Well Coached Teams

This article was written by Arkansas Women’s Coach Mike Neighbors when he was an assistant at Xavier.

This post is only a portion of his entire article.Click here to see Part 2

Coach Neighbors has a weekly newsletter that is outstanding. If you would like to subscribe, email me and I will forward your interest on to him.

Well Coached teams are motivated: These teams play with an energy and a visible passion that proves they are engaged in the process that their team and coaches have established. These teams display fight and toughness and you usually cannot tell the score of the game by simply watching the actions and reactions of their players and coaches.

Well Coached teams have good shot selection: These teams have the most shot attempts by their best scorers. Those best players know when to take a shot and what shots should be taken based on time and score. Rarely do you see well coached teams without their best scorers having the ball when it counts.

Well Coached teams have little or no game slippage from practice: These teams are able to execute and they are able to play at a high intensity level. They seem to make things look easy in their execution. Their timing and spacing are usually impeccable and their movements appear rehearsed because they are in practice every single day at game speed. Few missed lay-ups, few mishandled passes, limited turnovers when dribbling all a result of having practiced at game speed.

Well Coached teams players hold the ball when their coach speaks: In viewing a practice when a coach speaks the gym is silent and all eyes are on the speaker. (I personally played for a coach that would glare down a dribbled ball across the gym even if that person were not part of our squad). It’s not the actual act of the players holding the balls as much as it is that coach commanding that respect.

Well Coached teams have genuine enthusiasm because the are invested and bought in: We can all tell the difference between genuine and manufactured enthusiasm. Have the person that films your games dedicate an extra camera to your bench one game to see if you really have your team INVESTED…Be prepared for what you might see on the video…

Well Coached teams don’t have to be coached on effort: Very rarely do you see the coach of a well
coached team spending valuable game (or practice) time convincing their players to play hard, to give effort, to give extra effort. They just do it. Obviously those desires have been instilled at some point and time in the past but there is not one second wasted during a timeout for a well coached team with a coach using time to talk about effort, energy, or enthusiasm.

Well Coached teams players display proper techniques in fundamental areas of the game: Inside pivot foot on the catch, triple threat position, butt down on defense, chin on shoulder in post defense, take a charge, dribble with their eyes up, pivot from pressure rather than dribble,

make two handed passes, post with a purpose, cut hard off of screens, hold their box out on the FT line, dribble with left hand up left side, use shot fakes, make back door cuts, etc. They LOOK like players.

Well Coached teams have great spacing and timing on offense: Regardless of what style of offense a well coached team incorporates they utilize tremendous floor spacing among their players and execute with precision timing. Shot selection is also a component of this attribute.

Well Coached teams don’t leave trash in visiting locker rooms, benches, or on the bus: One of the most well coached teams I ever saw was at a team camp in Neosho, MO. After each game, their players (without instruction by the way) walked the length of their bench AND their opponent’s bench picking up every piece of trash they could find. That stuck with me and two good things came from it in the near future. On that trip home from camp when I got the bus back to the bus shop, I picked up every single piece of trash and put it into a box. At our next team workout, I emptied the box onto the floor of their clean locker room and told them where it came from.

I then told them I was going to walk out of the room for 30 seconds and every piece of trash that was still on the floor when I got back would equal one set of dribble pull backs before practice started. (Dribble pull backs were our form of punishment rather than straight running. Start on end line. They get two dribbles forward then one dribble backward until they complete a down and back. Great conditioner/reminder/ball handling all at once) Needless to say they about killed each other picking up the trash in 30 seconds. The 2nd thing is something we still do at our Summer Camps to this very day. During the first break I walk around and drop a piece of trash on the floor near the concession area. I watch until some camper picks it up and throws it away. Before the next session begins, that camper is called up and receives a $10 gift certificate to the concession stand. The rest of the week campers are fighting with each other to pick up trash around our counselors!!

Well Coached teams execute set actions coming out of timeouts/quarter changes/halftimes: We all have faced those teams who were lethal coming out of situations in which their coach had time to diagram an action that their players could then come out and execute for a timely basket. This might also be changing a defense to off-set a play that you have expertly drawn up to use. Regardless of the situation, these teams always seem to be able to take what they had practiced and/or talked about onto the floor at a crucial time.

Well Coached teams don’t lose their poise/composure others might become distracted: Time/score, home/away, loud gym/silent gym, good refs/bad refs, slick basketball/flat basketball, slick floor/sticky floor, fan shaped backboards/wooden backboards, chain nets/colored nets… didn’t matter…well coached teams PLAY

Well Coached teams don’t react to calls that go against them or their teams: Even in the most crucial of times, well coached players and teams hand the ball to the official and play the next play. There is no
wasted time/energy on something that can’t be changed anyway. Not to say they play without emotion. It just isn’t wasted on a official and a call that didn’t go their way.

Well Coached teams utilize drills in practice that emphasize many facets of the game: When you observe a practice of a well coached team their standards of play become obvious through their drills. Drills are either game situation, game speed, or game technique… Sometimes the drill is all three, sometimes just two, but never less than one. There is ZERO wasted time in a well coached team practice or game preparation.

Nothing to “fill in” there to reach a desired length. My all time favorite was watching a boys team at a school I coached do ten minutes of 2-line lay-ups before workouts every single day of the season. I then kept count of how many lay-ups their defense created and their offense created on the year… FIVE… So, for over 1000 minutes of practice time, they got FIVE lay-ups… They didn’t press, they didn’t deny passes in half-court… Does that seem like time well invested? Did I mention they actually missed one of the FIVE?

Well Coached teams move on the air time of passes on defense: It seems like well coached defensive teams have an extra player on the court. They are moving as a unit in constant harmony with effective communication. When the basketball is in the air, all players are on the move and talking about it!!

