Basketball Coaches Report

Where has all the creativity gone?

2010-11-09T10:04:00.003-06:00

Watching the first week of the NBA season we've noticed some familiar patterns emerge.

First the NBA playbook of a steady diet of ball screens will never go away. Players who have great ability with the ball in the hands are just too dangerous coming off the ball screen. It puts tremendous pressure on the defense to guard this action and if you combine it with a talented player as the screener it's very difficult to guard.

At the collegiate level it seems that coaches have completely eschewed the motion game or creative specials and strictly use the ball screen game. Last night the URI-Pitt game, Pitt almost exclusively ran side ball screens in the closing minutes of a tight game. You'll notice as you watch the college game even teams that were once traditional motion offense teams, now feature a steady diet of ball screens.

Another more troubling aspect of coaching is the lack of creativity or ideas at the pro level. You can almost tell what's coming every trip down and there are very few wrinkles or options that teams employ to get any variety of looks for their players. Now if you have a dominant lineup and will win by keeping it simple, by all means, but teams that are inferior in their talent shouldn't try to overpower teams with a simple playbook and hope their talent wins out, it won't. We're not going to mention any names here (New Jersey).

We're going to watch film this week and see how Atlanta and their motion based game has been fairing. Their record has been good so far, but we'll report on how their offense has looked early on.

Watching players grow

2010-11-09T09:43:00.003-06:00

It's fun watching a player develop their game so that they become more useful to their teams. 3 players in particular have shown growth in the NBA.

Joakim Noah, Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose are 3 NBA players who have amped up their level of play this early part of the season. Let's take a look at all 3.

Joakim Noah is exactly what you would want in a big. He's a high motor guy who runs the floor hard and give tremendous effort defensively and on the glass. His offensive game coming out of college was suspect to say the least, however, the past 2 seasons he's really worked on developing a jump hook game in the post to either shoulder. He also has, and this is difficult to say, improved his shooting from 15 feet and out. His technique is brutal but he's becoming more and more accurate and he's more willing to shoot it. If we were game planning to play the Bulls we'd let him shoot as many of them as he wants, but he's shown the ability to make them and will start to make teams pay for sagging off him.

Lastly we're really impressed with his ability to be coach-able. As a rookie he had issues with the veteran leadership of his team, going so far as to get suspended. But recently on a nationally televised game against the Celtics, Noah got a rebound and took the bust out dribble by himself, getting back tipped and turning the ball over late in a one or two possession game. Last night against the Nuggets, twice in the last 3 minutes of close game, Noah got rebounds and took the bust out dribble, and then he jump stopped and outletted the ball to a guard. He learned from his mistake and made the proper decision. He's definitely improving.

Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo we can evaluate together. Both are jet quick guards who can go end to end and attack the rim at will. Both are played as slashers or drive first guards who have had their driving angles closed off by sagging on ball and help defenders. Both over this summer have improved their jump shots to the point where teams have to honor it and guard them honestly. The result? Rondo is on a remarkable pace with assists and he blows by his primary defender and dumps the ball off to open teammates when the help comes. And Rose is scoring at a torrid pace. His athletic ability to blow by the first defender and get a floater up in the paint is fun to watch. He also has the power to attack bigger defenders and attack the rim for a dunk or drawing the foul. Both players as they increase their perimeter shooting percentages will become even more effective and entertaining players to watch.

The Art of War and basketball

2010-10-18T09:26:00.003-05:00

Recently the History Channel ran a show on Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese war philosopher. His most recognizable quote is:

Know yourself and know your enemy and you will win a 100 battles.

This translates on the basketball floor as know your strengths and weaknesses and know your opponent's strength and weaknesses and you will be successful in every game.

Most coaches scout their opponents, they study patterns, player tendencies, coaching tendencies, etc.

But how many coaches scout themselves or their own teams? Do you have any tendencies that your opponent can exploit? Do you run the same play out of every timeout? Are you predictable? Are you giving your opponent the edge? Re-watch your game film and look not for your players' mistakes but your own patterns and be unpredictable and tough to coach against.

Goal for Pre-Season

2010-10-16T17:31:00.003-05:00

Coach, what are you goals for pre-season?

Unlike the NBA or college where there are scheduled exhibition games, high school teams may or may not (under their state rules) have a scrimmage but more often than not you're playing games that count right out of the gate.

How do you use your 2-3 weeks of practice before the games begin and how do you use your first games? Is it exhibition season and you're trying out different lineups with the results being secondary? Or are you playing damn the torpedoes right out of the gate and doing everything possible to win?

A lot has to do with your philosophy of the season, if every game is a must win, you'll probably have your all your sets and defenses and you'll play your top 6 or 7 to win. Sure you'll win games but at the expense of your bench and mastery of your stuff.

If you view the season as a marathon, you'll most likely have stuff you're going to put in later in the season and you'll spend time on developing players 8,9, and 10 on your roster by giving them playing time. The negative is you might lose games early on and your players might lose some confidence.

Either philosophy isn't bad. A team that plays to win early and succeeds will have almost unstoppable confidence as the playoff season comes closer. A team that is taking the longer view of the season will see growth along every step of the way and be a really tough team to beat in playoffs.

There is no right or wrong answer to this subject, you as a coach much determine your philosophy and stick to it.

Are we forcing players back too quickly after surgery?

2010-10-16T17:18:00.005-05:00

A lot has been made about players coming back from injury in record time and the advances in medical science getting us back so quickly. Perhaps we need to take a step back and re-examine that thought process, are we rushing athletes back too quickly? 3 injuries this fall stick out because players who have injured their ACL's all rehabbed and gotten back in under a year, only to tear them again. The New York Jets Kris Jenkins, the Minnesota Vikings Cedric Griffin, and Purdue's Robbie Hummel.

Obviously we all want our athletes back quickly, but is that any reason we should rush them back? I think we all can agree as coaches that it's the worst thing in the world to see one of your kids get hurt. I think it's especially heart breaking watching one work and rehab only to get hurt again. The looks on Griffin's and Jenkin's faces when their injuries happened were especially crushing. They knew they had torn it again immediately and all their rehab work went for naught.

Summer Time

2010-08-20T11:00:00.003-05:00

We'll as you can tell we've taken the summer off to work camps and the like. We'll be starting up again with posts once the school year gets under way. We hope you've had an enjoyable summer and I know that you're like us, looking forward to a great season.

To foul or not to foul, that is a question...When up 3 late

2010-04-04T13:01:00.005-05:00

We're torn on the strategy of fouling when up 3 and on defense. Last night it worked incredibly well for Butler as they allowed the clock to wind down to 2 seconds before fouling and sending Michigan State to the line with no time to do anything except try a missed FT Tap in play.

Of course we all saw what happened with Kansas State attempted to apply the same strategy and Xavier was able to get fouled in the act to shooting and tie the game.

We've also had it backfire in our own experience with referees who for whatever reason decide to pass on the foul and just let a half end which resulted in our fouling player being out of position defensively and allowing a clean look. Additionally we've seen teams get called for intentional fouls in that situation and lose possession of the ball, putting the game in jeopardy.

Fouling when up late is a risky strategy and one we're torn on whether it's right to do or not. It's also risky to allow today's players a clean look at the basket late in a game. This is one that's not easily answered.

Channelling John Wooden

2010-04-04T12:47:00.003-05:00

After watching the tape again of the Michigan State - Butler semifinal, a quote of John Wooden's popped into our minds.

"The game is over coached, and under taught."

We're all for coaching, that's what we do and what we love. However, There were several displays of over-coaching last night.

At the end of the first half, Butler calls a timeout with 2.5 seconds left after a rebound to set up...a three-quarter court length sideline out of bounds? Why? Why not save that timeout for a late game situation. Butler had already used a timeout earlier which we assumed was it's thirty second timeout for the first half.

You really can't tell in the NCAA tournament if a timeout is a thirty and a full because CBS goes to a commercial during all timeouts and the first thirty second timeout of a half becomes a full through the magic of television.

Then the most egregious example of over coaching was the end of game decision by Tom Izzo to claim that the clock had started early. The officials were right on his complaint, stopped the game and reviewed the situation.

What this essentially gives each team is a timeout while the officials are looking at replay. It's usually a shrewd maneuver, however, MSU could have taken advantage of the chaos of transition and gotten a 3 point shot with Butler in a scramble. All the faux timeout did was allow Butler to organize it's defense and use the foul when up three strategy. If MSU allowed the play to continue and not ask for the officials for review, then we're willing to bet that no player on Butler would have been smart or gutsy enough to foul in transition, yet alone allow 4 seconds of clock to elapse before doing it.

In this case this bit of over-coaching cost MSU dearly. Butler fouled up 3, MSU hit the first and missed the second trying for a tip in and was denied.

Working Hard

2010-03-24T20:03:00.002-05:00

We're working hard to update our playbooks. 48 first round games means about 100 hours of film work, watching and breaking down the games. We'll be sure to have our April newsletter to include the best of what we've seen.

Also we're working hard on our estore loading up the team playbooks we've gotten over the season.

