One of the things I'd like to see young players work on more in their fundamentals is the jump stop. The jump stop is so fundamental. I would teach players to jump stop in everything they do, pass in the air, feet in the air, jump stop layups, jump stop to set the pick. Here are just a few important reasons to teach the jump stop off the top of my head in particular order,

1. Allows you to choose your pivot foot. When you jump stop to receive a pass. You can choose which foot to then use as your pivot.
2. I love the power jump stop layup. It freezes your defender and allows you to do the up and under move.
3. Prevent moving screens. Especially for young players who tend to shuffle their feet, teaching them to jump stop to set the screen is fundamental.

Like I said, you can incorporate the jump stop in every drill that you do. As you move up in age group, you will probably emphasize this less, but it's still a great fundamental to stress. I can't think of any downside of the jump stop, it's just a great basketball move.

For youth skill development, I like Ganon Baker's Grassroots DVD, this one is a good one on how to finish.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

I've never run the 1-3-1 half-court trap myself but with the right personnel, I think it's a potential game changing killer trap that can be employed. A couple of years ago, the number one varsity team in our state ran it in certain situations and it just wreaked havoc.

Now, probably the most famous current college coach to run the 1-3-1 half-court trap is John Beilein now of Michigan and formerly of West Virginia. In fact, coach Beilein runs it as his base defense.

The 1-3-1 trap that Beilein runs is probably more conservative than I would employ, which is understandable as he runs it as his base. The more aggressive you are, the more turnovers you will generate, but the more holes there will be should the other team break the trap.

I don't think I would run the 1-3-1 trap as my base as it requires your players to constantly adjust to passes and ball reversals. I would choose certain times within a game to run it, like right out of the half or beginning of the fourth, basically anytime you want to change the momentum or tempo of the game. With the 1-3-1, here is what you want to accomplish:

1. Put a ton of ball pressure on their point-guard. You can really rattle their guard with this trap, it's all about breaking his/her confidence which will make them even more susceptible to turn it over or make bad decisions.
2. Force the terms. Make the other team adjust to the defense, don't allow them to run their sets.

Setup:

In my opinion, there are 2 key positions you need to run the 1-3-1 effectively. You need a very athletic X4 who has long arms, great instincts and can finish on the break. You also need a great all-around defender in X2 (or whoever you designate to play baseline). You want your best defender at X2, someone who is hard-nosed, can take charges, rebounds well, and can run sideline to sideline and not get tired.

In the diagram above, X4 is your primary trapper and stealer. X4 should be parallel to the sideline facing it with arms outstretced The team I described above had a 6-foot-7 SG (NBA potential) who just terrorized his opponents with this press. If you have a player like that, you want him playing up top trapping and getting steals and finishing on the other end. In one game I watched, district championship, they switched to the 1-3-1 at the start of the 4th with the game virtually tied, X4 terrorized the other all-state PG into 4 or 5 turnovers and had 2 tomahawk thunder dunks the other way and just brought down the house. They never looked back and went on to win by 12.

X2 is your best overall defender playing down low, key is to minimize layups. You want to trap with all four corners. You will give up some 3-pointers but you want to contest all layups. If the other team hasn't scouted you properly and hasn't prepared for the 1-3-1, they'll likely be so out of sync they won't even hit the gaps.

Your other 3 that make the line through the middle, X3 and X2 must be good trappers and work the sidelines while 5 must front his man preventing the pass in the middle. Usually your X5 is your tallest player covering that middle area.

Trap the corners:

The trap is a slow one to develop, you don't want X4 and X1 or X4 and X3 to run at the point-guard.

What you want is your X4 slowly funneling the point to X1 or X3 (X3 or left side if possible, but most point guards will try to force right). Once their point takes the bait and dribbles to the sideline, you aggressively trap him forcing P1 to pick up the dribble. Before the trap is set, the 3 defenders making the line want to keep their arms out looking to intercept a lazy pass through the zone.

Most of the time, X4 will be able to either flick the ball and get a turnover, or deflect a pass. The only easy pass you want to allow is the reversal back to P2. If this happens, X4 and X3 will attempt to set the trap on the other sideline, SLOWLY.

If the pass goes down the sideline to the other corner, you want to trap them again before they shoot the 3-pointer.

Secondary Trap:

Obviously, this trap is vulnerable at the baseline after ball reversals. Once the ball goes there, you have a couple of choices, trap the ball in the corner or shift and wait for help. I prefer the trap since the whole purpose of this defense is to create turnovers.

A team that hasn't prepared for the 1-3-1 will not look for the 3-pointer in the corner, so trap them there with X2 and X3 or X2 and X1 on the other side. Force them into another turnover.

X5 again protects the middle by fronting his man. X4 is splitting P2 and P1. Again, he's your best athlete so he should be able to intercept the pass from the corner if the trap set is a good one. X1 is covering the skip pass but is probably shading a little towards the key for help defense.

Summary:

The key areas you want to force the turnover is at the top near the sidelines. If you have a great X4 that can intimidate your opponent, this is a great defense to run.

Like I said, I wouldn't want to run it as my base like coach Beilein runs, but I think in certain situations, this is a game breaker. One of the other reasons why I wouldn't run it as a base is because teams that scout you will prepare specifically on how to break it. They will scheme to adjust for open 3-pointers and layups down low exploiting the gaps.

Unfortunately, John Beilein has not created a DVD with his 1-3-1 half-court trap, but this DVD from Seth Greenberg of Virginia Tech appears to teach it similarly.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Developing Your Weak Hand

Too many kids these days are one-hand wonders. There was a kid we played last year, arguably the best player in state for his age, would dribble from the left wing all the up along the 3-point line and drive to the net from the right side, rather than just attack from the left wing.

There was an AAU game I watched in the summer, there was this great shooter on this one team. His teammates would come set ball-screens for this player to drive left, and he would always go right instead.

One thing that got me thinking last season when watching Greg Oden formerly of Ohio State, was after his right wrist injury, he worked exclusively on his off-hand shooting his free-throws and ball-handling. I think players need to spend a lot more time on developing their off-hand. Doing a lot of ball-handling, passing and shooting drills with their off-hand. After all, if the defense can force you to your weaker hand, they will have a big advantage in defending you.

I found this article that describes some drills and things that you can work on in developing your off-hand.

I like Jay Wright's DVD on footwork. Not only should you develop your weak hand, you should be able to attack using either foot to pivot. I see a lot of traveling calls with some kids because they can only use one foot, their strong foot, to make their first move.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Shoot it Like Ray Allen

One of the best pure shooters currently playing in the NBA is Ray Allen who now plays for the Boston Celtics. His is a pure stroke, toes pointed at the basket, nice quick release and a balanced follow-through. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.



Here are just some of my tips that like to emphasis when doing shooting stuff,

1. Balanced posture, feet shoulder width apart. I see kids these days that are shooting with feet together or leaning towards their shooting hand. This results in very little to no lift and they usually take off of one foot. This always results in an inconsistent shot, sometimes too right, too high, pushed, etc..

2. Toes pointed to the basket. This is really basic, but you'd be surprised to see how many kids have feet inverted or sideways. If your feet aren't pointed in the direction of your shot, you're likely to favor one side, mostly the side of your shooting hand.

3. Basic arm motion. From hip to release. I talked about this in another post. Make sure the elbow is in.

4. Balanced follow through. I always watch a shooter's follow-through. After you shoot, you should be slightly ahead of where you started, on both feet still pointed to the basket with weight balanced, shooting hand extended and off-hand pointed to the hoop. I see some kids finishing on one foot, or ending up backwards, etc... These are all compensations for bad balance and lack of strength.

For more video info, Ganon Baker has tons of videos on shooting and unfortunately I didn't get to catch him at the last clinic I was at. But I like Jay Wright's DVD with some great shooting drills. Coach Wright is the head coach at Villanova where he has coached some great shooters like Allen Ray and Randy Foye.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Closeout and Seal Baseline Drill

I really like this drill because it teaches good closeout and teaches players how to seal the baseline (or sideline). A lot of times, I watch games and I see players getting broken down on the baseline drive. Or a team is attempting to set a trap, but they let the player dribble all the way down the sideline.

