Common Sense Basketball Coaching

Here's a good excerpt from the new book "The Dandy Dons:"

It chronicles the University of San Francisco basketball teams from the mid-1950s that were coached by Phil Woolpert and featured Bill Russell and K.C. Jones. USF won the NCAA championship in 1955 and 1956.

When practice opened in the fall of '53, Woolpert was ready. So were the players, but they didn't know what the coach had in store for them -- in practice or during games. Woolpert had a plan: First he was going to use defense to break up the opposition's attack before it could get set. On offense he wanted to use a balanced floor, with his players working the ball around the court until they got the right shot.

Woolpert had always been a strong advocate of defense and he saw an opportunity to develop his players into an aggressive defensive squad.

"I can't see just standing around and letting the other fellow shoot. To me, it's common sense to try to stop him from scoring. There is a science and a skill to defense. It's what makes the game interesting, not a race from one end of the court to the other for one more basket."

He was also fond of saying, "We figure to have the ball only about half the time in a game, so in practice, we work on defense half the time."

Woolpert was without a doubt a defensive-minded coach. In Woolpert's system, if you couldn't defend, it was unlikely you would get much playing time. He disdained "jackrabbit basketball," once remarking about the up-tempo offense becoming popular then: "It just isn't good basketball. I wouldn't know how to go about coaching it. You can't expect to execute scoring plays when you're running up and down the court like madmen."

Practice included what Woolpert called the "hands-up" drill. The players would line up with their feet in position, bend their knees, and put one hand high above their heads and the other one out to the side. Then they moved quickly forward or backward, to the left or to the right, at Woolpert's direction.

It was the same drill that Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell used when he was at USF and in 1959 when his Cal team won the NCAA title. Most players introduced to the hands-up drill lasted about three minutes before they begged for mercy, but eventually they could go twenty minutes nonstop. That kind of stamina paid big dividends during the season.

Woolpert was also a stickler for making his players pick up the fundamentals of the game -- dribbling, passing, footwork, and shooting. "A basketball player sent on the court with rusty fundamentals," he said, "is a good bet to fail in his operations."

In addition to sound fundamentals, a team needed talented players and a simple offense and defense. Woolpert believed that regardless of what offense a team used, "the essentially important need is for simplicity and efficiency of operation. If the players know what they are doing, and why, and are impressed with the importance of each move in an overall pattern, the chances of that pattern creating good shot opportunities are excellent."

You Had to be Better Than You Have Ever Been

Until I read this article, I didn't realize just how great Hall of Famer Bobby Orr was.An eight-time first-team NHL All-Star, Orr was voted the league's best defensive player eight times.In 1969-70, "Orr became the only player to sweep the league's top awards — MVP, defenseman, playoff MVP and scoring title — and capped it off by scoring the Stanley Cup -- winning goal over St. Louis in overtime."Despite his dominance on the ice, "Orr bristled at the attentions of superstardom." According to this article, during the 1974-75 season, "he scored 46 goals but probably gave away a half dozen more by insisting that teammates had deflected the puck in."One of Orr's former teammates says that Orr "brought others with him; he wanted them involved."

"That's what made him so different: It felt like a five-player stampede moving toward you—and at his pace. He pushed his teammates, [because] you're playing with the best player in the league and he's giving you the puck and you just can't mess it up. You had to be better than you'd ever been."

This is the same quality that Michael Jordan had, Kobe Bryant has, and LeBron James is improving upon. Time will tell how developed LeBron's leadership is when they meet a challenge in this year's playoffs. Thus far they haven't broke a sweat whereas Kobe's Lakers had to survive a game 7 already and a tough come from behind win last night against Denver and their star Carmelo Anthony.

Individual Skill Development Bible - $15 - over 3,000 pages on skill development from the best college and NBA coaches. READ MORE INFO HERE

How do you want to be remembered?