Well Coached teams use different things in practice to condition than they do to punish/remind: As a result the players understand the importance of being in condition and being reminded. Running does NOT motivate or remind every player. Well coached teams have a coach who takes the time to recognize these areas and remind/punish accordingly.

Well Coached teams have a sharp, crisp pre-game warm-up: The time leading up to tip off is an extension of these teams practices and preparation. They are moving… there is energy… there is enthusiasm… I spoke with several WELL COACHED teams coaches who mentioned they believed a sharp warm up was worth 3-5 points come game time. Another coach said it was a team goal to have the opponents glance down to their end more than once and “wish their warm-ups” were like theirs… I have seen intricate passing drills (many of which we have shared in our Newsletters). I have seen coaches physically out their putting them through a series of defensive slides… I have seen teams diving on the floor in unison to simulate going for loose balls.

Well Coached teams can run 5-on-0 offense with players going game speed: I was actually written up at one high school for calling this portion of our practice DUMMY OFFENSE, so to this day I try to call it something else… dry offense, 5 on 0, ghost defense, etc… Regardless of what you call it, most every team has this time dedicated to their practices to go over their SET actions or even their MOTION read/reacts…

Well coached teams can do it at GAME SPEED

This post is only a portion of his entire article.Click here to see Part 2

This article was written by Coach Randy Brown. He is a former D1 Assistant Coach at Iowas State and Arizona. His 18 years in college basketball highlights a successful 23-year career. Mentored by Basketball Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson at Arizona.

He has passion for the game of basketball and works as a basketball consultant and mentor for coaches. Click on the link below to subscribe to his daily email that includes links to his blog posts, plays, videos and other free resources:

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Randy’s coaching resume includes positions at Arizona, Iowa State, Marquette, Drake, and Miami of Ohio, 5 Conference Championships and 5 NCAA appearances. His efforts have helped develop 12 NBA players including Steve Kerr, Sean Elliott, and Jaamal Tinsley. To contact Randy, email him at [email protected]

Using Statistics to Effectively Evaluate Your Team

by Coach Randy Brown

Statistics are a valuable tool for coaches in all sports. A common fault is to keep general statistics that illustrate only part of the true picture of your team. To properly glean specific information from statistics you must first decide what you hope to learn from them. This article provides guidelines on how to effectively use statistics to improve your team on a daily basis.

Recently I received an email from a coach asking for advice on keeping offensive statistics for his team. Here is my response to his questions.

1. I challenged him to first decide what specific statistics he wanted to effectively evaluate his team.

2. Offensive options include shot selection, shot chart, turnovers, post touches, penetration, number of passes, set play effectiveness, and use of inside out components.

3. Defensive options include defensive transition, easy baskets, defensive block outs, contested shots, help and recover, defensive rules, and fouling.

4. Once you decide what specific items you want to see from your team you can then devise a specific statistics strategy.

5. Your staff size will determine how many different statistics you can chart during practice or games.

6. Limit your scope to one or two things on offense and defense.

7. OER is a valuable offensive measurement tool but takes time to keep and analyze.

Once you determine what specific statistics to chart you must decide how to use them.

1. Use them with your staff only to make decisions on playing time and making adjustments in practice.

2. Share with your players to help them understand exactly what you want from them.

3. Help crystallize your own coaching philosophy and develop your own Top 3!

If used properly, statistics can be very beneficial to your coaching effectiveness and your team’s ultimate success. Use these ideas to begin developing your own system of evaluation using statistics for games and practices.

Keeping Statistics in Practice Provides Many Benefits

It is said often in sports that the number do no lie. Statistics are the ultimate indicator of player productivity and effectiveness. Most basketball coaches use statistics to evaluate their games, but how many take advantage of them in practice? Discover the benefits of this approach to evaluating practice.

The high school coach faces many obstacles in terms of practice. A shortage of coaches or managers limit the amount of statistics that can be kept. If you are in this situation, get creative and do all you can to have students keep statistics for you. It will pay off exponentially for you and your team.

Four benefits of keeping practice stats are below. Hopefully one or two of them can help you.

1. If you evaluate game stats only you are dealing with a set of numbers from a particular setting; games. Think of the number of shots, rebounds, fouls, turnovers, free throws, offensive rebounds, and fast break baskets that occur in practice.
2. Practice stats can give a more valid picture of a player’s production due to dealing with three to four times the amount of information.
3. It is good for players to know that practice is much more than just “practicing. They will approach their play in practice differently when they know stats are being kept. If you do take the time to keep them during practice also share them with the team at different times during practice. If you make player decisions that affect playing time, you will indeed have the attention of your entire team.
4. Practice can fool you. At times, effort alone will fool us to think a certain player is doing a good job on the floor in practice. Stats help a coach by proving the productivity with numbers.

For example, you may feel that your starters are rebounding well. When you check the stats you realize that one of your post players had three rebounds in 32 minutes of practice action. This stat amazes you because his productivity “seemed” much higher. Remember, the stats do not lie. This lack of rebounding must be addressed. IF you have a second team player getting 9 rebounds in the same amount of time, you can use this as motivation for your starter. You may also switch the two and see how the rebounding numbers change.This is a huge benefit to keep stats in practice and has been useful for years in my experiences.

I am convinced that the level of effort, concentration, and execution in practice will be replicated in the game. Rarely have I coached a dog in practice that could be all-world when the lights come on. Players think they can do this, but they are sadly mistaken. Test them in practice and share stats with them often during practice. Keep stats for everything, especially in competitive drills and play.

The stats do not lie and will give you a better idea of how your players are playing according to the numbers. This way the numbers that are produced in the game will not be a surprise. Game production will mirror practice effort, concentration and execution every time!