Basic Concepts:
1. Closeout, teach your players to chop their feet and to not jump on shot fakes. You can't trap properly unless you can closeout properly.
2. Seal, must beat their man to the baseline with a quick defensive slide. Make sure they are all the way to the baseline preventing their man from squeezing by them.

Instructions:
- 3 lines, dribble man, pass man, defense man. lines rotate clockwise
- defense man starts in one corner of the half-court, passes to the top of the key beyond the 3-point line. Runs hard to the opposite corner of the half-court.
- pass from top of the key to the opposite corner to the dribble man.
- dribble man tries to beat the defense man.



Teaching Points:

- have the dribble man do a shot fake, and see if the defender jumps. If they do, you must stop and teach them not to jump on shot fakes.
- the dribble man goes baseline first, watch and make sure each defender is sealing the baseline properly, all the way to the baseline. Call freeze if they don't and point it out.
- the defender should either force the dribble man out of bounds or back into the middle. If they allow the baseline drive, that calls for pushups or suicides. You can't allow that.
- switch ends to practice other side.



I really like this drill because you are practicing a couple of things in one drill. Proper closeout and seal baseline. This is a good mid-season drill to use to make sure your team stays sharp in between games.

For more great defensive drills including close-outs and defending the dribble penetration, check out Geno Auriemma's 8 Essential Defensive Drills DVD. Coach Auriemma is the head coach of multiple national championship winning lady Huskies of UConn.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

One of my favorite current college coaches is Bruce Pearl who is currently the head coach at Tennessee. His teams are always exciting to watch but behind those three-pointers and fast-breaks is the foundation of their success, the 1-2-1-1 full-court press. I have Bruce Pearl's DVD and I've analyzed video from last year and wanted to share just some tidbits that I got out of this great press.

I think Bruce Pearl's 1-2-1-1 is probably the most aggressive full-court pressing defenses I've ever seen. He runs it as his base defense and it creates a tremendous amount of pressure on the inbounds and first pass. If you're going to run it, your players are going to have to commit fully to it or you will watch good teams run right through you. Executed correctly, it will outright suffocate your opponents.

There are many variations of the 1-2-1-1 or diamond press. So don't get confused if this version doesn't look like the one you use, this is Bruce Pearl's version. With this press you want to accomplish the following:

1. Put incredible amount of pressure on the inbounds. Force the 5-second turnover.
2. Attack the first pass. Force the turnover under their hoop or the 10-second violation.

Setup:

Before we begin, we need to talk about the personnel. 4 is a tall lanky forward who has long arms that will prevent the homerun pass and put pressure on the inbounds. 2 is your best on the ball defender and primary trap man. 3 is a great anticipation player. 1 has to have speed to cover sideline to sideline and 5 must be a great fast-break defender who can block shots and take charges.

First thing you'll notice is that all 5 players are in the backcourt, yes this is an aggressive press. X4 will pressure the inbounder, BUT MUST NOT JUMP. Coach Pearl also coaches his X4 to count out loud so that the refs and everyone knows what the 5-sec timecount is. This makes the inbounder more nervous.

The other players are essentially playing man-to-man deny/help defense (first pass away deny, second pass away help). X2 must stick to the ball-side player shadowing him making it difficult to receive the pass. X3 can use the backboard to his advantage and cover the opposite corner and just under the hoop.

X1 must be fast, cover sideline to sideline looking to intercept the pass. This is key because after the other team turns it over a few times to P3, they will try a longer pass up the sideline. X1 should shade to the ball-side as you can see he can also use the backboard to his advantage.

X5 is playing man in the backcourt, if they run a guy deep, he must shadow the deep man.

Pressure on the first pass:

Once the ball is inbounded, the pressure will intensify as seen in this diagram below,

Most of the time, the other team will get the pass inbounded to P3 or P1 in this case in the ball-side corner. X2 and X4 must trap him immediately, this must be drilled extensively because once P1 can break free of the trap, the whole press breaks down.

Some presses allow the safety pass back to P4, not this one. X3 is anticipating the pass back to P4 and steals it if possible. X1 splits P3 and P2. Now execution here is key. Coach Pearl teaches his players to read the shoulders of P1 (the one making the second pass):

1. If P1's shoulders are parallel to the baseline, then X1 should shade to the sideline and read the pass to P3. X2 and X4 must form the 'T' with their legs and prevent an easy pass to X2 (force the high lob to X2, thus allowing the defense to recover).
2. If P1's shoulders are parallel to the sideline, then X3 should look to deny/intercept the pass to the safety P4.

The pass should never get to P5, if they try it then X5 should easily intercept.

Counter plays:

Teams will try to counter this press on the initial inbounds by using screens and constant motion. Coach Pearl has many counters to all different motions that I can't cover here, but you can probably scheme yourself based on his philosophies. This is just one counter that you'll probably see a lot of. The other team puts P1 in motion cutting through from the other side to receive the inbounds and hopefully a little daylight and beat the initial trap. The counter-play here is the quick switch and maintain pressure.

Also, you'll see motion by P3 and P5 trying to get open, here X1 and X5 need to deny. The whole key here again is to put incredible pressure on the inbounds and the initial pass.

Summary:

This is a high-risk and high-reward press. You will get beat but you'll get a lot of easy baskets too. The key is to have a good X5 defender that can play great 2-on-1 defense.

I still remember last year in the Tennessee vs Texas game forcing the 5-second turnover in the final few seconds of the fourth quarter. Kevin Durant would hit a last second 3-pointer to tie the game, but Tennessee hung on to win in OT.

If you want to see all the permutations of Coach Bruce Pearl's system, I highly recommend you get a copy of his DVD here.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Defending the Post man-to-man


I think as coaches, we've all been in this situation before (and if you haven't, don't worry, it will happen to you). The team you are about to face has a dominant 6-foot-10 post (substitute 6-foot-x for whatever level or if you're coaching girls) who has been terrorizing your league/state. So how will you defend it?? There are many strategies including a 2-3 zone or deny the wing pass, etc.., but what I wanted to do here is show a relative easy adjustment out of a man-to-man which shouldn't require too much practice to implement.

Setup:

The simplest adjustment you can make is have your X5 play a high side deny one-on-one. But what I find, is that this often isn't enough. If their P5 is really dominant and we are quite a bit shorter (which is usually the case for us), then we need to help our X5.

So it's not too radically different from your regular man-to-man setup. Your 1 is still kinda guarding the point, your 5 is still guarding the opposite teams dominant post and 4 is the weak side help. The choice of personnel though is the key here. Here is what you want,

- X1, probably your best close out defender. Helps if he has long arms that can force the lob pass to go higher.
- X5, should be your strongest player. Will need to battle their dominant post for position and get in deny position.
- X4, your best help-side defender. A good rebounder who can jump and bat or intercept the lob pass. Good anticipation skills.

Let It Run:

OK, so the diagram is below,

So what's going on here. Looks pretty simple, but you need to know a few things,

- X1, should be facing the near sideline with left leg high. You want to be in position to deny any direct entry pass on the high side. You want to force the lob and if X1 has long arms, hopefully the pass will be the high lob and easier to intercept.
- X5, low-side deny, which means your base should be below P5 with your right hand in front of P5 denying the low-side entry pass.
- X4, help defense between P5 and P4, leaning towards P5 and watching the ball. You want to teach X4 to anticipate the lob pass and try to either intercept or meet P5 at the highest point.

Now, if the offense wants to try post-entry from the top of the key, your X5 needs to shift up and deny from the high side.

Should P5 somehow get the entry-pass from the wing, all three players should close in on P5. Most likely they'll try the lob pass, but anything below varsity will not execute a lob pass consistently (and arguably even Varsity). We want to bait them into a bad lob pass.

Obviously, from looking at this, you can guess that you will be vulnerable if P1 is a good shooter or penetrator. Also, since your defense is somewhat overloaded to the ball-side, you'll be vulnerable to the weak-side swing or skip for the open perimeter shot. Unfortutnately unless you have an equal big man, that is what you'll need to give up in order to try to slow their big man.

