Simple Peer Pressure Drill Geno Auriemma Uses to Begin Practice

Geno Auriemma - UConn Leadership Conference

'We trust you until you give us a reason not to trust you.'

'Just be great at what you're good at.  You know you're really good at something.  Identify it and then work your brains out to be great at it.'

The Importance of Learning Accountability ...

... and not how to make mistakes and excuses.

The importance of holding yourself accountable, now as an athlete, and in the future as an adult and a professional.  Right now, showing up late, or missing an assignment, or not blocking out does not mean the end of the world.  However, at some point, coming in late or turning in an assignment late at work could cost you your job.  When the stakes get higher, it is important to know that you have spent your career learning how to make mistakes and how to make excuses.

Coach Auriemma on Feedback: Stop Treating Women Like Women

It’s not even about winning or losing.  It’s about getting the best out of every player.  Being a woman does not change their job description.  You never go after somebody’s heart or their core; you go after what they did.  You coach actions.

How To Beat a 2-2-1 Press

The 2-2-1 press is a common full court defense used to slow down the offense, making them second guess themselves with soft traps and playing the passing lanes.  Its important for your players to have a plan on how to attack this press and how to move, manipulate, and read the defense.  The video below shows a simple but effective way to attack a 2-2-1 press.

Most teams have one guard on the ball and the other guard taking away middle, allowing the guard to guard pass.  By allowing you to reverse the ball, they are hoping you use up your 10 seconds in the back court or turn you over when you start to panic when rushing to get the ball across the timeline.

Being aggressively patient and knowing who to attack and when is key to beating the press efficiently.  Having your guards beat their man and attack the forwards on the wing makes the defense rotate and opens up their teammates.

When you attack the forward, the lob to your teammate leaking up the court should be open, as shown above.  From there, the 4 can attack the 2 on 1 with the 5 or hit the 3 coming down the middle.

If 1 attacks the forward and the bottom defender comes up to steal the pass to the 4, 1 can look at the 3 in the middle or the skip to 5.  When the 3 gets it, attack the basket and you will get a layup or numbers advantage.

If both of those options are taken away, the reversal is always there and you have the same options on the other side, but with a defense out of position ready to be attacked.

One thing to look for on the reversal is the guard defending the middle sprinting to cut off the 2 too quickly.  This might leave the 3 open in the middle before the other guard can get to the middle.  That is why its important to have a plan and being ready to attack with a plan.  Having a plan and attacking takes advantage of the defense having to sprint and rotate.

To beat it, its important to work on being able to make different types of passes, including the over head pass, and its important to stress making strong passes, using ball fakes, and meeting the pass on the catch and catching with two hands every time.

Working on 2 on 1 and 3 on 2 drills are important as well, so that you can take advantage of numbers situations and make the defense pay for pressing you.

What Will Your Student/Athletes Say About You? What Is Your Legacy?

During our 2 week professional development leading into the new school year, we had an inspirational speaker come in to talk to us about maintaining our well-being as teachers and living 'our best life' so that we are able to give our students and athletes our A-game every day.  Early in his lecture, he brought up this scenario:

"Imagine, 20-30 years from now, a few of your former students or former athletes are sitting around at a bar, or a coffee shop, or a birthday party.  Do they even remember you?  Do they mention you?  And if you are brought up in conversation, what would you want them to say about you and their time with you?"

As speaker Alex Saenz then told us that morning, every day you are on stage for your legacy.  We are living, every day, our legacy.  What legacy are you living?  What legacy are you leaving to the one's you serve and lead?

He also stated that we all build a reputation and that your students and your peers notice everything you do.  John Wooden famously stated, 'be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.'  But it’s also important to be concerned with your reputation because that is symbolic of the work you put in, how you serve others, the relationship you do or don't build with the people around you, and the legacy you are leaving behind.

So as you go into this school year, or into a new week, or even a new day, think about what you want your legacy to be.  One day, the team’s record will be forgotten, stats will be lost and nobody will remember what they got on that state test.  But will they remember you ... their teacher and their coach?  Will you have made enough of an impact in their life?  And if you are lucky enough to be remembered, what will they say about you?

Every day you are on stage for your legacy.  We are living, every day, our legacy.

Don Eddy One on One Play

The teams with the best players have the best chance at success.  Discipline, structure, togetherness, and great plays all factor in as well, but all other things being equal, players win games.  So, its important to help your players get better in 1 on 1 situations.  Plays are setup to get you in a 1 on 1 situation where you can make a play.

Below are notes from the older Don Eddy video above.

