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7 Ways to Lose a Basketball Game

4/16/2015

7 Comments

 
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This article was written by Steve Smiley when he was an assistant coach to Don Meyer at Northern State University. Steve is currently the head coach at Sheridan College.

1. Don’t play hard: You can have the most talented team in the world, you can have the most intelligent team in the world, but if your team doesn’t play hard, there is no chance that they will be successful over the course of time. You must, before all else, establish and demand that your players play hard. It must be your identity.

2. Don’t play smart: After establishing that your team plays hard, you must then teach your players how to play smart. They must have a high “basketball I.Q.” Your players must learn and buy into the system that you teach and they must learn technique. At Northern, we say, “You can have all the intensity of a mad dog in a meat house, but without technique, you’ll end up with a bullet between the eyes.” Your players must learn to be students of the game. We stress the importance of player notebooks and taking notes.

3. Don’t play together: Finally, after teaching your players to play hard and smart, your players must then learn how to play together. Your team will have a very difficult time if there isn’t unity among the troops.

Key Phrase = “Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.”

4. Don’t have a delay game: If your team is fortunate enough to get a lead late in the game, you must have some type of delay game. While that doesn’t mean that you become passive and are afraid to shoot, that does mean that you may have restrictions such as; the only shot is a wide- open lay-up, minimum number of passes before shooting is 5, etc. Teams that don’t have a delay game have the tendency to lose big games.

5. Have no delay game defense: There will be times when you are losing and the opponent is running a delay game to milk the clock. If and when that is the case, you must have a secondary defense that will force the offense to speed up and hopefully take bad shots, so your team can preserve the clock. That might mean you have a press defense, or a trapping zone defense, but whatever the case, you must find ways to speed up the game and give yourself more possessions and opportunities to score.

6. No comeback game: Your team won’t always have a ten-point lead late in the game. There will undoubtedly be times when your team is going to be losing and your players have to know how to speed up the game to get more possessions and thus, more opportunities to come back. First of all, do you have “quick-hitters” in place; set plays that will result in a good look at the basket in a minimal amount of time? Also, do you have substitution patterns in place to best maximize your talent when you are losing? For example, subbing in the appropriate players on a defensive possession that will give you the best chance to stop the other team, and during dead balls, subbing in shooters on offensive possessions if you need to get 3-pointers to get back in the game. In addition, when your team is shooting a free throw, do you have players ready to check in if the player makes the second free throw, which will stop the clock and set up your defense (a timeout without using a timeout)? Being prepared for situations where your team is losing late in the game and having a plan of action ready is vital to a successful program.

7. Don’t simplify the game: There is a lot of power and truth in the saying, “Simplicity is Complicated.” You must keep the game simple for your players. If they have to think too much, they won’t be able to react. A good quote is “the more they think, the slower their feet get.” A great coach teaches his or her players a few simple principles from which the program is known by, and then, that coach lets the players play the game.

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Leadership mistakes

4/5/2015

1 Comment

 
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I talked to a former teammate last night. The conversation consisted of leadership, and the mistakes that leaders often make. After our conversation I decided to make a list of  leadership mistakes in coaching. However, these mistakes are often made in every profession. Here are my top 6:

1. Making emotional decisions
  • Responding to how you feel vs. what they need
  • Bad shot, bad pass, bad defensive positioning: Keep negative reactions to a minimum because they are watching you 
  • Reaction substitutions: it is okay to be mad at a player. Just don't make a emotional substitution that can cost you the game

2. Inconsistency
  • Saying one thing then doing another, or saying different things can damage a program
  • Develop a culture and standards, and live by them
  • Live up to clearly defined standards or don't define them
  • It's not bad to make mistakes just explain them

3. Lack of communication
  • Uncomfortable conversations are better than none
  • Let others know what you want
  • It's okay not to not always have all the answers.  Don't be afraid to say "I don't know" while you figure them out.
  • Must find a balance so everyone is on the page

4. Assuming  
  • Don't assume your staff knows what you want or need
  • Some things may be bit "elementary" and players should know certain things at a certain level. Don't assume your players know things you have not taught (think back to the bad coaches/managers you've had)
  • Don't assume, perform

5. Overlooking the good
  • More times than not the smart, tough and SIMPLE get overlooked.  When you expect you forget to appreciate.
  • When things are going bad the focus is usually on the bad.  Take a second everyday and look at the positives in your life and program.

6. Excuses for talent
  • If it's not okay for a manager it shouldn't be okay for the star
  • Does your 'best player' get the same consequences as the last guy on the bench
  • Talent shouldn't affect the the culture



"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." John Maxwell

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Blueprint For A Successful Coaching Philosophy 

3/5/2015

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The following are notes from Jimmy Dykes at the Coaching U Live event in Indianapolis a couple years ago. Jimmy Dykes is the head women’s coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

1) Everyday guys will beat sometime guys every day.

-High talent guys that are sometime guys will be a year of frustration.

-Key areas of recruiting: evaluation of talent and evaluation of character.

-Everyday guys go every day, every possession.

-When evaluating a player, watch how they respond in a bad game

2) If you are not tough, you will not win.

-Do not flinch on a loose ball

-Blow up screens

-Do not let one mistake become two

-"Toughness is doing what is right when it is really really hard to do what is right"

3) If you cannot talk it, you cannot execute it

-Players must be able to talk the action

4) Practice for 5 - 10 minutes without talking

-Will drive home the importance of talking real quick

5) If you aren't talking loud enough in practice to be heard in a silent gym, you not be heard in the loudest arena  

6) Where are we scoring from? 3 key areas:

-The free throw line should be a number one priority in an offense

-Are you scoring off of rim shots?

-Clean 3's.

- The quality of shot of us vs. them will 90% of the time determine who wins the game

7) How hard are your cuts?

- Be in good enough shape to still be able to hard cut in the last 5

-6 minutes of the game, not just for a half

- Cut with purpose and passion

-Hard cuts wear people down

8) 24/24 last final four teams have shot 32% or higher from the 3pt line

-Who is shooting your 3's? Has a lot to do with what you shoot as a team selection of the 3: are you open? Are you balanced? Are you shooting a bad pass? Quit shooting bad passes and shot percent will rise as a team. Good 3pt shooting teams and good passing have direct correlation.

9) It is not the number of plays you have but the number of plays you can run with perfection.

10) You cannot be a great player if you avoid contact

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