Syracuse 2-3 Zone

Sureness with the ball

This quote about UCLA senior Mike Roll should be what every player strives for as an offensive basketball player. To have a teammate say this about you is one of the best compliments you can receive as a player:

Asked what part of Roll's game he would like to absorb into his own, freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt said, "His court awareness. When the ball is in his hands, everybody on the court feels safe. Nobody is worried whether he is going to take a bad shot, or turn the ball over."

Coach's Corner: Late-season pressure

Coaches corner article by former head coach and current ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla:

Late February is the 21-mile marker of the college basketball season's marathon. It's been more than six months since most players and coaches started preparing for the 2009-10 season. The practices, weight-training workouts and film sessions have been endless, but it is the next three weeks that will determine, for most teams, whether it has been a successful season.

While pressure comes with coaching, the pressure of trying to get your team into the NCAA tournament is enormous. At the low and mid-major level, what you've done in the regular season is mostly irrelevant because winning your conference tournament in a couple of weeks is the only thing that matters.

For power conference teams, every league game down the stretch will determine not only whether you earn an at-large bid, but also how high your seed will be if you do.

For the elite teams, getting into the tournament is only the beginning of the pressure to perform up to expectations. Ask Kansas coach Bill Self if early-round exits in 2005 and 2006 at the hands of Bucknell and Bradley didn't give him major migraines for two years.

Regardless of what level you are coaching at, getting your team ready to play its best basketball in the last month of the season is an art form. More than at any other time of the season, a coach must play psychologist, drill sergeant, physical therapist, teacher, motivational speaker, time-management expert and problem-solver.

Mental preparation in February and March, in my opinion, is far more important than physical preparation. Most teams are beaten up physically and beaten down mentally by the length of the season, by tough losses, by long road trips and by academic work that always looms. How you choose to motivate your team has a big part in late-season success.

While there are different philosophies about the length of practice at the end of the season, I was always a believer in the "fresh legs" approach. As a coach, you want to keep your players sharp without making them mentally miserable.

While two-and-a-half to three-hour practices were common in the first half of the season, I always cut practice times down to as little as 45 minutes late in the season. The intensity level was still high, but the players knew that if they were crisp and attentive, we got them off the court quickly. The extra time could be used for "mental practice," like a film session or a few new plays to introduce or extra shooting and skill development.

While playing motivator is critical, sometimes coaching psychology doesn't always go as planned.
One year at Manhattan College, with our team rolling along at 19-3, I planned to "throw them out of practice" in order to give them the day off. I purposely found something to annoy me and wanted to send them the message that, even with our record, we couldn't be satisfied. In fact, I was just trying to get them some more rest. It backfired.

After I kicked the team out of practice, my staff and I went to the coaches' locker room. After 15 minutes, one of my managers came in and told me that the players were still practicing on their own. They had so much pride in their practice habits, they stayed out on the court for two hours without coaches!

Late in the season, I believed in keeping my players off-balance. At one practice following a devastating loss, our players were expecting a tough, hard practice. Instead, we practiced last-second shots, and every time we scored, our bench players had to run on the court and celebrate with their teammates. After a few pile-ons and with the team in a great mood, we ended practice before anyone got hurt. Coincidence or not, we ended the regular season on a seven-game winning streak.

I also believed in adding some of our best offensive plays late in the season. With the familiarity that comes with playing in a conference and breaking down film, everyone is prepared for the opponent's best stuff throughout the season. So we would practice new sets or add wrinkles to plays we already had in our offense.

One season, when John Calipari was still coaching at UMass and I was at Manhattan, he gave me a last-second play over the phone one night in early January. We practiced it the next day, and I told our team that we would run the play only when we needed a sure basket. We called it "Winner."

For the next two months, we worked on "Winner" every day -- and finally, with the score tied in our conference championship game, we called the play in our final timeout. The players knew "Winner" in their sleep, executed it, and it helped get the Jaspers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 35 years. It's a great feeling when your players have confidence in you because you have prepared them for success in a pressure situation.

It's what coaches live for.

Intensity & Toughness Look Like...

Good article from TeamArete on what intensity and toughness look like on the basketball court.

Intensity Looks Like

*Beat the ball down the floor in transition and conversion.
*Rebound position every shot—back, space, pinch on free throw.
*Play defensive in a stance.
*Help and then recover.
*Help the helper.
*Close out with hands above shoulders.
*Dive on loose balls.
*Protect the ball when you have it.
*Rip through on pivots—strong with the ball.
*Chin rebounds.
*Meet every pass.
*Change direction and speed on cuts.
*Take a charge.
*Steal passes that are thrown too far.
*Sprinting from spot to spot in practice.
*Contest every shot.
*Ball Fakes.
*Deflect passes.

Toughness Looks Like

*Verbal response and applause for good plays (regardless of shirt color in practice).
*Encourage a teammate after an error or a missed shot that was a good shot.
*Help a teammate up off the ground.
*High fives and back slapping.
*Huddles on the floor.
*Never criticize a teammate.
*Bench stands when a player leaves the game.
*Acknowledge a player being substituted for in practice as he leaves the floor if you are also on the sideline.