For more great ideas on the post-defense amongst other defensive topics, check out Jeff Lebo's DVD. Coach Lebo is the head coach of Auburn University of the SEC.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Everyone will tell you that its crucial that your big men develop a well-rounded post-up game. In the half-court set, the most efficient way to score is when you're closest to the hoop. I was a guard when I played high school ball so it's taken some time to be able to learn the post-up concepts myself.

The clip that is shown below is from TNT's fundamentals segments featuring Utah Jazz's Carlos Boozer. Here, Boozer shows you how to get open for the post-entry. A lot of times, I see kids arm wrestling their defender trying to get position. I try to teach them to detach, v-cut, then swim. You'll be open for a short 1-2 secs so it's important to call for the ball and give your teammate a target to throw to (your outstretched arm-hand).

I also like the fake screen and spin back to the ball. That is a great move. Other great info in this clip include reading which arm and leg your defender is using to guard you and roll the opposite way.

Post-play is all about the details, it's the little things that make a big difference. Watch and learn...



A great video that acts like a complete guide to developing post-skills is Steve Alford's DVD. Coach Alford was previously the coach at Iowa and just made the move to New Mexico. He is most famous for quarterbacking Bobby Knight's 1987 NCAA championship team.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

When to Call the Timeout

I've often thought about this for a while since I started my coaching career. I usually watch college or NBA games on TV and wonder if I would call a timeout in that same situation. I'll try to think like the coach on TV and imagine the reasons why he/she called the timeout. Without further ado, I give you the situation.

Here's the situation:

Your in the final game of an 8-team invitational tournament. The team you are playing is very good, talent-wise just as good if not better than you. You've scouted this team before and you know their tendencies. They like to run a half-court trap and you've prepared your team to counter it before the game started.

It's the start of the first half and after a nervous start by your starters, the other team creates some turnovers off their trap and have started to build a small 6-point lead. Then suddenly your team breaks down offensively and turns the ball over 3 straight times and their lead is now 13 points. 6 minutes has gone by so far in the game.

Do you call the timeout? Or do you let your team play through it?

My Answer:

By no means is my answer right, but here is what I think.

My personal opinion is to call a timeout anytime our team has turned it over 3 straight times no matter what. I'm a big believer in momentum and anything I can do to try to stop the other team's momentum or reverse it to us is what I like to do. I will usually only save 1 timeout for the end of the game, because if the game is close I can usually talk to my point-guard during bonus free-throws.

I've watched a lot of games on TV and it seems that there isn't a universal timeout strategy. Coaches like Phil Jackson will choose to let his players play through and call a timeout as a last resort. Others like Gregg Popovich will call them early in the first quarter to change things up.

I've also coached alongside other coaches that always saved their timeouts. There was one game I was coaching with last season and the game was close into the third quarter until the other team's guard started killing us going coast-to-coast 3 straight times for dunks. I thought we should've called a timeout to talk about it but we didn't and ended up losing by 20. I don't know if the timeout would've made the difference, but I do think about it.

What is your opinion on timeout strategies?

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

One of the great things about watching Steve Nash is his great passing skills, and specifically the bounce pass. You don't see much of the bounce pass these days with the new generation but Nash proves that it still a very relevant pass to use.

It's of course a great pass to use on a post entry. But if practiced properly, a great pass to use on the fast break and on backdoor cuts. Again, with practice, you can even add english like Nash does to make sure that only your man can get the ball.

Here is a video from TNT with Steve Nash explaining his passing concepts including the lost art of the bounce pass.



If you're looking for more passing specific drills to use in your practices, I recommend Ganon Baker's DVD on passing drills.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

This is a great drill to teach the concepts of ball denial and help defense. It's great to teach at all levels from 10-year olds all the way through high school and college.

Basic Concepts:
1. Ball position, you want to put a lot of ball pressure. Force your man to dribble into the help defense.
2. Deny position, you want one hand outstretched denying the ball but not cheating by overplaying and getting caught back door.
3. Help position, you need to see both your defender and the ball, ready to help on penetration or players cutting through.

Instructions:
- 4 offensive players, 4 defensive players, setup 2 up top and 2 on the wings.
- ball starts up top, if you're in ball position you yell, "BALL, BALL, BALL...", deny position, "DENY, DENY, DENY...", and help position, "HELP, HELP HELP..."
- as the coach, watch where the players are on the court, stop them if they are in the wrong position.
- help position, use the guns teaching method. Have your players point to both their man and the ball
- swing the ball to the next player up top, and watch the defensive rotation.
- swing the ball to the wing, again, watch the defensive rotation.
- try the skip pass to the other wing, again, watch the defensive rotation.
- have one of the offensive players dribble drive and watch the help man and see if he is helping properly.
- test the pass to the deny man, check that he denies the ball and maybe steals it
- test the backdoor to the deny man, see if the deny man recovers properly
- test penetrate and kick to see if the help man recovers properly.
- finally, rotate the players or switch offense and defense.


There are so many things and permutations to this drill. It really is a great drill to teach, practice and drill proper man-to-man help defense. You can also have your players run it as a warmup drill before games too.

If you're looking for more information on man-to-man help defense, I would recommend Morgan Wooten's DVD on defensive techniques. Coach Wooten is widely acknowledged as the most successful high school basketball coach in American history. A staple of his teams was always good pressure man-to-man. You can find the DVD here.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

I'll try to post these situation type stuff to see what other opinions there are on a certain topic. This is the first one.

Here's the situation:

Your team plays in a league with 4 other teams, the 2 top teams happen to be ranked in the top 10 in state and your team is one of them (You are Team A, they are Team B). You play 2 leagues games against each other, 1 home and 1 away. Only 1 team (the top obviously) from your league will advance to the state tournament in March. It is December and you are entered in a very competitive invitational tournament. At the last minute, one of the other teams pulls out and you find out that Team B has entered in this tournament.

You win your first game of the tournament and in the semifinals you face Team B. You've been working on a number of specific plays in practice over the last couple of months in preparation for league games against Team B, so the question is, do you play Team B with all of your repertoire of plays designed specifically on your scouting report of Team B that you will be using in the league games? Or do you play straight up without putting in the adjustments and take your chances?

My Answer:

Keeping in mind that there are no right or wrong answers, here is what I would do.

It's easy in these situations to get distracted by what the other team will or will not do. I say put in some of your adjustments and see if they work. Some may see this as showing your hand and thus giving away your cards. But I look at it as an opportunity to see if your gameplan will work against Team B. Once the game is over, evaluate what worked and what didn't and further tweak your gameplan for when you meet Team B in the regular season.

Sure, Team B will get to see what plays and stuff you will run against them, and surely they will attempt to adjust, but ultimately, for me it comes down to whether our players can execute better than their players.

Let me know what you all think about this, I'm sure it comes up every so often...

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Almost all the teams I've ever coached we've always used the fast-break as our primary offense. One of the teams that I like to imitate are those of Roy Williams previously of Kansas and now of UNC. His teams always looked to run first and combined with pressure defense was very effective.

Conventional wisdom states that if you don't have speed, you can't run. My personal opinion is that every team can develop a strong transition game. I feel that you should design your transition based on the personnel that you have. So if you have all quick guys that can finish you can pass to anyone and go. If you have all big slow guys, you should rely on crisp passing.

The fast break you'll read about below is one that we designed specifically one year when we had a terrific 3-point shooter. In many ways, it's similar to the way Florida ran with Lee Humphrey shooting the 3-pointer except that our Lee Humphrey was our best player. We felt that if we could beat the defense down the court and get our best player the ball undefended, it was the best percentage play for us. I've never run it again as I've yet to coach a shooter that was as good as this one player, but I'm explaining it here to give you all some ideas for how to design your fast break.

The Team:
We had good speed and ball-handling at the point, a terrific 3pt shooter, and some strong athletic but not particularly fast forwards.