The most exciting and sad time of the year

2010-03-14T18:59:00.000-05:00

This is a great time of year, conference tournaments have ended and selection Sunday has come and gone and the best sporting event in the country is about to start.

Sadly it's also a season of firing some pretty good coaches and showing the irrationality of the system that values the monetary rewards of getting to the NCAA tournament over the values and true purpose of collegiate athletics, education. Already heads have been chopped. Coaches at smaller schools who don't make the tournament are losing their jobs after going .500 or better over their career.

Seriously, does anyone expect UC-Irvine to be a dominant tournament team? If they were their coach would obviously be courted by higher level teams and would leave. Instead a man who goes over 500 for his career is let go.

It's no wonder the NCAA coaches want to expand the tournament, it's a simple matter of job security.

E-Store

2010-03-02T00:26:00.000-06:00

Coming soon to the Basketball Coaches Report, an e-store where you can buy any and all of our pdf playbooks. We currently have 45 college teams scouted and 28 NBA teams scouted. Check back soon as the E-store should be up shortly.

Volume 4

2010-03-01T11:50:00.001-06:00

Volume 4 is published, register @ www.basketballcoachesreport.com to get the latest and best plays from coaches across the country.

The Timeout

2010-02-27T20:01:00.002-06:00

Over the past decade much has been made of Phil Jackson's philosophy of playing through an opponent's run without calling a timeout. Having seen this philosophy and having tried it, we've come to the conclusion that if you want a moral victory, don't call a timeout. You can go into the locker room after your loss and tell your team that they need to improve their mental toughness. If you want to win the game when the wheels are falling off the car, call the timeout and regroup.

Case in point, the Dallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta up 8, Dallas goes on a tear and Atlanta "plays through it". Eventually Dallas takes the lead and the game goes to overtime where Dallas is able to pull out the victory.

Here's why we would have taken the time out.
1. Atlanta was getting outworked by Jason Kidd (who put on a show getting a triple double). Kidd got an offensive rebound off a free throw, stole the ball from a post player from the blindside, and knocked down several jumpers. He even beat Atlanta's coach to the spot and got a technical called for the coach being on the floor.
2. Dallas' zone defense gave Atlanta's offense fits, there were too many settle for jumpers possessions late in the game. Yes Mike Bibby hit some big shots, but there was little penetration of the zone and a timeout could have set up a better attack.
3. Momentum. Dallas ripped off an incredible run, Jason Kidd energized the entire Dallas lineup. Call a timeout and cool their jets.

Instead Dallas gets the win on the road. Now will this loss benefit Atlanta in the future? We don't know. But if it costs them a higher playoff seed and an earlier exit, it wouldn't have been worth it.

Managing Expectations

2010-02-17T23:17:00.004-06:00

It's February, teams are coming together for their stretch run or falling apart at the seams. One of the keys to having a successful stretch run and season is to manage expectations. With message boards, newspapers, sport dedicated websites, the scrutiny goes all the way down to the grammar school level. That accompanied with the usual array of player, parental, and school influences make for an intense cauldron of pressure for modern players. Results of games are broadcast near instantly. Anonymous message boards levy harsh criticism of players (they are still kids right?) which is undue pressure on any teenager. If expectations aren't managed properly it can crush a player or a team.

Teams that are coming together have set realistic expectations and set manageable short term goals and met them throughout the season. Players are confident and happy in their roles and are playing hard and having fun. These teams are "gelling" at the right time and are poised for a good finish.

If you spent your preseason talking to your team how you were going to win conference and you're 3 or 4 games out of it right now, your players are probably going to be tuning you out because you've lost your credibility. At that point you are holding on to a tiger by the tail and hoping to ride out the string. Players aren't content with their roles, team chemistry is a mess, and everyone wants to go home right after practice or a game. If you're coaching at the high school level you probably have your fair share of parents voicing their displeasure about little Johnny's or little Suzy's playing time, lack of awards or newspaper recognition, or scholarship offers.

If a player had the expectation that they would be all-American, all-conference, all-area, or pick up a scholarship offer and those goals haven't been met you need to refocus their goals on the near term. Go out and own the glass, or take care of the ball, or make the hustle plays to help us win can help keep a player who's lost their way stay in the game. If a player is worried about the external things out of their control, they cannot focus on the things that they can control, their performance.

All is not lost! Simply refocus your team and individual goals into short term, attainable goals. We want to win the rest of our home games or we want to sweep the weekend. If faced with a difficult opponent, we want to hold them to 40% shooting and no second chance points, etc. Giving your players something to aim for, and more importantly something they can buy into for the stretch run will ease a "missed" season.

You and your staff can spend the off-season wondering where things went amiss. Stay in the game and refocus your kids to make the last part of your season a success.

The State of the Union - Collegiate Style

2010-02-10T19:51:00.004-06:00

Well there's been a flurry of basketball related articles regarding the business of college sports. It makes the authors of this blog shake their head when reading of some of the perverted uses of "higher education" and how this industry fails to police itself.

The past few days have seen several guests of the Mike and Mike talk show, talking about the NCAA's "1 and done" rule. First off for all of you who hate it, it is not an NCAA rule. It is a collectively bargained NBA-NBAPA rule. Secondly many of the same pundits who applauded the rule are now bashing it saying that kids don't go to class and that the players are one year rental players. Well that is something within the purview of the NCAA and Bob Knight has been an outspoken critic of the NCAA's handling of the matter. Why can't kids and college be held accountable to actually go to class? These are colleges aren't they? That's what people who go to college are supposed to do, attend class and maybe learn something. I guess so long as the billions of dollars pour into college athletics then university presidents will ignore this eyesore. Ignorance is bliss, and to the athletes who play college sports, all in all you're just another brick in the wall of NCAA hypocrisy.

What is further maddening is the idea put forth in this article on espn.com, that only 20 universities annually break even financially. Where then does all this money go? When will the government stop the facade that collegiate sports serves a tax exempted educational purpose? Were the television contracts not enough? Were the licensing and merchandising contracts not enough?

Dana O'Neil's article on UNo Athletics.

Play of the recent time being.

2010-02-10T19:46:00.002-06:00

The Celtics use this action to get looks for their big 3 players.

Loyalty Part 2

2010-01-31T16:14:00.003-06:00

As the season progresses and more and more stories are told about the goings on of a season we're reminded of one of the most important lessons in team sports. Loyalty.

Lack of it will destroy a team, a program, and individuals. Human beings are always seeking for a way to make themselves seem more important than they really are. One way for team members to feel this importance if they're not getting a lot of playing time, or are simply a walk on is telling tales of the inner workings of a team. They do this to make others think they're "on the inside", to enhance their self worth, or maybe it's just to get laid and be cool. Sometimes there is a profit motive involved, writing a tell all book or worse getting involved with gamblers who then take that inside information and bet with it.

The consequences of telling tales out of school are irreparable. Coaches, players, teammates, friends, and other members of the team all start looking at each other differently when stories of the behind the scenes inner workings start appearing in newspapers, blogs, and gossip mills. Trust is eroded and the effects on a team's ability to be unified going into a hostile environment are diminished.

Trust is tantamount in all team sports. Players must trust the coaches decisions are correct, they must trust that play calls will work, they must trust the instructions given to them aren't wrong. Coaches must trust players to execute the plays, know their responsibilities, to do what they need to do in order to perform at a high level. Players must trust other players to perform their responsibilities and to give it their all.

If trust is eroded then all of these simple decisions are questioned. Maybe a player doesn't extend into the passing lane to deny a pass because they don't trust their help. Maybe a coach doesn't call a play for a player because they don't believe that player has worked on their game enough. All of these scenarios and hundreds more are team killers.

While you're affiliated with a team, you may think that it's cool to tell stories of the inner workings to outsiders but that lack of loyalty diminishes your true understanding of team and eventually your place in it.

How do you get a D-1 Job? Simple be a meat puppet.

2010-01-29T01:38:00.004-06:00

No names will be used in this blog post.

Watching the Missouri Valley recently we've seen an old friend on the bench. Now we don't want to out him, but we do want to out D-1 basketball in general.

Would you hire a man who..
Coached a Great Midwest team, result coach fired
Coached a Horizon League team, result coach fired
Coached a Missouri Valley team, result coach fired
Coached a Big 12 team, result coach fired
Coached another Big 12 team, result coach fired
Coached yet ANOTHER Big 12 team, result coach fired
Coaches another Missouri Valley team that was a staple in the NCAA tournament, and now they're having their worst run in years.

Why does he get hired? I don't know but maybe because his dad is an influence peddler in the AAU circuit and head coaches think he has access to players.

The NCAA wants to initiate reform in college basketball and college sports in general but they have to take a long look in the mirror. They stopped being about student athletes when the TV contracts reached 9 and 10 digits in compensation.

There are no punishments for coaches who are habitual line steppers, who simply flee to another program to avoid punishment. Players and institutions get hurt in the wake. One coach who was a pre-season quagmire of a mess alleging academic fraud is now being celebrated as bringing back a storied program to dominance. How soon before allegations at his new address start popping up and he skips to yet another program?

