basketball Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Building a Winning Mindset

Things I Know – Coach Wheeler’s Basketball edition

This post is about the “Things I Know” when it comes playing basketball “the correct way”, i.e. the way that I like my teams to play. Each of these short “Things I Know” is followed by an action that players should carry out in the described situation.

Are these statements true in every situation? Probably not, but they are true in enough game situations that they should be worth building into your game plan. I should add that as you progress to higher and higher levels of basketball, e.g. college or the pros, the best players know these “things” and make sure they are the “exception to the rule”. In any case, my hope is that these “Things I know” will give you something to think about. (I also look forward to your ideas / feedback in the comments section below!)

1) Players go slower when dribbling with their weak hand.
—-> Force them to their weak hand.

2) Players dribbling with their weak hand will look for opportunities to switch back to their strong hand.
—-> Steal the ball when it is “presented”.

3) Many players (especially in high school) won’t shoot with their weak hand (when they should).
—-> Block the shot.

4) Offensive players who are trapped will often throw poor passes.
—-> Trap with hands up (don’t foul).
—-> Non-trap defenders must be ready and steal the pass.

5) Tired players make mistakes.
—-> We want to tire out the other team, especially their primary ball handler(s), so that we can force them into mistakes later in the game.

6) There is such a thing as a “good foul”.
—-> Non-shooting foul preferred
—-> A good foul prevents the other team from getting an easy shot.
—-> A good foul is also the result of hustle and aggressive defense.

7) Defenders can U based on these three “Things I know”, if they are studying their opponent…
a) patterns / what the offense has done before
b) what appears to be the offense’s best option
c) where the offensive player is looking.
—-> Steal the ball.

8) Help Defenders must put their body in the path of the [driving] offensive player.
—-> Concentrate on the ball… and take it away.
—-> Remember where your man was… anticipate the pass and steal it.

9) On almost every play, a pass goes by a defender at shoulder or waist height but it is not deflected because the defender didn’t have their hands up (or wasn’t paying attention to the ball).
—-> Keep your hands up and in the passing lanes [at “pass height”].
—-> It is OK to stop a pass with your foot. Defense will be called for a “kick” but the other team’s offense will be disrupted and they will have to take the ball out of bounds (OOB).

10) More fast breaks are killed by the player who rebounds the ball and then holds onto it.
—-> Pass the ball immediately. Know where your team mate will be.

11) Passing is faster than dribbling.
—-> Pass the ball to the open man ahead of you.

12) RUN. Don’t slow down on a fastbreak. [this is most often done at, or near, the 3 point line].
—-> Break TO the basket first and then create space for a kickout pass.
—-> Don’t forget the 4th or 5th man down the court. Hit the trailer for a layup.
—-> Move the ball! Don’t let the defense set up.

13) Offensive players must GET OPEN. Standing in place lets the defense to jump the pass when it is thrown to you.
—-> Use contact with your defender to create an opening for the pass.
—-> Put your hand out as a target to show your team mate where to pass the ball.

14) Don’t run diagonally to get open. [This applies most often to guards being pressured in the backcourt.] Defenders can beat you to the ball when you cut diagonally.
—-> Use contact to get open.

15) Call out picks. [No Excuses]

16) When an offensive player picks up their dribble, they are locked to that location on the floor and their passing options are limited.
—-> Scream BALL, BALL, BALL when you see the offensive player pull up their dribble. It will increase their stress level and make it more likely that they will throw a bad pass.
—-> If you are covering the player who pulls up their dribble, get up close and extend your arms. Do not reach. Mirror the ball and try to tip any pass they might try to throw.

No list of “Things I Know” would be complete without mentioning OOB…

17) When defending an Out of Bounds (OOB) situation, there are 5 defenders and only 4 offensive players on the court. (The inbounding player cannot move, unless it is immediately after a basket.) This gives an advantage to the defense (which many teams do not leverage until, maybe, the last play of the game).
—-> Double team someone, ideally the offensive team’s best player. Prevent the inbound pass to all other players.
—-> If the OOB is under the basket, protect the basket at all costs. “Nothing Inside!”
—-> Switch on picks. Call them out.
—-> Another option is to put your biggest defender (with longest arms) on the guy taking the ball out of bounds and try to tip the inbounds pass. The defender should mirror the ball so they can get a hand on the pass.
—-> If the OOB is after the basket, some of this does not apply…

Those are 17 “Things I know” – Basketball edition. They might also be called Coach Wheeler’s Pet Peeves since they are simple ways that a team can improve their advantage versus the competition. None of these things are very difficult but they do require some effort and even practice so that can be done automatically at a fast pace in a game.

