Sports pages these days are littered with stories of coaches being investigated and even sued for various forms of mistreatment of their athletes. On the one hand, many think the flurry of accusations come from a generation of athletes who can’t handle demanding coaching because they are used to being coddled. On the other hand,…
NBA Playoffs – Best Sets of Round One
The first round of the 2016 NBA Playoffs have been disappointing so far, but the X’s & O’s have been great. Although there has not been a great end of game set or special situation, there still has been some great coaching and sets. Memphis Grizzlies – Punch Hammer Memphis went small against the…
Player Development: Using Ball Screens Effectively
Although the pick and roll action has been a mainstay in the NBA for years now, it has recently trickled down to all levels of basketball and is an extremely common offensive action. There are many benefits to using pick and roll actions in your offense, but most of the time our players miss these…
Out of Bounds – NBA Playoffs
“Starting 5 – Out of Bounds” by Greg Youncofski was originally published by HoopDirt.com Executing on your SLOBs/BLOBs is one sign of a well-coached and focused team. Out of bounds plays are a great opportunity for a team to run the exact action that they want and for a coach to put his best players in great…
The Lynchpin to Team Cohesion
Player leadership is crucial to creating a winning team culture. We know this. Coaches long to have a few players on the team with the courage to step up and lead on the court and in the locker room. But there’s another role that may be even more important to team cohesion and creating a…
Shooting Drills – Post Players
The season is over the the promise of next season is bringing coaches and players back to the gym ready to get better. Off season skill development is of the utmost importance and developing post skills is often overlooked. With the help of Dr. Dish, here are four shooting drills that can help give you…
Championship Team Culture
Today I am suspending my series of posts on coaches being teachers to talk a bit about the NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game last week. I am not going to be breaking down plays or going into any specifics on basketball. I just want to talk a bit about the beauty of watching two…
Closing the Season: How to Have a Productive End
Unless you’re the coach of the champions, your year ended on the losing side. Hard to swallow sometimes, but for whatever crazy reason we chose this life that the odds say will end each season lacking our goal. The finality of sports is a great lesson for us all. No redos. Lose and all your…
Championship #XsOs – Villanova Wildcats
The Villanova Wildcats won the 2016 National Championship over the North Carolina Tarheels in dramatic fashion Monday night. With 4.7 seconds on the clock the Wildcats ran a great end of game pitch set to get Kris Jenkins an open look at 3 and the championship. Nova also runs a terrific 4-out motion offense that Coach…
4 Keys to Oregon State’s Team Culture
So many vivid pictures of March Madness history play in my mind: Villanova upsetting Georgetown, La Tech’s short sleeve uniforms, Jimmy V looking for someone to hug, Pat Summitt’s orange suit, Laettner’s turn-around jumper and Charlotte Smith’s shot that lifted UNC to the title. It’s still one of my favorite times of the year, but…