What is the process of being an NCAA coach? Do you need an education degree, seems plausible to require that since you're working at an institution of higher learning! Were any of the 3 coaches fired for alleged player abuse in NCAA football certified teachers? I know it seems trivial but maybe taking a class on ethics or methods of learning would be appropriate. Maybe they would have learned putting your hands on a player or allegedly abusing them doesn't teach them anything and is counter productive, oh and ILLEGAL!

Is it an extensive basketball knowledge? We've sat with many head coaches and assistant coaches at the collegiate level. There are some very good coaches, guys who know the game. Guys who care about their players. Then there are meat puppets who know so little about the game it makes you wonder, who hired this guy? Some are smooth talkers, some are used car salesmen in a jumpsuit, some are related to highly placed political figures and really who doesn't like a celebrity? Some are simply dubious characters who lie, cheat and steal their way to assembling talent laden rosters and try not to screw it up too bad. You've seen these guys, they stealthily talk about what's the next job for them and how they can move up the ladder for the pay day.

It's a struggle to see the ethics line in broadcasting, where major networks hire former coaches who have been accused or in some cases proven to be cheaters and to see them manning the sidelines and studio desks and remote spots from AAU tournaments. Are they breaking the stories on how they got caught which would be interesting to see, no they're just biding their time until another job opens up and their name is out there because they're covering games 3 nights a week. And these are the so-called experts. Malarkey, there are hundreds of high school basketball coaches who know more about the game and are far more entertaining than these meat puppets. Also journalism is a craft of ethics, we will report the news as it is, unbiased and fairly. Why hire a cheat and then not have it mentioned in that person's online bio or ever addressed on the air? Who's doing the reporting of a the latest scandal in college sports? Oh a former cheater himself. How convenient.

The NCAA is a mess, it needs to lose it's tax exempt status because it is all about business and not about education. If not, then hire educators and police them properly, make rules that are clear and easy to understand since the current NCAA rules manual requires a law degree to navigate. Pay the coaches what you would pay your rock-star professors, and no 7 digit contracts.

Are there some who do it right? Yes and there are players who use this opportunity to get a free education and the experience of a lifetime. Those are the stories that should be celebrated. The guys who repeatedly lie, cheat, steal in this profession should be ostracized so the business of education can get done.

Oh and in case you're wondering the NCAA assistant has never delivered one of his dad's players to the programs he's worked in. Seems Papa knows enough not to send his AAU players to play for his son. And as far as we can recall, he's never been a coach on a team to make the NCAA tournament. Yup sounds like a good hire!

The Evolution of Game

2010-01-29T01:32:00.004-06:00

Watching Boston Orlando and Chicago-Oklahoma City recently and noticing the evolution of game for one young point guard, and the status quo of another.

The Bulls' Derrick Rose has simply been on fire of late. He's always had the ability to take the ball to the rim and finish but more importantly the development of an 18 foot jump shot has made defenses play him honestly which has allowed easier penetration to the paint and rim. He's a big reason the Bulls have played and beaten 4 legitimate playoff quality teams from the western conference in a ROW! Reading some of the media coverage of the Bulls' many were expecting an 0-7 road trip after losing the Golden State Warriors of the D-League and Los Angeles Clippers. But Rose has put the team on his shoulders and has lead them to an impressive streak.

On the other hand, we've seen more of the same from Rajon Rondo. His inability to hit a free throw line jumper forces clogged lanes to the basket and makes initiating the Boston offense that much more difficult. Luckily he has 3-4 shooters who can space the floor allowing him some driving lanes, but if he were able to hit a free throw line jumper on a semi-regular basis he could be a 20 point 10 assist man every night.

Announcers Ad Nauseum

2010-01-29T01:28:00.003-06:00

We know that announcers sitting court side really don't watch the monitors, they just watch the game, but a funny moment happened in the Boston-Orlando game tonight. Jameer Nelson drove to the hoop and scored, in the process his shoe came off his foot. Boston inbounds and goes down and hits a wide open three by Rasheed Wallace. Reggie Miller unfortunately says after the shot that Nelson was slow to get back for some reason. The camera's showed Nelson adjusting his shoe for probably close to 3 seconds, even if you're not looking at the monitor, can't you just scan the floor to see him adjusting his shoe? Of course Nelson scored on the next two possessions forcing the Celtics to burn a timeout.

The Scramble

2010-01-29T01:24:00.002-06:00

In watching several games this week we've seen a very useful tactic, the offensive rebound and scramble. Much has been written on forcing a defense to shift or distort it's original shape and nothing does that better than a shot followed by an offensive rebound. While it's preferable for one of your bigs to simply rise up and score, sometimes it's advantageous to kick the ball out to a wide open shooter (the defense has collapsed in for the rebound) and shoot. Additionally it's advantageous to kick out and slash by on the closeout.

Of course you can just get on your shooters for missing in the first place!

Utilizing your pieces

2010-01-15T13:07:00.003-06:00

One of the most important things we do as coaches is put players in a position to succeed. One way that is underutilized is running plays for players who are "feeling" it. Watching Ohio State recently, Thad Matta does a great job of getting the hot hand a look out of the same sets.

NBA teams are very effective at swapping out positions for plays to take advantage of mismatches, foul trouble, or to exploit the way an opponents is guarding an action.

It's a given that we probably don't do enough of this in practice, but take your tried and true specials and put a different player in the target spot. Say you run a screen the screener action for your 2 man. Run it in practice for someone else (1,3,4 or 5). What we've done is run our BLOB's and SLOB's with different players at different spots. It helps players understand the timing and other options of the plays we run. Plus every once in a while it's fun to run a jump shot play for your 5 man for 3. The kids will get a kick out of it.

Coaches you never know when an injury, an ineligibility or a defection are going to weaken your ranks and make you play someone at a different position. Why not prepare for it ahead of time and get players looks at different spots.

40 Year old Virgins?

2010-01-13T01:50:00.002-06:00

Watching home games @ Michigan is equal parts entertaining and disturbing. Copying the formula @ Cameron Indoor Stadium, Michigan has it's students close to the floor and they do the obligatory jumping in unison trying to distract the opponent and create a home court environment.

However, upon closer inspection and through camera closeups you can see the "Blue Rage" is not college kids, but rather middle aged people, jumping like they were 18 years old. I wonder what their motivation is, whether if be a midlife crisis or just plain arrested development, it's eerie watching a bald bearded man jump up and down at a college basketball game.

Color Commentators Part II

2010-01-09T15:36:00.003-06:00

We've seen enough basketball on TV in the past month to give a fairly good analysis of the color commentators out there, from both an entertainer and coaching perspective.

Here's our list of guys (any why) you want to turn the volume up on:

Bill Raftery: This guy is a coaches coach who is also very entertaining. He gives good insight as to strategy and does it in a way that amps up the intensity of any good game that he's working. You gotta love hearing "onions" when a guy takes a big shot or makes a great play down the stretch. As coaches we appreciate the players who take and make the big shot down the stretch, just like Raftery does!

Doug Gottlieb: One of the better young color commentators. Has a player's perspective since he's not too recently retired. Gotta love someone who works in "the 7 ways to defend a ball screen" into his commentary.

Jay Bilas: Good analysis, good demeanor, just please don't let him get a Duke game. He tends to show off on those games.

Fran Fraschilla: The coaches' coach, does a great job of explaining situations and strategy in a way that coaches can appreciate and is not over the head of the average fan.

Bob Knight: Good coaching insight, obviously slanted with his view on how the game should be played. Kind of hard to argue perspective against one of the all-time winningest coaches in college basketball.

Leave the Volume where it's At:

Dick Vitale: We've come full circle on Dicky V. When you're in high school or in college and he's doing a game, his hype o meter really adds a lot of excitement to the goings on. Once you get older, you can tire quickly of his hyping of things we already know. He's been accused of being a homer, hyping his friends to the point of annoyance. While that may be true, he does offer some coaching jewels every once in a while. Just don't turn the volume up when he's on the air, he might pierce an eardrum or two.

Jay Williams: Jury is still out on him. He offers good insight from a player's perspective. Has good chemistry with his play by play guys.

Digger Phelps: We're really torn with Digger. We've heard from people we trust that he still lives in South Bend and has been known to go into the basketball offices and tell the coaches there what they're doing wrong. If that's true then his on air persona of arrogance isn't an act.

Mute'em:
Corey Williams: Thankfully he only does broadcasts for Arizona games. Blatant homer. Case in point, Nic Wise's shot at the buzzer against Lipscomb. Shot was ruled a 3 on the court. Replay was inconclusive at every angle (on HD no less). He proceeded to try and tell everyone that the shot was obviously out of his hands @ .1 seconds left. Wasn't so obviously and while the shot stood, you felt after listening to Williams that Lipscomb got hosed.

Jim Jackson: Watched the game of Michigan State and Northwestern. Here's an interesting situation. Shon Morris does the opening to the show as the color commentator. Yet when the game starts Jackson is the color commentator. The explanation being that Jackson's flight had arrived late and that he just got there. Ok. But how does someone who just got there recall a story from that morning's shoot around? It's almost as nonsensical as a stewardess who arrives at the same time you do, welcoming you to that city.