The problem with our team was skill mostly. Our guards were mostly short and didn't finish particularly well. Specifically, they would get nervous about getting blocked on the fast break (including our 2). Our forwards were football players and were strong and could finish, but weren't very fast and didn't have many post abilities. The key of course was our 2 guard, one of the best 3-point shooters I've ever coached.

Setup:
For this team, as soon as we forced a turnover, defensive stop, defensive rebound or scored basket, we passed the ball out to our 1, point guard. We taught our 1 guard to speed dribble through center court no matter where they caught the ball and our wings would sprint out along the sidelines. It was preferable for our 2 to run the right side but not essential. We like our 1 to run in the middle because he was a terrific ball-handler and could beat any man off the dribble so we wanted him in open space.

Our 4 was the trailer and 5 was the safety. The 4 is running as fast as he can in his lane (off from middle). 5 is running the opposite side (off from middle) and is the safety in case we turn the ball over or long rebound the other way.


First Option and Counter:
Now that our team is set, we go through our options. Since our 2 was such a great 3-point shooter, we want to get the ball in his hands in a catch and shoot. Typically, the defense will setup in a 1-1 or 1-0 so our 2 will be wide open. When the defense adjusts and the bottom defender comes up to defend 2, we will fake to 2 and pass to 3 for an open layup which was a great counter play once teams adjusted. Or on the overplay, 2 would go backdoor and we could hit 2 going to the basket.

Another option was that once 2 got the ball, his defender closed out quickly and he could find 3 underneath the basket. But even better was a shot fake to get the defender in the air and an easy lane straight to the hoop.

Secondary Break:
When 2 was covered and 3 was covered, our 4 was the trailer and 2 would look quickly to see if he could hit 4 cutting to the basket. This was usually a good option for us as our 4 was a very strong finisher and was difficult to stop once he was going full-speed towards the hoop.

If all else failed, 2 would get the ball back to 1 and we'd setup our half-court. 5 would be the last one down the court and would setup.

Summary:
We probably scored 75% of our points off of the fast break that year. We probably had a total of 2 half-court plays we used all year. Obviously the key was our 1 and 2.

Our 1 had terrific handles and was lightening quick but wasn't a particularly good finisher or shooter. In open space, he could beat anyone.

Our 2 was the star of the team and played most of the game. When 2 was not on the floor, we ran a traditional 3-2 break. That year, our 2 averaged around 30 points and 5-6 3-pointers per game. He was close to 50% shooting from beyond the arc. One game, the other team never adjusted and he hit 10 or more three-pointers. After the game, I asked their coach why he never adjusted and he said he's never played a team that fast-breaked into 3-pointers. He figured that our guy would miss eventually.

We won our district league that year and won the post-season tournament to finish as league champs, our overall record was 29-7. In the playoffs, we almost beat the eventual state champs (tied with 4 minutes to go) but had a disappointing loss in the back-door game into the state championship tournament.

You might be asking what happened to our 2-guard? He was also a terrific badminton player (our school was state champs) and went on to play badminton for the junior national team. He is in college now, and plays basketball recreationally.

I have yet to see a video that specifically talks about transition to the 3-pointer, but Roy Williams is legendary for his Kansas Break which is a series of quick-hitters that he used in Kansas (and still uses at UNC) to score on the primary or secondary break. The main difference being they primarily want to get the ball into the low post. You can find Coach Williams' video here.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

One of my favorite X's and O's discussion is pressure defense. I've always played it when I was in school because I've always played on teams that lacked height but were extremely quick and very coordinated. A pressure defense is great to have if either you don't have a lot of size and so you must compete with speed or simply to overwhelm an opponent that is less athletic. Now, there are all kinds of discussions one can have in terms of the ethics of pressing and when to press and when to back off the press (common sense if you ask me) that I won't discuss here, I'm going to stick strictly with the X's and O's.

There is an article from the American Basketball Quarterly that does a good job in explaining all the details of running the 2-2-1 press (or box press as it is commonly referred to), so you can read it to get an entire scope of it. What I want to do is give you a general idea of what you want to accomplish with it.

First off, the box press can be full or half-court, face-guard or keep-in-front. Because of the many variations, it is one that you can run the whole game or just in key situations. With the box press you want to accomplish the following:

1. Pressure the ball to the sideline. You want to force the defender to the sideline and either trap him, force him to make a pass (hopefully a bad one), or make him go out of bounds.
2. You want to force passes either up-down the sideline or cross court to the opposite sideline (and hopefully steal the ball).

Now the basic concepts of every pressure defense involves a double-team on the ball, and the other 3 defenders covering the passing lanes and splitting 2 players to defend.

Setup:

You want to have your 2 quickest guards at 1 and 2 playing up top around the foul line and your next 2 quickest players at 3 and 4 at the center line near the sidelines. Your 5 is your safety and needs to see all the defenders in front of him.

Trapping the ball:

Once the ball is inbounded, most likely to the PG, you want your 1 and 2 to trap him along the sideline (right or left) and force him to pick up the dribble. This is harder than I'm describing it and you'll have to drill it properly. Key thing is to not run full-speed at the player, but to chop your feet and contain him with 2 defenders.

Once you are successful in trapping their PG, the other defenders must take away the first pass. Especially 3, must take away the sideline pass (which is where we want them to throw it) and 4 must take away the cross-sideline pass (which is where we want them to throw it) and 5 will check the the deep man trying to pick of a homerun pass but also knowing he is last man and cannot be beat.

Notice though, that 4 has moved up to close to the 3pt line. We want our 4 to be close enough to intercept an errant pass to their 2 in case they want to advance the ball. So 4 will be playing 2 passes, the advance pass to 2 and the cross-court pass. We remind our 4 that they will most likely try the advance pass to 2 so look for that steal first.

Ball Reversal:
Now, not every press will force a turnover. In the case of the 2-2-1 box press, most teams will try to reverse the ball or move one of their players into center-court.

If they put a player in center-court, you'll probably need to switch to a different press like the 1-3-1, you can still pressure with the box, but it will change what you're trying to accomplish.

If they reverse the ball back to their 2 who is playing behind their 1 (which is what good coached teams will be taught), then 1 and 2 must haul their butts over and set a new trap on 2. If they are successful, then the same applies to the other side. Most likely though, a good team will be able to advance the ball on the reversal to their 4 on the other side. Now if he hasn't made it across half-yet, you can still trap him along the sideline and force him to pass cross-court (which we want). A pass back to 2 is the easy pass and is OK, because by this time, the 10 second rule is probably close to reality and result in a turnover.
Lastly, once the press is broken, you must teach your players to sprint back to the key. We run a drill where once the press is broken, all 5 defenders must all run back inside the key and the last one back has to do 5 pushups (the center almost never loses). The reason why we run back to the key is because we want to defend inside-out once the press is broken. We can live with the pull-up jumper but we can't have open layups.

Conclusion:
This by no means is a complete description of the box press. There are so many variations and combinations that you can do. This is what I've done in the past with it. I ran it one year with a JV girls team that had very little size but decent quickness. The team had lost 3 starters from the year before who were basically the team, and we were able to finish with a .500 record and make the 2nd round of our district playoffs. We beat the lower teams that were for the most part better players than we were, but we lost to the very athletic and gifted teams as we couldn't press them effectively (in fact, they pressed us).

The box press is a great low risk pressure defense that you can easily implement. It will not generate a ton of turnovers, but over time it will wear a team down.

One of the best coaches of the 2-2-1 box press that I've seen is Jim Calhoun from Uconn. His ideas on half-court traps and forcing the ball down the sideline are almost legendary. You can buy his DVD on the box press by clicking here.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

If I were to say one thing that young players need to work on the most, it would be shooting. And specifically, shooting technique. Too many times, I've seen players at the freshman and beyond level with poor shooting technique and it's extremely difficult to fix. I've coached 5th graders before, and if I were to go back to coaching 5th graders, I would spend at least 50% of the time teaching proper shooting technique.

This video does a good job of introducing the basic setup motion of the shot. The rocking of the shooting arm from the hip and up. Focusing on keeping the elbow parallel with the body all the way through the motion. The setup at the end is also very important. Make sure the wrist is cocked back properly, fingers out, and palm facing upwards.

