Program Blueprint

Evidence of Excellence This article was written by Mike Neighbors, Head Women’s Coach at Arkansas. Coach Neighbors previously coach at Washington and he produced this document while there. He puts out an incredibly good newsletter several times each year. If you would like me to forward your email address to him to be added to his newsletter, ...

Beware of Season Slippage This article is republished with permission. The original article appears at Beware of Season Slippage. We’re at that stage of the season.  No matter the current level of success of our teams, coaches and players alike are susceptible to mid-season doldrums.  The reasons are varied but include the following: Pre-season and early season excitement are on the ...

Limiting Reactionary Subbing This article is republished with permission. The original article appears at Limiting Reactionary Subbing. To expound on the past Hoop Coach article , “Thoughts on Playing Rotations”, we’d like to share some thoughts on a related subject. Whether or not we’ve ever labeled the type of substitution we’re about to discuss as “reactionary substitution”, we all clearly ...

Concepts on Winning basketball 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 ...

Playing with Purpose on Purpose Part 2 “Advanced Purpose” 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 ...

Help Your Coaches Improve and Attract Top Players with Video Club athletes gravitate to great coaches. Equip your coach with the best video tools to draw in the best talent. The biggest influence on a player’s choice in clubs is the coach. We surveyed nearly 1,000 players across four sports to understand what they want from a club. When we asked them to rank the most important ...

Making the Most of My Off-Season I received this post from Randy Lambert, Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Division III Maryville College in Maryville, TN.  Coach Lambert has accumulated 701 victories in his college coaching career! One of the more frustrating things I deal with is trying to make the most of our pre-season.  Because of NCAA rules, we are not allowed to be ...

Video Creates a Consistent Culture that Stabilizes Programs Between graduations, transfers and coaching changes, high school programs deal with constant change. Allow video to be the anchor. Volatility is inevitable in high school sports. With players graduating, transferring and shuffling between JV and varsity, rosters change constantly from year to year, and coaches can take new jobs in the offseason. The outlook of a ...

What Are Your Summer Goals? This post was written by Texas A & M Assistant Coach Bob Starkey and shared on his Basketball Coaching Blog, HoopThoughts Editor’s Note from Brian.  Even if you are able to practice and play games in the summer, there are several ideas here that you might be able to fit into what you do. I’m a big ...

Defining What it Means to Compete This post was contributed by Youth Ice Hockey Coach Karl Norton. I believe that the article contains many points that are also applicable to coaching basketball. These are Coach Norton’s comments: We will also be combining this (His 3 on ice objectives for his team) with our culture and compete objectives that we will ask the ...

How to Build a Competitive Spirit in Athletes This article was written and submitted by JP Nerbun of Thrive on Challenge You probably have had the realization that you want to win more than your players do; most young people today seem to lack the competitive fire that makes for a special athlete. And in the cases when they do have a strong competitive fire, it seems ...

What Does “All in” Look Like? This video is with PGC Basketball Directors TJ Rosene and Graham Maxwell. Tj (Head Men’s Basketball Coach) and Graham (Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach) coach at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia. In addition to the All In portion of the video, the second part describes a concept of “Fixing from the Point of Mistake.” This video ...

Relationship Building This article was provided by Coaches Network By Dr. Wade Gilbert A great way to learn about quality coaching is to listen to coaches and athletes talk about the coaching styles they believe are most helpful for achieving success. Coverage of recent sporting events such as the women’s World Cup, and the NBA and NHL finals, provided ...

Consequences Matrix 2 articles contributed by Dr. Cory Dobbs. How Will Your Decisions Help or Hurt Your Teammates? A short, but very powerful post to share with your athletes. You will make better decisions if you focus on how the consequences of your actions affect your teammates.  While this is only one criterion which can and should be applied to ...

The Future of Club Basketball Zero Gravity CEO Greg Kristof knows where the future of club basketball is headed and the major role Hudl is playing in the movement. Few individuals are as well-versed in club basketball culture as Greg Kristof. As the CEO of Zero Gravity Basketball, an organization that puts on more than 150 tournaments a year in 19 ...

Season Organization Chart This pre-season checklist was sent to me by Derek Sheridan, Head Boys Basketball Coach at Delta High School (Ohio). I hope that this can serve to stimulate your thinking and your staff’s thinking about what you need to do to get the most out of your team for the upcoming season. I know for me, putting my ...

Things All Players Can Do to Contribute by Bob Starkey.  This article was originally posted on his HoopThoughts Blog Editor’s Note from Brian: A good article to modify to fit your needs and share with your players. Coming from a Division I Coach, it will hopefully resonate with your players. This past month has been primarily an evaluation period for those in the college game ...

