strategy

This article was written and submitted by retired High School Coach Dave Millhollin.

I have included more information about his coaching career at the end of the article.

Caoch Millhollin has contributed several insightful articles to the site. You can find links to more of them at the bottom of this post under the “Related Posts” tab.

If you would like to contact Coach Millhollin, email me and I will put you in touch with him.

We’ve all heard or said the following things after building a lead on our opponents:

• “DON’T LET THEM HANG AROUND!”
• “DON’T LET THEM BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES!”
• “DON’T LET THEM BACK IN THE GAME!”
• “LETS NOT BLOW OUR LEAD!”

This outline covers concepts helpful in maintaining a lead during games. The ideas may seem obvious but they are, for sure, more difficult than they seem on paper; therefore, developing a possession by possession execution mentality (on offense and defense) is extremely helpful.

Staying in Control of the game is the key

How to play in a manner that maintains control of the game:

• Don’t let them attempt field goals they think they can make; If a team is down because they missed shots they believe they could have made; they have no cause to lose confidence or hope, they will still believe in themselves.
• Don’t let them run their offense; defend all cuts and drives, defend the “lanes” too. If they want to reverse it; don’t let them.  Don’t let them get the ball where they want it, and Give them nothing open.

Playing like this tends to create doubt and reduce hope

• Don’t give them any easy rebounds
• Keep your foot on the gas
• Take care of the ball, execute your offense well and take good shots;

don’t let them think they can guard you!!

• No Mercy; you can change defenses, but don’t change defensive intensity.

Never give; open lanes, open shots or rebounds

• Substitute like the game is on the line (until maybe the last 90 seconds)
• Give them no reason to believe in themselves;

remove their confidence, belief and hope

When you’re up big you might want to work on executing an alternative offense, BUT whether you change offenses or not; don’t open it up for bad shots;

Stay in control of the tempo of the game!

For first half leads;

At half time you must consider how the other team might come back and be ready to deal with those things

• Be ready for them to switch defenses; Be ready to be pressed and trapped
• Be ready for them to try to change the tempo or intensity of the game
• Be ready for them to drive and draw fouls, be ready for them to try to get in the bonus and get to the line;

CONTAIN DRIVES, CLOSE OUT EARLY, AND DO NOT FOUL

• Be ready for them to go inside if they have bigs or outside to shooters if they have shooters
• Be ready for them to go to their best player frequently
• DON’T TAKE SHOTS THAT ALLOW THEM TO REBOUND AND RUN FROM

TEAMS THAT MAINTAIN THE SAME EXECUTION STANDARDS WITH REWARDS AND CONSEQUENCES FOR ALL GAMES; NO MATTER HOW CLOSE OR BLOWN OUT THE GAME IS, REGARDLESS OF IF THEY ARE WINNING OR LOSING; these teams almost never allow teams to come back on them, especially teams they are “better than” or “equal to” (and sometimes; “not as good as”!)

© Dave Millhollin 2020

About the author of this article, Coach Dave Millhollin In fourteen years at Ponderosa High School, Coach Dave’s teams won 260 games (.665). From 2000 through 2009 Ponderosa won 207 games over a ten year stretch which included four SVC Conference Championships and two CIF Section final four appearances. Over his 27 year Boys Varsity Coaching career, Coach Dave posted 391 wins, produced 20 college basketball players and was named SVC Coach of the Year four times. At Ponderosa, Coach Dave’s teams were #1 in California in team defense five times and in 2008 Ponderosa was the top defensive team in the Nation among shot clock states. Over Coach Millhollin’s last five seasons (2005-6 through 2009-2010; 136 games) Ponderosa averaged a composite 50% total field goal percentage, 58% two point field goal percentage and 32% three point field goal percentage. Since retiring from High School coaching in 2010, Coach Dave has been actively involved in coaching Jr High level School and AAU teams as well as and running instructional basketball clinics from the primary grades through the College level.

Some thoughts to stimulate your thinking on dealing with foul trouble.

DEALING WITH FOUL TROUBLE

As basketball coaches we will inevitably face the dilemma of what to do when our impact players get in foul trouble.

 We’re talking about offensive IMPACT PLAYERS; individuals we NEED in the game on offensive possessions for scoring, playmaking, ball handling or rebounding.

Here are some ideas to consider:

Do we sit a player with two fouls until the beginning of the second half, or do we keep him in the game and take our chances of him picking up a third foul and then sit him until toward the middle or end of the second half?  What if we sit him, then as soon as we put him back in, he picks up another quick foul…do we decide to sit him again?

