The Post-Season : March Sadness, Lessons to Embrace

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." - Einstein

Reinforce key lessons. Get feedback. Ask them what we said. And recheck. "Trust but verify." Situational play wins and loses games and championships. 

"We lead by one with 31 seconds in the game and possession. There is a 30 second shot clock. What will the opponents do (look to steal or foul)? What do we do (protect the ball and get it into our best foul shooters' hands)? 

Consider "practicing" timeouts. Test players on the message and if you've diagrammed something, ask them to reproduce it (paper and pencil). Most young player get lost. 

Give and take. Give our best and take away our opponent's best. In 2003, Melrose went into the sectional finals against a team whose star scored 51 points in an earlier round. Melrose two guards worked in a triangle and two to contain her and lead the team to a sectional title. 

"Do more of what works and less of what doesn't." Strong emotion imprints lessons. Share lessons so that others learn without suffering. If losing is pain, playoff elimination is agony. 

A team lost a playoff game from doubling the post. Rotation failed three times leading to layups. Doing your job requires knowing your job. 

Don't give games away. Make opponents beat you. About a third of games are decided by two or fewer possessions. Make every possession matter. 

• Take care of the basketball. Turnovers kill dreams. Live ball turnovers launch transition scores for opponents. 
• Take better shots. Everyone should know what a good shot is for them and for their teammates. Avoid what Doc Rivers calls, "shot turnovers." 
• Don't take stupid fouls - fouling jump shots, fouling bad shots, retaliation fouls.
• Use tempo to your advantage. Match tempo to situation. Don't play fast to lengthen the game late if you have a solid advantage.  
• Don't save timeouts for a rainy day and drown waiting. 

A season is like a film (analogy), the outgrowth of preparation, production, and editing. Training can fail at any of the three stages. "Don't shoot yourself in the foot." Avoid self-destruction. 

Summary: 

• Reinforce key lessons.
• Give and take. 
• Do more of what works and less of what doesn't.
• Don't give games away (turnovers, poor shot quality, fouls, poor tempo)
• Failure can occur during preparation, production, or editing. 

Lagniappe. If you're old but young at heart, this epic pick-and-roll video has appeal. 

If we teach young players, focus on learning basic reads and finishing basic actions first.