What would you add to this list of Things I know? Please leave a comment below and tell us your ideas.

Mental Management – Marksmanship, Basketball and Coaching

Below is an excerpt from The Red Circle, My Life in the navy seal sniper corps and how I trained America’s deadliest marksmen, by Brandon Webb. In this excerpt, Brandon Webb talks about Lanny Bassham’s Mental Management concept and how it relates to performance under pressure. After the excerpt are some ideas for applying the ideas to basketball.

The Red Circle by Brandon Webb
“Earlier I said that intellectual capacity was the first trait we look for in a sniper, that physical ability, as important as it is, is only 10 percent of the game. Of all the changes we made in the course, the one that felt most significant to me and that I was proudest of was our system for mental management.

When we first encountered the concept of mental management it was being taught exclusively to instructors as a way to help us coach and teach more effectively. In essense, it was all about where we as instructors focused a student’s attention

Say you’re doing batting practice with a kid and you notice he’s standing with his knees buckled in, shoulders misaligned, hands spread wide apart on the bat. Your impulse might be to start telling the kid everything he is doing wrong. If you focus his attention on all these wrong things, though, what you’re really doing is imprinting them into the poor kid’s mind, with the result that they start becoming ingrained habits. If you say, “Hey, you’re flinching. Every time the ball comes at you, you’re flinching! Stop Flinching!” then what the hell’s that little kid thinking about? He’s thinking about flinching.

If instead you say, “Hey, put your hands closer together, like this, and look: feet apart.” Then you’re showing him what to do rather than focusing his attention on what not to do.

A beginner typically starts out very focused on everything that’s going on. He’ll tend to absorb whatever is thrown at him. He is, in other words, highly programmable. The question is, as an instructor, what are you going to feed that rapt attention: bad habits or good habits?

This translated directly to instruction on the sniper course. In the old days instructors would bark at us for everything we did wrong. “Stop! You’re putting your finger on the trigger wrong! When you pull the trigger, you’re flinching! You’re jerking the barrel! You’re fucking up!” Suddenly we’d be thinking, Holy shit, there’re twenty things I’m doing wrong! Instead, we learned we could give a student three positive commands, three things he could do to correct those errors, and now he’d be developing good habits from day 1.

I have to admit, I was not completely on board with the whole concept of mental management when I first bumped into it, and I had to overcome my own skepticism. Shortly after Eric and I checked into NSWC to start working with the basic sniper course, we and a handful of other instructors were brought out to Scottsdale, AZ for a one week course taught by a champion marksman named Lanny Bassham, one of the pioneers of mental management. I was pretty dubious. Mental Management? What, like some positive-thinking guru? Oh boy. “Great,” I said to Eric, “when is Tony Robbins gonna come in and blow smoke up our asses?”

My attitude didn’t last long. Bassham is such an amazing, down-to-earth guy – and what he taught us was nothing short of incredible.

“I wasn’t good at sports,” Lanny told us. “I was of this weak, goofy kid. My dad said, ‘Hang in there, we’re going to find something for you. Everyone has a talent.’ ”

Lanny found his talent when he got into competitive shooting. After college he joined the army and was assigned to their marksmanship unit, which is comprised of the best match shooters in the world. By the time he went to shoot in the 1972 Olympics in Munich at the age of twenty-five, Lanny was famous the youngest world champion in the sport, and everyone expected him to shoot gold.

“I was on the bus with a bunch of competitors from different countries,” he said. “I heard some Russians in the seat behind me talking about how much pressure I must be under, with the entire reputation of the United States on my shoulders, and how they were glad they weren’t me – and they started getting in my head.”

By the time he stepped off the bus, Lanny was completely rattled. “I shot the worst match of my life,” he said. This being Lanny, the worst match of his life meant he came in second – but he was devastated. He came back to the States and visited with a handful of sports psychologists to see if he could understand what had happened to him, and they all said the same thing: “Hey it’s okay to be number two. Olympic silver is a great achievement, Lanny. You should be satisfied with that.”

Lanny said, “Screw that. I don’t think so!”

He spent the next few years interviewing dozens of gold-medal champions and recording all the specific traits he could identify in his interviews. They gave him an earful; you don’t get to be a gold medalist without doing an awful lot of self-examination and studying the best practices and key practice/performance tactics and strategies. Out of everything he heard, he found there were two specific traits they all shared in common.

First was complete and total confidence. Not arrogance or cockiness, but an absolute, unshakable confidence in their ability to perform regardless of adversity. Here’ how Lanny described this trait:

If I’m a champion tennis player, playing a championship game, it doesn’t matter if the strings start popping off, or my favorite racket breaks in the middle of the game. I’ll pick up a piece of plywood, tape it to a stick, and I’ll still beat you on the tennis court.

