Coaching Toolblog

Coaching at the end of a tight basketball game is more of an art than a science. But, I feel better as a coach having gone through as many scenarios in my mind and come up with how I am going to handle them as I possibly can. I think teams will be more successful in tight games if your players have practiced various end of game situations and know how you, as their coach, will react to them. It is often difficult to communicate at the end of the game when the gym is loud and you are out of or rationing your timeouts, so it is essential that your players are sure about the strategy in advance.

Let’s take the case where a team is up eight points with two minutes to go in the game. Certainly, there are hundreds of time and score situations that we could examine. For the sake of brevity, I am going to use the up 8/2:00 to go in this article. The intentions of this article are: To motivate basketball coaches to consider as many similar scenarios as you can imagine and how you will handle them as they come up in a game, and to encourage you teach your philosophy to your players through repetition in practice.

I have heard, probably said it without realizing it, and disagree with telling a team, “We’re up eight points with two minutes remaining in the game; we don’t need to score.” My thought is that in the vast majority of end of game cases, you will still need to score to win. Your opponent will be more than capable of scoring eight or more points in two minutes, so you are going to need to score to win.

The rule I follow is this: If the regular rotation players are still in the game, then we still need to be prepared to score to win the game. If you have cleared the bench and are ahead, then you are making the statement, “We don’t need to score again to win,” without saying it.

What coaches really need to say at the end of the game when milking a lead and the clock is:

“We want to control the types of shots that we take to get the additional points we will need to win this game. We don’t want to take quick shots, unless they are free throws after a quick foul. We don’t want to take outside shots. The shots that have the best chance of going in are lay-ups and free throws, so let’s make sure that those are all that we shoot.”

Since that is often hard to communicate in a gym that is up for grabs in a tight game and uses too much time in a timeout, I learned one word (or gesture) that would communicate what I want to milk the clock late in a game. “Four.”

We use the Don Meyer shot rating system. 4 = lay-up or power shot, 3= great perimeter shot, 2 = okay perimeter shot, and 1= bad shot. So, at the end of the game, holding up four fingers means it is time to shoot only lay-ups (and free throws). Not contested lay-ups, but open lay-ups that will not be missed. You can apply it to an end of game spread or delay offense or to your regular half-court offense.

In a perfect world, you could spread the floor, milk the clock, and run off the last two minutes of the game without a change of possession. However, more than likely, the team that is behind is going to stretch out the game with timeouts after scoring, quick shots, attacking the basket quickly since you are not going to want to foul, fouling when you have the ball to stop the clock, and flooding the perimeter with defensive pressure so that often the basket is one of the more open areas on the floor. Frequently, the number of possessions of the last two minutes is equal to or greater than the number of possessions in the previous 4 minutes. A well coached team can create 10-12 or more possessions the last two minutes. It will be difficult to protect an 8 point lead without scoring for 10-12 consecutive possessions at the end of the game.

But, if your team: Has a plan to milk the lead that has been practiced frequently, can handle the ball well enough to make the defense foul you, shoots only uncontested lay-ups that go in, and can make your free throws—then you have a good chance of scoring enough points to maintain the lead and close out the game with a victory.

You can see several other articles similar to this one at HoopClinics: the home of online basketball coaching clinics.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. Our HoopClinics sneak peek today is an interview with stretching coach Robert Selby. Coach Selby has lectured to basketball players and coaches at every level, including the NBA, about the benefits of pre-practice, post practice, and off-season stretching. The interview is approximately 15 minutes long and can be listened to as an audio file, or it can be downloaded as a short e-book. One of the points that Coach Selby made during the interview was his belief that the end of one practice is actually the beginning of the next practice. When you do spend the time to warm down by doing a post-practice stretch, the players are ridding their bodies of lactic acid and that will allow them to recover quicker and be more ready to go tomorrow. Make sure to take a listen because he has several other thoughts for coaches in the interview. You can get the downloads, along with a download of the 2-2-1 full court denial press here: HoopClinics.com HoopCinics is a new site that offers online basketball coaching clinics. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

With the NBA playoffs going on, we at the Coaching Toolbox think there are a lot of things that both basketball players and coaches can take from the games in addition to the entertainment value.

In Today's post we will discuss what we think can help a player to look for:

The good:

1. How hard they play on defense when the games mean something. They play so many games in the regular season and maintain a grueling travel schedule that they cannot physically play as hard as they can night in and night out. Now that there are consecutive games in the same city and travel days when they do switch cities, fatigue is less of a factor. Every game is important now, and they play like it. High school players don't have those excuses. Play hard every night!
2. They play for 48 minutes and every possession at both ends could be the one that determines the outcome of the game. There are not wasted possessions because the game hangs in the balance every second.
3. Even though every player in the playoffs has great talent, the players play within the established offensive and defensive game plans and schemes. Because they do, the team is able to benefit from the talents of each individual. The best teams are better as a whole than the some of the individual talents and abilities because they do play together as a team.
4. The coaches make adjustments during the games and the teams whose players execute the adjustments are the ones that win.