Learning from the bench

Good quote from Kansas freshman Elijah Johnson, who's playing time has been limited due to the strong depth of guards for the Jayhawks.

“I can’t come in right away and win a national championship. I feel I need to learn first. I’ve been learning a lot sitting on the bench. I think I learn more on the bench than I would on the floor. I don’t think a lot of people understand, but I do, and I see it through coach (Bill) Self’s eyes. I see the bigger picture. It’s not a rush. I gotta learn first, then I can give him what he wants.”

Pack your Parachute

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After seventy-five combat missions, his plane was shot down, and Plumb parachuted into enemy territory, becoming a POW. He survived his ordeal, however, and eventually returned home. While eating in a restaurant one day, he was approached by a scruffy-looking man who said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam and were shot down!”

“How did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied. “I guess it worked!”

Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about the unknown man who’d saved his life. From that day on, he determined to always take notice of—and say thank you to—those who “pack his parachute” each day.

Make the most of each day by thanking those who “pack your parachute” and by making an effort to do the same for someone else

Characteristics of a Team Player

We all fit into different niches. Each of us must make the effort to contribute to the best of our ability according to our own individual talents. And then we put all the individual talents together for the highest good of the group.

Thus, I valued a player who cared for others and could lose himself in the group for the good of the group. I believe that quality makes for an outstanding player. It is also why the best players don't always make the best team. I mean by this that a gifted player, or players, who are not team players will ultimately hurt the team, whether it revolves around basketball or business.

Understanding that the good of the group comes first is fundamental to being a highly productive member of a team.

-John Wooden

Dirk's Work Habits

Two factors lead to Dirk’s maturation as a shooter. First, he was encouraged to shoot from the outside, both as a boy growing up and then as a Maverick. Second, he practiced his tail off. When Avery Johnson was coach of the Mavs, he became so concerned with Nowitzki’s obsessive practice habits that he started fining his star if he found him in the gym on an off day. Nowitzki’s solution? “He would sneak off to a high school gym,” says Del Harris, an assistant at the time. “He and Jason Terry and whoever else they could drag with them. They’d find ways to get into a gym or a high school, or a health club and go shoot at night.”

Judging a point guard

From the World Herald:

Sherron Collins, Kansas' preseason All-America point guard, has seen his scoring average drop from 18.9 last season to 16.0 now. So how much sleep is KU coach Bill Self losing over that?

None.

Fewer shots and points for Collins mean more Jayhawks have progressed to play at a higher level. And Collins, who soon will have been part of more wins than any other KU player, has been happy to share.

"I judge him strictly on if we're winning or not," Self said Monday. "That's all you should ever evaluate a point guard on.

"The shooting percentages don't matter. The steals don't matter. All that matters is if you win. That's why I think he's the best because he does whatever we need him to do."

Get out of your comfort zone

"I hear so many times guys say they want to win a championship, I want to be a winner, but what they're really saying is they want to win so long as it's comfortable for them,'' Rivers said. "You don't win by being comfortable. You win by doing things out of your comfort zone to make the team better."

-Doc Rivers

Seize the Moment

From Peter King at Sports Illustrated:

Coming up with a motivational tool is huge for NFL coaches, particularly on the eve of an important game. Last Saturday night, before the biggest game in the 43-year history of the Saints, New Orleans coach Sean Payton produced a doozy at the team's downtown hotel. As the players settled in for their last team meeting before the NFC Championship Game against the Vikings, the lights dimmed, Aerosmith's Dream On started playing at a Superdome-decibel level, and on the video screen at the front of the room great moments in sports history went by in rapid-fire order.

Babe Ruth homering, Michael Jordan scoring, Pete Maravich floating, Roberto Clemente fielding, Tiger Woodsfist-pumping, Eddie Robinson coaching, Wayne Gretzky scoring, Jim Valvano leaping, Larry Bird shooting, Muhammad Ali punching, the Bears Super Bowl--shuffling, Doug Flutie passing, the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team celebrating—on and on, as goose bumps rose to the pulsating chorus: "Dream on, dream on, dream on...."

And when the lights came up, there was Ronnie Lott, a four-time Super Bowl champion. Payton had invited the Hall of Fame defensive back to speak to his players before the season, at which time Lott told the Saints he could "smell greatness in the room." smell greatness T-shirts were promptly distributed to the players. Now Lott stood before them holding one of the purple baseball bats each player had received that night as a reminder to hit the Vikings hard on Sunday. Lott tapped the bat in his hand, staring intently at the players, and said, "What I wouldn't give to have the chance to go out there, just one more time, to do what you're going to do tomorrow. To become a champion again."

"It's something I'll never forget," free safety Darren Sharper, 34, would say later. "Ronnie's the epitome of greatness in our game, and for so many reasons on and off the field, this was our chance for greatness—to seize the moment. It may never come again."