Don Meyer: Secrets to Building a Championship Basketball Program

A few years back I took an Advanced Basketball Theory class with Don Meyer.  During the course, we had to watch a series of videos.  Here are some notes that I took at the time over the Secrets to Building a Championship Program video.

Don Meyer Secrets to Building a Championship Program

Shooting Drills eBook

This free eBook, which contains shooting drills from a number of great coaches, gives coaches a wide variety of shooting drills to implement in practice.  You will find individual, partner, finishing, transition and team shooting drills that are competitive and high intensity.  I hope it helps with your practice preparation.

Shooting Drills eBook

Bobby Knight: Practice Planning Clinic Notes

Here is a great set of notes from legendary coach, Bob Knight.  Coach Knight provides great teaching concepts and drills to teach players and coaches how to better understand the game of basketball. 

Bobby Knight Practice Planning Notes

Coaching Quote #9: Bad Passing

"You cannot allow bad passing in practice.  If there is a bad pass, do it again"
"Most important thing about passing is don't pass it to the other color."

--- Bob Knight

Don Meyer: Player's Camp Notebook

Years ago when I was the head coach of a girl's team, I had 12 girls go attend Coach Meyer's positional camp.  One of my girl's had typed up her notes and given me a copy.  I thought I would share the teaching points that she recorded.

Don Meyer Position Camp Player's Notebook

Coaching Quote #8: Effort

"If your best player is not your hardest worker it will be a miserable year even if you win it all."

--- Don Meyer

Kevin Reilly: Getting the Most Out of Bench Players

Here are some great ideas from Kevin Reilly to get your bench players inolved in the game.

1. Establish roles for your players (i.e. defense, passing, three point shooting.
2. Try to get substitutes in end of first quarter and during second quarter
3. Reward players for their efforts in practice with more playing time.
4. Getting players in the game early gives them confidence if they are needed later.
5. Getting players in early gives you one less thing to think about down the stretch of a close game.
6. Matchup your substitutions with your opponent's substitutions.
7. Establish positive relationships between first stringers and reserves.
8. Work with second team in practice.
9. Get kids ready to play.
10. Use different combinations and different starting lineups.
11. Take kids out of a game on a good note, if possible
12. Don't yank kids out of a game after a bad pass, missed layup, etc., if possible.
13. Make all kids feel involved in the game and practice.
14. Give kids opportunities to see for themselves why they are not getting more time or playing with the first unit.
15. Talk and explain substitution process when possible.

Larry Brown Practice Breakdown

Here is a portion of some Larry Brown clinic notes.  Below, Coach Brown is discussing his approach to practice organization. 

The daily practice schedule is designed to simulate the flow of a game, from the pregame meeting through overtime (total time – 2 hours)


Playing hard is the top priority – Intensity development is built into the daily practice schedule by making all drills competitive against the clock or an opponent

Warm up (:20)

– Focuses on ball-handling and shooting

Defense (:40)

– Defense is taught in a “part” fashion, utilizing three- and four-man breakdown drills to reinforce concepts

“Halftime” (:10)

– A series of shooting drills is utilized to give the players an active rest period

Offense (:40)

– Offense is taught in a “whole” fashion, utilizing 5-on-0 and 5-on-5 drills to develop spacing and seamless teamwork

“Overtime” (:10)

– Special situations (baseline out-of-bounds, sideline out-of-bounds, end-of quarter, and delay games that often make the difference between victory and defeat are rehearsed in situational scrimmages

Practice Planning with Mike Dunlap

Mike Dunlap is well known for his attention to detail and his practice preparation.  Here are some notes with great teaching concepts for you to think about.  Hopefully there is something that you can apply to your program.

Mike Dunlap Practice Planning

Anatomy of a Timeout: Tip #5

One of the toughest places to inbound the ball is from a deep corner sideline.  You can be limited in your options if you don't plan accordingly.  Therefore, at the end of a game, what do you need to cover when you have to inbound the ball from the deep corner?  Personally, I like to have a Zipper action to start of the play because this will get a passing angle for the in-bounder.  Furthermore, I like to have the post player setting the down screen post up hard looking to get a direct pass from the corner man.

From there, you now have a wide range of options that you can use depending on your style of play, your end of game actions and what you have previously practiced.

I have added a couple of sample plays that could be used or modified to fit your players strengths for this situation.

Deep Corner SLOBs