It’s an attitude that says, I will win no matter what. These people didn’t just want to win, they expected to win. When they went out to compete, they had already won in their minds.

We’ve all seen people who have the talent and skill to win, but at the last minute something goes wrong; their favorite bat breaks, or a golf swing misses, or something in their environment distracts them – the way Lanny was psyched out by the Russian taunts – and their game unravels. It didn’t unravel because the bat broke, Lanny was saying, or because the pitch went wild, or because of the other team’s taunt. It unraveled because it was vulnerable.

For champions that doesn’t happen. Their game is invulnerable. That’s the kind of confidence Lanny was talking about – and that was the kind of confidence we wanted to instill in our sniper course graduates.

The other trait was that they all did some kind of mental rehearsal- closing their eyes and practicing their winning game in their heads, over and over again.

Lanny told us about a navy pilot he met in the seventies name Captain Jack Sands. Captain Sands was shot down while serving in Vietnam and spent seven years in a prison camp in Hanoi, confined in isolation with no phyical activity. In order to preserve his sanity, he decided to practice his golf game. Of course, he couldn’t physically play golf – but the 5′ x 5′ cage he was in couldn’t prevent him from creating a course in his mind. In his imagination he evoked an image of a beautiful country club course, placed himself there, and let himself experience it all in great detail. He saw himself dressed in golfing clothes, smelled the trees and grass, and felt himself making each stroke as he played. Every day, for seven years, Captain Sands played a full eighteen holes in his mind while his body sat in his cage. He played it perfectly, never hooking slicing, or missing a single shot or putt. Hey, he was making it all up, right? Why not make it perfect?

Here was the amazing part. Before joining the navy, Captain Sands was an average weekend golfer, barely breaking 100. After he was finally released from his captivity and made his way home, he eventually got out onto a real grass-and-air golf course, and his first day out on the green he shot a stunning score of 74. He had taken more than 20 strokes off his game – without one laying a hand on a club. (By the way, some have claimed this story is an urban legen and there was no such person. It’s no urban legend: Lanny sat next to the guy on a seven-hour flight to a world championship match they attended together.)

The point, said Lanny, was that your reality is defined by your mind, not your external enironment. Jack Sand’s golf game changed so dramatically because that was how he had programmed his brain to see it.

Lanny went on to tell us about a national shooting championship he participated in. As part of his preparation, he had spent time mentally rehearsing the moment when he would be kneeling there and suddenly realize, Holy shit, I’m about to shoot a perfect score. What so often happens in a high-stakes situation like this? The realization that you are on a roll knocks you off balance. It’s that Uh oh, I’m so close, what if I screw up now? moment that can come with asking someone out on a first date, taking your driver’s test, asking for a raise, or doing anything risky and important in life. We’re not ready for this place of victory and don’t know how to react now that we are here – so we choke. Not Lanny. He’d rehearsed that moment so many times that it was now as familiar to him as coming home.

“When I hit that moment in that championship,” he said, “I recognized it like an old friend. Just like I’d done every time I’d rehearsed it. I took two deep breaths, said to myself, I’m shooting the next three shots perfectly, then took my time. Boom. Boom. Boom.”

He shot a perfect score.

Lanny returned to the Olympics in 1976, and this time, using his mental management system, he took the Olympic gold. Over the following years he dominate the field, winning twenty-two world individual and team titles and setting four world records on top of the gold medal he took in Montreal.

Lanny incorporated what he’d learned into a whole mental management program, which he wrote about in his book, With Winning In Mind. His system became so popular that other coaches and athletes started having him come train them.

Mental Management to basketball

The obvious application is visualizing free throws but it could be used for nearly any part of the game. Late in the season, when the body gets worn out, how about taking some time to relax and visualize actions instead of running up and down the court?

As the state playoffs approach, wouldn’t the concept of Mental Management help your team perform better? Imagine what it will be like when you have a lead in the game and realize that you could actually win the championship? Or you face a challenge from the other team, maybe they make a couple of 3 point shots in a row… how are you going to respond? With confidence that you will overcome the challenge and emerge victorious? Why not?

Please post your thoughts on Mental Management for Basketball in the comments below. We would love to hear what you think or how you have applied these ideas!

Power of “Optional”

If you think about it… Basketball is “optional”, especially in middle school and high school. As far as I can tell, no one is ‘required’ to play basketball. Just like no one is ‘required’ to go to college or earn an above average living from a career they enjoy. Almost every great experience or achievement is ‘optional’.