Terrific Q&A in USA Today with Terry Wood, the president of creative affairs and development for CBS

Wood contends that rather than asking yourself what you want to be famous for, people should ask themselves, "What do I want to be known for? What makes me different?" Says Wood: "It's a good exercise to think about how you want to be remembered. You want to think about how you impact the people around you: "What did I do with the time that I had?"

She believes that "famous can be overrated, but if I'm known for something, and that defines who I am, I can take it to the bank."

When asked how much luck has to do with success, Wood says that "timing helps, but I'm a big believer in what you do with the opportunities that are given."

Wood, who is credited with helping to discover stars like Rachael Ray, accepts that there are better chefs out there than Ray, but she adds that "what I love about Rachael is it's never just about the recipe. It's how she connects the food to her passion. Your idea can't be complicated. Explain it in a sentence. Make it you and deliver it with a passion."

According to Wood, a key to excelling is understanding how "to fit in and connect with the people around you." Her advice is to "be a sponge. Try to know as much as you can. What makes the office or the company run successfully? I notice people who add something to the mix. Personality stands out. You never know when an opportunity will come your way. You can't sit with your head down in a cubicle and expect to grow. You need to do the job well and also learn to create the opportunities for success."

But it's not all about charisma, says Wood:

"Personality is about balance. You have to know when to dial it up and when to pull back. That's about reading the room and figuring out how to fit in. It is important that people understand what you're bringing to the table, whether you're the quiet person or the loud person. Your boss needs to be able to look at the room and say, 'I get what he or she does.' Maybe it's humor. Maybe it's new ideas. Think about what you bring to the table and do it appropriately.

Personality can be a lot of different things. It doesn't mean someone who is just loud or gets all of the attention. Personality means that you add something. I like the quiet soldier who gets it done, and I like the hard-chargers who will take on anything I throw at them. It's my job to balance having all of that in the mix. When doing a job interview, I'm not looking for a type, but for a team, to have the right player in every position.

As for leaders, Wood recommends giving people freedom to make mistakes:

"The best decisions will be made when people feel they have the freedom to screw up. I never like to operate by fear. You really have to have confidence in them, let them soar."

Basketball Coaching Secrets of the Princeton Style Offense Revealed

We recently put this eBook together that outlines our entire offensive package. We include the Princeton offense and its breakdown sets along with our under out of bounds, side out of bounds, quick hitters, press breaks and more. This is the total package.

Purchase this eBook for $30
Buy Now

The "Terrific Twenty" Rules for the Princeton-Style Offense

1) If you can pass, dribble, and shoot well, you will always dictate to the defense what they do. If you can't and are not fundamentally sound, they will dictate what you do.
2) You must always see and think on the court, in that order.
3) Don't ever become stationary(stop moving) for more than one second, even if you have the ball, unless you are in the post. Think continuous movement.
4) If overplayed by a defender, don't wait to burn him- go backdoor immediately.
5) If defense is playing you inside, go outside. If the defense is playing you outside, go inside.
6) Hard cuts to the middle will open up the perimeter - cut with conviction!!
7) Make sure you look at the ball when you cut -- be ready for a pass.
8) If you cut through and don't receive the ball, get outside to the perimeter as quickly as possible.
9) Do the opposite of whatever the defense does. :
10) The purpose of the dribble is to get a defender out of position, so dribble with a purpose and in one direction.
11) If you are dribbled at by a teammate, look to go backdoor if played tightly.
12) Be ready to roll back or to the basket on all screens -- go opposite of wherever the cutter goes.
13) Keep good spacing (15-18 feet).
14) If you see there is weak-side help on defense, look to skip opposite and make them pay.
15) Don't go to the ball when closely guarded--go backdoor.
16) With few exceptions, cutters should go opposite of where they came from when going through.
17) Lay-ups and three pointers are what we want to get, in that order.
18) It doesn't matter who scores, as long as someone does.
19) Shots are missed because they are bad shots or the shooter doesn't think they can make them - take good shots!
20) Work hard to make things easy.

