What an incredible game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Purdue Boilermakers. From the incredible first half by Robbie Hummel (when ended up being his last college game), to the switching defenses of the Jayhawks which allowed them to come from behind for the win. One thing is for sure, Bill Self knows how to coach.

Elijah Johnson came up with perhaps the biggest play of the game, getting the steal and going the length of the floor for the layup with under 30secs left. Afterwards, he was asked why he and the Jayhawks were so inconsistent throughout the year and appear to be peaking at the right moment, his response was "I was learning, I was learning". Right there, that statement tells me that this player has the right attitude. He can see his mistakes as opportunities to learn, and then applies what he has learned to the present.

As a coach, being able "to learn" is an important part of the process (for both coaches and players). Having a bad half, and learning, making adjustments, and being better in the second half is important. Having struggles early in the season, learning from your mistakes and becoming better is important. I really believe that as a team, you have to know how to lose before you ultimately how to win.

Anyways, as a big Bill Self fan, I'm hoping that they go far this year. I have a little more time with Spring Break upon us, so hopefully I can blog a little more with the tournament going on...

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It's been an amazing couple of weeks for one Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks. Everyone is talking about his Cinderella story, first asian point guard, comparisons to Tebow, etc... In my opinion, the most important angle and the most overlooked aspect of his story is the fact that the reason why Lin was passed over by so many teams even going back to high school is that he had to work his tail off to get to where he is now (A great read by the NY Times if you haven't read it yet). He was passed over by so many schools and teams simply because he wasn't good enough. I followed Lin going back to his Harvard days because as a person of Taiwanese heritage, he was someone that I could relate to. But, I knew he wouldn't get drafted out of college because at the time he was too weak, and his game was too one-dimensional.

The amazing part of Lin's story is therefore one of hard work and perseverance. When you knock on so many doors and are told you aren't good enough, a lot of guys would've taken the easy way out and just given up. Instead, Lin battled on, he got up earlier, worked harder, did everything he could to make himself better. Because when you're not blessed with the talent or athleticism like most of the other NBA players, you HAVE TO make it up with hard work, there's just no other way. Something that hopefully as coaches, the story of Lin can be one of inspiration that hard work does pay off.

Anyways, I hope to be blogging a little more again with the NCAA tournament ramping up, and due to my schedule easing up now that our team's season is over. We had a great season, capped off with a thrilling playoff run at regionals which saw us, a #14 seed, knock off the #3 seed, and come within 2 points of going to the ship. To those of you lucky ones who still get to practice and get ready for state, good luck to you all.

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Pat Knight is taking a lot of flack the last day or so after his post-game rant which publicly called out his players for their lack of effort, saying they were essentially stealing from the university through their full-ride scholarships.

My own opinion on the matter is that is that what I say to my players in the locker room, stays in the locker room. Our conversations are between our team. It's a matter of trust, that the locker room is sacred, that we can be honest with each other in the room and that in that setting I hold no punches.

Having said all that, I'm leaning towards calling the whole thing a big publicity stunt. The things he came up with were just a little too carefully planned to be something that he just thought of at the end of a bad loss. Knight has already said afterwards that he pre-warned the other coaches about what he was going to say that night, I would think that he probably also pre-warned, if not at the very least hinted, that he was going to say what was probably already said many times in private, publicly. His objective, to help motivate the seniors, and to get the team a little bit on the college basketball radar. I think it worked, at least for one night...

Watch it for yourself and let me know what you think...

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The Super Bowl is coming up this coming Sunday and one of the coaches roaming the sidelines will be Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots. I've long looked up to Belichick and have done a lot of research as to what makes him so good at what he does. And one of the aspects of coaching he is most known for is situational practices. The idea that clutch situations are won and lost by those who are the most prepared. Confidence is gained by those who eliminate the unknown. Do your players know what to do in every critical situation that presents itself?

Like many of you out there, playoff basketball looms on the horizon, and we are always looking for that extra competitive edge. One of those in my opinion is to come up with and have players go through critical situations in practice. When I draw out my practice plan, I come up with a scenario: say starting unit vs 2nd unit, starters down by 4, 1 minute left, both teams in bonus. Most of the time, the players screw it up, and then you have to back it up and scheme it out for them, for example, down 4, we don't need to take a quick 3 pointer, lets work for an easier 2 pointer because it is a 2 possession game anyways.

I try to come up with scenarios to practice. Here are some I've used and plan to use this season:

- Up 3, 30 secs, other team has the ball at their own baseline.
- 5 secs on shot clock, 20 secs left on the game clock, down by 1, other team has the ball on your baseline.
- Down 10, 4 minutes to go, after 2 minutes, tell them starting point guard has fouled out.
- Up 5, 1 minute to go, every offensive rebound given up is an automatic score.
- Up 3, 3 secs to go, shooting 1 FT.
- Down 1, 5 secs to go, other team just scored.