We each get to choose what optional things we want in our life and what optional activities we are willing to put in to our life to get exceptional rewards! As I heard on the Pure Sweat podcast (paraphrasing a bit), “Winning is earned by what you do in the unseen hours.”

Great = Optional

As Jim Collins pointed out in his book, Good to Great, “Good is the enemy of Great.” The reason we have so few things that are great is because what we have is generally “good”. Most people are ready to settle for “good enough” and never discover that they could have achieved something great.

It is very simple. If you want to be great at anything, you have to do things that average people don’t do. You have to do the ‘optional things’. In basketball, if you want to be an all-state player, you need to work on your shot and your athletic ability (assuming those are areas that will make you successful). In school, the optional things could include an extra study session every night or finding a new way to study that is more effective.

Optional is not easy… or hard

Doing extra things, optional things, can be hard. It might involve working harder, getting up earlier than your competition and putting in longer hours. That might be hard… or not. You might actually find ways to enjoy the optional activities. Many athletes are proud of the hours they put in and it gives them a sense of confidence that they would not have otherwise.

On the other hand, optional things could actually BE easy. Finding a new way of doing something can almost instantly take your performance to a new level. Reading on your topic of interest, while perhaps mentally taxing, can be a physically relaxing activity that can give you an advantage over the competition.

Referring back to Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great, one of the counter-intuitive findings that he came up with, and documented with a number of stories in his book, is that it isn’t really harder to go for great than it is to settle for “good”. Are there some different activities? Sure. Do great teams do things different from good teams? Sure. But does it have to be harder? Definitely not.

Quick Mental Training Tip…

Whether something is easy or hard, good or bad… is your choice. You get to define the meaning of everything in your life. A person’s definition of ‘reality’ can be very subjective so why not choose the meaning that gives you the best results. If you want it to be easy, make it easy. If you want to challenge yourself with something hard, make it hard. You get to choose.

Bottom Line…

The optional effort is what makes you stand out. As I’ve said in another article, Hustle is a way to stand out… and Hustle is clearly ‘optional’. What other activities do you need to do to get what you want? By doing the ‘optional’, you are setting yourself from the pack, from the ‘average’ results and shooting for something better. How far are you willing to go? Your limits are just an illusion set up by other people. You can do more than you even imagine!

Court Awareness – K.I.M. games

Court Awareness, sometimes called “situational awareness”, is a critical skill if you want to be a top player on a highly successful team in almost any sport. In simplest terms, it is being aware of what is going on around you. At the next level, you are aware of what each observation means and what might happen next.

It can also be a very helpful skill in other areas of life. In fact, some of the exercises that will be presented below, are based on articles from military blogs explaining how awareness can be applied in battle and other situations.

Basketball Court Awareness…

Learning from the Master

The short video below shows how one of the best passers of all time uses a highly developed court awareness to make some amazing passes. There are some passes where he is looking at the recipient of his pass but there are many more where he is either looking away or anticipates where his team mate will be to accept his pass (and usually score).

What does Court Awareness mean for basketball players?

Court Awareness, at its peak, means that you are aware of all the players on the court… where they are, where they are moving, who has the ball, where they are looking and even what they might be saying. It extends to knowing the current score as well as how much time is on the clock as well. If your state has a shot clock, court awareness includes knowing how much time is left whether you are on offense or defense.

Seems like a lot of information to process all at once, doesn’t it? The good news is that your court awareness can be developed over time… if you put in the effort to improve.

How to improve court awareness

The K.I.M. game, also known as Keep In Memory, is an effective and enjoyable method to boost your court awareness skills. The fundamental concept behind this game is to improve the player’s ability to recall a dynamic scene accurately, a trait crucial in understanding the constantly changing dynamics on a basketball court.

In this game, you’re encouraged to take a mental ‘snapshot’ of the current game state – player positions, who has the ball, the clock, and the score. Then, as the game progresses, you must frequently refer back to these mental snapshots, updating them constantly. This mimics the real-time process in an actual game, as you strive to keep an updated mental image of the court situation while simultaneously involved in the game.

Interestingly, some relate this game to ‘Kim’s game’ from an old movie, where the protagonist develops a strong memory by recalling intricate details from a scene. Regardless of its origin, the K.I.M. game is a beneficial tool in training the brain to capture, store, and retrieve necessary details swiftly, significantly benefiting the player’s court awareness and overall game performance.

Either way, KIM is a way to improve your ability to take a “mental snapshot” and then access it at a later time. In basketball, this “snapshot” is constantly changing (e.g. locations of players) but since you can’t always see 100% of the court or all the players, having a picture in your mind that you can refer to is of immense value as you are figuring out what you should do next.

