2 for 1

Two messages in one blog tonight

Communication and Positions 1-5 on the Floor

Coach Kevin Sutton, assistant at Georgetown identifies a list of characteristics that make up great defensive play on successful teams.  Two of those are as follows:

*They play defense with their voice, their eyes, their brains, their chest and their feet
*They are constantly communicating throughout the entire possession. They are active listeners as well

here is a link to the full article:  Coach Kevin Sutton - Georgetown Basketball

Communication is critical to a team's success, and Coach Sutton points out, it is talking and listening constantly.  Everyone has seen the games where the coach is yelling to his players for 32 minutes, moving up and down the bench, calling out rotations, and players indiscriminately.  I wonder how much any player can get from that type of noise.  By the time it is out of the coaches mouth, it's too late.  I want my players reading plays, talking to each other, and knowing how to play together.

This requires practice, common vocabulary, and commitment to an idea that the team is bigger than the individual.  You are not going to communicate very well in the back of the defense if you are worried about the fact that you were open on a read-cut at the other end, and the point-guard missed you.  You are also not communicating with your teammates if running down the floor on offense you have already decided you will score no matter what because you haven't had a touch in 3 trips.  The plays that have already happened are over, all there is, is the play in front of you, and you need to be 100% focused on all of it.

Everyone defends the ball, that means jumping with the pass, calling out ball when you are guarding the player with it, calling screens as they are being set, and calling out help when you rotate to pick up the ball-handler who has the guard on his hip.  When 5 guys call "shot" on the release, it is a verbal signal to get a seal on your guy, and end the defensive possession with a rebound.  Communication is about trust, and letting go, and it can only be built over reps and time.  If you're not talking, you are not defending, it says one of two things, you are tired, or you are selfish.  Both of which can find you spending plenty of time sitting next to your coach at critical moments, rather than talking to your teammates on the floor.

Positions 1-5 on the floor

I am constantly talking to players who are overly concerned about what spot they will play when they check into a game.  "Coach I can play the 3" is a phrase that I have heard enough to last me a lifetime.  If I am sending you into the game, play.  Three basic decisions go into your responsibilities when you check in.
1- Can you guard your defensive assignment
2- Can you guard your defensive assignment






3- Can you make a play on offense in the system we are running

Rather than be concerned which number is assigned to you, be concerned with winning your shift, in whatever way you can, at both ends of the floor.  This might be taking a charge, rotating low from the top on the weak side to give the hard foul and prevent a layup, setting a screen, or reversing the ball. Become a basketball player, and there will be a spot for you on the floor, regardless of your size or number, playmakers find minutes.  The easiest way to know if you have won your shift, is to check the score when you went in, and then again when you come out.  Beyond that, look at your individual stops on D,  and successes on offense.  Stops measured by if your team got the ball without the other team scoring, successful offense being if your team scored.  If you help on a ball-handler and force him to pick up his dribble, and turn the ball over, you have done your job, if you set a screen that opened a lane for a teammate, you have done your job, take pride in that.

If I had the choice between a 6-6 center (5), a 6-4 power forward (4), a 6-3 small forward (3), a 6-0 shooting guard (2), and a 5-7 point guard (1), or five basketball players between 5-7 and 5-10, I would choose the five basketball players every time.  If you are smaller than the player you are guarding, be quicker, have great position, take charges, box out, pull him away from the basket at the offensive end, and take it into his chest to draw fouls.  If you are bigger than the opponent, use your size to deflect passes, body-up, rotate and block shots, or get put-backs without a dribble.

Part of the reason everyone wants to be on the perimeter, is that they feel that is their only opportunity to get touches on the ball.  I think that this is because the art of ball movement has largely declined in recent years.  From the pros to the playgrounds, having "handles" is what gets you on Sportscenter.  More and more I have seen guys put the ball down over and over, between the legs, behind the back, stop and go, shake and bake, only to end up in exactly the same position they started in, telling everyone that will listen that they are "collecting ankles."  All this while the other four guys stand around waiting.  Move the ball, move yourself.  Simple offensive philosophy, go to the open spots on the floor, and be ready when the ball comes to you.  If you are open, score the basketball, if one of your teammates is more open than you, get him the ball, simple offensive philosophy.  Stop your man, and be ready to help on the ball at all times, simple defensive philosophy.  I have seen guards 5-8, take their man into the post, and score over and over. I have also seen 6-7 guys who can rain threes off a screen on a catch-and-shoot.  Don't tell me you are a 3, go out and make plays, help your team, and everything will be fine.