All of those are good things players can learn from.

The bad and the ugly are the trash talking and the grudge matches. Losing your poise hurts your team no matter who you are because you don't handle pressure as well after losing self control. In team sports there is never a time to hold a grudge against an individual opponent. Focusing on one opponent takes your attention away from your objective to win the basketball game. No one is as good as he or she could be when they lose sight of the target.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. I just wanted to take a few paragraphs to recap some of the highlights of the month of June and look forward to where we are headed in the coming months. June was a very good month at the Coaching Toolbox. It was our fourth month online and each one seems to be getting better than the month before. We know that typically, basketball coaching sites do not get as much traffic in the summer as they do during the rest of the year, so we want to thank all of you who have been visiting and supporting our site. Our e-mail list continues to grow and we are excited about the opportunity to interact with more coaches and players. Please e-mail us or leave any comments that you want to here on the blog as to how we can make the site better for you. We began the month with the release of our first e-book 130 Great Ideas to Get a Lot More Accomplished in Practice. It has our best ideas on how to make basketball practice better. With a lot of help from my wife, we added a Facebook Page and have already attracted some fans on the page. If you have an account, you can click on Facebook Page. To me, the most enjoyable part of doing the site is the interactions that I have had with coaches and players from all over the world. I even e-mailed back and forth with a coach that I found out was my cousin's college roommate! I have also appreciated the contributions that you have made. Myles Robinson has contributed some ideas for basketball players, one of our basketball quotes, and a basketball workout. You all have been a fun group to get to know! We felt that our only teleseminar for June was a great one and we were very appreciative that Coach Bruce Weber of the University of Illinois took time to talk to us about making basketball practice more competitive. One of the last things that took place in June is going to have a very positive impact in the coming months. Our relationship with Coach Josh Stinson of Perfect Practice is going to be a very good one for everyone and we hope most of all it will be good for the basketball coaching community. We will be posting more information about our current project in the coming weeks. Well, I guess that is enough reminiscing about June, I better get to work if we are going to make July even better than June!

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

A little information about what is new at The Coaching Toolbox

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. Hopefully, this year's NBA finals will serve as an example to basketball players at all levels as to the importance of mental toughness and putting the team first over individual statistics, flashiness, and publicity. I believe that the Celtics ultimately won the championship on grit and unselfishness. There is no denying that they do have offense talent, but in my mind, it is not as superior to the Lakers' talent as the scores would indicate. I don't know what the stats are for the hustle and toughness plays, but those scores would be even more lopsided than the actual scores of the games. To me, grit and unselfishness are two parts of the foundation of a great defense. The mental toughness to stay focused on the prize despite all obstacles was a joy to watch. Every time one of the players from the bench was called on, he contributed. It did not matter if he hadn't played or played very little the game before, I did not see pouting and moping. They stayed ready and it showed in their play. I thought it took a lot of mental toughness for Ray Allen to come out of his shooting slump from the earlier rounds of the playoffs and shoot as well as he did in the finals. Paul Pierce took the ball hard to the basket time after time knowing that he was going to get hit, but he continued to go to the basket, rather than settling for mid-range jump shots. Perkins coming back from his injury to play. We could go on and on, but one of the most impressive things to me was the way the Celtics bench was into every play of every game. Not many players can help a team from the bench, but the Celtics seem to have found a handful of them. Doc Rivers and his staff certainly deserve a lot of credit for keeping the team together and focused on what it took to win the championship. That was a great job of basketball coaching. I believe that as long as the basketball plays you run and the defensive rules you use are sound, there are many ways to approach those the Xs and Os of basketball that will work. But, there is no substitute for mental and physical toughness and putting the team first. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. While we were waiting on the Finals to start a couple of weeks ago, ESPN showed Game 6 of the 1987 NBA Finals between the Celtics and the Lakers. One of the things that stuck me was the number of players from that game who were now in the NBA as head basketball coaches, assistant coaches, or NBA executives. I could be missing a couple, but here is the list to the best of my ability off the top of my head. Please let me know who I have missed. Boston had Danny Ainge, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Rick Carlisle, Sam Vincent, and Dennis Johnson who all continued their careers in basketball as head coaches, assistant coaches, or front office personnel. Los Angeles had Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kurt Rambis, and Byron Scott. I guess you could also throw in Tom Tolbert (LA) and Bill Walton (Boston) to the mix as they have become television analysts. I guess that begs the question, Were those teams successful because they had players who thought the game and loved it, or did they become coaches and executives because they were a part of the success that both of those franchises enjoyed during their careers? It is with mixed emotions that I talk to players when they ask about or want to discuss getting in to teaching and coaching. It reminds me of the time in my life when I was so excited about getting started in the profession and it has certainly led to a lot of joy and positive relationships in my life. On the other hand, I know how consuming it can become and how much time it takes to do the job right, so I worry about that aspect of their desire to coach. However, I do know that all of the players who wanted to coach were easy to coach and did seem to think and understand the game at a higher level, even as high school players. One of the nicest things you can have in coaching is when a former player joins your staff. It makes you feel like you are doing something right. They also understand what you stand for, what your program is about, and they are as loyal as anyone could be. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. Our Teleseminar Guest for Friday June 13 is University of Illinois Men's Coach Bruce Weber--his topic is making basketball practices competitive and he has some great ideas to offer. It is not wonder that his teams have always competed hard. From his days as an assistant to Gene Keady at Purdue, then has head coach at Southern Illinois, and now with all of the success he has enjoyed at Illinois, one thing has remained constant--his teams compete! Current Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter was Coach Weber's assistant at Southern Illinois and I thought that the 07-08 Purdue team was one of the hardest playing teams that I have seen. His 04-05 Illinois team did have talent, but you don't make it to the last game of the regular season without losing unless you can compete. You will definitely want to be prepared to take notes and listen to this interview a couple of times. Thanks Coach Weber for taking some time for our visitors! In order to listen, all you need to do is to register for the Tool of the Day and you can do that with this link: Teleseminar Access. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players. I am ashamed to admit this, but I just saw the movie "Coach Carter" for the first time this past Friday night. As a basketball coach, I should have made the effort to see it long before now. I both enjoyed and was inspired by the movie. I watched it on network TV with two commentators (neither of whom knew much about basketball) giving their two cents before and after each commercial. There were quick (too quick for me) snippets of comments from the real Coach Carter mixed in with the commentary. Regardless of how much poetic license was taken with the actual game action and conversations that are portrayed, I saw the movie as an inspiration to coaches everywhere. Yes, there were some flaws in the way the games were choreographed, such as the officials calling the school's name rather than jersey color when the ball went out of bounds, but, to me anyway, those were forgivable due to the powerful mission that the movie portrayed. As the saying goes in business, "No margin, no mission." (The same can be said for websites ) Even though winning is not the most important thing in high school basketball, it does make a difference in the types of lessons that coaches can instill in their players. If the Richmond Oilers had not been winning, the players would not have bought into Coach Carter's system of discipline, nor to his academic requirements. Nor would they have showed the type of genuine respect that he earned from them by the end of the season. Second, had he not been winning big, there would have been no community turmoil created by his choice to "bench the team," in order to correct their academic problems. Finally, had they had the same record the year before, the meeting regarding the lockout would have been to dismiss him rather than stop the lockout. Every basketball coach, regardless of where s/he coaches, is going to come under criticism at one time or another--it is inevitable. There are just to many special interest groups that have an opportunity to take pot shot at you. To me, Coach Carter decided that he would stand for education first and that he was willing to stand up to any criticism that those outside forces wanted to throw his way. I have a lot of respect for that. To me, the bottom line is that winning is not only something that quenches our competitive fires as coaches, but it is also the most potent tool that we have to influence our athletes, our schools, our communities, and in the rare case of Coach Carter, anyone who has seen the movie. The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.

