Coaching Wisdom from Doc Rivers, Hubie Brown, Nick Saban, and more

-Doc Rivers: "With our ball pressure, we know we're going to get beat off the dribble at times. The only guy that can't get beat is the helper."

-Jay Wright: "Drive like a scorer not a passer."

- "The job of a leader is to rally people to a better future." –Marcus Buckingham, author

-Mike Brown: versus a coach that is a staunch believer in his defensive matchups (doesn't like his matchups to get switched), create a problem for him with your own defensive matchups. Against the Celtics, Brown will put Lebron on Rondo because he knows that the Celtics want Pierce guarding Lebron on the other end and that Paul Pierce 7 times out of 10 won't be able to get to Lebron in transition of a miss.

- "I don't micromanage, but I have micro-interest. I let my people work, but I do care about the details. I want intimate knowledge of what's going on." –Tachii Yamada, president of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

-Jeff Bzdelik: "Before you get into the workings of any defensive system, your team must know how to closeout."

-Bill Self: "When defending a ball screen, the screener's defender should hedge at the same angle in which the screen is set (the defender's feet should be parallel with the screener's—"on the same board"). Hedge defender is trying to get the ball handler coming off the ball screen doing 1 of 3 things: pick the ball up, change direction, or be called for a charge."

-Tom Crean: "Never go beyond the next game ("1 Game Winning Streak"). Look at your next game as the most important game on your schedule."

-Stan Van Gundy spent his year off after getting let go by Miami studying the league and asking himself the question, "What will I do when I come back?"

-Nick Saban: Alabama players were charged with the task of putting together a team affirmation (defined as a "positive assertion repeated by players to keep them focused on all the same things needed to achieve the long term goal of a national title.") For offense the team affirmation was to "strive to be capable of an explosive play on any given snap." The defense's affirmation was to "never give up an inch."

-Hubie Brown: "Don't be turned off from aggressive play by high foul calls in your first year(s) of your tenure. As you start to establish that (aggressive defense) as your style, they (the refs) will respect you and foul numbers will decrease.