Here are some examples of KIM games that you might want to try…

KIM Game # 1 – Team Challenge

[FREEZE] Stop play and have all players close their eyes. Ask questions of each player to identify locations of other players on their team as well as the opposition. Team with most answers correct wins.

You can also take pictures from behind the defense at different points in a scrimmage and, later, use them as a challenge for your team to predict where every player was after seeing the picture for just a second or two.

KIM Game # 2 – Snapshot. Questions.

Take a mental picture of something. Examples could be a billboard (if you are driving), a bulletin board (in a school) or a scene from a particular perspective. Have each person answer questions based on their brief glimpse or “snapshot” of the scene or item(s).

KIM Game # 3 – What’s Different?

I got this exercise from professional speaker and World Champion of Public Speaking, Craig Valentine. He uses this as part of his speeches to help audience members recognize changes. He starts by asking audience members to pair up and designate one as the “observer” and one as the “changer”.

He then asks the “changer” to think of 6 things they could change. Craig quickly stops the exercise before it goes too far and he lets the audience know that 6 things is probably too much. He gives the changers a different goal… change one thing.

Next the pairs of audience members turn away from each other (back to back) and the “changer” changes 1 thing about their clothing or personal “look”, e.g. hair style, location of watch or other items.

After instructing the pairs to turn back toward each other, Craig asks the question, “What’s missing or changed?”. Most observers can pick out the one change. He then repeats the exercise with two changes … and again the observer usually recognizes the changes.

What’s the moral of this story?

court awareness can get you more (and better) shots — How’s your team’s court awareness?

If you start small, you can learn to observe the changes and your ability to see relative changes can be expanded with practice.

The same thing applies to Court Awareness. By using these exercises along with ideas you develop yourself, players will train their brains to be more aware of the location of other players, where they are moving as well as other factors that are part of the game.

What’s next?

First, it would be great if you could post your ideas or feedback about Court Awareness in the comments below. We would also love to hear what types of drills you use and how court awareness has improved the performance of your team.

Second, you might want to learn more about how court awareness figures into something called the “OODA Loop”. Check out this article by Coach Wheeler “Mental Models and the OODA Loop.”

HUSTLE – It sets you apart.

At the InviteOnly 2017 PreSeason Basketball Camp held last weekend at Keene State College, I gave a brief impromptu “speech” about the topic of “Hustle” and how it can set you apart from other players trying out for your team.

Based on the reception of that speech about the importance of hustling, I figured it might be a good topic for a post on this blog as well. Clearly Hustling is tied to your mental toughness because, for most players, it does come naturally… at first. Once you start to hustle, you will find that it will become easier. You will have to think about it at first but eventually it will become automatic. You just have to make the decision to start NOW!

What is “Hustle”?

Hustling is the act of “not waiting for things to happen” but rather doing whatever it takes to “make things happen”. It is all about increasing the pace that you do things.

Why does Hustle matter?

Hustling is visible. It tells your team mates that what you are doing is important and can’t wait. It tells your coach that you are enthusiastic about being on the team and, to a certain extent, that you are a hard worker. As a player who hustles, it is clear that you are putting in an extra effort… and coaches love to see that.

Hustling builds confidence. You might not notice it, but as you are hustling, you are getting results FASTER than others. It is like you are winning a race against people who don’t even know that there is a race going on. With time, your “hustle habit” will give you confidence both in the areas where you develop skills as well as areas you have not even tried. Why? Because you will know that HUSTLE WORKS.

Hustling gives you a head start. You arrive early while others show up at the last minute. Since you have more time to become accustomed to whatever situation you find yourself in, you have more time to take [a better] action. All because you hustled while others took their own sweet time. Why do you think that “the early bird gets the worm”?

Where should I be Hustling?

You should hustle in any area of your life that you want to achieve superior results. People who hustle in business get more done and make more money. People who hustle in school get better grades and get into better colleges. People who hustle in relationships show how important these relationships are to them.

What is important to you?

hustle NOW Want to improve your chances of making the team?
Start Hustling.

Want to improve the likelihood that you will get more minutes in the game?
Start Hustling.

If something is important to you… You should be hustling.
The time to Hustle is NOW.

4 Part Basketball Year

The one basketball season ends and another basketball year begins. If you are only playing and working on your game during the “official school season” than you are missing out. Below are the 4 sections / timelines that make up the “4 part basketball year” plus the off-season. Let’s start with the day after your school season ends…

Off Season (Spring/Summer/Fall)

Spring AAU
Summer League
Fall AAU
Open gym(s) at school
Pickup games
Weight Training

Once practices can start, the season is officially ON ! Below are the parts of the season along with the focus area for each time period.

