Basketball coaches enjoy teaching the game and competing. Coaches understandably ask, “Give me something I can use now." Find something that resonates.
Adopt the Bill Walsh approach such that, "The Score Takes Care of Itself" when we do the right things at the right time every day.
Track shot quality
Dean Smith sometimes scrimmaged with "shot quality scoring" such that layup attempts got two, contested jump shots were level, and turnovers earned negative points.
"Winners are trackers." Shot selection improves under the stress of tracking, fulfilling a Bilas Rule, "It's not your shot, it's our shot."
Beat the Press
Make practice hard so that games are easy. My favorite drill is 5 versus 7, full court, no dribbling. The ball touches the floor and it's a turnover. Success demands a "pass and cut" mentality and it definitely translates to games.
Special situations
Winning close and late is about execution. We finished each practice with "specials," three possession games (offense-defense-offense) which started with a BOB, SLOB, ATO, or free throw. This created competition, decision-making, and aggressiveness that improved "close and late" performance.
Never foul a perimeter shot
Pete Newell taught teams to get "more and better shots than opponents." Force "hard twos." One opposite of hard twos is fouling twos and threes sending teams to the stripe. That cannot happen.
Always condition with a ball
Pete Carril believed in conditioning with a ball. Many drills such as Kentucky layups, 3 x 3 x 3 shooting, and "Racehorse" condition with the ball. And, of course, Argentina...
Free throw rebound defense
Offensive rebounds against free throws are beyond a pet peeve. Sandwich the best rebounder, block out the other low and the shooter and it shouldn't happen. But it does.
Stop doubling down on stupid fouls
In almost every game, we see "frustration fouls" as a player makes a mistake and compounds it with a foul. It's a FAFO form of losing basketball and discipline breakdown. As Kevin Sivils teaches, "Foul for profit."
Avoid live ball turnovers
Coach taught us that "the ball is gold." Turnovers lose games, kill dreams, and act as zero percent possessions. Even worse, live ball turnovers translate into high points per possession chances for opponents. A classic is the stolen "wing to top" pass that turns into an open layup - in middle school and pro ball.
Time out management
Take a tip from Dean Smith. If possible, reserve three timeouts for the final four minutes. That allows for rest, coaching, and for implementation of your "specials" that practice created advantage.
Three keys to victory
Coach provided us with a scouting report (mimeographs for old timers) with hand drawn keys representing what was needed to win. It might be "force turnovers against their suspect guards" or "attack the basket and get them in foul trouble with no depth." We ended up 21-4 with the four losses by a total of seven points...
Lagniappe. It's hard to get as many shooters as we want. This video shows how the Celtics leveraged spacing.
