A Coach's Diary

In a Coaching U podcast , Villanova Men's Basketball Coach Jay Wright spoke about his leadership and how leadership drives the culture. The culture has to start with the leadership and when you are a leader, you have the chance to define: “How are we going to live?” Not just how we are going to play basketball or how we practice but how we are going to live, and that is the basis of your culture.   Once you define that and you bring in people who want to learn that and want to be a part of that, then you build from there: “How are we going to practice and how are we going to play in games?”   But it starts with how are we going to live, how are going to treat each other; how are we going to wake up every day. When we wake up every day, our most important characteristic is our attitude.   We try to teach that we control our attitude every day.   How we walk in the office and say hello to each other, how we treat the people who clean the offic...

This comes from a Coaching U Podcast interview with Jay Wright .  He talks about the type of player that they recruit and how they present their culture to the kid, his family, and his coaches.  The dynamics of recruiting and coaching kids are different, and here he talks about how he is honest and up-front early, and he talks about how important it is for him and his staff to recruit character and fit as much as talent. As a player or a parent, make sure that the fit - not just the level - is right, make sure that the coaches have yours our your child's best interest at heart, and that the program focuses on growth and development of the person, not just the player. Young athletes today are different and the way you have to recruit them has to be different.  You have to keep learning because the one thing that is definite in life is change, and things change.  Part of our challenge is we know what kids used to be like and what WE used to be like...

"If you go and you trace coaches, you'll see that even some of the best in the world struggle their first few years.  It takes time to establish yourself.  Very few people are lucky enough to come in and have instance success.  It takes time to evolve who you are as a person and your coaching style, personality, and philosophy." From:  Coaching U Podcast:  Coach Brendan Suhr, Recapping the 2018 Final Fours by Coaching U Podcast with Coach Brendan Suhr https://player.fm/1qGhUU?t=920

J ay Wright here is teaching their 'Bully' finish move.  The definition of a bully can be seen here: He starts out by talking about hearing at a basketball clinic at Princeton that they work for 30 minutes of layups every day.   Think about how many times in a game do you get a layup out of your offense or on a steal do you get a layup and miss? You have to practice finishing around the basket off either feet and off two feet when you get contact to finish. Jay calls finishing off two feet a 'Bully Move.'  Get to the basket, come to a 2 foot stop and extend at the rim.  Coming to a 2 foot stop allows you to also read the help defense.  You can stop and finish a layup, stop and finish with a jump stop, or stop and read the defense and pass. Here is a video of him talking about the Bully and the team working on the Bully. The reason you teach going off 2 feet is that you might beat your man, but you have to read the help.   He tal...

The video above is a compilation of post feeds from the Villanova Wildcats.  Jay Wright is known for his player development, and post play and post feeds are a skill that is sometimes overlooked but is important to master. - All players can make sharp accurate passes with both hands - Post players do a great job of shielding their man, meet the pass, and catch with both hands - The passers always relocate on the pass to make the double team hard - The post players take their time on the catch and read the defense before attacking They don't always score, but the action is always sound and solid which is part of what makes Villanova so tough every year. The video was taken from Zak Boisfert's YouTube channel .  He is a great resource for anything you need on the court.

Offense Some notes on what we want to accomplish this off-season from an offensive standpoint.  I want our philosophy for the spring to be that nobody can guard you 1 on 1.  You have to be able to get to the paint off the catch or the dribble, or use screens to create and advantage to get to the basket. Beat Your Man 1 on 1 - You can’t let one person guard you - Beat your man to get in the paint to score - If you get in the paint and can’t get a clean shot, jump stop, pivot, and find cutters and shooters - If you can’t get in the paint, drive to make somebody have to help to get a teammate an open shot One on One Moves Triple Threat - Rip - Jab - Shot fake Off The Dribble - In and out - Hesitation - Stutter step - Counters Get Your Teammates Open - Help your teammates create an advantage - Set a screen for them to get them open - Drive at their man to make her help to get them open Use Your Teammates to Get Open -  Know how to turn the corner ...

Swing series is when you are guarded on the wing, step across the defender, give the target a passer, catch and go.  If your man is denying, you have to get that foot on top and be strong to and with the ball. Rip it tight to your stomach and push it out in front of you.  If you swing out away from your body, a tough defender will take it from you.

Be who you are.  Coach because of the relationships.  Have balance.  Pace yourself.  Don't be irrationally emotional.  Have goals, but embrace your path, stay committed, and don't measure yourself against anyone else.  Get over yourself and empower others around you.   USA Today Sports recently posted an article in which it asked some of the premier coaches in college basketball one simple question: "Knowing what you know now, what is advice you would give your younger self about coaching and your career if you could?"    As a relatively young coach, I took a lot of good gems from this article.  A couple of the lessons I was forced to learn early, a couple I was blessed to learn by having such a great staff, and some I am still working on now.  Read below as some of the greatest coaches, and leaders, in the world talk about some of the things they would have done differently if given the chance. