017)."

5) En fuego? Does the "hot hand" exist? Many students of basketball believe in the hot hand, that is, positive shooting reinforces positive shooting. The best study of this, using NBA three-point shooting contest data, shows that after a sequence of three consecutive makes, the next shot has higher probability of success. 

The dots above the x-axis show the presence and magnitude of the effect during competition in some of the best three-point shooters in the world. 

6) "The bank is always open." It's geometry. Players underutilize the glass. "After simulating one million shots with a computer, the NC State researchers show that the bank shot can be 20 percent more effective when shooting at many angles up to a distance of about 12 feet from the basket." 

From Wired

7) Pythagorus would be proud. How far is a shot from the NBA hash? The hash is 28' from the baseline and the backboard is 4' from the baseline. The distance to the corner three is 22'. Sum the squares and take the square root and find 32'. 

8) How a possession starts is pivotal. All possessions are not equal.  Inpredictable shows a low to high difference in points per possession based on how possessions start, ranked by 'dead ball' (1.06), defensive rebound (1.10), or turnover (steal) 1.25. That is, turnovers bleed into defense. 

Generally, the best teams rank among leaders in both.

Summary: 

• Insights on Four Factors
• Cursed? 
• Hot hand
• Bank on it
• Home court
• Pythagorus
• The starting gate matters

Lagniappe. Mathematician Terence Tao advises problem solvers to seek practical approaches. 

Screenshot from Terence Tao, MasterClass

Lagniappe 2. "Great offense is multiple actions." In this clip, the Celtics use a ram screen into a high ball screen with Spain action (backscreen the roller). "Get one, set one" (the ram screen) morphs into "get one, set one, get one." 

Lagniappe 3. Leave your comfort zone by breaking a skill into smaller parts. Shooting off the dribble, practice the pickup. Coach Hanlen reduces the skill to its components. The analogy? Cooking. Sous vide cooking often finishes with pan searing. 

Basketball: A Game of Separation, Ja Morant and others Illustrate

Basketball is _______________. Everyone has ideas. 

• "Basketball is a game meant to be played fast." (Wooden)
• "Basketball is a game of mistakes." (Knight)
• "Get more and better shots than your opponent." (Newell)
• Basketball is about finding edges. 
• Basketball is about wearing opponents down. 
• Basketball is a game of separation. 

Dr. Fergus Connolly reminds us that most sports have four phases:

• Initial positioning (spacing)
• Player movement
• Ball movement
• Scoring moment (execution) 

Separation occurs either with or without the ball. 

Separation with the ball focuses on individual athleticism and skill. Ja Morant highlights help illustrate. 

A few include: 

• Draw 2 and pass
• Create long closeouts via pass
• Exceptional speed, explosive penetration
• Hesitation with continuation 
• Change of direction (e.g. crossover)
• Side dribble quickness
• Pivoting/footwork off the catch or rebound
• Pick and roll 
• Step back jump shots

He is also facile without the ball:

• Back cuts
• Use of off ball screens including staggered screens
• Give-and-go 

Other key separation with or without the ball:

• Euro step
• Negative step

• Attack off moving catch (catch and go)
• Float dribble (Durant)
• Complex screens (stagger, screen-the-screener, screen-the-roller)
• Short roll passing
• "One more" passing (extra pass)
• Transition 

Young players, find ways to create more separation. 

Lagniappe. What makes coaches proud? It's the success of our graduates. Victoria, a first year veterinary student reached out to report progress. 

She was one of the toughest players I ever coached, an All-State Volleyball player, an outstanding student, and an excellent assistant for one season. Her nickname summarized her play, the V-Rex. 

Basketball: The Tension Between Steak and Sizzle

There's inevitable tension between steak (tactics) and sizzle (technique). We see the latest offense and get distracted from player development.

At our best, we help players become their best version and it's not usually by installing more offense. This headline greeted me in Wednesday's Boston Globe online.

Cecilia Kay, Bishop Fenwick — In a signature 70-66 Bishop Fenwick win over Bishop Feehan, the sophomore forward from Melrose logged 22 points and 20 rebounds. She also contributed 23 points in a 74-29 win against Beverly. 

How did she earn this? 