Maybe it is just me, but it apperars as though the Detroit Pistons are a little rough on basketball coaches. Rick Carlisle wins Coach of the Year and goes to the conference finals and is fired to Bring in Larry Brown. When Brown led them to the NBA championship, it didn't look like such a bad move. Then, Larry Brown is run out by the players to Bring in Flip Saunders. Now , those same players "need a new voice" after Flip Saunders has three seasons and the best lifetime winning percentage of any Detroit Coach in their 50 years in Detroit and three straight appearances in the Conference Finals.

Top 4 Detroit Piston Winningest Coaches

Flip Saunders .715

Larry Brown .659

Chuck Daily .633 (another pretty good coach)

Rick Carlisle .610 Coach of the year ( in 50 years only two Detroit coaches have won that award)

Dick Vitale did coach the Pistons for a little over a year, but did not make the list.

If they aren't going to listen to the coach with the best winning percentage in franchise history, then who are they going to listen to? My feeling is that hey will listen to any coach who lets them have their way and lets the basketball players be in charge.

Showing videos of the players paying no attention to Flip Saunders is not an indictment of him. These are (over)paid professionals. It is their job to listen. It is not their job to run the show. In my mind, Larry Brown, an old school do it the way it has to be done to win type of basketball coach is just what they needed and it showed with a championship. But, he rubbed the players the wrong way. I don't know about you, but those players, especially Rasheed Wallace, rub me the wrong way. It gives me even more respect for Dean Smith that he was able to keep a lid on Wallace at North Carolina.

In our of our tools of the day, I mentioned that Saunders had a card that he kept with the players pre-season commitments. Wallace's was to be a leader. What kind of a leader comes within one of being suspended for the number of technical fouls he is assessed with in the playoffs? What kind of a leader is laughing with the other team seconds before he blows a game winning shot like he did in the Philadelphia series.

I hope that they get what they deserve. A coach who lets the players run the team in to the ground. I guess the salary will attract some coaches, but my feeling is that most would not want to touch that job.

Regardless of how passionate someone is about coaching basketball or the money, it doesn't seem like the headaches would even amount to one dollar per, nor would there be much coaching one could do.

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.