Anyway that's not why he's on here, he's on here because he is a jabber mouth and rambles on. Speaking more does not make you a better analyst. Offering something of value when you speak does.

Take this for example (this is paraphrased from our notes)

Northwestern gets a lot of points off their out of bounds plays, and they don't count towards your offensive baskets?

Really? What does it count as? A turnover? A FT?

Shon Morris: Ok he's on here for one particular bad choice of words. This former Northwestern player is usually a pretty solid analyst. But in the Stanford-Northwestern game, Stanford's best player Landry Fields dunks of Northwestern's John Shurna. Morris calls it a Noczema moment. A horribly poor choice of words considering both players have complexion issues.

Catching up in the New Year

2010-01-07T12:13:00.002-06:00

Well, we've been busy watching as many high school tournament games as we could as well as the college holiday hoops and updating the playbook portion of our website so we apologize for not keeping up with the blog. We hope everyone had a great new year and much continued success for your teams in 2010.

The following team's playbooks are in our collection.
Michigan State
Gonzaga
Stanford
Oklahoma State
UCLA
New Mexico State
Northwestern
Wake Forest
NC State
USC
UNLV
2005 Arizona
2005 Illinois
Lipscomb
Arizona
BYU
Michigan
Kansas

In addition we have 28 NBA Playbooks that we're adding to our database.

Go to www.baskebtallcoachesreport.com and sign up to receive our newsletter and you'll get the best sets and actions from all these playbooks. Over 20+ pages of plays each month delivered to your email in a .pdf each month.

Plus we offer special .pdf's for joining. If you join now you will get the North Carolina Early Offense System. All 16 of UNC's Secondary breaks broken down in an easy format.

Mistakes

2009-12-23T01:09:00.003-06:00

There are essentially two types of mistakes on the basketball floor. Mistakes of Omission and Mistakes of Commission.

Mistakes of omission are mental mistakes, forgetting and assignment, not using the proper technique, not being in the right spot, etc.

Mistakes of commission are mistakes of trying to make a play, fouling while going for a loose ball, being aggressive on a rebound, trying to force a pass, etc.

Players will make mistakes; coaches will make errant calls; referees, well if you listen to every coach in America, the next right call made by an official will be the first right one they've made all year.

Mistakes of omission should not be tolerated. Not knowing your spot or assignment is giving you the clearest communication that the player isn't all in. No matter the talent, if they're not committed your team will not achieve it's full potential.

Aggressive mistakes are the ones you should live with in the heat of the moment. Watch tape with your player and coach them up so they don't make the mistake again but live with it in the moment. Remember the player is trying to make a play to help your squad win. We've all made bad decisions on the sideline. Going zone and allowing a three, a play call that leads to a turnover or a forced shot, made the wrong sub at the wrong time, etc.

We learn from it as coaches, make sure you coach your players up so they learn from their mistakes of commission as well.

Theatrics and basketball

2009-12-23T00:57:00.002-06:00

Watching the holiday action at the collegiate and high school level we've seen more than our fair share of sideline antics and theatrics by coaches. The BCR has always taken the position that the behavior of a coach on the sideline will manifest itself in one way or another on the floor by their players.

We saw a game today where the head coach literally waved his hands in disgust every time one of his players made a mistake. (More on mistakes in a later post). An assistant coach showed his displeasure during a 30 second timeout by not getting up and essentially pouting. How did it manifest itself? You know that every time a player, teammate, or referee made a move with the hint of mistake, the players on the floor overreacted and lost focus. That team lost by double digits. Where they better than the team they lost to? No, were they hanging around trailing by 10 most of the game? Yes. How did they react to mistakes by allowing their opponent to build the lead up to 16 or 18 on a consistent basis. If the sideline sideshow were tamed and the staff more focused on what was going to happen next perhaps they cut it to 6 and we all know how difficult it is to win when you let an inferior team hang around until late.

In another game we saw today, we saw what coaching your kids through a rough patch can do. USC was trailing Western Michigan by double digits early. Yes the same USC that beat #8 ranked Tennessee like they stole something over the weekend. Rather than pout or put on a show, Kevin O'Neil and staff kept plugging away at it and eventually USC turned up their defensive effort and got the win, ugly as it may be.

John Thompson of Georgetown said that he would rather learn lessons from winning than losing. USC's staff and team will most assuredly take a long hard look at their first half and still learn some great lessons, and also reinforce what stepping up their effort can do for them.

Unusual Free Throw Routine

2009-12-21T02:20:00.002-06:00

Watching the Northwestern-Stanford game, a game which Stanford turned over (literally) the win to NU, we noticed an odd free throw ritual. Late in the game, Stanford fouled NU freshman, Drew Crawford, who during the obligatory close up on the free throw shooter was either talking to himself or the Stanford player on his immediate left.

Reading lips it looks a lot like he's saying a four letter word that starts with F and sounds a lot like duck...you. If we find online video of it, we'll post a link but something to be on the look out for.

Play of the week.

2009-12-19T13:18:00.001-06:00

UCLA's Regular. Usually to free up Michael Roll for a jumper.

Chunking Your Season

2009-12-15T13:49:00.002-06:00

The high school basketball season is roughly 4 months long, Part of November, December, January, February, and part of March. It's important for coaches to understand the different chunks the season provides and what goals you want to achieve during each section of the season.

Chunk 1 - Pre-Season and early tournaments.
During this phase of the season you really want to implement your philosophy with your pre-season practices (pre-season meaning before you play your first game).

Some coaches go two-a-day practices at this point to get more repetition and time on the floor so their teams are ready for play.

However you go about this you want to instill your team's offensive and defensive systems, how to deal with transition (offense and defense), and other basic systems that your going to install like BLOBS and SLOBS (Base Line out of Bounds, Side Line out of Bounds).

You also want to set the work rate and intensity rate you want your players to play with. Setting a solid work ethic and being consistent in your high demands are of the utmost importance early in the season. Just like in the classroom, if you fail to set the tone early you cannot go back and redo the first month of the school year or season.

Once you start playing games in and early season tournament you and your team may have set the goal of winning the tournament but as a coach you want to also see how different lineups will fare, how a player playing a different position will do, how a certain play or a defense will work. These early games are your feedback to see what areas you need to address. There may be areas where you thought were strengths but struggled with, etc. Pay close attention to these thing in early games and make the immediate corrections you need to ensure your season's success.

We'll examine the other chunks of the season in future posts.

High School Games

2009-12-15T13:33:00.002-06:00

We've been spending a lot of time watching high school games of late. A few things we've noticed. Early on senior dominated teams tend to do well for the obvious reasons, it's not their first rodeo. Young players, even the future superstars, tend to make mistakes early and look over their shoulders for reinforcement. Very rare is a freshmen or sophomore who plays on varsity that plays with the confidence of a seasoned vet and is not nervous about making mistakes.

Watching shootouts and tournaments you see different coaching styles and philosophies play out in front of your eyes.

There are coaches and programs that act like the season is a marathon and play accordingly. They tend not to worry about winning games in November and December but rather focus on making sure that their teams are executing and putting forth the proper effort and learning the process on how to win.

Sure we all want to win but maybe an early loss to an inferior opponent will give a coach the needed ammunition to get his team's focus for the long haul of the season. How many times have you seen a team lose a game it's not supposed to lose, then go on a tear and win everything? Why? We're guessing because their players come back to focus on the things they need to do to win.

Other coaches take the mindset that every game is game 7 of the NBA championship and must be won at all costs. While we love competitors and we love winning sometimes this mindset can burn out a team. How many games of your 30 game schedule are really "BIG" games? Probably only a handful, your top opponents in conference, a neighborhood rival, a school district rival, and maybe a top ranked team in the area will be your big games during the season until playoff time. If you take your team on a high wire act of every game is game 7 you could lose their sense of urgency when the really big game happens.

Sadly there are programs out there that are clueless in the early part of the season. Just showing up to a game with all players in uniform is a win for their team. Teams that are unprepared for a press, or a zone, or man to man defense show up all the time and are exposed early and often in this part of the season. We feel for those kids since more likely than not their season will be lost by Christmas and they won't get the opportunity to compete on a level playing field which is what this great game offers us.

Color Commentators

2009-12-06T17:03:00.004-06:00

It is so difficult to find a good color commentator for the game of basketball. For long periods of time we've had to suffer with the likes of Bill Walton and watching the Kansas-UCLA game today, Marquis Johnson.

See if you can follow along here. He states that UCLA's guards will have at tough time attacking Kansas' defense because Kansas is so athletic and are underrated defensively. (We do not argue this point).

Then down 21-10, UCLA scores in transition and he says that is exactly what UCLA needs to do, uptempo the game....let that sink in for a second. A team that is over matched physically and skill wise should increase the number of possessions in the game. Again let that sink in....

Rule of thumb, if you have the better athletes or players you want to increase the number of possessions in a game. The more chances your players have to play, the greater the chance they will make better plays than your opponent and you will win. If you have inferior talent or athletes you want to LIMIT the number of possessions in the game so you expose your lack of ability and have a chance to stay in the game.

Someone please clone Bill Raftery, quick!

There is no substitute for game experience!