"You never graduate from a skill." - Don Showalter

• Unrequired Work: Came to 90% of offseason workouts, sometimes as the only player. 
• Worked hard on every activity - ball handling, post play, perimeter shooting. 
• Never complained when things didn't go her way. 
• Worked hard to finish with either hand from either side of the basket - she was queen of the 'box drills' (above)
• Shot almost 80% on 10 free throws/game as a freshman All-Scholastic
• Studied video to identify areas of improvement. 
• Was coachable at all times to impact winning and make teammates better
• Got additional coaching from a former NCAA Final Four player (Ted Cottrell)
• Worked hard on weight training and conditioning during the offseason
• Constant learning. I recently shared how Coach Obradovic has bigs set some screens with back to mid-court for better vision. I saw her do this on film. 
• Working to edit shot selection to improve efficiency. 
• Stays humble and was never aloof or arrogant
• Maintained elite academic status Qualifies at any college

But tactics are seductive. Adding tactics helps players capable of executing them...like Chicago action - downscreens into DHO with multiple actions. And here's the distraction. 

Here's another via FastModel from Wes Kosel. 

As Coach Pitino wrote, "Success Is a Choice." Make the choice to make a difference, remembering that "every day is player development day." 

Lagniappe. The Celtics ran a well-designed Zipper action ball side and backscreen for a lob on the help side. Adjust personnel to suit your players.

Lagniappe 2. Here are three more lessons from Adam Grant's Think Again:

And here's another summary, and a quote: “…biases don’t just prevent us from applying our intelligence. They can actually contort our intelligence into a weapon against the truth.” Humility, curiosity, and conscious effort help us get more right and less wrong. 

Basketball: Journaling, "Rethinking" and More

Why write daily? Write to share, inform, raise consciousness or controversy. Write to educate myself because there's ample room there. Second, with memory loss a risk, build "cognitive reserve," so when there's slippage (there is), start from a higher level. 

Estimable educator, NBA Champion coach and author, Kevin Eastman says, "become a learn-it-all, not a know it all." 

Does anyone remember the Seinfeld episode with Opposite George?

Consider other points of view. Charlie Munger would say, "Invert, always invert." What if we did the opposite? Adam Grant wrote Think Again, because we are wrong and don't want to stay wrong. Here's an excerpt from a summary: 

"And I ask Why is this book worth our time?  Here are my three reason for this book:

#1 – This book reminds us that we can be wrong; we can be wrong often; and we can be wrong in many different arenas.
#2 – This book is an eye-opening lesson that being wrong can cost money, relationships, and lives.
#3 – This book is a tutorial on how we can learn to rethink – to think again – in many parts of our lives, in order to defend ourselves and others from our wrong and dangerous views."

Increase productivity. In Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss advocates for journaling as a productivity habit. 

Journal to solve problems. Legendary physicist Richard Feynman shares specifics: NAME, EXPLAIN, RESEARCH, SIMPLIFY. Apply the approach to solve basketball problems...e.g. transition defense. Allowing too many points in transition. Have we assigned roles? Are we stopping the ball and protecting the basket? Are players beating their assignment to have court fully engaged or buddy running? 

Coach Don Meyer kept three journals - basketball, general knowledge, and gratitude for his wife. He shared the latter with his wife at the end of each year. 

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, discusses a friend who writes three books a year, by writing three pages a day. He became a champion of consistency. Writing became his habit and his business. Watch 10 minutes of film a day, 3600 minutes a year, that's 60 hours of film study. 

Be happier. Harvard Professor Shawn Achor, an expert on happiness, favors the 21-day gratitude challenge, where you journal three items each day you appreciate, and review after three weeks. Gratitude brings happiness.

See 'other possibilities.' Writing opens us new ideas, points of view, mental models, and metacognition (thinking about thinking). Recently, I read Dr. Fergus Connolly's Game Changer, which helped me see sport differently. And rereading parts of Ryan Holiday's Ego Is the Enemy reminds me of the dangers of ego. Bill Russell saw it differently, "my ego demands - for myself - the success of my team." 

As a student of basketball and coaching, where am I likely to be wrong? 

• Accepting the status quo as "best" 
• Practicing proper work-life balance
• Coaching proper offense-defense balance
• Considering the optimal role of zone defense for young players
• Fighting the constant battle between time and simplicity. Lincoln apologized for a long letter because "I did not have the time to make it shorter."

