Little Tip~ Nice Reward ~ Youth Basketball AND up!

Coached 5 games last weekend in a Jim Cox Hardwood Productions basketball tourney; before one of our games, watched the end of an 8th grade game. In the last minute, the ball went out of bounds and the offense had the opportunity to execute one of their inbound plays.

The man assigned to pass the ball in from out of bounds, raced to stand by the official and had both his hands out begging for the ball. After a second or two, the ref handed him the ball......but guess what? Two of his four teammates were not in position. In fact, they were not even watching as their teammate took control of the ball.

The Coach on the sideline yelled, and basically their "success" on the play was defined in that they didn't lose possession. They brought the ball in bounds but had no advantage, and no opportunity to score on the play.

So what is the TIP?
The person taking the ball out of bounds....needs to.....TAKE THEIR TIME GETTING TO THE BALL.
And conversely, the 4 teammates need to get to their spots QUICKLY, before their teammate gets to the ball.

It's amazing how important inbound plays can be for teams. Our Celtic group had about 4 plays we ran, and one of them worked three straight times in a high school game against a quality team coming off a State Championship season. It was amazing!

Let me know if you'd like me to give you the play.

Assistant Coach - Calipari Style~ Think like a Head Coach!

My first year in high school at Tulsa Memorial high school, I made varsity; it turned out to be the last year of Coach Doug Dugger's long and successful coaching career.  One of his traits, as I was warned by the seniors, was his love of watching game film.  At times, when the only noise was the old school projector running the click click click of the black and white video tape,,, it was very difficult to stay awake.  Laying on the hard court, flipping from leaning on my left hand supported by my left elbow, flip flopping to the right hand and elbow support, to the old hands-clasped behind the neck and LIFT position, after the first hour to hour and a half, it became increasingly difficult to stay awake. 

Tulsa Memorial High School Basketball note: My senior year the Memorial Chargers won their first State Championship by knocking off Oklahoma City Northwest Knights in the championship game. Twenty years later, in 1994, the Chargers captured their 2nd championship. They added a third Championship in 2006.

Compare that to what writer Darrell Bird learned when he interviewed Kentucky assistant coach John Robic regarding the use of tape.

"The first time these guys will see any film will be at the pre-game meal the day of the game. That's it," Robic said. "Cal puts a lot of emphasis on us, not the other team, so we're not a big film program at all. Never have been.

"We didn't watch an entire game film once in the last four years. We want everything short, concise and to the point. Even when us coaches watch film, it's cut down so Cal can watch it without ever hitting the remote."

The same is true for film from his own team's recent play.

"Cal may just say, 'Have them pull out this, this and this and we'll watch it before practice,' " Robic said. "I guarantee it won't be more than five minutes of tape. I think that has a lot to do with Cal coming from the NBA, where you don't have time."

John Robic has been on John Calipari's coaching staff for 13 years beginning at UMass, Memphis and now Kentucky.

"I know what he's thinking when he's thinking it," Robic said.

He also said you won't see even ONE of the assistant coaches watching the games with clipboards, or keeping statistics during the game.  He wants all five of his assistants to act like they are the boss.

"We don't take notes or do stats during the game. He wants us to coach," Robic said. "You're not going to see five guys with clipboards. You're going to see no guys with clipboards. Cal wants us to be thinking like a head coach all the time."

Click this to read Bird's entire article.