2009-12-06T00:01:00.002-06:00

What a day for injuries. First Evan Turner goes down and is out for two months with broken bones in his back. Then Michael Finley goes down with an ankle in the Spurs game. Lastly word is Greg Oden's season is done with a broken knee cap.

The moral of the story coaches, if you're comfortable with the win, play your bench and develop them as players. You will need them to perform due to injury, foul trouble, or eligibility issues and you'll be glad you threw them into the fray BEFORE their needed to produce.

If it means a 15 point win becomes an 8 point win so be it. You've won, you've given your bench players time, and lastly you have a body of work on film with which to go over with them and get them better. Would you rather identify their mistakes in a win and get them seasoned or after you lose a game in which they were forced to play a role they weren't ready for? There is no substitute for game experience so play your bench!

Buying Time

2009-11-30T23:58:00.006-06:00

Just had a conversation with a coach and we were commenting on a brilliant piece of coaching we saw on Sunday. As a coach you must be able to use the time of the game to your team's advantage by buying time for your starters to get a rest while limiting your exposure by playing reserves.

Watching the NBA game you will see starters go out in the last minute or 2 of a quarter and not return until the 9 minute mark of the second or fourth quarter. Coaches use the extended timeout at the end of the quarter and the first mandatory time out (first whistle under 8:59) to get that four to five minutes of clock time and extra 5 to 8 minutes of REAL time rest for their starters. When the Jazz played the Bulls in the NBA Finals, NBC made a point talking about player rotations and getting rest for John Stockton. They put up a graphic that he missed 4 minutes of game time and got something like 16 minutes of real time to rest.

At the college level you will see players subbing out right before the media timeouts (1st whistle under 16,12,8, &4 minute marks of each half) to extend their regulars rest. Often times coaches in college will feel out the game and see if they can buy additional time for a starter on the bench if the team is holding or extending a lead with the reserve in the game.

At the high school level there are no mandatory timeouts so finding these moments is more difficult but coaches should become experts at managing the game. Hypothetical case in point: There's a dead ball under a minute in the first quarter and you're going to be on defense and you know you're opponent is going to hold for the last shot of a quarter, why not put a sub in who won't kill you defensively and sub out a start who has a foul. How often have your starters picked up a pointless second foul on a drive or a rebound scrum on defense at the end of a quarter. There is a huge psychological boost for a player who starts a quarter not in foul trouble, they play more freely and aggressively, qualities that you want out of your players. The use of subs is critical in managing the game. Use the sub and their energy and keep your starters out of foul trouble. It will always come in handy to have your best five on the floor at the end of the game.

Oh and that brilliant piece of coaching we saw yesterday. With his starting point guard in foul trouble and his playing rotation a little out of whack, Kevin O'Neil of USC called a timeout right before an upcoming media timeout because his guys were gassed. So he in essence created two timeouts in a row for them to help their recovery. Unfortunately Nebraska hit a 3 late to beat USC but by managing the game, the Trojans made the game come down to the last possession.

Situation Play, Again

2009-11-30T23:23:00.003-06:00

Watching the end of the Bulls-Bucks game on NBAtv and we're amazed at professional teams that don't know how to use the game and shot clock to their advantage.

Case in point, Bulls were chasing 4 with under a minute to go. Rather than attack the rim and get the quick 2 and foul to extend the game, they force up a contested 3 which is rebounded by the Bucks who then drew the foul. The Bucks split the free throws to go up 5. The Bulls come down and hit a 3 which would have put them in the lead had they attacked on the earlier possession.

Now down two the Bulls foul and the Bucks split the Ft's again! They could have gone into the final possession of the game going for the win rather than hoping to tie and force overtime.

When down late extend the game by scoring quick and fouling. It's a higher percentage plan than jacking up 3 point bombs!

Lawrence Frank

2009-11-29T20:11:00.004-06:00

It was difficult getting the text message this morning that Coach Frank was let go from the New Jersey Nets. Unfortunately at the collegiate and pro level your countdown to getting fired starts the second you're hired. Letting go of a coach of an unproductive team is much easier contractually than replacing the team so these things happen.

Seeing Coach Frank at a coaching clinic in Chicago a few years ago he was one of the most approachable and genuine coaches we've come across. It was the Cotton Fitzsimmons clinic (Ed Janka, if you're listening bring it back!) and it featured an all star NBA lineup. For 3 days NBA coaches came and went, but one coach was in the stands listening to every speaker for the entire event and that coach was Lawrence Frank. His clinic on early offense and attacking zones was well planned and we were amazed at the breadth of his knowledge.

It's our belief and our hope that Coach Frank will be patrolling the sidelines again soon.

Long Season in the Pac-10

2009-11-28T01:15:00.002-06:00

From what we've seen in the Pac-10 this year, it's going to be a winter of discontent on the left coast. Having watched 3 UCLA games and one practice we've got a piece of advice for anyone who has them on the schedule, play a zone and shade Dragovic. Against Portland and CSF, the Bruins struggled vs the zone. The only inside player they have with any fire is Nelson who reminds us of Dennis Rodman, part inside warrior, part wild man. Nelson has an odd detachment on his face and doesn't seem to interact well with his teammates. Roll looked great in practice the day we saw him, however, he has yet to catch fire in a game.

Gonzaga

2009-11-26T02:18:00.003-06:00

If you're going to play Gonzaga you need to be able to guard a side ball screen from the left side of the floor.

Denver Wyoming Update

2009-11-26T00:28:00.002-06:00

Denver comes back and wins a game outside of it's tempo and beat Wyoming by 3. Ugly ball game with a lot of fouls and was essentially a free throw shooting contest. 94 free throws attempted by both teams. Wyoming's best player came up lame before the last media timeout and didn't return.

Interesting Matchup Tonight

2009-11-25T20:54:00.002-06:00

While many people are tuning to the ESPN family for games, there's an interesting game on Fox Sports. Wyoming vs. Denver. Wyoming a long athletic up tempo team vs. a Princeton Offense slow down tempo of Denver.

Penetrate, Attack, Attack, and Attack some more!

2009-11-24T23:25:00.004-06:00

Re-watched the Bulls @ Portland from the other night. Trailing 15 at the half the Bulls finally decided to attack the rim in the third quarter, taking it right to the Blazers cutting the lead to under 10. Luol Deng, John Salmons, Joakim Noah and Derek Rose all attacked the rim in the quarter getting east shots and converting. Here's a clip of Derek Rose finishing strong over Greg Oden.

Here Noah takes it in on Oden as well.

Later in the game the Bulls settled into their jump shooting ways and quickly got blown out. This has been a consistent theme for the Bulls since Scott Skiles was their coach as they lack a true post up player to get easy baskets and open driving lanes to the basket by forcing double teams. Rather the Bulls settle for contested jump shots.

The Pro game is different from college and high school in the sheer volume of games and the travel involved so it makes it difficult for players to bring the energy to attack the rim off the bounce over 82 games. Add in the fact that the players are physical specimens the pounding that NBA players take attacking the rim takes a toll so you get the Chicago Bulls, a settle for the jump shot team.

To be successful in the pro game you need a low post presence that will take the pressure off the shooters and give you angles to attack the rim on pass outs from the post. Plus you get fouled on roughly half of all plays in the post so you earn easy points from the free throw line. Watching NBA games you see the point of emphasis of getting the ball inside early so you pick up fouls on your opponents bigs early and getting into the penalty. Take a quick scan of Sport Illustrated's power rankings and the top 10 all have a go to post up player.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/chris_mannix/11/23/rankings/index.html?eref=sihp

If you attack the rim and the post early in the game, you won't play against your opponents best players at the end of the game so penetrate, attack, and attack some more!

Little Big Ten

2009-11-24T19:33:00.002-06:00

Iowa is in some trouble this year. A lack of size, athleticism and depth are going to cause some big problems for the Hawkeyes this year. After losing to UT-San Antonio and Duquense at home and getting pummeled by Texas, the Hawkeyes trail at the half tonight vs. the Shockers of Wichita State. Someone ought to tell the Iowa Staff that they're not at Butler anymore and can recruit big 10 talent because it appears that the Missouri Valley team here is more talented.

Playbook Added

2009-11-21T18:18:00.003-06:00

The Dayton Flyers sets vs. Villanova has been added to the BCR.

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Offensive Rebounding

2009-11-20T23:22:00.003-06:00

Watching games today we come back to a recurring them on the BCR, Offensive Rebounding. It's so important to get the extra possessions that often help your team win or lose.

In the Villanova-Dayton game, Villanova used 12 offensive rebounds to gain extra possessions and shots. On at least two ocassions the offensive rebounds were converted into made 3 point shots and a old fashioned 3 point play on another. Dayton wound up losing by 6, perhaps the difference in the game. Being a disciple of Tom Izzo, it would stand to reason that the Flyers are in for a long session of the War Drill.