Imagine that difference-making were a virus. How would you amplify it, spread it, weaponize it? Spread it through intermediate hosts, teachers. That is what we do. 

Summary: 

• Write for personal purposes.
• Build "cognitive reserve."
• Become a learn-it-all, not a know it all.
• Consider other points of view.
• Solve problems better. 
• Increase productivity.
• Be happier. 
• Rethink where we might be wrong.
• Spread the gospel of rethinking.  

Lagniappe (something extra). Recommendations from Professor Adam Grant (author, Think Again) on rethinking:

I. INDIVIDUAL RETHINKING

1. Develop the Habit of Thinking Again
2. Seek out information that goes against your views. (anti-confirmation bias)
3. Calibrate Your Confidence (being sure is not the same as being right)
4. Embrace the joy of being wrong.
5. Invite Others to Question Your Thinking.
6. Learn something new from each person you meet.

II. INTERPERSONAL RETHINKING

1. Ask Better Questions.
2. Practice the art of persuasive listening.
3. Approach Disagreements as Dances, Not Battles.
4. Have a conversation about the conversation.

III. COLLECTIVE RETHINKING

1. Have More Nuanced Conversations
2. Don’t shy away from caveats and contingencies.
3. Teach Kids to Think Again
4. Have a weekly myth-busting discussion at dinner.
5. Stop asking kids what they want to be when they grow up.
6. CREATE LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
7. Abandon best practices. (best practices evolve)
8. Keep a rethinking scorecard.
9. Stay Open to Rethinking Your Future
10. Make time to think again.

Why not pick three? 

• Make rethinking a habit
• Ask better questions
• Make organizational learning a priority

Lagniappe 2. Partner shooting. 

Lagniappe 3. Horns double ball screen, double roll creates defensive confusion. 

Golden State double ball screen action where both screeners roll and work a two player action after the snap back to the corner lift. pic.twitter.com/ToKHPqymIC

— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) January 27, 2022

Lagniappe 4. The rescreen can cause defensive chaos. You don't see it a lot in high school. 

Basketball: Slowing the Game Down (Don't Get Sped Up)

"Basketball is a game meant to be played fast." - John Wooden

Pete Newell explained a coach's job, "help players to SEE THE GAME." When players see the game, it slows down.

Consider other sports. When players get sped up, they underachieve, no matter how great. Elite pass rushers speed up both quarterback processing and mechanics. In baseball, pitching scouts look for 'velo' which reduces hitter reaction time. 

In basketball, teams speed up opponents with pressure defense, trapping, unfamiliar defenses, and athleticism. 

Return to offensive first principles of spacing, player and ball movement, and execution. 

Defensively, "shrink space" by dropping to the level of the ball, loading to the ball, and helping so that offensive players "feel" a change of space which impacts cutting and ball movement. 

Ball pressure speeds up ball handlers who concern themselves with ball security. It distracts from their vision and passing freedom. But sometimes players speed themselves up by forcing drives or passes into traffic. 

Slow the Game Down.

• Play. Build skill through repetition and competition. There is no substitute.
• Practice situational basketball - time and score, end-game situations. On defense, 8 seconds left, up by three, SLOB. Do we foul? 
• Small-sided games condense experience with more touches. 
• Watch video. Study great teams, great players, and personal growth by watching games, film, and even cellphone video. Note how to separate and prevent separation.
• Play against better players. Consider women's teams practicing against men. 
• Get a coach. "Great players want to be coached." 
• Add constraints. Tracking results, playing against time (e.g. shooting practice), and in disadvantaged situations (e.g. dribble tag with non-dominant hand dribbling) build skill and confidence. 
• Enhance focus (consider mindfulness, like great players and Olympians).
• Investigate software to improve cognitive spatial recognition 

Summary: 

• Speeding up offensive players degrades offense across sport
• Strong defense shrinks the court 
• Ball pressure speeds up dribblers
• Experience is the best, but not only teacher
• Get a coach 
• Play "up"
• Study great teams and players and your growth on video

Lagniappe. Dribble drive attack drill 

Lagniappe 2. Ball and player movement stress defenses. Combine ball reversal and paint touches via urgent cutting, passing, and finishing. (17 second video). 

