As the regular season winds down, a lot of Massachusetts high school teams entered holiday tournaments. Streaming video and live attendance offered key lessons that separated winners from losers. Some were obvious, others less so.
Are we taking care of the details?
1. Top teams often win by large margins. That limits their experience in executing during crunch time. That means practicing "close and late" and "special situations" may be their only time to rehearse for the big moments.
2. Many of the top teams played aggressive man-to-man defense. Players should understand that great man defense looks like zone off the ball (loading to the ball) and great zone defense resembles man with ball pressure.
3. Top defensive squads contain the ball. When defenses can't, it opens finishing at the rim or penetration and pass chances for open threes.
4. Top defensive teams often had help side defenders with two feet in the paint. When defense loads to the ball they create the overload.
5. Strong teams challenge defenses with hard-to-defend actions. Well-run pick-and-roll actions scored and drew fouls.
6. "Utilize strengths, attack weaknesses." - Sun Tzu Ancient military advice didn't go out of style. When teams pressed transition, it often succeeded.
7. Have a fallback plan. Dr. Fergus Connolly (?) wrote something like, "don't bring a gun to a gun fight, bring a tank." When the opponent brings a tank, then we need anti-tank munitions (double-teams and junk defenses).
8. Movement kills defenses. The best player I saw (profiled yesterday) moved constantly to create space and time.
Lagniappe. Not for everyone but admirable for all.