The iconic EuroLeague coach won many games with his switching defense strategy. Here’s a breakdown of his rules with FastDraw diagrams. Georgios Bartzokas Profile One of the most successful and charismatic coaches in European basketball, Georgios Bartzokas claimed a EuroLeague championship while being named Coach of the Year in 2013 with Olympiakos. Bartzokas also was a Final Four…
Tips For Lean Coaching
Lean Coaching: Three tips for trimming away the excess that may exist in your coaching style In some recent reading on non-basketball subjects, I ran across the descriptive term lean. The term lean was used as a complimentary descriptor for an author’s writing style. To have a lean writing style means the author is not…
Team-First Culture Begins with Coaches Modeling Behavior
Coaches can’t expect players to exhibit team-first attitudes and behavior if they don’t demonstrate it themselves. As coaches, we are constantly preaching to our teams about the importance of each member of the team having a “team-first” attitude. Our focus is generally on the fact that, while they need to develop their skills to become…
Here’s Why Double Low Alignment is an Effective Zone Offense
Unlock scoring opportunities with double low alignment – placing both post players on the low block with a focus on screening and slipping. Hopefully by now, you’re aware that I’ve been writing about offensive concepts this off season, including zone offense tips and 1-4 sets to score. This post will dive into how to break down odd front zones…
Video Playbook: The Short Roll
The short roll is an effective tool when the ball screen defense puts two on the ball. Here’s a look from some masters of the short roll. When teaching ball screen offense, it is important to equip your players with solutions to various ball screen defense tactics. Without solutions you are just “running something” and doing a…
The Basketball Tournament Tip-Off x FastModel Finish
See how a Michigan AAU tournament used the Elam Ending, similar to what The Basketball Tournament does, for better late game situations. Today is tip-off of the The Basketball Tournament, which in its sixth year has become another great summer viewing option for basketball fans (You can catch all games airing live on ESPN networks). One…
Zone Offense: Alignment
Alignment may be the key piece of zone offense. Here’s some tips for picking the right alignment versus various zone defenses. When attacking zone defenses, the first step is to settle upon an offensive alignment. And starting from a good alignment may be all the “offense” you need versus a zone. The traditional zone alignments…
Building Your Playbook: Add Sets With Consecutive Actions
Stringing together consecutive actions creates advantages by forcing the defense to make back-to-back quick decisions and communicate. During my second year as a college assistant coach, we had a Division I point guard transfer into our small program. His skill in the pick and roll was quickly apparent, not just to our staff, but also…
Playing With Offensive Freedom
Playing with offensive freedom – four keys to playing with more freedom and less complexity. There is a spectrum of coaches and we all fall somewhere along this spectrum. On one end is the rigid coach who calls every play and coaches every dribble. On the other end is the coach who basically rolls the…
Basketball Strategy: There’s No “Right” Way to Play or Coach
It’s all about preference – teams with various styles of play are succeeding in today’s game, as evidenced by recent champions. During the 2019 men’s NCAA Tournament, basketball coaches and fans across the world saw a collection of some of the best games in recent memory. Specifically, the Sweet Sixteen and Eight Eight featured teams with…