Buy Now

More Than a Basketball Coach: Lessons from Bobby Knight

Bobby Knight and Other Greats Teach Motion Offense eBook

$10

Read More Here

In his 2002 autobiography "Knight: My Story," Bobby Knight writes about how he'd bring in guests to speak with his teams. [The following is an excerpt from the book.]

"I've always had people come in and talk to my teams. I wanted them to hear from successful people their thoughts on why they were successful and what it took to be successful."

"One of my smartest invitations was to Janos Starker, acclaimed worldwide as a cellist and a professor in Indiana's School of Music. What would a man critics around the world have called 'the king of cellists' have to say that young basketball players would benefit from?

Here's what:

I started playing the cello when I was six. At that time, I didn't choose it. My mother did. Eventually, three years later, I realized that, first of all, it was something that I loved. I realized that I couldn't go through a day without thinking, doing, making music.

This is one of the basic principles that I state: that anyone who can go through a day without wanting to be with music or hear music or make music is not supposed to be a musician.

I believe that to be valid for every single profession. If you can go through a day without wanting it or thinking it or living with professionalism in the profession that you are in, you are not supposed to be in it.

Discipline means concentration, and concentration means discipline. The practice is just as important as the moment when you are in front of everybody.

Whether the audience cheers or not, it does not mean anything. If I know that I have done well, whether they liked it or not is not important. Did I do the best I could under the circumstances, with total concentration and dedication to the cause at the moment?

Discipline means to learn everything that helps us to the maximum performance.

Where is the parallel, the musical parallel to basketball?

For a lifetime, we develop skills, so as to find the proper note. That's why you train for a lifetime, to find the basket.

As a cellist, when you are six years of age, eight, twelve, you have to practice three or four hours a day just to obtain the basic skills and the strength in your hand and your arms and muscles, because you do need considerable muscle power. We are hitting strings with the fingers sometimes at the speed of two thousand notes per minute.

There are people who can shoot successfully eight times out of ten in practice. To improve on the percentage, you must consciously know what part of the body functions how. This requires the thinking process. It doesn't mean just that you are following the instructions of the coach. Eventually, you must use your own brain: Why does it work? Why is the coach right?

Until the individual discovers it for himself, it is never going to result in consistency.

The word consistency is key. You have to do everything that we mean when we speak of professionalism. I'm not talking about being paid for something. The professional is the one who is consistent at a higher level than anybody else."

Memphis Dribble Drive Motion Offense eBook

Download the Memphis Offense eBook $12

This is an e-book that contains a wealth of information on Coach Walberg's system of dribble drive offense. Over 150 pages on one eBook that contains all the breakdown drills for this offense. This is the same offense that John Calipari used at Memphis this season to reach the National Championship game. This is the offense he will be using at University of Kentucky.

It includes all of the notes, diagrams, build up drills, breakdown notes, and full court press philosophy to help implement this system. It also includes a section on set plays to use in this offense. A great package to understand this new style of offense.

3000 Page Basketball Skill Development eBook

Offensive and Defensive Skill Development eBook $15

With over 3000 pages of basketball information and more than 190 coaching clinic notes, this has all the information you need for perimeter or post players. Memphis breakdowns, Herb Welling notes, Nike, and Adidas Clinic notes are provided.

