Basketball brings out the human spirit like no other game. It draws upon so many different aspects of our nature. To play the game takes 5 individuals on the floor, with one ball and a hoop. Such a simple concept and yet so many variables come into play. Developing a team of individuals, who are willing and able to sacrifice their own ego's amidst the many outside voices which prey on those ego's, is the challenge of virtually every successful coach.
In my opinion, the mental aspect of the game will remain the most important. It is that part of the game which can keep a coach up late into the night, stressing, worrying about the state of mind his or her players are in. I see the game as two parts, mental and physical. I will spend some time with this blog on the physical as it is that area which is easiest to understand and is more black and white. Diagramming plays and furiously taking notes is something that I enjoyed doing throughout my career as a coach. I have gathered incredible amounts of information from coaches around the world, who were willing to share. Now I see this as a great opportunity to share some of what I have learned and give back to the sport.
There are endless different and unique ways to play this game. I will argue that virtually every way to play has already been long discovered and tried, somewhere at some time. Just as an example, I have found reading books by Clair Bee and implementing some of the plays and concepts he used in the 1920's to be just as effective as utilizing a scheme from any current major Division I coach presented at a coaching clinic or watched on video. It is not possible to use every different style or incorporate every set out there, into a playbook. A coach must determine what suits their team best and what they are comfortable in presenting. I have made the mistake, many young coaches make. Early in my career I would run different sets and use a style of play just because a certain Division I coach who I favored ran it. It came down to trust and I would trust the success of certain coaches to help me design a system for my players. Rarely would those systems work just on their own. The mistake I made was not taking into account that each coach is different, each team is different and while one thing may work for one coach, it certainly doesn't mean it is guaranteed to work for another. What I found is that the most successful teams I ever coached had “one voice and one vision.” I had to sell those teams to the fact that what we were going to run and how we were going to run it was absolutely the only way for that team to play. I had to learn how to gather all the great information that was out there and package it in a manner that was uniquely ours, and which the players would take ownership of. As coaches we have to sell this, especially early in our careers or when taking over an established program. When a certain level of expectation becomes the norm, a coach does not have to sell quite as much. But even then, the maintenance required is tremendous.
The following special situation plays are an adaptation from a clinic Hubie Brown conducted several years ago that I was able to attend. The play is broken down into four unique options and can be used in situations ranging from .3 seconds to 5 or more seconds remaining on the clock. I liked to use these as an end of game or end of half plays if there were fewer than 8 seconds on the clock. Each option must be practiced and is assuming the ball is being taken out of bounds on the sideline 1-2 feet below the hash mark. The positioning of the ball on the sideline is very important for any of these options to work. I would occasionally blow the whistle during a practice, and set up a 5-5 full court situation and have the point guard dribble the ball to the correct spot and call a time out. Several games were won at the buzzer over my career because of the team’s ability to execute one of these options.
I recommend teaching the skeleton movement of the play first. Then, still in 5-0, show each option to the players and put time on the board so they can see how much time actually elapses when the play is executed. Inevitably there will be some shocked players and maybe even coaches as to how little time some of these options actually use up. Then start running the options 5-5 and have some fun with it. Once the players get a sense of how much time it takes for each option, they begin to relax and are better suited to execute when in an actual game environment. I would often try and end practice with one of the options and many times a practice hero was born, off to the locker room amidst the cheers of his/her teammates.
The options are as follows - "Corner", "Flash", "Flare" and "Lob". I welcome your feedback (markswasey@gmail.com) on this post and on the options themselves. Best of luck with it, should you choose to incorporate any or all of the options into your playbook.
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