Play of the Night 11.19.09

2009-11-20T02:21:00.002-06:00

New Playbooks being added

2009-11-18T23:53:00.002-06:00

We're in the process of adding several new playbooks to our site with the real start of college basketball season. Here's some of our growing list:

Michigan State
Gonzaga
Cleveland Cavaliers
Chicago Bulls
Arizona State
Washington
UCLA

Situation Play Part II

2009-11-18T23:39:00.003-06:00

Rich McKay, head coach of the hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers was once asked what he thought of his team's execution, his reply was that he was in favor of it. Your team's execution down the stretch will determine your success as a coach. Have you prepared them well? Here's a sample list of situations you may encounter

Channeling Hubie Brown here....

What do you do when....
Your ball, side line out of bounds (SLOB), down 2, no timeouts, 5 seconds or less

Your ball, SLOB, down 3, no timeouts, 5 seconds or less.

Your ball, Base Line out of Bounds (BLOB), down 2, no timeouts.

Opponents ball, who do you foul? Do you and your players know who their best FT shooter is, their worst?

Your on the free throw line, down 3, 2 shots, 3 seconds or less.
BCR Note: The NFHS really screwed high school coaches by not allowing players to go in the lane until the ball hits.

What play or option are you running @ the end of a game. What option are you running if your best player is fouled out?

Your team is on the free throw line, up 2, 1 shot, 0.5 seconds left, do you miss intentionally?

You're up 3, opponent is bringing the ball up 10 seconds to go, do you foul?
5 seconds to go? 3 seconds?

You're up 1, your opponent just scores to take the lead with 5 seconds left. Do you call a timeout or do you get the ball in and attack the chaos?

These are just some of the situations that you'll encounter over the course of a season, do you have a plan of attack and do your kids know it in case you don't have any timeouts left?

Situational Play

2009-11-18T23:31:00.005-06:00

I hate to sound like Hubie Brown, but his clinic shtick of "What do you do, What do you do, What do you do, when...." has never been more true!

Coaches keep this in mind before you play your first game, how you play over the course of 30 (or 38) minutes will keep you in a game, but your execution over the last 2 minutes of the game will determine whether or not you win. We've seen enough bad play over the first month of this season to drive us absolutely batty as to whether these paid professional and collegiate coaches ever address situations (What do you do.....) how or whom to foul down the stretch, who should have the ball in their hands, what's your go to set at the end of a clock, what defense are in you on a make, etc.

Tonight the San Antonio Spurs, in the BCR's opinion gave a game away. Yes an NBA season is long and playing without 2 heavy minute guys (Ginobli and Parker) is difficult but Dallas took a 6 point lead late and RAN THE CLOCK DOWN without a foul. San Antonio gets the stop and then proceeds to hit a quick 3 to cut the lead in half but without enough time to do anything about it.

Trailing at the end of the game it's very important to extend the game and make your opponent hit free throws. If they hit, all credit to them, they deserve to win. If they miss you have given yourself and opportunity to sneak a victory from a defeat.

Gotta Love College Basketball

2009-11-17T01:44:00.003-06:00

The first week of college basketball season is usually no more than Big University vs. Fodder tech. A guarantee game that is meant to be a 20 point win, thank you and good night.

But each year, smaller schools scare and sometimes beat Big U. UCLA loses a double overtime game at home and Iowa loses in regulation by double digits at home. Great to see the little schools take the money and run!

Playbook Added

2009-11-15T02:00:00.001-06:00

Arizona State's sets against WIU added to the BCR tonight.

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Brandon Jennings Big Night

2009-11-15T01:57:00.002-06:00

The BCR would like to give credit to Milwaukee Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings for going off and dropping 55 points tonight. In the pre-season we watched the young guard shoot and would have schemed our defense to go under ball screens and let him shoot. Last night he proved that he can shoot, now the goal all rookies strive for, consistency.

Attack!

2009-11-11T20:46:00.002-06:00

Watching two games tonight, Bulls @ Toronto and UNC vs. UNC-Central and the keyword of the night is attack.

The Bulls got out to an 11 point lead throughout much of the third quarter and then stopped attacking the rim. Settling for jumper after jumper and eventually going cold losing by close to double digits.

During the first half of the collegiate game, UNC is in constant attack mode. Once the ball is secure all 5 white jerseys are flying up the floor and the ball is penetrating the paint. Currently UNC is on a 19-0 run. Granted UNC-Central is only in its third year of being a D1 school and is greatly outclassed, UNC is attacking, forcing help and then kicking for open looks.

Jump shots are a great avenue to attack, but making the ball move and therefore the defense move is the key to getting a wide open look.

New Playbook Added

2009-11-11T10:59:00.001-06:00

A new playbook has been added to the collection, the Cal Bears offensive sets ran vs. Murray State has been added.

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Loyalty

2009-11-08T22:32:00.003-06:00

As all our seasons are starting up, an interesting thought creeped into my head about the start of the season and the hope and promise it brings to all. Then I thought back to my first season of coaching where the head coach hammered home the idea of loyalty by the assistant coaches. I thought it was rather Machiavellian, why would we have to close ranks? Who would want to twist something any coach said to hurt the kids or the program or the coaches? It didn't make any sense at the time. The folly of youth!

As most veteran coaches know and this is a lesson that we will all learn at some point, loyalty on your staff is one of the most important commodities you can have. Obviously having several D1 or Pro players on your roster would be the first thing we all would want, but loyalty is a must. There are so many different special interest groups that will suck the life out of you, your team, and your program if you give even the glint of a problem within your ranks.

Parents who want their child to play more will approach assistant coaches with the seemingly innocuous question, why isn't my kid playing more? If you as an assistant answer with anything else other than your staff's party line you've just given that parent ammunition to approach the AD or principal to address "serious issues" with your head coach. Administrators and even teachers at your school can ask you how's things going and if you answer with anything negative, it will come back to haunt you and your head coach. It's a veritable minefield of potential problems from within your own school and district if the wrong thing is said.

Loyalty is also a must for any assistant who aspires to be a head coach one day. We've all heard horror stories of assistant coaches who say something behind their bosses back to create a conflict and have that head coach removed. It's an all too familiar story. A word to any one who thinks this a good way to become a head coach, beware. Word will get out quickly on how you ascended to your position, you will be found out and at that point you will quickly become a pariah in your coaching community.

The best way for you to become a head coach is to be a loyal assistant. Tell your head coach that you want to be the big man one day. If they're worth anything they will groom you, tell you the ins and outs of being the head coach. Work camps, increase the number of coaches you come into contact with, improve your knowledge of the game. These are all ways you can put yourself into position to become a head coach. You may think you're ready but believe this, it's a completely different world moving over 18 inches to the first chair on the bench. The number of distractions that take the focus off your coaching of the team increase twenty-fold and it's not as easy as it seems. The key to being a successful coach is handling those distractions and still coach your team. Having loyal assistants you can trust helps in that endeavor!

Anyway, as basketball season gets started, the BCR wishes you nothing but the best of luck this season!

Role Players

2009-11-06T08:44:00.003-06:00

We've used this term in our scouting reports, role player, picks up garbage points and immediately our players dismiss that player.

Perhaps we need to word it better but the role player who picks up the scraps is a player who can routinely beat you. We've re-watched the Dallas New Orleans game from the other night and with superstar Dirk Nowitzki on the bench, none other than Erick Dampier put the nail in the Hornets coffin with an offensive rebound late in overtime.

As coaches we all appreciate the effort that these players give. Usually they're the ones who guard the other team's better players, do the dirty work of screening, reversing the ball or crashing the glass all without complaints that they're not getting plays called for them.

When a player like that gets a key basket to finish off a game, we take notice and appreciate that players effort. Now if there were only a way to word it in our scouting reports so our players appreciate how dangerous a player like that is!

Utah Jazz Close one out

2009-11-06T08:41:00.003-06:00

The Jazz were able to stem the tide of their little run of adversity and beat the Spurs last night. The BCR marvels at how well the Jazz run the most simplistic sets with little tweaks and nuances and still beat teams who run set after set after set.

The Bulls pull off an impressive defeat of the Cavs in Cleveland, could this be the harbinger of things to come for this Bulls squad? Has Luol Deng finally arrived? He's averaging 17 and 10 through the first few games, can he maintain this pace for all 82 games?

Set of the Night

2009-11-04T11:59:00.002-06:00

The Clippers ran this wrinkle on a standard set the other night.

11.2.09 Update

2009-11-02T23:21:00.003-06:00

Shock team of the night, Houston Rockets. Playing without Yao Ming or Tracy McGrady the scrappy Rockets go to Utah and throttle the Jazz by 17. Some hot shooting from behind the arc helped propel the Rockets to an easy win on the road.

Disappointment of the young season, the New Orleans Hornets. Do they have anyone who wants to consistently play besides Chris Paul? Paul scored 32 and had 13 assists yet lose to the Knicks.

Earlier this month we wrote about veteran leadership helping your team. On Monday, Mehmet Okur showed some veteran savvy against the Rockets. Maybe this happened out of frustration or maybe this is the way he plays balls screens but twice on vertical ball screens set by the Rockets to free Aaron Brooks, Okur eliminated the possibility of a roll or a re-screen by simply placing two hands on the screener and shoving them out of the way towards half court. How these weren't fouls escapes us but it was very effective in creating a double team on Brooks.

