End of 2011 wrap up

So, I'm getting ready to wrap up this year. As of right now our 8th grade "A" team is sitting at 9-0. Our "B" team is 1-2. We've got a lot of work to do. Both of our teams have 5 more games until our conference and county tournaments. One thing that I always try to do is to be playing the best basketball at the end of the year. Yes, it's always good to pick up wins along the way. Being undefeated is never something that you shouldn't be proud of accomplishing. I'm concentrated on daily improvement and making the team better. If you played your best basketball in November, then what have you been doing since then? I have enjoyed this break from school. We gave the players a week off over break. I think they know that they should be doing some conditioning over break because Coach Allen will be sure to remind them that they should have working out over break. I'm going to work with the bigs when we get back on finishing around the bucket and being strong with the ball. We tend to let the ball be slapped away by the pesky little players. Always something to work on.

I picked up some books to read over break.
You Haven't Taught Until They Have Learned by John Wooden
http://www.amazon.com/Havent-Taught-Until-They-Learned/dp/1935412086/ref=pd_sim_b_6
Inch and Miles by John Wooden
http://www.amazon.com/Inch-Miles-John-R-Wooden/dp/0756914108/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Soup by Jon Gordon
http://www.amazon.com/Soup-Recipe-Nourish-Your-Culture/dp/0470487844

First W

My current coaching job is an 8th grade assistant/ "B" Team coach. I'm really enjoying it. We picked up our first win tonight. Which coincidentally, is also my first ever real win. Being an assistant for 8 years, I have been around a lot of basketball, but have never actually coached a winter game and made all the decisions myself. It feels good. I probably took one of the A team players out a little early before the deal was actually sealed, but we hung on until the end and pulled out a 5 point win. I uncovered a lot of stuff we need to work on, so back to work it goes.

Communication

Basketball trainer Alan Stein has a great article on communication that is definitely worth a read. It's about the major difference between high school and college players. He decides on communication.
After I read this, the next day at work my boss asked me if this document that he sent me would work. I replied that it would. He came by about 2 hours later and asked if I had done something that is the third step in the process of what I do. I told him I hadn't because I wasn't told to do that. I would have skipped step 2 without any approval. He had thought that by asking me about step 1 that everything to step 3 would have been done. Right there lies the communication breakdown. I had no idea that I was supposed to have step 3 done. It didn't make sense to me when he asked me about step 3. I probably gave him the worst look ever because I was confused about why he was asking this.
Communication is so important so that everyone is on the same page. When everyone is on the same page, everything flows and the guesswork is taken out of a lot of things.
Communicate effectively and progress will happen.

Fundamental Importance

As our season is around 3/4 of the way finished, I feel that this topic should have been posted a long time ago. I want to talk about foundations and how foundations must be solidly built at the beginning of the year.
We're 3/4 of the way done with our season, yet I feel that some of our guys are not well-grounded in the fundamentals to be able to execute simple things this late in the season. I think some of these things were overlooked early on in the season. We took them for granted. I thought they knew them, understood them, and applied them correctly. As we have went on with the season it has become apparent that we really didn't understand some of the core understanding of our system. It becomes evident in our execution of our offense. It's the small things that make the big differences. It's the understanding of the big picture; the learn it today so it will help us tomorrow and later this season things that we're struggling with.
I think it's a discipline thing. Having the ability to do things the right way at the right time.
So, what I have learned from this is that early on in the season a coach must base the understanding of his offense, the complexities of his defense, the underlying structure of the whole operation on the fundamentals. Everything must be based on them and you must recurrently go over them again to make sure your program is still grounded on its foundation.