Listing of Coaching Notes:

2 annual central iowa 2007 clinic notes
37 essential skills to be a successful coach
Adidas Clinic coaches notes
Alan Stein: Clinic offseason strength and conditioning
Alan Stein: Active Warmup
Alan Stein: Pre-hab
Baylor Individual development
Ben Braun: 30 Fundamentals
Ben Braun: Cal Offensive Concepts
Ben Howland Notes
Bill Self: Hi-Low Offense Adidas Clinic
Billy Donovan: Individual Skill Development
Billy Donovan: Post Development
Billy Donovan: Perimeter player workout
Bo Ryan: Adidas Clinic: Swing Offense
Bob McKillop: Myrtle Beach notes
Bob McKillop: Springfield 2008: Program philosophy
Bob Huggins: Hutch 1996
Bob Huggins: Nike Vegas 2005
Bob Huggins: Nike Vegas 2007
Bob Huggins: Nike Vegas 1997
Bob Knight: Notes 2004
Bobby Cremins: Myrtle Beach Notes
Bobby Cremins: Notes
Bobby Hurley: Notes
Bobby Knight: Offensive clinic
Bobby Lutz: Myrtle Beach notes
Bobby Lutz: Myrtle Beach: Quick Hitters
Bobby Knight: Baden Clinic 2005
Brad Stevens: Coaching clinic 2006
Brad Stevens: Coaching Clinic
Brad Stevens: TABC Clinic
Bruce Pearl: Adidas Clinic: Uptempo Transition
Bruce Weber: Nike Vegas 2006
Calipari, Larry Brown Coaching retreat
Caroline McCombs: Individual player development
Chris Fleming: Germany Clinic Notes
Coach K 1998 basketball clinic
Coach K: Zone Offense and Lou Henson Legends Clinic
Coach Meyer: Fall 2006 notes
Coaches Notebook
Coaching Clinic in Texas 2004
Coaching Notes: May 2005
Coaching Retreat Notes: 2007 Tunica
Cotton Fitzsimmons: Memorial Basketbal Clinic
Dave Leito: TABC clinic: Building your Profile
Dave Odom Coaching Clinic
Dave Odom: Nike Springfield 2008: Zone offense
Dave Thrope: Skills overload
Dave Leitao: Notes from NABC 2007
Dick Bennett, Bobby Gonzalez, John Kresse, and etc.
Dick Davey, Steve Smith, Todd Lickliter, Tom Crean notes
Dino Gaudio: Nike Clinic 2008: Rebounding
Don Meyer: 1999 Coaches Academy
Don Meyer: Graceland Clinic: Whole system
Don Meyer: Nike Clinic: Our game sheet of special situations
Don Meyer: Coaching Academy 2007: Rick Majerus
Don Nelson: Bellgrade 2002: Notes
Don Meyer: Building a program
Don Meyer: Fall 2006: Notes
Don Meyer: Post man notes
Don Meyer: Oak Ridge 2006 clinic notes
Double Pump: Coaches clinic notes 2007
Eastman: Chair Series
Eddie Sutton: Notes
Eric Musselman: Motivation and coaching
Evan Pickman: Five Star Basketball: Post development
Gary Pinkel: Baton Rouge Clinic: Buiding a program
Gator Fundamentals
George Raveling: Nike practice planning clinic
Georgia Tech: Individual workouts
Greg Brittenham: Individual Conditioning drills
Greg McDermott: Individual Improvement
Herb Livsey: Teaching Shooting
Herb Livsey: Warrior Drills
Herb Sendek: ASU fundamentals
Hubie Brown: Coaching notes
Hubie Brown: Notes
Individual Techniques and techniques on offense and defense
International NBA Belgrade clinic 2002
Jay Wright: Myrtle Beach 2008: Plays for Players
Jay Wright: Myrtle Beach 2008: Plays for Players 2
Jay Wright: Attacking Footwork drills: Perimeter Players
Jay Wright: Competitive Shooting
Jay Wright: St. Bendict’s Prep notes
Jeff Van Gundy: New York Knicks Clinic
Jeff Young: Concentration and Conditioning drills
Joe Scott: Denver Clinic
John Beilein: Coaching articles
John Beilein: Nike Clinic 2002
John Beilein: WV Practice drills
John Calipari: Adidas Clinic notes
John Calipari: Coaching retreat notes 2007
John Thompson III: Nike Clinic 2007: Georgetown Zone Offense
John Calipari: Individual Improvement
