Be a Rebounding Guard like Travis Best

As many of you, I'm still recovering from post-election hangover. It's one of those moments where 20 years from now everyone will want to recall the day when... Anyways, don't want to get all political. I took the opportunity today to watch some recorded stuff I had from Euroleague in October and this one game was a great one between Avellino and Olympiacos. Avellino features guard Travis Best and Olympiacos made the big splash in the summer signing Josh Childress.

A short but important clip I want to show. Rebounding is such an underrated and underemphasized skill. IMO, it's one of the great equalizers. If your team can outrebound your opponents every game, you should end up with more shots which means that even if you're not a high-percentage offense, you should still be able to score more than your opponents. I love here how Travis Best demonstrates great court awareness, boxing out the big guy and out-working him for the rebound, watch:




Find Hit Get:

It's really as simple as that, Find-Hit-Get. Hustling back on transition defense, the ball goes up and Best instinctually finds the nearest opponent, boxes him out, then gets the ball,



Great stuff, I love it when guards rebound down, it always leads to good offense the other way which is what happens after the rebound on the drive and kick 3 pointer.

Summary:

I watch kids all the time, and a lot of times they'll be really lazy. They'll just watch the ball go up hit the rim, then hope someone else gets the rebound. The fast break doesn't start until 'one of you' gets the rebound first. There was a kid I coached last year that was relentless in rebounding both offense and defense. I'd say, we won at least 3 or 4 games just on his rebounding alone, bailed us out when our offense was absolutely atrocious.

Anyways, for a brand new video on rebounding drills, take a look at Dino Gaudio's DVD on Winning the War on the Boards. Coach Gaudio is the head coach at Wake Forest replacing the late Skip Prosser. As always, please check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk hoops and exchange notes and ideas.