Hubie Brown and The X's and O's You Forgot to Ask

These are notes from a recent clinic featuring Hubie Brown.

-At clinics, take only what you can teach; be sure to stay within your personality and personnel. You MUST believe in what you teach
-Great coaches aren’t afraid to be innovators
-PLAYERS make the system, not the coach. You NEED players—During the Chicago Bulls’ run during the ‘90’s, eight newly-hired coaches installed the triangle offense in their new job, none, zero, lasted more than 2 years. What happens when you don’t have the players?
-How do you ram home your emphasis?
-You don’t lose your job just because of your win-loss record. Often times it is players complaining about style of play
-What kills a player’s potential? 1. Low pain threshold 2. Low IQ (basketball) for what we’re running 3. Selfishness 4. Can the person do the intangibles (charges, loose balls, pass aheads, rotations 5. Drugs and Alcohol

-Accountability is greatly missing in today’s game
-Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins. I have a shooter on each unit no matter how bad of a defender he is. We can hide a bad defender, we just need him to make the necessary rotations.
-Key halftime stats: offensive rebounds (& points off), fast break % (& points off) and deflections (Why do I love deflections so much? Because it shows that we’re working and it tells me we’re bothering them from making the pass to the spot they want)
-Reward your guys: tell them how much you appreciate them
-Give your players a chance to talk
-Never end a drill without a basket. It does 3 things: 1. improves their confidence 2. conditioning, forces them to chase the ball down 3. enforces good habits, conditions them into making scoring a reflexive action
-A coach must pay extreme attention to the last 6 minues of a game. Ask yourself:
1. Did we get high percentage shots for our shooters?
2. Did we get to the free throw line?
3. Turnovers
-The day after a loss, a coach must break those key plays in the last 6 minutes to explain to his players why we won/ why we lost
-Zone attack: 1. What kinds of shots are you getting? 2. Can you score in the paint? 3. Can you get to the line? 4. Can we get to the glass for offensive rebounding?
-Anytime a team is running a sideline break, we’re going to take it away. On a make/miss, defender jams the rebounder. Drill: 2 players on each block, closest to baseline will be on offense. Coach scores the basket, offensive forward grabs the ball out of the net and steps out of bounds to inbounds the ball to guard streaking to near sideline (volleyball line). Defensive forward angles himself to cut off pass to sideline, defensive guard must force the guard to come back towards the inbounder for the outlet. On the catch, defensive player must turn ball-handler twice before halfcourt (forward sprints to half out of drill).
-I need more shots—how do I get them? Offensive rebounds, force TOs, and block shots.
-Hubie’s 3 toughest offensive actions to guard: 1. Staggered screen for a shooter 2. Dribble handoff 3. Backscreen
-Do you shoot enough in practice? How many shots do your kids get up in a practice?
-To beat pressure: 1. If a player cuts out of an area, a player must be sprinting in to replace 2. Have the ability to reverse the ball 3. Do I have a backdoor/change of direction in our continuity?
-Make a zone press pay: attack, layups. If you don’t, they will stay trapping
-Against physical defensive play, don’t be afraid as an offensive player to use your hands when coming off a screen (against the screener, your teammate). Why? Because it slows the offensive player down and allows him to see how the defender is playing him.
-When your door is opened, will you be ready? Will you thank the person who helped to open that door?