Kelvin Samspon: Coaching Clinic
Kelvin Sampson, Skip Prosser, Lon Kruger, Renee Portland
Kelvin Sampson: Notes
Kevin Eastman: Boston Celtics: Individual Instruction
Kevin Eastman: Individual workout camp
Kevin O’Neill: Nike Clinic 2008: My defensive concepts
Kevin O’ Neill: Post Skill Development
Kevin O’ Neill: Skill Development
Kevin Stallings: Developing a successful program
Kevin Stallings: Vanderbilt Practice Oct. 2007
Kevin Stallings: Vanderbilt Practice Nov 2007
Kevin Sutton: 26 Skill Development drills
Kevin Sutton: Fatigue shooting, 2 ball drills, shooting basketball dvds
Kevin Eastman: Boston Celtic workouts
Kevin Eastman: Nike Hoop Jam
Kevin O’Neill: Individual development
Larry Brown: Myrtle Beach: Early Offense
Lisa Stone: 2007 clinic notes
LSU: Women’s Structure and Sean Miller Xavier clinic notes
Mac Petty: Wabash Coaching Clinic
Mark Few: Big Man Clinic
Mark Few: Individual Improvement
Mark Few: Gonzaga Individual instruction
Matt Brown: UMKC Individual Offense Fundamentals
Matt Driscoll: Baylor Individual Improvement with diagrams
Matt Painter: 2007 clinic
May 2007 Nike Clinic: Vegas
MB Clinic 2001
Mike Brey: Notre Dame coaching clinic 2004
Mike Dunlap: Australian Clinic
Mike Dunlap: Metro State Clinic
Mike Montgomery: Myrtle Beach 2008: Notes
Mike Moreau: Five Star Basketball: Individual Improvement
Mike DeVillivis: Mini Clinics
NABC Final Four 2008 clinic notes
NCAA special situations
Nike 2008: Oliver Purnell, Gary Williams, Billy Gillispie
Nike 2006: Lorenzo Romar, Tubby Smith, Roy Williams
Nike Myrtle Beach 2008 clinic
Nike Pittsburgh 2001: John Chaney, Coach K, Gary Waters, etc
Nike Robinsonville: Roy Williams, Chris Lowery, Lorenzo Romar
Nike 2006: Vegas clinic notes with diagrams
Nike 2006: Coaches clinic
Nike Clinic: 2005
Nike Clinic: 2005 plays
Nike Clinic: 2006
Nike Coaches Academy from Europe
Nike Skills Academy 2005
NYS Coaches Clinic
Pat Summitt: Definite Dozen and strength training
Pat Summitt: Lady Vol clinic
Pat Summitt: Lady Vols Practice Organization
Pat Summitt: Strength Training 2006
Pat Summitt: Baden Clinic
Pete Newell: Mike Dunlap Clinic
Pete Stricland: DC clinic 2007
Phil Martelli: High tempo drills
Phil Martelli: Fundamentals
Phil Martelli: Practice Organization
Rick Majerus: OCA basketball clinic
Rick Pitino: Boston Celtics: Predraft workout and practice plan
Rick Pitino: Louisville Individual workouts
Rick Pitino: Louisville Basketball clinic
Rob Evans: Arizona State Program stuff
Rob Jeter: IBCA 2006 clinic
Roy Williams: TABC 2005
San Jose State coaching clinic 2008
Scott Adubato: Five Star: Perimeter Player Drills
Sean Miller: Offensive Improvement Drills
Seth Greenburg: Nike Clinic 2008
Sherri Coale: Little things that matter
Skip Prosser: Coaching clinic notes
Slyvia Hatchell: Nike Clinic 2008: Winning Carolina Way
Stan Van Gundy: AIA 2006
Steve Alford: Hot to build a Program
Steve Alford: Iowa Individual workouts
Steve Fisher: SDSU Funadmentals and shooting
Steve Smith: Oak Hill Drills
Steve Nash Workout
Thad Matta: Clinic notes
Thad Matta: Nike Clinic 2008: Player Development
Tim Grgurich: Instruction development
Tips for coaching shooters
Tod Kowolczak: WBCA 2007
Todd Lickliter: Iowa Offensive fundamentals
Tom Crean: Individual workouts
Tom Crean: Individual workout drills
Trent Johnson: Nike Vegas 2006
UCLA May 2007 clinic
UNC Wilmington Clinic notes
USA coaches clinic in St. Louis 2008
Vance Walberg: Rocklin 2008 notes

