Chris Kreider, Asst Men’s Basketball Coach, Georgia Tech
This video is a segment from one of the 120 Videos in Glazier Drive Basketball.
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The full video that this clip came from is available on Glazier Drive: Player Development & Small Sided Games
WHAT THIS VIDEO COVERS
This is a practice film breakdown from a coach walking through their team’s finishing progression at the start of practice. It opens with a real example: a new player used a stride-stop finish in a live scrimmage that had just been drilled pre-practice, showing the direct carryover from rep to game action.
THE FINISHING PROGRESSION
The team builds finishing work in layers:
- Ball-handling into finishes — starting reps with pounds/crossovers (e.g., pound-cross back to the strong hand, then a middle drive going left) to connect handling with finishing, and deliberately working the weak hand.
- Playing off two feet — a major emphasis, since it slows players down and gives them more control. The “stride stop, show the ball to the inside hand” finish is highlighted as a simple, teachable move.
- Bodies over cones — using live bodies (coaches, GAs, managers) as passive defenders to give players a real read to finish against, rather than finishing against inanimate objects.
- Reads based on defender positioning — if the defender’s hands are down, attack straight into the shot; if the defender takes away space, use an extra pivot to find an angle.
- One-foot finishes — introduced once players have an advantage (transition, end-of-clock situations), including different pickup points, sweeping low, and bringing the ball over the top.
- Variety of finish types — overhand, underhand, inside-hand reverse, and outside reverse, all run off the same side.
SHOT SELECTION LANGUAGE (COLOR SYSTEM)
The coach references their program’s color-coded shot quality system:
- Green — high-quality shots: shots at the rim, free throws, open catch-and-shoot threes.
- Yellow — lower-efficiency shots: off-the-dribble twos, off-the-dribble threes.
- Red — worst shots: contested mid-range, contested threes, or a contested finish when a pass was available.
Finishing drills are tied directly to hunting “green” shots at the rim.
COACHING CUES EMPHASIZED
- Eyes and feet on finishes
- Finding the “high spot” on the glass, using the backboard
- Giving layered reads (start scripted, then add live defenders)
- Running two groups/two baskets simultaneously for reps efficiency
BIG PICTURE TAKEAWAY
The coach frames this as “finishing school” — a repeatable, daily menu of finishing reps done early in practice, scaffolded from simple mechanics to live reads, designed so players have an actual plan for finishing in the paint rather than reacting randomly.