Be a threat every time you catch.  Use your jab series to feel out and move the defense.
- Ball in your pocket
- Back straight so you’re ready to shoot
- Ball is ‘set’ in your pocket
- Fake the drive to shoot/ Fake the shot to drive
- Fakes are short steps, drives are long steps

Live Ball Moves
- Show and Go
- Jab
- Cross step
- Rocker step
- Shot fake
- Opposite

On The Dribble
- Cut off dribble
- Counter dribble
- Retreat dribble
- Shot fake
- Power shot

Drill It

- 1 on 0 is a great way to introduce and rep the moves
- Dummy 1 on 1 is a great drill to teach the drills in one on one situations. 
- King/Queen of the court is a great drill to practice this move in live situations

Learn how to play off your defender; don't just rely on predetermined moves that you have in your head.

Hank Iba's 6 Steps to Winning More Basketball Games

All credit to this post goes to Hoopskills.com and you can read the original version here.

Legendary Hank Iba (Henry Iba) coached Oklahoma State to two NCAA Championships and the United States Olympic team to two gold medals (and one silver medal) with teams made up entirely of amateurs. Coach Iba used to teach that there are six main areas of focus if you want to win consistently. The more of these areas that you and your team master, the more games you will win. If only a couple areas are mastered, then you're possibly in for a long season.

1. Transition Defense - Good transition defense helps eliminate layups, open threes and fouls while scrambling to cover up, which greatly increases your chances of winning. Teams should have separate plans for getting back after missed shots and turnovers and also for getting back after a made field goal or free throw. Being strong in this area lets the defense play 5 on 5 instead of playing 3 on 1 or 4 on 2.

2. Half-Court Defense - Numerous studies have all shown that FG % is the #1 statistic that influences winning. In other words, if a team can constantly force their opponents into shooting poorly they are going to win the vast majority of their games. Good half court defenses take offenses out of their comfort zone, don't foul and only give up difficult shots by non leading scorers. Coaches often give this one area more attention than all of the others.

3. Fast Break Offense - Effectively running the break gives a team the chance to get some cheap baskets and is still the best way to get an uncontested three point attempt. Teams that run and consistently scores before the defense sets up often forces opponents to play smaller if their "Bigs" can't keep up. One of the most important benefits of fast breaking is that it gives your team "spurt ability" and the opportunity to come from behind if necessary.

4. Half-Court Offense - Great half court offense is basically about accepting roles and understanding good shot selection, regardless of which offensive set is used. Winning offense is NOT equal opportunity but instead is committed to getting the best shooters the most shots. This can be accomplished by always looking for favorable mismatches, consistently feeding the hot hand, and setting limitations if running any type of motion offense. (Five passes unless getting an uncontested layup, post must touch the ball, two designated shooters until end of the shot clock, etc.)

5. Defensive Rebounding - Use one of the four boxing out techniques (Front pivot, reverse pivot, hit & go, or face guard) to keep opponents from generating game changing second shots. Teams that want to fast break obviously need the ball to get things started and should consider a missed shot and subsequent defensive rebound as the first phase of their offense.

6. Offensive Rebounding - While defensive rebounding is mostly about proper positioning, offensive rebounding is all about desire and anticipation. Many coaches feel that there is no such thing as a bad second shot and motivate their non scorers by telling them they can shoot every offensive rebound they secure. We send four to the glass and try to consistently get two perimeter players crashing the boards after getting a running start. (We work very hard on our transition defense and you must too if you are going to send four players to the offensive boards!)

Too many teams overemphasize just one of the six areas at the expense of the other five. While those types of teams may win some games, they lack the balance necessary to be a dominant, championship program. Coach Hank Iba's teams were well known for tough, hard-nosed, physical defense and methodical, ball control offense. However, even though those areas were his team's main strengths, he did not neglect to emphasize the other four areas. As a result his coaching career became so legendary that one of the national coach of the year awards is named after him.

Steven Adams Rolling Off The Ball Screen

Steven Adams is a very solid big in the NBA.  He is not flashy, and he doesn't not have myriad of post moves, but he can be effective, especially receiving passes rolling to the block off of pick and roll action.  The video below shows the different options Adams has rolling to the basket.

For our girls, we want them to be able to execute the following moves on rolls for either a layup or to draw a foul:

On The Roll
- Regular layup
- Reverse layup
- Power layup (with or without a shot fake)
- Power reverse layup (with or without a shot fake)
- Step across and finish (with or without a shot fake)
- Catch into up and under
- Dribble into up and under
- Catch and shoot

On the Pop
- Catch and shoot
- Catch and rip through for pull-up or shot
- Jab baseline into drive
- Rocker series