One Week Til the REAL Season Starts

2009-11-02T12:44:00.003-06:00

The NBA is nice, but the real games start on Monday November 8th. We've been attending college practices of late, it's nice to see getting teams geared up for the season.

Exhibition games are nice but we don't take much stock in them.
For example, Notre Dame struggled with Lewis University yesterday with their regulars playing after the last under 4 timeout. Does anyone expect Notre Dame to struggle?

USC was losing at halftime to CS Dominguez yesterday, missing 4 starters. USC will struggle but not enough to lose a game like that.

Michigan State beat Northwood badly yesterday but it was ugly, even for an exhibition game. Their execution on "IN" was good as well as "DBD" since renamed horns but overall it was a bad game to watch.

Veteran Leadership

2009-11-01T16:57:00.002-06:00

We attended a couple of junior college practices this week and watched one team who had 4 regulars out due to injury and other issues which got us thinking about how important veteran leadership is.

Just watching the practice and how the players reacted to the change of drills you could see the coaching staff get more frustrated as practice went along as first year players struggle with recognizing a drill and getting it started quickly. As most of us deal with, practice time is finite, we don't have the luxury of wasting time in the gym as there is another team or group coming in after you. Wasting valuable time while players figure out what spots to go to or what to do next is the last thing that you want to be doing in practice.

However, it is exactly this kind of recognition that separates good teams from mediocre teams; the ability to quickly realize change and capitalize on it. The old adage rings true, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores.

The role of veteran leadership also helps mentor players, not only in where to go and what to do, but what to look for in a certain game situation. If you're running a zone offense and a hi/lo feed is available on a reversal, a veteran can point that out and reinforce the coach's philosophy on playing a zone. There are thousands of nuances within the game that a veteran can transmit to a younger player than can increase their learning rate.

Hustle Plays that Matter - Offensive Rebounding

2009-11-01T16:40:00.004-06:00

We all know that effective offensive rebounding gives you extra offensive possessions and easy scores on put backs and wide open shots on the ensuing defensive scramble. Here's three illustrations from this week of NBA basketball that prove how important the extra effort on the offensive glass pays off.

Thursday night, Bulls vs. San Antonio. The Bulls shot less than 40% for much of the game but were buoyed by numerous second chance points. A key play was the last possession of the first half, the Bulls take and miss a shot, Luol Deng outworks the San Antonio bigs and kicks it out to a wide open Kirk Hinrich who knocks down a buzzer beating 3 pointer which enables the Bulls to take the lead going into half time.

Saturday night, the Mavericks vs. the Clippers both teams playing the second of game of a back to back. Clippers down 2 possessions, Dallas ball with 2 minutes to go. Dallas misses two shots and gets both offensive rebounds allowing them to burn a minute off the clock and ice the game.

Sunday afternoon. The Orlando Magic vs. the Raptors. Orlando up 7 with just over a minute to go, miss on a shot and poke out the offensive rebound to burn 30 seconds off the clock before the Raptors are forced to foul.

Too often we get so wrapped up in defensive transition that we neglect the offensive glass and the easy points and fouls created by going to the glass hard. Send your 3, 4 and 5 men to the glass hard on each shot attempt and keep possession and get easy baskets. If you have the ball, your opponent can't score!

Halloween Play of the Night

2009-11-01T00:21:00.004-05:00

Dallas Mavericks again running their kick back series, this time into a step up screen and lob for their 5 Erick Dampier which broke the back of the Clippers twice tonight.

10.31.09 Wrap Up

2009-11-01T00:03:00.004-05:00

The Clippers again show why they are the most hapless franchise in the NBA. Tied at the half at 55, the Clippers allowed the Mavericks to take a double digit lead in the third quarter. They storm back with efforts from their bench and Chris Kaman to tie the game at 82. Then down the stretch, with 2 minutes to go they make 3 fatal errors.

First error is giving Dallas a 1 minute possession by not finishing the play and boxing out. Dallas took the clock from 2 minutes left to under a minute.

Secondly chasing 3 points, the Mavericks knock the ball out of bounds for a Clippers BLOB (Baseline out of bounds) with 3 seconds left on the shot clock. Jason Terry cheats the play and doesn't allow Eric Gordon to complete the screen the screener action (BLOB 1 was the play call) and Chris Kaman is forced to pop out to get the ball in. Only problem is Kaman doesn't know that there's 3 seconds left on the shot clock. Turn over. How does the bench not let the players on the floor know how many seconds are left on the clock? Inexcusable.

Last error, Dallas ball, between 35-40 seconds left, ball in Jason Kidd's hands down 5. This is simple game management by a coach, you are down 2 possessions, you cannot play defense for the entire clock and hope that you get a stop, you still need to score twice. Yes you would prefer to foul Shawn Marion, but out of the three players who are likely to handle the ball in that situation, Kidd, Terry or Nowitzki, Kidd is the worst free throw shooter of them. Force him to make a pair and extend the game. Instead the Clippers allow the Mavericks to run the clock down and Nowitzki hits a tough fadeaway to make it a three possession game. Poor game management by Mike Dunleavy.

10.31.09 Update

2009-10-31T22:11:00.003-05:00

Happy Halloween. Plenty of games tonight.

Knicks come from 20+ down to force overtime, but perform badly and lost by double digits. Gallinari shot lights out for a stretch in the third quarter but seemed happy to hover around the 3 point line.

Washington recovers from their loss the other night to Atlanta and handles the Nets who really seem to lack any substantial firepower.

San Antonio takes a young Kings team to the wood shed with all the Spurs regulars sitting in the fourth quarter. You can add Spencer Hawes to the list of improving young bigs.

Game of the night, a rematch from a few days ago, Portland @ Houston. Houston took a high single digit lead early in the fourth and held on as Brandon Roy poured in 42 points. Roy loves the left elbow for isolation plays with a shooter buried in the left corner.

The Bucks win against the Pistons who are really searching for an identity. Acquiring firepower like Ben Gordon and Charlie Villenueva really boosts an offense, but their lack of effort on the defensive end will make wins hard to come by. Rookie head coach John Kuester will have his work cut out for him. The Bulls never really considered bringing back Ben Gordon because of his lack of commitment on the defensive end. Seems a change of scenery hasn't improved that element of his game.

Will have a recap of Dallas' second night in LA against the Clippers a little bit later.

Rick Carlisle- Coach of the Year candidate

2009-10-31T00:10:00.005-05:00

In the book Seven Seconds or Less, Jack McCallum discusses Shawn Marion's dislike for playing the 4 thinking he's better as a 3. After watching tonight's Laker game, Rick Carlisle should be nominated for coach of the year. First he has Marion understanding that he's not a 3 (he simply cannot shoot!) but he's an extremely hard guard at the four spot. He's too athletic for virtually all 4 men going to the basket. The Mavericks ran a step up screen and roll to death in the fourth quarter with Marion being the beneficiary of many easy looks from Kidd and Barea.

Carlisle also gets the nod for switching to a zone around the 9 minute mark of the fourth quarter. The Lakers made a push at the end of the third and start of the fourth putting a little full court press and made a dent in Dallas' lead. The switch to the zone took the Lakers out of their rhythm and Dallas was able to walk away with the easy win.

Kudos to Coach Carlisle sticking to the zone as well, on the first possession of zone Shannon Brown had a thunderous put back dunk that would have had most coaches get out of the zone in a hurry.

Young Bigs

2009-10-30T22:57:00.003-05:00

There's an adage that says young bigs take longer to develop than guards. In the first week of the NBA season we see that maturation process happening in 3 bigs.

Andrew Bynum of the Lakers is healthy and playing very actively, going to the offensive glass hard and finishing well around the rim. What we like about his game is he does a decent job of keeping the ball above his shoulders on rebounds and put backs and he goes up strong.

Brendan Haywood might not be considered a "young" big as he's been in the league for a while but his offensive game has really developed since missing most of last year due to injury. He's become more effective at facing and putting the ball on the floor and using his body to create space to get his shot off.

Joakim Noah had the play of the night on 10.30.09, he hit a 15 footer from the right elbow which made his teammates jump off the bench with excitement. His shot will never be considered nice, in fact it's in the running for all time worst, however, his work around the basket has gotten much much better. His confidence in his left hand jump hook is growing and so are his offensive numbers.

Lamarcus Aldridge has gotten much more confidence in his outside jumper and is becoming a nice compliment to the two headed monster of Greg Oden and Joel Pryzbilla. We would be remiss in failing to mention Aldridge's ability to finish around the rim.

We're still withholding judgment on Greg Oden as he's still a pup and only in his 3rd full season of high level competitive basketball but we like the growth we've seen in year 2 of his pro career.

Set of the Night 10.30.09

2009-10-30T22:56:00.003-05:00

10.30.09 Update

2009-10-30T22:48:00.003-05:00

The Boston Celtics shot the lights out in the 3rd quarter to take an already uncompetitive game to bed early. Paul Pierce and Eddie House nailed shot after shot on the perimeter as the Bulls had no answer.

In the first half of the Dallas-Lakers game, the Mavericks role players have had an outstanding half making shots and competing against the defending champs. What a difference a night makes in the NBA!JJ Barea made some shots which then forces the Lakers to play him tougher on pick and rolls which then opens up his teammates on the roll.