What You Practice...

What you practice every day, becomes what you do, and who you are.  So what are you practicing?  I would like to think I practice having real and meaningful conversations with the people around me, and trying to do something everyday that benefits someone else.  And I would like to think that most days I do a pretty good job at that.  But I also practice being angry in the car, and having no tolerance for the drivers around me.  I practice staying up way to late, thus making me tired the next day, and in general, that contributes to me not having the sustainable energy I need to accomplish all the things I wish I could.  

When it comes to basketball, what are you practicing?

Do you find yourself saying things like: "I am going to lock you up on D"
or "I am about to yam on you, you can't stop me"  "coach I'm a shooter now" or my favorite " ball is life." I hear these kind of statements all the time, in gym class, on the playground, or in the hallway at school.  I see them tweeted and tatted, doodled on notebooks, and graffitti'd on desks and lockers all the time. 

My question is, when you say "I am going to lock you up on D" and then play, are you giving up layups?  Do you understand how to move your feet and use your strength to force your opponent into a place he wants to stay away from?  Are you willing to take a charge or give the hard/clean foul, and yet still commit to closing out on the jumper? Or do you reach for the cheap steal, hedge the lane for a highlight block, give up the and-one, or forget to box-out and get caught looking up as the shooter goes around you for the put-back?

Do you love to take a running start after practice, or when the coach blows the whistle for a drink, and backrim one-foot, two dribble dunk attempts from the right wing in a row over and over before catching one? Or, did you put in 90 minutes a day, on your own, training hard at times when no one else is awake yet, and catch your first dunk in scrimmages, cutting to the basket with two defenders around you, off two feet, with two hands, and just get back in line for the next set.  Has everyone heard about the putback slam you got on the 9-1/2 foot rim bent down in the front in summer league?  Or did you drop step bang in the second half of your first league game because you were pissed that the guy you were guarding in the first half hit a lucky step back and was talking junk about it?

What about when you announce to the gym that "coach I'm a shooter now" then proceed to miss your next 4 threes, short, right, long, then left, before finally getting a line-drive to bounce front rim, back rim, backboard, and through?  If you are a shooter, you know, and everyone else around you knows, and it doesn't matter if you've just run a hundred gassers, done a whole morning worth of push-ups and defensive slides, or a longer, quicker, stronger guy is guarding you, the next one is always going in.  You don't need to say anything, just sprint back and point to the guy who got you the ball.  

Is #ballislife your go-to catchphrase?  Did you just stand in line for 26 hours to drop $249 on the pumpkin-wheat foamposites?  Did you roll into the first day of try-outs with attitude glasses, huge crystal studs in each ear, headbands, wristbands, oversized jumpman shorts, a kyrie jersey turnt backwards, pumkin foams untied, beats on your neck, double elite socks, three necklaces, and an I love boobies bracelet?  Then miss your first two left-handed layups?  Or do you sell out on every sprint, chasedown, shell-drill-rotation, and defensive slide, then still have enough left to quietly dominate the one-on-one, to five-on-five games at the end of practice?  All because you did twice as many sets every day stretching back to the end of last season.  

With about 6 weeks remaining until HS tryouts, there is still time to change the things you practice, that become who you are.  If some of the things in this blog make you uncomfortable, good.  It's a signal to make what you say the same as what you do.  If you are interested in reading more, here's an article I just finished reading that set me off on this rant. 

Kobe works harder than Jordan did.

Be sure to follow the link at the bottom of the Jackson interview to read the full article on Kobe, and read all three pages of that.

Also check out these two Jeter items:

Jeter's Gatorade Commercial

Jeter sportsman of the year

The commercial speaks for itself, but pay close attention to what Billy Beane says about Jeter in the article, I think this is exactly how a champion thinks.

Kobe does not practice shooting jump shots, he practices making jump shots.
Jeter does not practice baseball, he practices intelligence, effort, and humility.

What do you practice?

-Coach Crookes