Archive for the 'strategy' Category

Getting More Possessions Than the Opponent

There are different ways of measuring possessions. Some coaches count each shot or turnover as the end of a possession, so if you get two offensive rebounds then that counts as two extra possessions. The system that has worked best for us is that a new possession only starts when the ball changes [...]

Basketball Coaching: Closing a Basketball Game

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 [...]

More basketball games are lost, part II

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.
The Coaching Toolbox coaching staff started this post yesterday by writing about the poor handoff exchange that cost the Spurs a turnover and 2 points in Tuesday night’s playoff game. You might want to check out yesterday’s post to help [...]

More basketball games are lost than won

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

The coaches at the Coaching Toolbox feel that more basketball games are lost than won at every level. This is especially true when the competing teams talent level is close, as it is in the NBA playoffs. In those cases, our [...]

IQ + MT = WINS

The Coaching Toolbox has hundreds of free resources for basketball coaching and for basketball players.
Just a quick announcement before today’s post, we now have a new basketball quotes feature with  different basketball quotes that are posted daily at the top of the home page at the Coaching Toolbox. At the end of the day, [...]

And Now for the Basketball Coaches

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

With the NBA playoffs going on, the coaches 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. Yesterday we [...]

Decisions, decisions

One of the toughest choices for a basketball coach to make is when to remove a player from the game who is already in or to save a player from getting in foul trouble.  Here are a few thoughts for debate.  We hope to get some responses with your opinions and ideas.  As we always [...]

Throw the ball inside your 3 point arc with under 3 seconds to go

Why not throw to half court and call timeout after your opponent scores to tie the game since if clock is stopped? In high school you would have to have called timeout when the ball went through the hoop and saved timeouts as in lesson #1 above. Or if you don’t have any timeouts [...]

Foul at the end to preserve a 3 point lead

Once the clock gets to seven seconds (so the clock will stop at 6 on a foul) and the ball is in the front court, you have to take the ball from the dribbler. A foul is probably going to be called, but if you teach your players to take the ball, then you will [...]

Save timeouts for crunch time

Do not waste timeouts early in the game to save possession on a loose ball. The timeout is too valuable at the end of the game to waste in that way. When your team makes the second free throw and you have a 3 point lead, not when you make a basket with the clock [...]