The best part of this "drill" is that it can be done without a ball. Kids can practice anywhere and you can add a ball later.



Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Gonzaga Flex Offense

One of my favorite offenses is the Flex because it can create many mismatches with all the downscreens and gets the ball into the hands of your best players where they are most comfortable.

Among the teams that run the flex exclusively include Gary Williams at Maryland and Mark Few at Gonzaga. We'll take a look at Mark Few today. At Gonzaga, they've been running the flex forever and Few has continued that tradition.

The general setup is 3-2 with your forwards playing on the wings (keep in mind that in the flex, all players should be able to play all positions). The 1 dribbles to towards the wing and 5 sets the downscreen for 2 who gets the pass on the wing. If your players execute this basic motion well, 2 (your best shooter) should have an open shot.


On the weak side, the 4 will set a downscreen on 3 who will look to go to the corner but quickly loop around and through the key. Now, if 2 doesn't have an open shot, then he will look for 3 cutting through the key.


If you don't score off of 3 cutting through, than 1 will set a downscreen on 4 who will pop up to the elbow looking for the spot up jumper. 1 will spin around 180 and look for the quick pop to the basket and curl to the corner. If the ball goes to 4 who is well defended, than the flex motion will initiate (downscreens and popouts).

The key teaching points are proper downscreens and explosive pop outs. A good 2 should get a decent look everytime. If 3's defender is cheating underneath, you can have him cut high for a nice pull up in the middle of the key.

You can purchase Mark Few's Flex For Success DVD here.

Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

Last weekend, I was able to attend a clinic held locally here in Vancouver that featured LA Laker trainers/coaches in Alex McKechnie, Chip Schaefer and Craig Hodges. Alex McKechnie and Chip Schaefer are trainers while Criag Hodges is one of their shooting coaches.

Though I didn't attend the shooting clinic in the afternoon, the strength training and stretching 2-hour clinic in the morning was average. I agreed with most of McKechnie's concepts of developing core strength and Schaefer had some good ideas on dynamic stretching, but there wasn't anything at the clinic that was of specific use.

Don't get me wrong, strength training is important. And with the advances in human kinetics, I think that athletes these days have many more advantages than most of us coaches did back in the day when we were growing up. I just feel that coaches aren't trainers. Players that are working on strengthening their core should be training with professional trainers, not coaches that know a little about training.

It's too bad I couldn't stick around for the shooting clinic, as I believe this is one of the most underdeveloped facets of the game.

Here is one of Schaefer's videos on training development,



Go over the Coaching Basketball Forum to discuss.

My Very First Post

Thanks for dropping by to find me here at The X's & O's of Basketball blog. I created this blog as a companion to the forum that I created by the same name The X's & O's of Basketball forum. '

I'm also a football coach and I was inspired by Coach Huey's great board which is a fantastic resource for football coaches. I feel that as basketball coaches, we are lacking from a central place to share information. We all have the knowledge, it's just fragmented among all of us. Imagine if we all collaborated and discussed this wonderful game and allowed the knowledge to spread. That is what the Internet is for after all.

I will begin by mostly posting my own thoughts on basketball X's and O's, but I hope to eventually interview and feature high school, college and even pro coaches talking about their systems. I currently do that as part of my job for USA Football which also inspired me to create this blog.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy what I write. And feel free to comment on my posts.



Welcome to the Fave Five Series page. I'll add each post that I write of my fave fives. If you have an idea for a fave five, just post a comment below.

Fave Five NBA coaches of all time.
Fave Five Men's NCAA Div1 coaches of all time.

Coaches,

Update Jun 15, 2011: Well, it's only taken me a year and a half but with the summer upon us, I've finally had time outside of my teaching schedule to rearrange all my files and upload them to Google Docs. It is about 1GB worth of notes. I have about another 600MB, but I will upload them later. All the files are arranged in the following links:

Google Docs: All My Basketball Files

Direct Link: FIBA Assist articles

Mediafire: Xavier Newsletters (2005-2010)



Please take some time to talk hoops and contribute to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum. It's been in existence now for almost 5 years and there are some great coaches talking hoops there. A lot of regular contributors who upload notes and files on a regular basis.

Finally, if you are looking for Alan Stein stuff, go ahead and visit his website and email him. Coach Stein is always willing to help out a fellow coach, just ask him.





If you are coming to this page for the first time, welcome. Here you will find all the stuff that is posted to the X's and O's Forum downloads section. Registration on the forum is required to download, but don't worry, it's free and instantaneous.

As I download stuff all the time, this list will be outdated, though I'll try to keep it updated. As I upload stuff, I'll add a link here, so make sure you check here first before requesting.

If you see something below that doesn't have a link, simply make a request by posting in the playbook requests section, and I'll upload and reply with a post in the downloads section as well as updating the link here.

Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank all the coaches that have contributed to the pot luck of notes so far. I'm sure everyone is just as thankful as I am to have your contributions.

Being a contributor is easy, just follow these easy instructions on how to upload notes and feel good about helping others in their quest of this profession of basketball coaching.


Clinic Notes
Adidas Clinic 2007, Bob Knight, Bill Self, etc...
Alan Stein Total Basketball workout
Allison McNeill - TheFullCourtGame - SuCo2006
Ben Howland Clinic
BeOneCoachingclinic, Basketball Canada
Billy Donovan UF Coaching Clinic
Bill Self, Gordon Chiesa Notes 2004
Billy Gillispie Program
Bruce Weber Thoughts
Camuson College Van Isle Clinic Notes 2007
Central Iowa 2007 2 annual Clinic Notes
Christine Stapleton Clinic
Coach Randy Brown Composite clinic notes 2007
Dean Cooper Scouting
Def Dozen, Comets Women Basketball
Detroit Pistons Training Camp
Don Meyer Clinic
Don Meyer Clinic (diff. from above)
Don Meyer The Mental Approach
Double Pump Clinic Notes
Fran Fraschilla Season plan outline
Eric Musselman Motivation and Coaching
Gordon Chiesa Notes Aug 2004
Gorjian Clinic 2003
Hubie Brown Thoughts
Jay Bilas State of the Game
John Beilein Michigan Clinic Notes
Jim Calhoun Notes 2004
John Wooden Notes 2004
John Wooden Coaching Tips
Kevin Eastman NIKE Hoop Jamboree 2007
Larry Brown coaches meeting
Lawrence Frank and Jeff Van Gundy 8-6-04
Lee Taft - SuCo2006
Lisa Stone Clinic
Michigan State Basketball
Mike Dunlap with Pete Newell Notes 8-6-04
Mike Dunlap 10 Steps to Improving Coaching
Mike Dunlap Practice Planning
Mike Krzyzewski practice planning
Mike Krzyzewski Tips
Misc. Coaching Notes May 2005
Missouri Coaches Newsletter 2007
Patrick Hunt - NITCP Australian Coaching Clinic
Pat Knight Motion Offense, man defense
Pat Summitt notes
Pat Summitt notes Baden clinic
Patrick Hunt - On Coaching
Patrick Hunt Presentation
Percy Carr - San Jose City College Coaching Clinic
Pete Newell, Mike Dunlap, Bob Williams Notes 2004 (diff from above)
Phil Martelli practice organization
Roy Williams on Leadership
Roy Williams TABC
Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Clinic 2008
Texas HS Basketball Coaches Retreat 2006
Tom Izzo Special Teams For Championship Teams
Tod Kowalski practice
Todd Barry - Briar Cliff University
UNC Practice plan for one day
William Jewell College Sample Practice 2007
Zag Basketball