"You just never know what set of plays [will determine the winner] this week and what situations are going to be the key situations in this game or any other game in the future. You just try to cover all your bases on that stuff and react to [situations] as they come along." -- Bill Belichick.

For some more situational ideas, check out Coach Morgan Wooten's DVD on Coaching to Win in Special Situations. Coach Wooten is the winningest high school coach in the history of basketball.

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One of the things I haven't talked that much about overall on this blog has been how to prepare and plan practices. As an assistant the past 6 years or so, I haven't had to really think too much about it, as the head coach was the one responsible for putting it all together, I just did whatever the head coach wanted me to do.

Probably the most important part of being a head coach is how you put your practices together. For me, I find that it is important that practices start out with something where the players really need to focus and concentrate, to set the right tone for the rest of the practice. Because, I seen it where if you start off practice on the wrong track, it's extremely hard to get the players back on track.

I've used a bunch of different drills. I like doing 2 ball dribbling or tennis ball drills, as it forces players to really concentrate on the task (or they lose their ball). I also like doing team passing as again, it forces players to concentrate hard on the task, or they mess it up for everyone else. I've used this 4 corners passing drill from Bobby Knight before as well:



The real key to running any of these drills is coaching the details. If a player makes a mistake, stop and correct it right away. Now, you can argue that these drills aren't very game relevant, Hubie Brown's philosophy is that you never do anything in practice that you won't use in a game. I agree to some extent, but mental concentration is a skill that is highly relevant, and cannot always be practiced in a "game-like" scenario. I explain to players that what I'm looking for in them right now is whether they can maintain focus and discipline to do it right, because in the game the players have to maintain the same focus and discipline to help and recover on defense, or to break the other team's press.

Anyways, hopefully that gives you all some ideas on starting out your practices the right way. The season is just about halfway done. We've been adding a couple of wrinkles here and there, but basically from here on out, it's all about execution and attention to the details.

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We all have so much to be thankful for as we look back at another year's past. I am thankful for being given the opportunity to teach and coach at what I consider the best place on earth.

I hope you are all having as much fun coaching basketball as I am having this season. For me, just having the chance to call the shots has been exhilarating enough. After an early stint as a head coach 7 years ago, and then assisting in various capacities at various levels for the past 7 years -- to be finally back at the helm this time around feels so much better. I often look back at that first stint and obviously I was too young and inexperienced, but I really needed to get my butt kicked (for lack of a better expression), then go and observe some other coaches (some better than others) do their thing, before knowing how to and how not to do things.

Do I still have doubts about the decisions that I make as a head coach now? Absolutely, but I make the decisions having experienced so much more this time around. As for how our team is doing so far this season? We're still inconsistent, but we've certainly had our moments. Such as the game-tying-send-it-to-OT then win it in OT win on the road, against Steve Nash's old high school coach to boot. And then there was the 30 point come from behind almost win (lost by 2 points with the ref calling an illegal screen on our game-tying possession) last week. It hasn't all been sunshine and roses though, for example I've also had to deal with multiple discipline issues with players on the team, academic and social. But overall, it's been a fantastic ride, and I'm not only looking forward to how we finish in March, when it counts -- but most importantly how these boys develop into the fine upstanding men that I know they can be.

I want to wish all the readers a very happy holidays. And for you coaches out there, be sure to thank your family members for putting up with our random mood swings, grumpy misdemeanor after losing, and for just being there when we need you. May all of your coaching dreams come true in 2012.

P.S. A big shout out to my current mentor, head varsity coach and athletic director, Rich Goulet who notched his 1000th career win last week.

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I was watching the Lakers vs Bulls last night and one of the key plays at the end of the game came on an offensive rebound by Luol Deng who got an and1 play to bring the Bulls to within 1 with less than a minute to go in the game.

It was a weird bounce as Deng shot a 3ptr and the ball came right back at him.

 

I went back and looked at the highlights and replay of the play and I could see why the Lakers couldn't come up with the ball.

Kobe is trying to leak out for the run out off of the defensive rebound. Problem is, Deng is the one that comes up with the ball and then the Bulls are essentially playing 5 on 4 with Kobe way out of position.

As a run and gun team, you have to weight the pros and cons of leaking out vs rebounding down. I got the idea mostly from  Billy Donovan's DVD on Transition Offense and decided that for our team, leaking out on a long wing or top shot was worth it as our halfcourt offense isn't very good and we needed something to get easy baskets. The idea is that the majority (80%) of rebounds go to the weak side, so we will leak out against the shooter and the rebounder will look for the easy lob off the run out. It's been tremendous for us and it has caused offenses to adjust as they need to send less players to the offensive glass and send someone back to cover the deep pass.

However, be aware, this is a gamble. Because if the offense comes up with the rebound, you are playing with 4 defenders against their 5. For us, it's usually a gamble we're willing to live with. But, on at least one occasion this season so far, we have adjusted to have our guards rebound down instead of leaking out. It's an adjustment we will make game to game depending on whether we need more rebounding help.

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