1st Quarter- Pre-Season – before first game

Tryouts
Practices / Conditioning
Learn techniques and formations
Scrimmages
Keep it simple / Learn The Basics

2nd Quarter – First Encounters (1st Half of Season)

Play first round of home/away games
Find out what works vs. competition (adapt as needed)
Fine tune & Accelerate “The Basics”
Continue conditioning / strength gains
Gauge the competition (Strengths & Weaknesses)

3rd Quarter – Revenge/Payback time (2nd Half of Season)

Must get better (the competition isn’t standing still)
Prep for playoffs
Keep conditioning / Make it Fun !
Maintain FOCUS. Stay sharp.
Take breaks when needed to maintain energy.
Cold & Flu season… rest to recover quicker.

4th Quarter – Win or Go Home (Playoffs)

Perform at your best.
Few “Easy Wins”… even lower seeds are playing hard.
Have a few surprises up your sleeve.
High level of Mental Toughness / Facing The Challenges

Why use “4 Part Basketball Year”?

Breaking up the season into “chucks”, each with a different area of focus and specific “feel”, helps your team fight the boredom of a long season. It also breaks up the grind of weeks of conditioning and keeps players fresh.

A physical test in each quarter, either as part of a game or practice, can be a good milestone to show progress when compared with tests earlier in the season. I like to have some standard tests for evaluating players and it is good to come back to them in each section of the season to show players that they are indeed getting better.

Bottom line…

Looking at the overall season as a “4 part basketball year” helps your planning efforts as a coach. It should also make the year more enjoyable and more successful for your players. The outline above is just a starting point. Feel free to add your own components to each section and use the outline as a planning tool for this year as well as years to come. If you see something that doesn’t belong, please leave us a comment below. Even if you disagree, your comments and ideas will be helping us get better.

Greatest Of All Time – Basketball Coaches

When you think of basketball coaches, who do you think are the Greatest Of All Time?

Recently, I was listening to a podcast by Tony Robbins where he published his interview (from 30 years ago) with the Legendary Coach John Wooden. This interview (which I will talk about more in a separate post on this blog) had some great content and it got me thinking about other coaches (living or past) who might have interviews (or books) out there that I can learn from.

I can still remember reading Coach Wooden’s book, “They Call Me Coach” back when I was in middle school or high school and I hope that I have lived up to at least some of the principles he taught. Wouldn’t it be great to learn from basketball coaches we consider the Greatest of all time?

Greatest of all Time Basketball Coaches

Below is my Top Ten list (with a couple extras) of basketball coaches I consider the Greatest of all time (not necessarily in any particular order) …

John Wooden, UCLA’s “Wizard of Westwood”
Dean Smith, North Carolina Tarheels
Coach K, Duke Blue Devils
Red Auerbach, Boston Celtics
Phil Jackson, Chicago Bulls & LA Lakers
Geno Auriemma, UConn Women’s Basketball
Pat Summit, Tennessee Women’s Basketball
Bobby Knight, Indiana
Hubie Brown, NBA
Rick Pitino, Providence College, Kentucky, Louisville
Larry Brown, NBA
Greg Popovich, NBA’s San Antonio Spurs
Morgan Wooten, Dematha High School, Washington, DC
Bob Hurley,Sr., St. Anthony High School, New Jersey (28 State titles)
Dave Wheeler, Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative (WLC) High School… [just kidding]. (I added this to see if you were paying attention!)

More to come…

As I explore the coaching concepts of each of these great coaches, I will be posting articles on this blog so you can pick up ideas that you might want to add to your coaching toolkit! Be sure to sign up for our email notification list so you will get an email when new articles are added to this blog. (You can unsubscribe at any time… but why would you?)

Who did I miss?

Who else can we learn from, especially as it relates to “building a winning mindset”? What does your list of basketball coaches who are the Greatest of all time look like? Please leave a comment below and let us know who is on your list of basketball coaches considered the “Greatest Of All Time”.

Ball-First M2M Defense & The Play that Beat UConn WBB 2017

This article is about the play that prevented UConn Women’s Basketball Team’s 111 game winning streak from going to 112… and a type of basketball defense (Ball-First M2M) that would have changed the outcome.

