Basketball Post 2997: Secrets to Winning Close Games Are Simple, Implementing Them Is Not

Pressure degrades performance. Some teams find ways to win while others discover ways to lose.

Better coaches create advantage favoring skill and luck to inform success. Technique (skill) and tactics (strategy) both have roles. Remember that Coach Popovich says, "technique beats tactics." That includes understanding both dos and don'ts...the product of a lifetime of wins and losses. 

Technique

• Play harder for longer (mindset and conditioning)
• Free throws 
• Limiting "bad" fouls
• Shot selection
• Don't give games away (turnovers)

Better teams play harder with a well-defined approach to wear down opponents. Superior conditioning isn't achieved by long-distance running. Basketball is a sprinting game. The late Lee Rose advocated measuring conditioning with timed 220 yard sprints with rest periods of about 1:20 in-between. Conditioning within scrimmaging and/or drills promotes efficiency.  

"Teams that can't shoot free throws last as long in the postseason as dogs that chase cars." - Tom Hellen   Practice under pressure. As young players, we shot four rounds of ten every practice with the top scorer facing the coach to limit sprints. 

Bad fouls (fouling bad shots, late clock shots, jumpers, retaliation and frustration fouls, etc.) are a clear path to defeat. Teach players, "if it looks like a foul, it will be called." "Show your hands." 

The quickest path to better scoring efficiency is better shot quality. Every player should know what a good shot is for her and her teammates. Shot charts and film review reveal hard truths. 

Turnovers are coach killers. A turnover is a 'zero percent' possession and live ball turnovers bleed into defense with higher points/possession at the other end. Tracking turnovers and holding teams accountable changes behavior. It's the basketball manifestation of the Heisenberg Principle, that measuring something changes what you measure. 

Tactics

• Offensive and defensive delay games
• Deploying timeouts 
• Best actions (ATOs, BOBs, SLOBs, Man and Zone set)
• Practice situational basketball 
• Create mismatches 

Excellent teams use time and score well. That helps achieve Pete Newell's "more and better shots than opponents" mantra. Offensive delay game shortens the game, giving opponents a smaller recovery margin of error. "Defensive delay" uses fouls wisely and obtains occasional steals and deflections. To play defensive delay, combining strong on and off-ball defense are essential. Players can't fear getting beaten during overplay. They're already losing. 

Optimizing timeouts balances situational substitution and stopping momentum with a desire to have valuable late-game resources. Watching coaches call a timeout in the first minute of the game to avoid a held-ball situation cringeworthy. But failure to use a timeout for a critical substitution can lose a game, too. 

We want to score every possession, but having ace-in-the-hole actions in close and late situations is vital. With mature players whom you trust, an 'ad hoc' /on the fly play can work, but with young players, if it's not practiced, execution will suffer. Have you best actions written out on your play sheet. Don't trust your memory in a critical situation. 

Our "specials" situations (15 minutes) of three possession offense-defense-offense games prepares players for offensive and defensive execution in crunch time. We start specials with a BOB, SLOB, or free throw. It would be even better with a clock but we didn't have that luxury. 

Basketball is a game of creating advantage. In an era of switching defenses, take advantage by setting up mismatches to get your best players big on small or fast versus slow. Small screening big with low post cross-screens are excellent choices. 

Carve out 'thinking time' from your busy day to brainstorm how to use a few of these ideas and your own to gain an edge in attention to detail. 

Lagniappe. Take advantage of Zak Boisvert's notes. 

Lagniappe 2. Xs and Os moment. Nets stagger pick-and-roll.