After the game is over we will evaluate what we did and figure out if it was the right call or not.  Too often we only know if we made the right decision after the game is over. This is why we call this a dilemma; It is hard to know what to do.

Here is an idea that we have used with good success; sit a player with 2 fouls in the first half or 3 fouls in the second half – until your team gets in the bonus, then sub him “offense/defense” (the rest of the half with 2 fouls in the first half, until the last 8 minutes of the game with 3 fouls in the second half.  If the player picks up his 4^th foul, sub offense/defense the last 3 min of the game)

Offense/defense substitution; sub your foul plagued player in the game on dead-ball offensive inbounds possessions and sub him out on dead-ball defensive inbounds possessions.  ALSO, use free-throw situations; sub him in on opponent free-throws and sub him out on your free-throws, if he is shooting the free-throw(s), sub for the shooter and hope he makes his final free-throw attempt.

When any of our impact players picked up their second foul in the first half or their third foul early in the second half we would always make getting in the bonus as quickly as possible a top priority.  This would involve running offenses designed to draw reaches on drives, use lift (shot) fakes and always go up for shots off two feet in the paint – especially in traffic. If we have a player who has a knack of drawing fouls, we would try to get the ball in his hands as much as possible.

If we decided to keep a player in the game who picked up a first half second foul or second half third foul, we would let him know that he was coming out of the game for an extended strategic period of time as soon as he picked up his next foul.

of course all these decisions are dependent on how the game is going; if you’re winning or losing and by how much.  Not all chess matches are the same!

Other ideas to consider 

When a big man is in foul trouble:

• Use defensive schemes which reduce the chances of the ball getting to the low or high post
• Use “double down” techniques when the ball does go to the high or low post
• Teach your guards how to defend the drive so your bigs don’t have to pick up fouls on guard penetration.
• Don’t use a big man in foul trouble to set ball screens (especially if the reffs have called any bad screens earlier in the game)
• On selected defensive possessions; consider using different zone defensive alignments to protect your bigs

When guards get in foul trouble:

• Consider switching defensive assignment of the guard in foul trouble on to a player who he is less likely to foul
• Consider using different zone defensive alignments on selected defensive possessions

Teach your players not to leave their feet and not to reach, make sure they understand and can use individual and team defensive CONTAINMENT techniques

IN REGARD TO FOUL TROUBLE STRATEGY; DISCUSS ALL THE STUFF YOU MIGHT HAVE TO DO ON THIS TOPIC WITH YOUR TEAM AHEAD OF TIME SO THEY KNOW AND UNDERSTAND WHAT TO EXPECT. ALSO TEACH THEM HOW TO STAY OUT OF FOUL TROUBLE.

“It’s not what I know, it’s what my players know…… It’s not what my players know, it’s what my players DO!”

We hope these ideas on dealing with foul trouble have been helpful, it is an area of the game that all coaches will face at one time or another.

Two ideas for special situations from Phil Martelli of St. Joseph’s.

Whether or not you like or agree with the concepts, I hope it stimulates you to think about, plan for, and practice end of game short clock situations that you need to prepare for.

The first situation is an idea for putting two defenders

There are no tactics that work every time and for every team. Desperation strategies fail more often than they succeed, but I have seen enough well coached teams pull out wins to know that it is worth the time to be prepared. I have also seen unprepared teams give away games that they should have won. At this point in the season when you are cutting back on the amount of time that you spend running and jumping in practice, it is a good time to focus on the mental aspects such as Rehearsing End of Game Situations.

If you are interested in finding out more about the DVD that the video sample came from, click here:

Stealing Points by Mastering Special Situations – Basketball — Championship Productions, Inc.

Make sure your sound is on as you watch.

The video is a You Tube video.

Click the video to start the presentation.

This post is reposted from Bob Starkey’s Basketball Coaching Blog, hoopthoughts.blogspot.com.  

I have been re-reading some stuff given to me some time ago from Mike Neighbors, now the Head Coach at the University of Arkansas.

I came across a great passout from Mike and Kevin McGuff (Ohio State) on End of Game Situations and thought I’d pass it on.  Do you have a strategy for End of Game Situations?  How much thought have you gave it?  The thing I respect about Mike and Kevin is that they are detailed in their approach to all phases of the game.  Here are their thoughts on EOGs:

Why is END OF GAME SITUATIONS even a topic for a clinic when we all as coaches know that the first possession after tip-off, or the third possession after the 8:00 media, or the 43rd possession of the game all have the same point value potential?