Uncommon Truths That Apply to Basketball (Do These Things to Excel) and Hanlen Tips

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal." - Picasso

I've stolen the article framework from Medium.com by Sinem Gunel. It's that good. That's our job, finding edges to create sustainable competitive advantage. That applies to basketball and other sports, and through politics, business, and society. Gerrymandering is redrawing congressional districts to favor one party or another. Businesses ask buyers to draw up product specifications describing their product and not a competitors. A driver keeps newspapers and hot coffee available for riders to provide superior customer service. 

“For every moment you spend gathering information, I think you ought to spend two moments making sense of it.” — Malcolm Gladwell

Study and work add value. But ability to apply data and inform context from content separates wisdom from knowledge. The thickest playbook becomes irrelevant when players don't collaborate and execute. "Technique beats tactics" and "every day is personal development day." Most times, envy over minutes, role, and recognition was not matched by unrequired work. 

Do analytics drive strategy or do talented teams express that through analysis? The Celtics are 21st in NBA three-point shooting. But last night they made 44% to win by over fifty. In seven of nine NBA games last night, the team with the higher three-point percentage won. What about the exceptions? In Philadelphia's win, 42 points from Embiid with zero threes was the difference maker (the Pelicans shot 'few' threes) and the Timberwolves won at the free throw line. In other words, other factors overcompensated. 

"Less is more." 

Professionals specialize because it allows them to govern the firehose of information. Decades ago, an expert gave a brilliant lecture on drug-induced lung disease. Case presentation "Professor's Rounds" preceded it, where the doctor analyzed a respiratory problem outside of Circle of Competence. His analysis proved limited. Develop GO TO and COUNTER moves and after mastery, expand your portfolio. Master a few areas and success follows. Invest daily time working on your "closer" moves if that's your goal.  

"Those who have money make decisions for those who don’t." 

Some say that we have the "best government that money can buy." And that money comes from "Billionaire Boys Club" PACs. Professional sports "owners" set the rules in concert with the labor unions of the rich, like the NBA Players Association. Big college donors "hire and fire" coaches. There are even stories of wealthy private donors ousting high school coaches. We'll see how NIL reconfigures the landscape of college sports. But it pays to remember the Golden Rule, "he who has the gold makes the rules." 

"Stop chasing your “passion” — do this instead." 

"Find out what your strengths are and how you can use them to your advantage." Although as Coach Knight says, "passers pass, shooters shoot, and everyone plays defense," the more you emphasize your "NBA skill" the surer your niche will be. 

If you're an elite rebounder or great defender, leverage your skills to earn your minutes, role, and recognition. Meanwhile, develop complementary skills. 

The "3 and D" guys make a great living even without the cornucopia of skills that the Max Contract guys do. 

Steal the Danish Secrets to Happy Living. "They’re known for their concept of hygge, which can be translated as “the art of creating a pleasant atmosphere.” Atmosphere or culture surrounding programs is complex. Great teams excel at collaboration. They develop mindset, mentors, and culture that allows them to perform at high levels. That doesn't mean total equity among players. As I've written often, Erik Spoelstra reminds us, "There is always a pecking order."  But chemistry matters and it's the coach who ultimately gets credited or discredited. 

The lion's share of the Spurs success was the triumvirate of Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. But Gregg Popovich coached the egos ("get over yourself") and kept work the focus ("pound the rock"). 

Summary:

• Take the time to analyze content and context.
• Less is more.
• Remember the Golden Rule, "He who has the gold makes the rules."
• Go beyond passion - seek excellence.
• Create championship culture in our lives. 

Lagniappe. Understand how defenders move and react to help draw more fouls. 

Try this: from Triple Threat position, rip through into a one-dribble jump shot. Have you moved far enough to get separation and quickly enough to get your shot off? Now do the same move with your eyes closed. "Automate" as many basketball actions as possible so that the action becomes independent of having to see the ball. 

Time Management Will Change Our Lives

 "Learn to manage conversations in an efficient way." - George Stephanopolous

Time is the ultimate commodity. We're blessed with a certain amount and can't negotiate for one day more. Create value in improving our efficiency. 