Program Culture Thoughts This article was sent to me by Dennis Hutter Coach Hutter is the Head Women’s Coach at Mayville State University. Dennis also has a coaching website. The URL is http://www.coachhutter.com/ Six Ways to Create Culture Within an Organization – Andy Stanley Name It – Create a name for it, easiest part – MSUWBB = “The Comet Way” Brand ...

The 5 Stages of a Coach’s Career Editor’s note from Brian.  I saw this thought on another blog and thought that it fits in well with the message of this post: Rocking Chair Statement -As a coach, write a statement about what you want players to remember about you when you are old in a rocking chair on your front porch! The following post was written ...

Brendan Suhr Coaching Notes These notes are from Brendan Suhr, veteran NBA and Division ! Assistant Coach. His presentation was at the 2013 “A Step Up” Assistant Coach Symposium I am really big on purpose and what you’re trying to do. My purpose is to teach, share, help you grow, and help you become a continuous learner. I want to make an ...

Developing a Positive Team Culture Posted with permission from PGCBasketball By Lyndsey (Medders) Fennelly, former director and clinician with PGC. Our 75-minute presentation was titled, “A Coach’s Role in Impacting Team Culture”. We shared some key points about how the culture of your team can be established, reinforced, and even reinvented, through your team’s basketball practices. The two main areas that support ...

Greg Kampe on Role of Assistants Oakland University Head Men’s Head Coach Greg Kampe discusses some of his views on the role of assistants in his program. Coach Kampe has won 567 games in his coaching career. Please make sure that your sound is on. Click the play arrow to hear the talk. This portion of Coach Kampe’s online presentation was taken from an online ...

Don Meyer Basketball Coaching Notes Coaching notes from Don Meyer: How to Evaluate a Game: Tools that we use to determine how well or poorly our team actually played. Many times the scoreboard is a poor judge of your team’s performance. 1. Turnover Margin: Looks to see if your team has “sureness” with the ball on offense and whether your team can ...

Kevin Eastman Basketball Coaching Notes Kevin Eastman is a great coach to study.  He has really good thoughts on all aspects of building a basketball program.  Coach Eastman is retired from Coaching.  His career included Assistant Coach for Doc Rivers at both Boston and LA, Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Clippers, and Head Men’s Coach at UNC Wilmington ...

Coaching the iY Generation of Basketball Players Clinic Video from: This video was filmed at a PGC/Glazier Basketball Clinic. The Coach in the video is Arkansas Women’s Head Coach Mike Neighbors. This video was filmed at the PGC/Glazier Spring 2016 Chicago Clinic and at that time he was the Head Women’s Coach at Washington. Coach Neighbors led the Huskies to the 2016 Final Four and has ...

Gregg Popovich Coaching Notes These are a few of my takeaways from my latest reading on Texas A & M women’s assistant Bob Starkey’s HoopThoughts. If it is not on your regular reading list, I recommend to add it. There are great articles on all aspects of coaching basketball. Bob received these notes from Steve Finamore. Gregg Popovich Notes On what it ...

Bob Hurley: The St. Anthony Way These notes from the 2013 TPG Master in Coaching Clinic were posted by Zak Boisvert on his basketball Coaching Website: Pick and Pop Bob Hurley St. Anthony HS (Jersey City, NJ) “Over 40 years of sustained success—the St. Anthony way” -St. Anthony players receive a contract on the first day of school. They must bring it home to sign. • Lists ...

10 Areas for Player Self Evaluation —Excerpted from the book, “Running the Show” by Dick DeVenzio Posted with permission from PGCBasketball You can read ways 1-10 at this link: Part 1: 10 Areas for Honest Self Evaluation Stemming from the need for a standard of personal excellence, I offer a citizenship test or “State of the Person” report card. In brief, here are twenty-one categories or subjects ...

Organizing Your Program     and     Athletic directors have so much to do. Need a little help organizing your program? TeamSnap has your back. Here are the top five reasons you’ll want to give us a try. 1. Your Athletic Program Needs to Centralize Communication TeamSnap makes it easy to stay in touch from your desktop or mobile device. You can send instant updates ...

Advice for Landing a Job as a Video Coordinator As more teams embrace the combined power of stats and video, video coordinator jobs have emerged at a growing rate. The quest for any edge, no matter how small it may seem, is a never-ending one, and organizations are truly beginning to grasp the value that video coordinators bring to the table. Despite the growth of ...