A Coach's Diary

You have to be able to take care of the ball, against pressure, to be able to run any kind of offense with success.  Dick Bennett has a couple of drills that he call 'Soundness Drills' to improve his teams ability to take care of the ball and to improve their poise and decision making. In the drill above, called 1 on 2, he has one ball handler trying to advance the ball against two defenders.  Your ball handler has to have poise, know how to protect the ball with both hands, has to be able to retreat dribble away from pressure, and has to know how to attack when time. We have expanded this drill to teach scoring at the end of it.  We want our 1 offensive player to try to score.  Then, make or miss, we have the 2 defenders come back on offense in a 2 on 1 situation to teach how to play 2 on 1 basketball on offense and defense.  We also use this drill as an opportunity to teach how trap and take proper trapping angles. In the video above here,...

Here is an article that I found at the   Green Bay Press Gazette   via   Bob Starkey  about the legendary Dick Bennett. Key Takeaways: -  We never know how much we can/do impact others -  Be great in the small things -  Know your philosophy/values via Mike Vandermause : I consider myself fortunate to have learned firsthand about Dick Bennett's influence long before he became one of the most successful college basketball coaches in state history. As a high school junior in the summer of 1975, I attended a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire basketball camp and by the luck of the draw, Bennett was my coach. It might have been the best $125 my parents ever spent on me. At the time, Bennett was a relatively obscure coach at Eau Claire Memorial.   One memorable week is all I needed to discover Bennett was a very special coach. I loved playing for him and would have run through a brick wall if he asked. I had n...