This post contains quotes collected by Texas A&M Women’s Assistant Bob Starkey on offensive philosophy. His Hoop Thoughts Blog should be on your regular reading list for basketball coaches.
You may agree or disagree with the thoughts, but the purpose for the post is as food for thought to help your staff clarify your thoughts for this year’s team.
It is not the system, but the execution of the system, that counts. -Tex Winter
Run a play out of timeout that is a wrinkle of your normal offense and your players will be able to execute it. –Doc Rivers
Shot discipline and role identification go together. Coach K
Encourage team play — achieve results through cooperation and unselfish effort on the part of every player. –Dean Smith
Spread defense allows you to get offensive rebounds. -Brendan Suhr
If you had two things, and only two things, you could have a decent offense. They are good shot selection and spacing. –Kevin O’Neil
Maintain spacing: Is your team maintaining spacing on the 3rd side of the floor after 2 reversals. –Rick Majerus
You have to win inside regardless of your post game. –Jim Crews
Cutting is the most important way a player can contribute to our offense. –Bob Knight
The habit of watching a teammate’s defender when making a pass should be developed. –Clair Bee
The toughest thing to guard is a great shooter that screens. -Roy Williams
Don’t do drills in practice that don’t represent a portion of your system. -Gary Williams
The key to posting is do your work BEFORE you catch the ball. –Don Meyer
My emphasis is not on running an offense…it is on teaching my team offense. We want players who can play offense, not run an offense. -Coach K
Repetition is the key to success — doing what you have to do over and over and always doing it right. -Pete Carrill
The best attitudes in the world won’t help win ball games if they’re not accompanied by a fundamental competence in the game. -Dr. Jack Ramsay
I am literally a fanatic of spacing. –Tex Winter
Shot selection – I’ll stop practice and ask how many of you liked that shot? -Roy Williams
Play the Man on Offense…Play the Ball on Defense. -Coach Knight
We don’t ask any kid to do something he is not capable of doing. Don’t put players in roles that they can’t be successful. -Jim Crews
If you don’t have anything to complain about, you can always complain about screening. -Jim Crews
Bad shooters are always open. -Pete Carril
It is an axiom of basketball that the better a player screens, the better the chance of a good close shot for the screener. –Pete Newell
The toughest thing to defense is movement and the toughest movement to defend is screening. -Coach K
In all my years of coaching, I have never been successful using somebody else’s plays. Vince Lombardi
Offense is spacing…spacing is offense. –Chuck Daly
The best drills work on both offense and defense at the same time. -Bob Knight
Only take shots that have over a 50% chance of going in. -Bob Knight
Concentration leads to…Anticipation, which leads to…Recognition, which leads to…Execution, which leads to …Completion.-Bob Knight