Defense
1-1-1-2 Conceal Defense
1-3-1 Zone
2-2-1 3/4 Zone Trap
Ballard High School Shell Drill
Bill Grier -Gonzaga Defence - SuCo2006
Bob Marlin Transition Defense
Bruce Pearl full court press
Bruiser Flint Hard Nosed Closeout Defense
Cheryl Burnett Scramble Defense Notes
Combo 1-3-1/2-3 Zone Defense
Dean Smith 20 Series Defense
Dick Bennett Pack Line Defense Notes
Don Meyer pressing defense
Ernie Woods - Disruptive Pressure Philosophy
Circle Defense - Dave Robbins
Creighton Burns - Point Zone
Fresno D rules
Gary Williams Press
Greg Marshall - Containment Defense
Jeff Lebo double the Post
Jeff Lebo - Double the post (diff from above)
Joe Ciampi, 1-1-3 matchup zone
Dr. John Giannini - The Importance of Defense
Ken Shields Building Man to Man Defence (Notes from Superconference 2000)
Matchup Zone Rules by CarlCarl2
Mike Dunlap - Defense
Mike McNeill Monstering the Post
Nolan Richardson, 40 minutes of hell
Patrick Hunt -Man to Man Defence Clinic
Pick N Roll Defense (Euro coach)
Point Zone Presentation
Scott Clark - Building Man to Man Defence
SIU Rush Drill, by coach Sixteenhorsepower
St. John's - Storming the Boards
Steve Mergelsberg Rutgers Amoeba
Stinson 2-2-1 Full Court Press
Tempo Press
Thad Matta - 11 Defensive Musts
Todd Voss - Concordia Defensive Philosophy
Tom Crean Trans Def and Rebounding
Tom Izzo Dominating Rebounding and Man Defensive Drills
Tusculum Pressure Pack Line Defense
Triangle and Two
Valentine, Bart Warner Pacifice College Combo D
Vivian Stringer - 55 Full Court press
Walberg Defensive Philosophy
Wisconsin Stout Run and Jump Practice drills


Offense
1-2-2 Zone Offense
13 Move Zone Offense
1-4 High Motion Offense by bballdc1
2-3 Zone Buster Plays
4-out 1-in Motion by coachferrier
A Few Zone Sets from the World Championships
AASAA Offense Philosphy and Terms
AASAA Offensive Philosophy Notes
Allison MacNeill's Motion Presentation
Arizona Wildcats Men study tour
Arizona Practice 2-2007
Arizona Women Practice Plan
Baylor individual development
Baylor Press Offense
Beatrice, Omaha, Attacking Zones
Billy Donovan Individual Skill Development pt1 within Offense
Billy Donovan Individual Skill Development pt2 within Offense
Billy Donovan Spread Pick and Roll Offense
Billy Gillespie and Paul Hewitt Coaching Rountable
Bill Self Hi-lo Motion Offense
Bill Self Kansas Press Break
Blitz Basketball Offense
Bo Ryan Swing Offense
Bo Ryan X Zone Offense
Bob Huggins Open-post Motion Offense
Bob Huggins 2-3 Zone Offense Rules
Bob Hurley Observed Practice
Bob Knight Notes 8-6-04
Bobby Hurley notes
Bobby Knight notes
Bobby Knight Offense clinic
Brandon Schneider Selected Set Plays
Brian Giorgis, Attacking Pressure
Bulldog Basketball, building Motion Offense
Christine Stapleton Clinic
Compton Overload Zone Offense
Craig Beaucamp Presentation - 2006 SuperConference - Vikes Offense
Dana Altman High Post Offense
Dana Altman High Post Options (different than above)
Dean Cooper Pick N Roll Offense
Diamond Motion
Dick Bennett, Blocker Mover Offense
Don Meyer
Don Meyer Offensive Guard Play
Don Meyer playing vs pressure
Don Meyer Post Man Notes
Don Meyer Zone Attack
Double Middle Press Attack by Mike McNeill
Dribble Handoff
Duke 3-out 2-in Motion Offense
Duke Motion Offense breakdown drills
Mike Krzyzewski Offensive notes
Duke Mike Krzyzewski, Sideline Play
Dusan Ivkovic, Early Offense
Emir Mutapcic - Transition Offence
Establishing the Interior Game
Fist Set Plays
Flex Offense Presentation
Fresno Offense Section
FRESNO SYSTEM - handout
Gary Williams paint drill
General rules of our AASAA offense
Generic 4 Man Flex Diagrams
Generic Fist
Generic secondary break
Generic Secondary Break Package - Complete
Generic Odd Front Zone Option
Generic Offensive Quick Hitters
Generic Triple Post Motion
Generic Zone Offense
Generic Triple for name
Geno Auriemma Teaching the High Post
Grinell run and gun How it works
Grinnell systemclinicnotes
Haefner - Winning Plays
Heath Millar, Frankston Basketball, 5-out Offense
Houston Rockets series
Hubie Brown Notes
Hubie Brown notes part 2
Hubie Brown Special Situations
Hubie Brown Techniques and Strategies
Iowa Press Break - By John Carrier
Iowa State Women’s Basketball Set Plays
Jamie Dixon Thumbs M2M Play
Jay Wright - 4-out 1-in Motion Offense
Jay Wright - 4-out 1-in Motion Offense (another set)
Jeff Van Gundy Ball Screens
Jeff Van Gundy - Pick and Roll Offense
Jim Boheim set plays
Jim Harrick Motion Offense
Jim Seward - Offensive philosophy
John Beilein 4-out Zone Offense
John Brady Man Offense
John Brady press break
John Carrier 4-out 1-in Complete Motion Offense
John Carrier 4-out 1-in Motion Offense Overview
John Carrier - Open Post Motion Notes
John Chaney Temple
Kelvin Sampson notes
Kelvin Sampson offensive intensity drills0001
Kevin Eastman Individual Development
Larry Eustachy Motion Entries
Lawrence Frank Building a motion offense
Lawrence Frank Early Offense
Lon Kruger UNLV playbook
Loyola Motion Offense Drills
Mark Turgeon Texas A&M set plays
Maysville State Women, Perimeter workout
Memphis Attack System
Memphis - Basketball Coaches Retreat
Michael Pfeuffer Blocker Mover Offense
Mike Fratello 3pt Shot
Mike Moran Platooning
Minnesota Timberwolves 1997 play book
Nike Clinic 05 plays, Florida, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, UNC, and more
Nike clinic 2006 Various Coaches, Butler, Zags, Valpraiso
Nike Skills Academy, Ganon Baker
Nike_Clinic_2006 new, Romar, Weber, Tubby Smith
No Post Offense
Oregon's Open and Early offense
Patrick Hunt - Motion
Paul Hewitt, Georgia Tech BLOB, Stack sets
Paul Hewitt, Georgia Tech, 4-out 1-in Motion Offense
Perkins County - Oklahoma 1-4 Offense
Pfeiffer Fast Break System
Penetration Principles
Phoenix Suns Offensive sets
Phoenix Suns sets
Playing in Traffic
Princeton Hi offense set
Princeton low set offense
Princeton Offense Notes
Rick Barnes notes
Rick Majerus notes
Rick Majerus Zone Offense
Rick Pitino Individual Offense
Rick Torbett's Read and React Offense
Rick Torbett - read and react offense (written by Mike McKay)
Rick Torbett's Read and React Offense - Winning Hoops article
Scott Clark (S.F.U.) Motion Offense Principles
Several Coaches Clinic Notes, Marquette, Depaul, Oak Hill
Sherri Coale motions offense
Spanish National Team Sets
Stack Offense
Stan Heath Arkansas
Stan Jones, 1-4 Offense vs zone
Stinson - 3out Zone Offense
Swing Offence
Teaching Motion Offense to Young Players
Techniques to get to the ball inside
The Free Throw By Mike Dunlap
Tom Izzo Zone Offense Sets
UCLA High-post Offense Presentation
UNC transition game
Utah Jazz Set Plays
Vance Walberg Attack Offense
Vance Walberg Fresno Specials1
Vance Walberg practice drills 2
Vance Walberg Sanjose clinic
Walberg Jordan drills 2006
Walberg Pepperdine Clinic 2006
Walberg Pepperdine Clinic 2006 part 2.doc
Will Rey - Universal System for Attacking Presses
Zone Quick Hitter Against 3-2 by Coach LSU