I teach “Ball-First Man-2-Man Trapping Defense” and the loss of the UConn Women’s 2017 Final Four game to Mississippi State provides an opportunity to take a look into some of the principles of BFM2M. Let’s start by checking out the video of the last play Mississippi State used to beat UConn in the 2017 Final Four…

The reason that Mississippi State’s Morgan William was able to get off her jumpshot was due to a mixup on the defensive coverage by UConn. Morgan William is probably the smallest player on the floor so if even one of the UConn players had been closer to her, the shot would certainly have been blocked or at least been a lower percentage. As you see in the video of the last play, there were a bunch of UConn players defending, swapping coverage as Mississippi State players moved around at the top of the key.

Here is where the breakdown occurred and where UConn lost… as Morgan Williams begins to drive, #11 Kia Nurse (who was covering another player too) jumps up to take Morgan. Morgan starts to drive and (this is where BALL FIRST M2M comes in) #12 Soniya Chong, who is now covering MS player #00, waves at the ball handler instead of coming over to trap and stop the drive. If you watch the play further, Kia Nurse backs away from Morgan William, probably under the assumption that #15 Gabby Williams would stop her.

Ordinarily that is a pretty good assumption since Gabby Williams is one of the most athletic players for UConn, but Morgan William has too much speed and momentum so Gabby is unable to get to her in time to stop the shot.

How would it change with Ball-First M2M defense?

Kia Nurse would have continued to aggressively defend the ball (Rule#1-The Ball is our first priority). By staying with the offensive player, Kia would have provided a “wall” of sorts so Morgan could not easily change direction.

Next, Soniya Chong would have jumped into the path of Morgan and placed her body so that she and Kia would create a trap. This is a difficult move if a player has never done it before because without a strong focus on a particular part of the play, it can go wrong quickly.

Players who use Ball-First M2M know that the key to this move is to keep your eyes on the ball. You know that the driver cannot change direction since that would bring them into your other defender and the ball would be open for a possible steal.

By focusing on the ball, you also are able to anticipate a pass to the player you are “leaving” (and intercept a pass if it is thrown). If the offense dribbles into the trap or tries to “plow through” the approaching defender (who is focusing on the basketball) needs to be ready to grab the ball (probably at waist or chest height) and rip it way from them. Other offensive players, usually the taller ones, may try to bring the ball over their head as they step through the trap… which is another reason all players need to keep an eye on the ball.

No one scores without the ball. Every time the ball leaves a player's hand there is an opportunity for a steal. - Coach Dave Wheeler

I know what I have described is a lot to expect from someone who has not used Ball-First M2M and hasn’t developed the skills of where to look (hint: Ball-First) and where they need to put their body to stop a driving offensive player. Ball-First M2M is not an overnight fix, especially since you need ALL the players on the defensive team to understand the approach so they can deal with 2nd and 3rd options. It can be, however, highly effective.

Bottom Line…

Even though I am a long-time fan of UConn WBB, I have to give credit to Mississippi State. They played a tough game. I also appreciate the effort put in by UConn.

It is unfair to focus on one play as the reason they lost since there were countless opportunities to get another basket earlier in the game. Every player and every coach knows that just one more made shot or an offensive rebound or a defensive stop and there would never have been an overtime period. I give credit to all the players, coaches and parents who helped both teams get to this game. Few people have even the smallest sliver of a glimpse into all the preparation and hard work that is put in at this level of basketball.

Having said that, the reason for this article is to show how Ball-First M2M defense can work at the highest levels. There is much more to Ball-First Man-to-Man defense that I have not mentioned in this article… most importantly, traps in other areas of the court. Those aspects will have to wait for another article. If you want to be sent a brief email when new articles are published for this blog, be sure to sign up for our email notification service. As always, your comments are encouraged and appreciated.

Proper Pace – Effort

Here is one of my favorite coaching tips from Coach Geno Auriemma. It is about a way that he shows players the proper pace they should be using on the basketball court and the amount of effort / focus that he expects.

Effort is critically important to a player’s development. If a player doesn’t stretch outside their comfort zone, they won’t become one of the players that win.

Coach Wheeler “It’s about Effort”

I use “up & backs” as a key part of the conditioning program for my teams. Basketball is a game of acceleration and getting from one point to another. It is also about putting out bursts of effort and recovering quickly.

Most people don’t realize that the key part of the up/back drill is how long it takes for a player to be ready to do it again. The best players can do multiple runs with minimal rest but the drill must push players so they put out their best effort both while running and when they set their “restart threshold”.

Through years of trial, I now use a “sorting technique” where the 1st 5 players who are ready and step up to the line are moved to their right side of the line. The rest of the team waits until they are done (usually 10 seconds) before they run. Anyone from either group who finishes in less than 10 seconds can “step up” to run with the top 5. This process quickly shows who is in shape and who is willing to put in the extra effort. Maybe I will offer $100 like Coach Auriemma next time…

Next Level Basketball

What does it mean for a player to “take their game to the next level”? It sounds like a good thing but without understanding the meaning it is hard to get there, right?