It’s because everything gets magnified at the END OF THE GAME. Pressure seems greater. Emotions run higher. Coaches have to talk louder in timeouts because everyone in the crowd has stopped text messaging and is now laser locked onto the action. Referee’s huddle and make sure they are all on the same page. The number of in game distractions increase.

It as become evident to me that the teams who are BEST at EOG’s are teams that throughout the course of the game have treated every single possession with the same respect as the very last ones. These teams appear to be oblivious to any of the mentioned distraction and repeatedly execute game winning situations when the pressure is the greatest. They display a composure that others don’t. Their coach has a control that others don’t. Their players demeanor is consistent. They are in character. As a result THEY WIN more than they LOSE!!

Once you establish that approach it is still imperative that you have a plan for implementing and executing. That is where we come up with the D.I.E.

D– Develop your philosophy
  I– Implement you strategy
E– Execute your tactics

DEVELOP YOUR PHILOSOPHY:

You can attend clinics, buy books, look on-line, or steal from others but to be successful your EOG Philosophy has to be YOURS!!! My grandpa always said “You can’t sell what’s not yours” and he was right. If you don’t believe in it, your players won’t and you’ll LOSE more than you’ll WIN. So utilize all the resources you can to think through as many situations as possible then MAKE THEM YOURS!!!

SOME PHILOSOPHY THINGS TO CONSIDER:

Are you going to foul on the floor ahead by three points? Does it depend on the time left? Is that time 8 seconds? Is that time 5 seconds?

Are you going to get the ball in your best players hands or use that player as a decoy for option #2? Do you work in practice as if your first option has fouled out already?

Are you going to take a quick two point shot then foul if down three with a certain amount of time?

Are you going to miss a FT on purpose with a lead to force opponent who is out of time outs to rebound and hit a last second shot?

Are you going to run plays that your players already know or draw something up? Are you going to run a “dork” play?

Are you a go with the stats coach? Are you a go with your gut coach? Are you depends-on-the-situation coach?

Are you going to switch all screens? Stay on and play 1-on-1 defense? Trap a ball screen? Change defenses out of the time-out? Show a defense play another defense?

Are you going to put a big player on the inbounds passer or play centerfield?

And the countless other situations that we encounter at the end of game.

IMPLEMENT YOUR STRATEGY

Now that you have your philosophy, you must implement the strategy with your players and your team. This is where you determine which players on your rosters can perform certain skills… who can throw it the length of the floor, who can catch that pass, who can dribble from end-line to endline in five seconds, who can create their own shot, who can throw a lob pass at the rim, who can simply inbound the ball safely.

This is how you are going to teach the skills necessary to be successful when pressure and distractions are at their highest level… will you devote time in practice to these situations, will you turn on the PA system to simulate crowd noise, will you stop practice in the most stressful moment and work on an EOG.

This is the plays the you are going to call or the defenses you are going to play to win games in the last few minutes… beg, borrow, steal from the best, find ones that have worked

Some great EOG things I’ve stolen from various coaches:

Throwing tryouts… A coach stood at one end of the court and let players try to throw balls to hit them. Whoever could, was their long throw-in girl.

Set the shot clock to various times and see who can go score 1-0, 1-1, 2-0, 3-0 etc.

Team worked on saving the ball to their own basket and keeping the ball in play as the clock ran down

Keep away in working on not allowing a team to foul ball handler

Dribbling the ball to various spots on the court to call timeouts

Loose ball scramble to work on creating held ball situations and NOT creating held ball situations

EXECTUE YOUR TACTICS

Now that you have a philosophy and a strategy, it is time to EXECUTE your tactics to win the game.

Your very first thought should be that HOW you say what you are going to say is just as (if not more so) important as WHAT you say!!! Your demeanor and your tone will be directly reflective of how your team will perform.

Are you talking to them in the same manner?

Are you on the same spot on the floor as you normally are for timeouts?

Are you using a wipe board or not?

Are your assistants scrambling and frantic in your ear?

Are the subs in their ’normal’ huddle mode? (if it’s not how you successfully practiced it, then don’t expect them to perform in the game)

Do you have a method for knowing the number of fouls on each team, who has the possession arrow, have you pointed out in the various arena’s where the game/shot clocks are located?