In other games the Wizards folded to the Atlanta Hawks down the stretch and the Sacramento Kings made a nice stand after a lackluster opener with Martin and Evans having big nights to take New Orleans to the wire.

October 30, 2009 Preview

2009-10-30T20:27:00.002-05:00

Best games of the night,

Chicago @ Boston
Dallas @ Los Angeles
Washington @ Atlanta

Early reviews
The Celtics defense may be the most suffocating defense out there. Holding Charlotte to 59 total points and then holding the Bulls to 32 at the half is indicative of that.

Rajon Rondo may not be able to hit a jump shot consistently but he may be the best in the league at poaching outlet passes and stripping big men of rebounds if they bring the ball low. Also for him to create more space for his teammates he must be able to hit a pick and roll jumper and force teams to play him differently, right now everyone simply goes under the ball screen on him and clogs his driving lanes.

The Bulls' length is impressive with Salmons at the 2 guard and Deng at the 3. A few years ago teams used to exploit the diminutive back court of Hinrich and Gordon, now the Bulls have the size to match up with any big guards in the league. The Bulls really played lousy offensively in the first half against the Celtics.

The Washington Wizards cannot handle the ball against the Atlanta Hawks. Time and time again the Hawks pressure on the ball has resulted in turnovers, bad offensive sets, and forced shots. DeShawn Stevenson looked lost in the first half against what looked like a token man press by the Hawks. Coming into crunch time now, check back for a recap.

A coaching tree that needs to be planted and grown

2009-10-29T00:56:00.003-05:00

The media makes a great deal out of "Coaching Trees", coaches who's assistants go off and become head coaches at other franchises or schools. Much is made of Tom Izzo with Tom Crean, Brian Gregory, and Doug Wojick all becoming fairly successful coaches at their schools.

Watching the Minnesota Timberwolves last night reminded us of a coaching tree that has failed. Coaches who have used the Sideline Triangle not named Phil Jackson have had little success in the NBA, Kurt Rambis will struggle to succeed with this group of personnel and Jim Cleamons and Tim Floyd failed miserably with the triangle. It's similar to the missteps people had with Pete Carril at Princeton, how the system was great, etc etc. Yet teams who run the Princeton offense tend to hover at or below .500. Guess it's easy to forget for that entire time the Princeton offense was en vogue, Princeton was also consistently getting the best players in the Ivy League.

This begs the question, why do we not hear about coaches born of Jerry Sloan's tree? Granted tonight wasn't a great night for the Utah Jazz but his teams have always run consistently good stuff (coaches language for play sets), they rarely beat themselves and seemingly win 48+ games a year. Yet are there ANY notable coaches who were assistants under Sloan? It goes without saying that a UCLA screen for a jumper is not exciting but if you have effective shooters it wins games. In Sloans 20+ years at the helm of the Utah Jazz, he's had 2 sub .500 seasons. That's an incredible feat.

True to his quiet nature, you won't hear about Jerry Sloan's excellence but remember this coach, when you run your UCLA into a Rip, into a Back screen for a lob out of a time out, us coaches are watching and appreciate your team's execution and your longevity.

Set of the Night, 10.28.09

2009-10-29T00:53:00.005-05:00

More plays available at www.basketballcoachesreport.com

10.28.09 Recap

2009-10-29T00:51:00.003-05:00

Well the Boston Charlotte game was ugly. Boston took an 8-0 lead and then found an extra gear in the 3rd quarter to put the game away. All apologies to Dallas for yesterday's criticism on not having a legit 3rd or 4th option. Charlotte doesn't have a legitimate FIRST option in it's lineup.

The team of the night was the Denver Nuggets. A close game for 3 1/2 quarters was blown open late with a spectacular steal and dunk of a poorly thrown outlet pass by Paul Milsap. Carmelo Anthony rocked the Pepsi Center and then Kenyon Martin followed up a miss with a thunderous 2 handed dunk to put the momentum squarely in favor of the Nuggets. Ty Lawson was very impressive running the second unit and was very effective getting to the paint.

Sacramento and Charlotte are in for long seasons and New Orleans shockingly did not play well at all against the Spurs.

12 Games tonight

2009-10-28T17:04:00.002-05:00

12 NBA Games to select from tonight, we'll be focusing on the Charlotte Bobcats and Boston Celtics as one of the premier teams in the East takes on one of the legendary coaches. We'll see what Larry Brown has cooked up for the C's.

Also San Antonio hosts New Orleans and in a divisional game the Jazz take on the Nuggets.

Dallas Hawk Flare Action

2009-10-28T16:54:00.001-05:00

This action is run to get Nowitzki into the post or Terry coming off a flare.

Readying for the attack

2009-10-28T09:39:00.001-05:00

This is an exciting time of year. The NBA is underway. The NCAA has started practice and will start playing games in a few weeks and most high schools will start practice in the next two weeks with games less than a month away.

After watching some college practices this week it brought to mind a dilemma that all high school coaches face. Many states limit the amount of work you can do in the off-season, unlike college where the coaches get a mandated number of hours during the week. Watching the first week of practice many college programs were already well into installing and running sets with the fundamentals established and rehearsed in the fall during those individual workouts.

What's the right approach in getting ready for the season for a high school program? Many states face a crunch of 12 or 13 practices before you start playing games. How much time do you spend on fundamentals vs. installing offenses, defenses, ob's, etc.

There are many variables to consider when starting a season:
Do you have a veteran team that knows your sets and only needs to be reintroduced to them?
Do you have a young team that needs to learn your sets?
Are you a new coach to your school or are you established and have been running your system throughout the summer and previous years?
Are you a surprise and change coach and need to have more plays and defenses in your arsenal?
Are you a simplicity and execution coach who relies less on plays and more on the fundamentals?
Do you do your players a disservice by focusing on plays and neglecting their fundamental development?

Unlike college and the NBA, high school coaches have a finite amount of time to prepare for the season, using it wisely is of the utmost importance. The answer lies within you and your philosophy.

Games Added to the File

2009-10-27T22:25:00.001-05:00

Dallas vs. Washington 10.27.09
Boston vs. Cleveland 10.27.09
Houston vs. Portland 10.27.09
Lakers vs. Clippers 10.27.09

Subscribe to www.basketballcoachesreport.com to see their key sets.

GILBERT ARENAS IS BACK!

2009-10-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

Finally basketball games that matter are here! Here's a quick recap of the games for 10.27.09.

Gilbert Arenas is back. Gone are the nicknames and side shows and welcome back to his explosive game. He owned Dallas tonight and every time Dallas threatened Arenas made them pay. Watch out for the Wizards, their supporting cast is solid and getting better and Flip Saunders has already made an immediate improvement.

Shaq's new nickname should be the "Big Speedbump", he slows down any offense he's involved with. Recently he said that maybe he should have studied the playbook more in the off-season? Um, correct me if I'm wrong, you're still a pro and knowing the plays is your job.

Also Cleveland has some issues with their bigs. Shaq and Ilgauskas can share the floor on the offensive end as Big Z can space the floor and knock down some open jumpers but the two of them on the floor at the same time are a nightmare defensively. Time and time again in the fourth quarter the Celtics ran pick and roll to the middle of the floor with Rasheed Wallace spacing out behind the 3 point line for a jumper. They got this every time they wanted it. Cleveland has a lot of work to do defensively with those two on the floor at the same time.

Subscribe to www.basketballcoachesreport.com and you'll set Boston's sets in the 4th quarter as they beat the Cavaliers.

The Wizards were the team of the night, they were really impressive and they have some nice pieces. Mike Miller stretches teams with his perimeter shooting and his overall basketball IQ is higher than I gave him credit for. Brendan Haywood was very active on the glass in the fourth quarter and looks recovered from last year's wrist and this pre-season's ankle injury. I love Caron Butler who's as good as it gets as an NBA third wheel (Jamison being the second). Lastly Randy Foye did a great job knocking down jumpers when the Mavericks played the pick and roll by going under the screener.

So far Houston has looked listless against Portland who is impressive with Andre Miller running the PG for the second unit. Houston made a good comeback to close the game to single digits late in the game before Portland finished them off. Portland's versatility is exceptional. On one possession Brandon Roy guards Luis Scola then plays the point on the offensive end. I can't imagine trying to match up with Portland.

Dallas really struggled last night. Here's a good rule of thumb for Rick Carlisle, keep two of these players on the floor at all times as they're your only offensive threats: Dirk, Terry, & Marion, and we're not quite sold on Marion unless it's in the open court. Jason Kidd is a threat only in transition, Erick Dampier is a solid defensive role player but not a threat on offense. Unless they come from Terry and Nowitzki, points will be hard to come by in Dallas this year.

Additional Games

2009-10-17T12:41:00.001-05:00

Dallas vs. Detroit 10.15.09
Cleveland vs. Washington 10.15.09

Have been added to the directory....

Check us out at www.basketballcoachesreport.com

Games Broken down

2009-10-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

10.9.09 Wizards vs. Mavericks
10.10.09 Bulls vs. Bucks
10.10.09 Denver vs. Indiana