Rooting for Jim Larranaga for 2013 NCAA Tournament

It's the eve of the NCAA tournament 2013 edition, and I realize I haven't posted in a long while. Seeing that is Spring Break for me, I thought I should post who I am rooting for this March Madness. My heart is still with Bill Self and the Jayhawks, but this year I find myself rooting for Jim Larranaga and the Miami Hurricanes. Coach Larranaga is a basketball coach through and through, he's a big practice guy and still comes from the "defense wins championships" mentality that I see lacking in a lot of basketball play over the past decade or so.

I'm a big fan of Larranaga's scramble concepts and the teams that I've helped coached used all or part of them quite a bit. But it looks like this year, they are not so much forcing turnovers, but limiting opponent possessions (through great defensive rebounding) and keeping opponent FG% low. I haven't had a chance to watch a lot of Miami games, but I would bet that his camouflage defense is more prominent this season with the longer athletic types he has this season.

But the best part of Larranaga's coaching method is his attention to detail. To plan all the practice details and to prepare the way he does is really the secret to his success. He writes everything down, and keeps detailed notes of goals and what needs to be done.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys the tournament. I look forward to see which teams get to last to the Final Four.

A Quick But Effective Pre-Game Warmup

The importance of a good warmup before games cannot be overemphasized in my opinion. Often times when we go to tournaments, there is such little time in between games, but it is still important to get that stretch in before game time. Here is a nice concise 1 minute video of Alan Stein running the DeMatha through a quick warmup in a hallway before game time:

I've broken it down from the video:
- single leg swings against the wall
- can openers against the wall
- sprint to chop feet to sprint to chop feet...
- partner cross arm to sit pulls
- defensive slides
- single leg twist hops
- static backward lunge
- single leg box hops
- static squats
- static split squat
- static backward side turn lunge
- static forward lunge body turn
- two foot side hops

For more great ideas, check out Alan Stein's DeMatha All-Access DVD Set.