Empowering Leadership Fits New Kentucky Coach Calipari

Empowering Leadership Fits New Kentucky Coach Calipari

Kentucky Dribble Drive Offense eBook - $12

Just loved how Memphis coach John Calipari turned over practice to forward Robert Dozier in a move designed to force the quiet senior to take more of a leadership role with the team.

As this article describes, "Calipari left the gym, leaving Dozier on his own to coach."

"He thinks I'm too quiet," Dozier says. "He wanted me to be vocal, get on guys and be more of a leader. I was mad at first, because I didn't want to do it. But I had fun with it. The guys enjoyed it. It wasn't a long practice." The usually subdued Dozier said he tried to get as animated as Calipari, a dynamic, demonstrative speechmaker never at a loss for words. "I had to tone it down," Dozier says, laughing. "There were a lot of people in there."

If you're wondering why, at a Memphis practice, "there were a lot of people in there," it's because Coach Cal opens nearly all of the Tigers' practices to the public.

Retired folks stop in with their grandchildren; a postman comes by after finishing his route. For many elite programs, open practices were long abandoned in an Internet age when word can spread fast to rivals about a team's offensive and defensive schemes or a frustrated coach can show up on YouTube for pitching a fit. Calipari shrugs off those possibilities but notes he keeps some practices closed during the NCAA tournament.

Says Coach Cal: "I don't have anything to hide. You've got people, their lives seem to be this basketball program. They come to practice four or five times a week. They're able to get on the phone and talk to friends about what we're working on."

After his team lost the national championship game last season, Coach Cal was criticized for not having his players properly prepared.

"Either you use an experience to help build you and make you better and stronger, or the experience breaks you," he says. "That experience ... it did nothing except good stuff for us. None of it was bad."

Download the Memphis Offense eBook $12

Tim Duncan's Leadership Evident Even in Defeat

Tim Duncan's Leadership Evident Even in Defeat

Free Download Greg Poppovich Favorite Drills and Plays - CLICK HERE

Tim Duncan stood up in the Spurs' locker room Thursday after their 88-67 loss in Game 3 against the Mavericks and did what team captains are supposed to do.

He took the blame.

A day later, coach Gregg Popovich absolved Duncan of it.

“It wasn't his fault — it was my fault,” Popovich said Friday. “It's nobody's fault, really. We win together, we lose together and we move on.”

Duncan notched career playoff lows with four points and two rebounds in Game 3, but that was partially related to the other career playoff low he set — minutes played (15:30).

He sat for most of the second half as the game got out of hand so Popovich could rest him for an early tipoff in Game 4 this afternoon.

Duncan wasn't effective when he was on the court, going 2 of 9 from the field and missing several chip shots that sparked Dallas' fast-break offense.

“I played an awful, awful game, and I want to try to do better the next one,” Duncan said. “I'll use it as my own fuel and hopefully come out here and be a leader.”

Popovich said he appreciated what Duncan was trying to do, but refused to let him shoulder the blame.

“He's a competitor; he has broad shoulders,” Popovich said. “But we lost that game as a group. We did not play well. It wasn't on Timmy.”

“We pulled the plug for that purpose,” Popovich said. “I think you have to be wise, rather than foolishly brave.”