1. Prepare. Whether it's an office meeting, an exit interview with players, or practice, invest time to plan. This is what we must accomplish; that is how we intend to do so. Wooden's observation, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail" is timeless. 

2. Work back from the result to improve process. Knowing that we don't score enough isn't an answer. Find the granular root cause. Examine shot quality, free throw shooting number and percentage, turnovers by number and type. 

3. Increase the tempo. Get more done by hastening from drill to drill and by full engagement during each activity. Keep time of practice segments so not to rob offense for defense or special situations. Make a walk-through a run-through. Find a practice of someone you admire, even in another sport, and study it. 

4. Be punctual. Respect other people's time and teach young people to respect theirs.  

5. Pay attention to "winning time." If we haven't prepared for trailing by two with four seconds left under our own basket, we can't expect youth to execute. 

6. Practice 'shortening' (delay) and extending (pressure) games. One of Hubie Brown's keys to winning close games is use of time. 

7. Prioritize. This is what we have to accomplish at practice today. Think back to Bill Parcells' "MUST/NEED/WANT" columns. We lost multiple games to a team because we didn't defend their SLOB play. 

"We can't get beaten by a play where we KNOW exactly what's coming." Part of winning a playoff game was shutting that down. 

8. Imagine losing time. If we have a 90 minute practice, imagine we only have 60. Maximize the 60 minutes. Come back to the Hollywood maxim, "Kill your darlings." Author David Mamet says comedians spend a career "cutting syllables." 

9. Think Brian's Song. No, I don't mean the sad story of Brian Piccolo and Gayle Sayres but Brian McCormick's "3 L's" - laps, lines, and lectures. They're time sucks. Condition within scrimmage and drills. Use more baskets to eliminate lines. Nobody needs a soliloquy from me. 

10.Use timeouts better. We've all gone through some games using no timeouts and taking one in the first minute. Dean Smith advised saving three timeouts for the final four minutes, a good practice. Mastery of special situations reflects quality coaching. 

ACHIEVEMENT = PERFORMANCE x TIME 

Summary: 

• Prepare.
• Work back from results to process. Change what matters.
• Become more efficient. 
• Pay attention to winning time.
• Practice shortening and extending games. 
• Prioritize. 

Here are my notes from Lesson 8 from George Stephanopolous' MasterClass on Communication. 

Lagniappe. What one thing do you want one more time? Do we want to conduct one more practice, win one more league championship, see one more player achieve her wildest dreams? 

Lagniappe 2. The Dangers of Over-Helping. Some will say, "no such thing." Watch teams surrender open corner 3s, back cuts, short roll opportunities trapping the high ball screen, helping up on the pick-and-roll. Too much help creates long closeouts and vulnerability. The tension is not to give up driving layups or open threes. "Help comes from the help side."

Getting Unstuck, An Underappreciated Problem for Coaches

Everyone gets stuck. We call it writer's block, "the doldrums." ennui, being in a rut, dumbfounded. 

In basketball, I call it "stale." Our goal is constant ascension but players get distracted, fatigued, hurt, injured, demoralized. 

How do we get unstuck? What are considerations? 

• Exercise
• Rest
• Diversion ('break the monotony')
• Take a vacation 
• "Reset" cards

Eno and Schmidt published "Oblique Strategies" (rut-breaking) cards in 1975 with cues or tips such as "what would your best friend do?" Dan Pink briefly discusses this in Drive. We could buy the cards, but Pink refers us to a Twitter site inspired by the rut-breakers, Oblique Chirps. It's mostly historical, but still useful. Here are samples from Wikipedia.

PROBLEM: How can we allow fewer points? Obviously this will vary by team. 

• Turn the ball over less (turnovers bleed into points)
• Contain the ball better (decrease the need for help)
• Defend the three better (do not help off corner threes)
• Stop committing bad fouls. ("Show your hands.")
• Revisit transition defense. ("What are we doing?" Review assignments.)

Maybe we should make up our own 'unsticking' cards. Call them "Instants" because they're designed to reset us quickly. They could be phrases, quotes, a song, or a picture. 

Kevin Bacon, 1984, Footloose

"One man's meat is another man's poison."

As coaches, regularly stop and self-assess. Take the team's temperature. Read the room. Excellent teams PLAY basketball. Mediocre ones lack the unity and joy needed to succeed. 