Drills / Skill Development / Physical Training
40 Minutes of Hell, conditioning
5Star Shooting Guide
2on1 - 3on2 in Small Spaces
A Dynamic Basketball Warm-Up
Anthony Solomon - Shooting Drill
Argentinian Olympic Drill
Australia Basketball Dribbling
Bargnani Post Development
Basketball Speed - Starts with Stopping by Lee Taft
Billy Gillispie In Your Face Pressure Defensive Drills
Brett Ayers Articles
Brett Westcott 2 and 3 Man Drills
Brian Goorjian - bommers indiv def tech
Bruce Weber - 20 Competitive Drills
Bruce Weber - 18 Competitive Drills (similar but different)
Cycle Conditioning, 2-1-2 Fullcourt Drill
Dennis Sheibel, Return to Drills
Duke Drills for Defense
Duke Drive and Kick Drill
Dynamic Basketball Warm Up Example
Foot Quickness and Agility Drills
Fred Hill Passing Drill
Frankston & District Drill Book
Gene Keady's Philosophy on Winning
Grand Theft Basketball, Post Player Workout
Greg Brittenham Individual Conditioning drills
Gregg Popovich Spurs Drill
Haefner - Winning Drills
Herb Livsey Teaching Shooting
Jack Bennett, Drills for Sound Basketball
Johnston, South Dakota Women's - Offensive drills
Kampe Big Man Workout
Kansas Women's 1v1 Drills
Handling Double Teams by Mike McNeill
Improving Post Play - Christine Stapleton
Maravich Ball Handling Drills
Northeastern State - Individual workout drills
On Court Basketball Conditioning Drills
Perimeter Workouts
Pete Gaudet - 36 Drill
Post Workouts
Post Play Individual Drills
Purdue Intensity Drills
Random Shooting and Conditioning drill
Rick Majerus Post Play Development
Rick Pitino Ball Handling Workout
Ridnour Series
Sample Varsity Lifting Schedule
Scott Drew Baylor individual development
Sean Miller Offensive Improvement drills
SMU 20 Shooting 20 Drills
Syracuse Running Program
Swish22 Shooting Method
SWNT Core Workout
Tony Bennett Ball Handling Workout
Tom Izzo Weight Program
Wake Forest - Competitive Rebounding Drills Diagram
Warrior Drills
Where to Fit Speed Training Into Basketball Practice by Lee Taft
Wolverine Pre-season workout


Youth Development
5 Out Youth Offence
10 Sample Practice Plans
Beginners Offense (Mike Mackay SUCO2006)
Break Down Drills (Mike Mackay SUCO2006)
Combining Movements Skills and Basketball Skills for Youth Players
Discovery approaches to teaching on the ball defense
Dribbling on the Move for 10-13 year olds
FIBA Basketball For Young Players
FIBA Youth Offense
Games Approach by Mike MacKay
Getting to the Ready Position
Jubb’s Youth Motion Offense
Maravich Drills by Mike MacKay
Modified Games by Mike MacKay
Nash Shooting Drill
Pylon Drills for Younger Players (Mike Mackay SUCO2006)
Teaching Motion Offence to Young Players
Team building activities
Utvecklings program, Erixon
Youth Basketball Warm-up Activities by Mike MacKay
Youth Defense Simplified


Coaching Ideas
Anson Dorrance Speech to UNC Freshmen
Blaine Taylor, 12 Steps to Team Success
Basketball Team Dysfunctions
Bessen, St. Marys HS Girls Coaches Manual
Concepts to Play Hard
Developing Your Coaching Philosophy
Errol Gauff - Team Building
Guided Defense by Mike MacKay
Learn to Relax by Drew Mitchell
Okshkosh Spartan Girls Basketball Manual
Phases during Practice - Teaching, Learning, Competing
Playing Tough by Mike MacKay
Q and A with Mike Dunlap
System Failing Coaches
The Art of Coaching - Ken Shields

FIBA Stuff:

I organized all my FIBA stuff the other day. All the stuff below is stuff you can find online, but what I did was organize it all so that if you're looking for something specific you won't have to go thru all 26 editions (as I have done). Just like all my stuff, simply post a request and I'll upload.

Skill Development
FIBA Al Sokaitis 1-on-1 Dribbling
FIBA Barry Brodzinski Shooting The Right Way
FIBA Billy Donovan Drills
FIBA Bruce Brown and Joe Callero Off Post Drills
FIBA Carlo Recalcati Improving Team Improving Player
FIBA Claudio Papini Off to Def Transition
FIBA David Adkins Seasons of Shooting
FIBA Defensive Drills
FIBA Ed Palubinskas The Jump Shot
FIBA Francesco Vitucci Bargnani Development of Big Man
FIBA Francis Denis Shooting Drills
FIBA Ganon Baker 1-on-1 Creating Space
FIBA Ganon Baker Jump Shot
FIBA Gheith Najjar Shooting Drills
FIBA Giovanni Piccin Coming off Screens
FIBA Hal Wissel M2M Passing Drills
FIBA Jay Hernandez Freeze pull-ups
FIBA Kevin Eastman Fundamental Drills
FIBA Kevin Sutton Post + Perimeter Skill Development
FIBA Lionel Hollins Screens and Options
FIBA Mario Blasone Neglected Fundamentals
FIBA Matt Doherty Ball Handling
FIBA Matteo Boniciolli Side Screen Readings
FIBA Mike McKay Canada Teaching the Pyramid
FIBA Mike Procopio Player Development
FIBA Miograd Veskovic Individual Drills
FIBA Moncho Monsalve Inside Players
FIBA Pam Tanner Advantage Drill + Others
FIBA Pete Newell How to go to the Rebound
FIBA Quinn Snyder Basic Offensive Skills
FIBA Raphael Chillious Superman Drills for Post
FIBA Ryan Krueger PickNRoll All Solutions
FIBA Slobodan Subotic Weekly Practice Schedule
FIBA Stan Jones Improving FT percentage


Defense
FIBA Alain Jardel French Women Team Defense
FIBA Aldo Corno1-3-1 Zone Trap
FIBA Aluisio Ferreira M2M Defense
FIBA Antonino Molino Practicing M2M Defense
FIBA Bob Ociepka Defending the PickNRoll
FIBA Carlo Recalcati Zone Defense
FIBA David Blatt 1-1-3 Matchup Zone
FIBA Del Harris Defending the PickNRoll
FIBA Doc Sadler Defensive Philosophy
FIBA Don Casey 3-2 and 2-3 Zone Presses
FIBA Dusko Ivanovic PickNRoll Defense
FIBA Emir Mutapcic M2M Defense Basics
FIBA Ernie Woods Pressure Defense
FIBA Ernie Woods Statistics to Evaluate Defensive Performance
FIBA Ettore Messina Italian m2m defense
FIBA Ettore Messina, Emanuele Molin M2M Defense
FIBA Evgeny Pashutin Full Court 2-2-1 Press
FIBA Fernando Duro Principles of Pressure Defense
FIBA Flip Saunders Pistons 50 Defense
FIBA Ghassan Sarkis A Winning Defensive Strategy
FIBA Ioannis Ioannidis Trapping M2M Defense
FIBA Jasmin Repesa Switching from 2-3 to M2M
FIBA Jeff Capel Building a M2M Defense
FIBA Jeff Lebo Doubling the Post
FIBA Jim Calhoun UConn 2-2-1 Press Defense
FIBA Joe Ciampi Match-up Defense
FIBA Jonas Kazlauskas Scouting the 2004 Olympics Defense
FIBA JP de Vincenzi Defending Off-ball Screens
FIBA Julio Lamas Combo Defense Triangle and Two
FIBA Laszlo Ratgeber Defending the PickNRoll
FIBA Lucien Van Kersschaever Zone Press Defense
FIBA Mete Topsakal M2M Defense
FIBA Mike McHugh Defensive Transition
FIBA Mike Wilhelm Bulls Defensive Philosophies
FIBA Miroslav Nikolic U19 Serbian Defense Philosophy
FIBA Oktay Mahmuti Defense A Team Concept
FIBA Oliver Purnell The Wall Defense
FIBA Phil Martelli Zone Defense
FIBA Piero Bucchi Building a M2M Defense
FIBA Pino Sacripanti Principles of M2M Defense
FIBA Rob Beveridge Aus Jr. Team Full-court Trap
FIBA Tab Baldwin Triangle and Two Defense
FIBA Tom Barrise Low Post Defense
FIBA Victorino Cunha 2-3 Zone Defense
FIBA Zeljko Pavlicevic 1-2-2 Matchup Zone
FIBA Zmago Sagadin Yugo Constant Defense


