Basketball - Memories and More

Encourage players to make memories. Emotion helps encode enduring memories. The more intense, good or bad, the emotion, the stronger the memory. And sport rewards and punishes us with indelible memories. 

Memories are uniquely personal, uniquely meaningful. Yours may be similar and hopefully as significant for you. They're not in special order.

1) "Havlicek stole the ball." 

I was only ten and in the Boston suburbs, we had the Celtics, Bill Russell, Havlicek, and my favorite, Sam Jones. 

2) Garden of delights. I got to play twice in the old Garden, the shrine of Boston basketball. Three decades later, my daughters also got to play there twice in the Eastern Massachusetts championship games. I can't say that watching was more thrilling than playing. 

Old, grainy video keeps memories alive if not fresh. 

3) "I love it when a plan comes together." The sequence starts with a BOB, ATO with a slipped cross-screen. The defense collapse on our star player and Sadie (a future All-State volleyballer) gets a layup.  A big win over a strong area program. 

4) It happens. Never was an elite player, just a complementary player equivalent to a "3 and D" guy before threes. On the road against a top team I went 8-9, 2-2 for what the coach described as a signature win for the program. The miss hit an overhanging rope...it felt like it was going in. 

5) Seeing daughters flourish. As a high school junior, my daughter showed she had arrived with a 28 point, 14 rebound game against a top club. During high school the twins' teams won five sectional titles and lost a tough state championship volleyball game. Both were All-League hoopers and All-State volleyballers. They liked volleyball better. 

Many of you have bigger, more spectacular memories that I hope this will rekindle for you.

Lagniappe. Never compromise on fundamentals in basketball or life. 

Lagniappe 2. You're yes and you're no? If our favorite team can't shoot 3s (under 20%), midrange is better. 

THE NUMBERS ARE BLACK AND WHITE :

From 6 feet - 25 feet players shoot ~ the same FG%.

This is true from Varsity level HS to the NBA.

Aside from EOC/EOG situations, there is no reason to shoot mid range shots.

You can't sustainably win basketball games unless your EFG%… pic.twitter.com/lK1BfN3sLI

— Chris Steed (@steeder10) September 13, 2024

Lagniappe 3. Roll and Replace has been huge for Villanova. It's spreading. 

A Roll/Replace Ball Screen is a lethal action in basketball

NBA and college teams use it extensively, and it's making its way to high school basketball

Here’s 5 reasons why you should add some roll/replace to your offensive package: pic.twitter.com/viLoC3wOYp

— Matt Hackenberg (@CoachHackGO) September 12, 2024