"Basketball is not a contact sport; it is a collision sport." To paraphrase Dave Smart, part of success is "playing harder for longer."
Everyone knows the saying, "play hard, play smart, play together." Not sure if it came from Morgan Wootten or somewhere else.
Ask players what that means.
1. Pressure the ball. Defense starts with limiting dribble penetration. Coach Shawanda Brown exhorted, "don't back down, don't back down." Don't play 'dead man's defense' - six feet under. It doesn't please the coach and it doesn't bother the dribbler.
2. Contest shots without fouling. Blocking shots helps but bothering and disrupting them wins games, too, part of ending possessions.
3. "Be first to the floor." It can't be a 50-50 ball. It has to be your ball.
4. Move without the ball. Part of Billy Donovan's '95', what you do when you don't have the ball. Cutting is an undertaught skill. Urgent cutting gets you open. Don Kelbick reminds players that defenders MUST go with them when they basket cut. That opens you 'one way or another.'
5. Get us the ball. The defensive rebounding 'rules' are positioning and toughness. Block out or 'hit and get'. But nowhere does 'ball watching' gather rebounds.
6. Set tough screens. Set clean, well-positioned screens. Headhunting means screening the body not an area. Don't throw your shoulder or hip out to screen.
7. Mindset. Brad Stevens said that he never met an excellent defender who wasn't a good student. This isn't a new concept.