On-Ball Defense vs Helpside Defense; and the 2 Dribble Rule

At practice yesterday, we're working on some shell defense stuff. Our by far quickest player, and when I say quick, I mean extremely quick. Probably the quickest player I have ever seen on one of our teams. For some reason, no matter how quick he is, his on-ball defense is terrible. He can't keep an offensive player in front of him. As this is happening, I talking to another of the assistant coaches and we get into this discussion on what is more important defensively. Is it on-ball defense and keeping players in front of you off the dribble, or is it having great team helpside defense? Now, of course both would be the ideal and what every coach/team is going to strive for, but what if you had to choose one?
I decided to go with the on-ball defense as more important. Mainly my reasoning behind this was that if you have great on-ball defense, then you don't need to help. This thought brought me back to a discussion I had a few years ago with a different assistant who has since moved on from teaching and coaching. We talked about if you, as an on-ball defender, can stop the offensive player you're guarding for two dribbles, you have won. If he can't get by you in 2 attacking dribbles, he probably isn't going to beat you. (This only applies in the half-court and typically once the ball has been passed from the point guard to initiate the offense.)
When you think about it, if you can get in the dribbler, play solid defense without fouling, and hold him from penetrating your defense beyond two dribbles, you have won.
When thinking about helpside defense and if your on-ball defender can't stop his man in 2 dribbles, then you have to rely on helpside. The negative side to this is that your defense is probably going to be scrambling, a mismatch is going to be inevitable, and the offense will win that possession. I understand the great need for helpside defense, don't get me wrong. There is always going to be a time when you need helpside defense. Fact:Defensive players are going to get burnt. It's going to happen. Just like a cornerback in football. They have no idea what the receiver is going to do. They have to react. Sometimes your reactions are going to be slow. Your teammates must help you. But if you can stop your offensive player for their 2 dribbles that they are trying to beat you to the basket you will be successful. After two dribbles, he will know that he can't beat you. The trick is in 2 dribbles, they can also score.
If you stop your man, then there is no need to help. There is no scrambling. There becomes no mismatches. Keep your man in front. End of story.
Interesting article here by Luke Winn and Ohio State's defense and how they don't foul.
Daily improvement. Working towards excellence. Striving for perfection. Doing it with integrity and class.

Use Early Offense to Put Pressure on the Defense ASAP

I was doing a lot of thinking about early offense and converting from defense to offense. I have assisted on a some teams that ran a secondary break, a-la University of North Carolina, and I seemed to like it. I think secondary breaks work well, as long as it's something that is done every time down the floor.
When converting to offense, I think the main thing to think of is that you want to put pressure on the defense as quickly as you can so that the defense breaks down as soon as possible. In all reality, most players like defense less than they do offense. I think that's a pretty widely accepted statement. But most players will and can defend for the first 10 seconds of a possession. They just switched to defense and are fully concentrated on their responsibilities. After that initial 10 seconds, earlier than that in some cases, is where defenses break down. Assignments get messed up. Communication is lost and points are scored.
What I want out of an offensive transition is to put as much pressure on the defense as early as I can. What's the hardest to defend? I say ball screens, back screens, and ball reversals. So, lets put as much pressure as you can as early as possible. Give your point an immediate ball screen, once the fast break has been stalled. Put the pressure on the defense to do something with it. Put a back screen in. There must be some communication on all back screens or a layup is going to be given up. Ball reversals make the defense shift and can put the defense at a disadvantage. Move the ball quickly. How about a combination of all 3? Whatever you do, you're going to be putting pressure on the defense. When you put pressure on the defense is when good things happen offensively.
I talked about secondary breaks earlier. You don't necessarily have to have a secondary break, but just look at how soon you can begin your offense. The quicker you put pressure on the defense, the quicker they will break down, leading to scoring opportunities. Everyone can play defense for 10 seconds, playing defense for a minute is pretty tough, especially if the offense is always putting pressure on the defense and forcing them to communicate, shift, and make decisions.
What are your thoughts on this? I love comments!

Planning to Prepare

Everyday I get an leadership quote in an email from Giant Impact.com. Today's email consisted of the quote -
"Chance favors the prepared mind." by Louis Pasteur
This quote happened to come at a great time for me. Today, we have a game. One of our starters has been sick for 4 days. He did come to school today. Another starter has been sick for a couple of days and he didn't come to school today. Another starter, was in the nurse's office during school today throwing up. I have heard that one of the better second team's players wasn't at school either today. This is not boding well for us. But at the same time, I feel that once I came to terms with the usual starters not being available that mentally I have been prepared for playing without them. No it might not end up being the exact product of what was expected, but I think I have a plan for it and hopefully chance falls on our side. We'll have to shuffle things around a little and it's good that our JV doesn't have a game tonight so that some of the them get an opportunity to contribute in some varsity action. I have heard a boxing quote before that states, "Everyone has a plan until they get hit."
I struggle with looking ahead and tend to focus on the exact moment at hand. I do lack a little of forward thinking, but I think I'm getting better at it.
Improve Daily.