Coaching Thoughts with Donovan, Weber and Brown

With practices looming for many of you coaches, here are some random thoughts to consider about certain coaching philosophies. Feel free to agree or disagree, but I hope that at least they will show some different perspectives on how and what to teach.

Billy Donovan:
- Stunting is an important untrained defensive skill – drill it daily
- At the end of the game I’m putting my 5 best scorers in the game
- To play depth – you must have guys who can play offense
- If you can score you have a much better chance to win
- If you let guys play tired and coast it will cost you in the long run [unless you have no depth]
- In the 1st half we want the opponent to not reach the bonus
- Teams that are hardest to press are the ones that just play by breaking the press and scoring off of the press without having to take the ball out to half court and set something up
- Giving up control to have freedom is one of the most difficult things to do as a coach
- Never can get away with fouls on the road like at home – don’t press before the 1st officials timeout
- 3FG% is a very important defensive statistic

Bruce Weber:
- Be HARD on your Best Player! Dee Brown could not make his time on their distance running until the day before real practice started. (They were ready to start practice without him.)
- Be flexible as a coach. You have to change some every year.
- Change daily practice or they will get stale at the end of the season.
- Have a winner and a loser in every drill. This teaches the kids to love winning and hate losing.
- We never put their starting lineup together in practice until the day before the game. We have equal teams in practice.

Hubie Brown:
- What style of play do you preach? Power, finesse, passing game, 3-point, fast breaking, etc..
- If you can't press, can you come back with 4 minutes left?
- Can you create opportunities with your style?
- Can you score quickly using sets that emphasize your best players and good shots?
- When players first see you at practice, you set the tempo for the day! Are you read? Is the preparation thorough? Are you positive?
- Give your players a chance to win... show a bit of ego and a lot of confidence
- Style is presence! Command respect!

For me, being flexible is one thing that I think is most important. Just because things were done a certain way last year (regardless of success) or the year before shouldn't be the reason to continue doing it the same way. I also like the parts about giving up some control and showing confidence in your players late in games to win the game for you.

If you're a big Hubie Brown fan like me, take a look at Hubie Brown's DVD on Playbook for Success. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and other basketball topics.