Plus… even if you have an idea of what the “next level” is for your basketball game, the question of “How do I take my game to the next level?” is still critically important.

This article will answer those questions (from Coach Wheeler’s perspective) and provide you with an example of a player who might Coach Wheeler could help “take their game to the next level.”

What are “the Levels”?

Below are the various levels from middle school through high school and even into college. If you are interested in seeing some of the skills that are typically developed at each level, check out Coach Wheeler’s article on a Player Progression Plan.

Middle School
High School – Player / non-starter… Losing team
High School – Player / starter… Losing team
High School – Player / non-starter… Winning team
High School – Player / starter… Winning team
High School – Player / starter… college-level skills (D3/Community College)
High School – Player / starter… All-state-Honorable mention
High School – Player / starter… All-state-2nd Team
High School – Player / starter… All-state-1st Team
College Starter – D3 / Community College
College Player * – D2
College Player * – D1

* There are obviously many levels within “college”. Most players won’t need to worry about this since even “best in state” does not mean that you are guaranteed a scholarship at the college level.

There could be even more levels if you include various AAU team or individual milestones (tourney wins, elite team participation, etc.). Again, this is a simple framework for players that are working on their game, probably at some level in high school, and looking to go “to the next level”.

HOW do I go to the “Next Level”?

As mentioned earlier, Coach Wheeler’s article on development of Player Progression Plan has lots of clues for players looking to improve.

Beyond skill development, WINNING is another way to move up a level or two. Players on teams that win get more attention from people who evaluate players.

Since basketball is a team game, if you want to win more games, you need to look at your role on the team. What does the team need to win more games? How well are you performing your role on the team? How can you do more? Or better?

You might have some ideas for these questions but don’t settle for your own answers. ASK others to get a better idea of what will take your game to the next level. ASK Coaches… your current coach (obviously), past coaches who have seen you play recently, AAU coaches, assistant coaches and even players whose basketball knowledge you respect.

When you ASK, you could say something like, “I want to take my game to the next level, what do you think I need to improve?” Be open to the answers but look for common answers that come up often. Also, don’t get upset if someone identifies a weakness that you are not proud of. Many people will only give you “good news” and it is important to value people who will “tell it like it is”. You don’t want sugar-coated feedback. You want the truth… and you need to act on the truth!

Coach Wheeler’s “Next Level real Player Example”:

I coached this player as part of an AAU team when he was a freshman and he was a pretty good shooter. I won’t “name names” since I don’t want to embarrass him. Plus the advice could apply to a number of players.

As a sophomore, our “example player” saw some good minutes on his varsity team but he played a secondary role to seniors who played a similar position.

When I saw him a year later in a summer league, he had improved his ability to drive and make shots. The team he played on did not have great players so he probably had to carry a bigger scoring load than he might on another team.

Next Level tip:

This player has pretty good court vision since he handles the ball most of the time and rarely dribbles into traps or places he might lose the ball. His court awareness is part of how he might take his game (and the success of his team) to the next level.

He should work with his team so that they move into scoring position as he drives. For example, wing shooters need to get open to potentially receive a kick-out pass. Big men need to recognize when he is going to drive and find a lane where they can be open if the opposition collapses on the driver. Even if the driver shoots, big men should be actively getting in position for the rebound.

How are all these things the responsibility of the player with the ball? First, basketball is a team game and even if you are the best player in the world the other players on the court need to be active. Michael Jordan did not win a single NBA championship before Coach Phil Jackson brought in the triangle offense and convinced MJ that involving others was in his best interest (especially if he wanted to win).

Second, if you are the primary ball handler (as this player is in our example) your key responsibility is to distribute the ball for the highest percentage shot possible. That means “getting the other players to move to the right places”. Sometimes the coach sets up plays for the team but more often players have to work together on the court in various situations.

This is just Coach Wheeler’s idea for how this player could get to “the next level”. As we mentioned earlier, he should be getting feedback from all the coaches in his life… and taking action.

Bottom line…

If you want to get better, you will have to take action. Basketball is highly competitive. You are not just competing within your school’s division. You are competing against everyone near your age who is playing basketball and trying to get to the next level. Remember, after your senior year in high school, no matter how good you are, the next year you are a freshman in college. From the big fish in the small pond to a small fish in THE OCEAN! The time to move to the Next Level is NOW. Don’t wait. Your future depends on it!