Offense
FIBA Aca Petrovic Multiple-Choice Offense
FIBA Aito Garcia Reneses Free Attack Offense
FIBA Antonio Barbosa Brazil Offense
FIBA Billy Donovan Florida Offense
FIBA Bob Huggins OB Situations
FIBA Bozidar Maljkovic Attacking The Zone Defense
FIBA Brenda Frese Maryland Offense
FIBA Brian Goorjian Austrailia Offensive Sets
FIBA China Women's Offense World Championships
FIBA David Blatt Russia's Offensive System
FIBA David Titmuss Wheelchair Basketball Transition Game
FIBA Dirk Bauermann Germany's Offensive Game, Concepts and Principles
FIBA Donn Nelson Mavs 2 Offensive Sets
FIBA Dragan Sakota Attacking Unorthodox Zones
FIBA Dusan Ivkovic Starting Games Offensively
FIBA Eddy Casteels Scoring and Shooting Drills
FIBA Ergin Ataman Zone Offense
FIBA Ernie Kent Oregon Offense
FIBA Ettore Messina Euroleague Final Game Plan Offense
FIBA Fabrizio Frates Spacing and Rhythm
FIBA Fastbreak Drills
FIBA Geno Auriemma High Post and Triangle Offense
FIBA Gordon McLeod Transition Game
FIBA Gregg Popovich Spurs Game Philosophy
FIBA Gregg Popovich Spurs Offensive Sets
FIBA Henrik Dettmann Mutating the Triangle Offense
FIBA Igor Grudin Russia Women's Offense
FIBA Jan Stirling Australia's Offense
FIBA Javier Imbroda Early Offense Secondary Break
FIBA Joan Plaza Zone Offense, Fundamentals
FIBA Lindsay Gaze Shuffle Offense
FIBA Lon Kruger BLOB
FIBA Lucien Legrand French Cadets Off Philosophy
FIBA Lute Olson Arizona High Post Series
FIBA Mike Katz Assessment of Offensive Basketball
FIBA Mike Krzyzewski USA Offensive Strategy
FIBA Moncho Lopez Playing by Concepts on Offense
FIBA Moussa Toure Zone Offense
FIBA Muly Katzurin 3-man Plays
FIBA Neven Spahija Transition Offense
FIBA Nikos Keramefs U18 Greek Offense
FIBA Oktay Mahmuti The Secondary Fastbreak
FIBA Panagiotis Giannakis EuroBasket Champion Offense
FIBA Panagiotis Yannakis Greece Offensive Strategy
FIBA Pat Riley Heat Offensive Plays
FIBA Paul Coughter M2M Offense
FIBA Petar Skansi Balanced Offense
FIBA Phil Melillo Buzzer Beaters
FIBA Pistons Offensive Attack
FIBA Roy Williams Secondary Fastbreak
FIBA Ruben Magnano Argentina Offense
FIBA Ryan Krueger Coaching Terminology
FIBA Saso Filiposvski PickNRoll Offense
FIBA Sean Kearney Notre Dame Motion
FIBA Sergio Hernandez Argentina Offensive System
FIBA Sergio Scariolo Italian Army 3-out 2-in
FIBA Simone Pianigiani 1-4 Offense Against M2M
FIBA Skip Prosser Wake Offense
FIBA Spain's Winning Offense
FIBA Sterling Wright Developing an Off Style
FIBA Stevan Karadizic Serbian U18 Offense
FIBA Steve Smith 1-4 Against the Zone
FIBA Steve Smith Offensive Post Play
FIBA Steve Witty Fastbreak Secondary Break
FIBA Stuart Manwaring Offensive Principles
FIBA Svetislav Pesic Zone Offense
FIBA Tamas Sterbenz The Rational Game
FIBA Tex Winter Triangle Offense
FIBA Tubby Smith Kentucy m2m 40 series
FIBA Van Chancellor Comets Offense
FIBA Vicente Rodriguez 1-on-1 Offensive Concepts
FIBA Wayne Barker Triangle Offense
FIBA Yoo Soo-Jong Korean Women's Offense
FIBA Zelimir Obradovic Panathinaikos Offense
FIBA Zeljko Obradovic Half Court M2M Offense
FIBA Zoran Kovacic Serbia Women U19 Offense


Youth Development
FIBA Alexandre Carlier School of French Champions
FIBA Aluisio Ferreira Brazil Men's Strategy Planning
FIBA Amadou Gallo Fall Basketball for Life
FIBA Andreas Pistiolis Youth Pre-season Practice Plans
FIBA Aussie Hoops Program
FIBA Boris Jakimenko Croatian Youth Basketball
FIBA Borivoje Cenic Serbian Youth Program
FIBA Carlo Bressan Basketball Training
FIBA Carsten Kerner Berlin Basketball Academy
FIBA Defne Patir 12 Giants Basketball Schools
FIBA Dragan Kokovic Development of Young Players
FIBA Felix Simen Gaping 2010 Cameroon Basketball Project
FIBA JP de Vincenzi France Scouting and Training
FIBA Nikos Stavropoulos Greek Youth Program
FIBA Phil Brown Austrailian Women's Program
FIBA Russian Youth Women's Program
FIBA Sarunas Marciulionis Basketball Academy
FIBA Saulius Samulevicius Lithuania U21
FIBA Simone Pianigiani Junior Super Group
FIBA Slavko Trninic Basketball Cadets
FIBA Slovenian Youth Program
FIBA Spanish Youth Program
FIBA Tony Khalil Lebanese Women's Basketball
FIBA Yehuda Shikma Israeli Basketball Federation


Team Building
FIBA Adrian Schonfield Intergrating Psychology, Aus Inst of Sport
FIBA Albert Rodionov Mental Conditioning pre-game
FIBA Dusko Vujosevic Building a Championship Team
FIBA Eric Foister Dealing with Adversity
FIBA Jeff Janssen 6 Winning Ways, Choosing Team Captains
FIBA Jonathan Niednagel Basketball Genes
FIBA Jose Maria Buceta Motivating Elite Players
FIBA Konstantin Pappazov Psychological Preperation
FIBA Marty Clark Goal Setting
FIBA Mirko Novosel Pyschology and Motivation
FIBA Nicolas Raimbault Team Psychology
FIBA Pedro Ferrandiz Educational Professionalism
FIBA Ranko Zeravica Psychological Preparation
FIBA Sandro Gamba Relationship b-w Coaches & Players
FIBA Serguei Chernov Challenges for Coaches

WALBERG NOTES


Clinic Notes
221 Defense Tunica
BB Court Tunica
FCC vs COS notes
Gaps Fullcourt Defense
Portugese - Clinic Trancoso : AASAA
Portugese - O ataque dos campeões : AASAA
Vance Walberg Scouting the Memphis DDM

Offense
BLOB AND SLOB Series
Coach Chuck Dribble Drive Motion Offense Notes
Coach Chuck Dribble Drive Blood Drills
Delay Series
Eric Bridgeland UPS offensive system
Fresno Half court Isolation Sets
Fresno Half court Options
Fresno Half court Special Sets
Fresno Half court Man Offense Section
Fresno Zone Attack offense
Fresno Zone Attack Specials
Fresno Misc. Info in Playbook
Fresno Press Attack
Fresno Pressure Defensive system
Gap O strategies
Gaps 2006 offense
Gaps
General rules of our AASAA offense
Herb Welling Dribble Drive Motion Drills
Memphis Offense 24 pages
Memphis Blood Drills
Memphis Breakdown Drills
Offensive Philosophy