Lagniappe:  Automate habits. 

The "To Don't" List, "Be Like Mike," How Less Is More Plus Shooting Tips and Drill

(Tom Peters explains.) 

Sport is a microcosm of life. Go beyond the Pareto Principle (80/20) where we get eighty percent of production from twenty percent of the work. Adopt the TO DON'T list, shed the non-productive dreck in our lives. 

Each of us knows the time-wasting, brain-draining schmutz we can do without - Online Scrabble, Candy Crush, or whatever... 

Replace it with family time, 'thinking time', reading, or anything valuable. Maybe we know it by other names:

• Buffett's "25-5 Rule" (Focus on five most important things not twenty-five).
• Dan Pink's "Do Five More" (five more calls, five more sprints, five more pages)
• "Do well what you do a lot." 
• Choose two things at which our team will excel. (?shot selection, turnovers)
• "Think shot first." (Don Kelbick)
• Marie Kondo philosophy "Tidy Up"
• Hollywood, "Kill your darlings."

The logical reply, "what did you do after writing this?" I removed fifteen apps from my phone, including one completely nonproductive game. I kept Scrabble. That's a first pass, a good start on low-hanging fruit. 

What are the basketball equivalents - drills, plays, strategies to consider? 

I digress but Mike Allen had a great comment about the proliferation of bad basketball in youth and high school, pandemic-related or otherwise:

If a farmer has depleted soil, replacing shovels with tractors won't fix the soil. Then there's the old joke about the farmer losing $50 a hog but "making it up on volume." The "TO DON'T" list trades tactics for technique, skill development.

Brian McCormick has his "Fake Fundamentals" series of books suggesting we revise practice to eliminate "three man weave" and other historic drills and reduce block practice for random practice. I find conventional layup lines in that same vein. 

UCONN layup drills (run by alternating to either side)

Random practice includes dribble tag, capture the flag, and small-sided games. 

Skilled coaches who strongly believe in systems, "read and react", "dribble drive motion," "Princeton" and so forth, may overwhelm players who lack the skill to execute ANY offense. Many young players lack skill and judgment. "We can't run what we can't run." 

But you argue (correctly)that situations arise requiring tactics. Last night, tie score, SLOB just over halfcourt, 2.2 seconds left coming out of a timeout. Time for a catch and shoot. What might I have chosen? 

It's low probability because of the time, space, and demand for a long, accurate pass and a tough shot. 

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. But skill development is the precursor to all execution.

Summary: 

• Make a TO DON'T list
• The list applies to life, business, and basketball
• Check the follow-through on your list 
• Simplify
• "Tidy up"
• Reduce tactics in favor of techniques
• Skill is the precursor to all execution
• Tactical advantage will still matter

Lagniappe (something extra). 

A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than to your convictions.

The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts. It's to revise old views to incorporate new facts.

Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend.

— Adam Grant (@AdamMGrant) January 22, 2022

Lagniappe 2. Take tips from shooting professionals. 

Watch film or cellphone video of your shot. 

Cecilia is a promising 6'1" sophomore with extended range (brief clip)

The "37 Point Thriller" is a drill Cecilia used. Track your best. As I recall, the first time she did this drill, she scored 19, great for a 13 year-old. 

Lagniappe 3. The ZEN of Compensation. Dan Pink discusses compensation in his work "Drive." Critical factors include:

• Internal and External Fairness (What Going On and The Grass is Greener)
• Pay More Than Average

What's that got to do with basketball? Compensation in youth and high school ball are MINUTES, ROLES, and RECOGNITION. We can only play five; we pay Pietra less (time, shots, media) to pay Paola more. I've coached girls and there's always some drama, whether we know it or not. And know that either the players or the families are tracking it. 

Address the elephant in the room.

• "This is how to earn more playing time." 
• Geno Auriemma asks the team, "in crunch time, who do you want to take the shot that decides the game? Then who? And next? Eventually he gets to a player and says, "I would let YOU take it, but your teammates DON'T want you to." 
• When meeting the media, give credit to reserves, not just players filling up the boxscore. That's paying more than average (credit). 

Lagniappe 4. Jokic before Jokic (Sabonis)