Total Pageviews

Sunday, April 13, 2025

Basketball - Under the Radar Tips

"Good artists borrow; great artists steal." - Picasso

Sweat the details. Most readers have extensive basketball knowledge. Most players know less than they think. As legendary Coach Pete Newell said, "the coach's job is to help players SEE THE GAME."

British cycling won championships by focusing on minutiae to boost "marginal gains."

James Clear writes in his best seller Atomic Habits, "Brailsford and his team continued to find 1 percent improvements in overlooked and unexpected areas. They tested different types of massage gels to see which one led to the fastest muscle recovery. They hired a surgeon to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the chances of catching a cold. They determined the type of pillow and mattress that led to the best night’s sleep for each rider. They even painted the inside of the team truck white, which helped them spot little bits of dust that would normally slip by unnoticed but could degrade the performance of the finely tuned bikes."

Consider these 1 percent better suggestions:

1) Start inbounds plays the instant the official hands the inbounder the ball, not on a slap. 

2) "Automate" inbounds plays silently using the clock for EVEN, ODD, or ZERO. Override with "CANCEL" to signal an alternative. 

3) Focus on self-care for players via sleep (eight hours), nutrition, hydration, and recovery. 

4) On our coaching "Game sheet" include our best two for:

  • Baseline out of bounds (BOB)
  • Sideline out of bounds (SLOB)
  • After timeout (ATO)
  • Set play versus man defense
  • Set play versus defense 
5) Have a set call for fronting the post to alert the on-ball defender and backside help. Maximal on-ball pressure makes post entry harder. 

6) Remember Coach Don Kelbick's advice, "think shot first." 

7) Be descriptive. Coach Mike Krzyzewski didn't teach pick-and-roll defense by "show" or "hedge." He chose the term, "fake trap." 

8) Dean Smith (two NCAA titles) worked to have three timeouts for the final four minutes. 

9) Superior teams close out games with well-tuned offensive and defensive delay games. 

10) With about a third of games decided by two or fewer possessions (think Houston and Florida in the Final Four), practice situational basketball regularly. The Navy SEALs remind us that "we sink to the level of our training." 

Lagniappe. Adam Grant's "Think Again" points out the value of 'rethinking'. He suggests keeping a "rethinking scorecard." 

Lagniappe 2. There are multiple ways to run "shell." 

Lagniappe 3. Top teams run hard-to-defend actions such as complex screening. Spain translates to "backscreen the roller defender." 

Posted by at