Just as there are many ways to begin practice, there are plenty of drills to bring practice to a close. Below are five drills that offer a good balance of competitiveness, conditioning, and skill work. USA Shooting: The set up for this drill includes 2 players at the far baseline and 3 lines of…
Creating Feeder Systems in High School Basketball
A common complaint I hear from numerous high school coaches is that when the Freshman class arrives on campus in the fall, they are not very skilled on the basics of basketball. (Check out my post, tips on coaching youth basketball, geared towards players 12 and under.) Because high school coaches have their own offensive and defensive philosophies, they…
Plays Of The Week – Feb. 13, 2015
“Zone Offense Variety Pack” Facing a 2-3 zone can be challenging. At the end of the day, your players just have to knock down open shots when they come. It is really that simple. You move the ball, make skip passes, attack gaps, go inside-out, hit the short corner and hope that the shots fall.…
My Dean Smith Memory
As an 18 year NCAA Division I head and assistant coach, I was blessed to have coached against the best. Bob Knight, Coach K, Eddie Sutton, Tom Izzo, Tom Davis, Ralph Miller, Billy Donovan, Roy Williams……and Dean Smith. Our Miami of Ohio team won the 1990-91 MAC regular season and tournament championship. Fortunately we were placed…
Fundamentals Your Team Should Practice Daily
In the game of basketball, there are a number of fundamental skills that are necessary to be able to compete. For example, the ability to dribble without getting the ball stolen, to pass the ball around the defense to reach open teammates, or to make a free throw. While the talent of each player and…
NBA Chin Series
The Chin set is useful across multiple levels of competition because it is so versatile. In the NBA, it is often used as a designed set to feature a particular scoring option on the floor. At the college level, such as we see with Tom Crean’s offense at Indiana, it can be used as a…
Scoring off your Baseline Out of Bounds and Sideline Out of Bounds Situations
The ability to execute and score off of your team’s half court sets is a crucial component to winning games. You practice your half court sets most days in practice and you constantly try to instill the importance of executing those plays in your players. Do you spend the same amount of time and place…
Gooroo Drill: Dynamic Warm-Up #2
Activate players and prevent injuries Setup Line up players along baseline (see diagram) Instructions Perform Knee to Chest and Froggy to half court and back Perform Fast to Fastest full-court and back Do 20 reps of each jumping drill: Right Foot Side-to-Side and Left Foot Side-to-Side Tara’s Tips Encourage players to do the following: Take…
Plays of the Week – Jan 30, 2015
The flare screen is one of the best actions in basketball. Coaches spend hours drilling pick-and-roll defense and how to handle down screens. But I have found that covering flare screens is an under-taught aspect of basketball. Some keys to effective flare screens: The screeners back should be pointed to the corner of the court.…
Plays of the Week – Jan 23, 2015
Tug Motion is my absolute favorite zone offense. We ran this zone offense during my last season at Montana State and had tons of success. We often had too much success and teams switched out of 2-3 quickly. It did help that we the top 2 all time 3 point shooters playing 2 and 3…