Do YOU know the situation?

This post came from an online discussion about what to do when shooting a free throw at the end of the game down 3, but is also worth putting some thought in regarding being down 2 when shooting one free throw.

This post is not to say that this is the only way to and THE way you should handle this situation. This is what I believe is best, but the main purpose of the post is to provide food for thought to establish your philosophy and then to implement it in practice to be able to prepare for a game.

This situation is something that needs to be covered by the first game, but at some point in the season, practicing these types of scenarios keeps practices interesting, does not require a lot of running and jumping when you are cutting back on that during late season practices, and is good preparation for post season play.

End of game, shooting the second of two free throws down 3 points, what do you do?

Regardless of what you do, there is not doubt that this is a difficult situation to pull off and no matter how well prepared you are, there is a very low percentage of times that this will ever work. That is why I believe in fouling at the end of a game where you have a 3 point lead. Here is the link to the article that I wrote about that: Foul at the End to Preserve a 3 Point Lead

If there are 8 seconds or more remaining

I would want the player to try to make the free throw (not miss on purpose), have a sub at the scorers table so that after the free throw goes in, we can match up in a man to man press while the substitute is coming onto the floor, and try to get into a press to force am immediate turnover and if no turnover, foul immediately.

If we miss the free throw, then our players in the offensive rebound spots should go after the offensive rebound aggressively and if we can’t get the ball, at least get an over the back foul on the rebound to stop the clock.3 or 2 Seconds.

(If there is one second remaining, I think you are better off trying to make the free throw and then force a turnover on the inbounds as you don’t have enough time to miss, rebound, and call timeout.)

I count each end of game action as 1 second. So, if there are 3 seconds left, you have 1 second of that to shoot, with the remaining 2 seconds available for a combination of dribbles and passes. However, in this case, I believe that the scramble for the ball could take 2 seconds, so I would call timeout upon gaining possession of the offensive rebound and then have either a BLOB or a SLOB for a 3 to run out of the timeout.

4 to 7 second remaining

Missing the free throw intentionally. I believe that the best way to miss a free throw for this situation (when trailing) is to hit it off the rim as hard and quickly as possible. Obviously, you would need to have practiced that and your rebounders would need to know what to expect so they could be ready. You can have a call to remind the players of what they will be doing.

As soon as the shooter receives the ball from the official, he or she shoots as quickly and hard off the rim as possible. I believe that if your offensive rebounders are ready and the defense is not ready for the quick and hard miss, throwing it hard will give you a higher percentage chance to get the offensive rebound than a soft miss off the iron like you would shoot as a coach for a defensive rebounding drill.

The teaching point in practice for the shooter/thrower is quick and hard are important, but the most important key is accuracy in hitting the rim. I have seen this play attempted where the shooter shot quickly, but missed the rim or crossed the line before the ball hit the rim. I know most players know the rules, but I think you have to overemphasize those details in practice so that they are what the player is concentrating on when walking to the line. I like to give them points to think about in pressure situations to help calm their mind under pressure.

If there are 4 to 8 seconds remaining, I believe that you have time to get the rebound and get the ball to a shooter behind the arc. I also believe that the defense will be in scramble mode and it is best to attack them in that state. Have your designated spots for the shooters to get to. The rebounder should know where to expect the shooters to be to throw the ball to so they don’t have to look and find the shooters. Only call timeout if they can’t get the pass to the shooters.

I think you can experiment with either having the free throw shooter go for the rebound or drift back for a 3. I don’t think you can stress it enough in practice that the shooter has to wait until the ball hits the rim if you choose to have him or her crash. I think he would be the most likely to be unguarded for a 3, but obviously, you have to get the rebound so it is risky to send the free throw shooter to the arc. I also think it would depend on who is shooting the free throw. Some guys I would rather rebound than get behind the arc. You could also experiment with using the shooter as a screener to get a shooter open because I doubt he would be guarded and that would eliminate a switch.

It has been my experience that players try to beat the clock which means that they end up hurrying and either making a mistake or shooting an alligator arms shot. They have to have a mindset that they are going to use up every fraction of a second in order to execute properly. There is not going to be enough time for an offensive rebound.

If it is high school, without video replay, I think the most important thing in getting the call on a gray area is to make the basket. It might be counted even if late. But, if you throw up less than your best shot in an effort to beat the clock, those will never go in and the officials don’t have to make a decision.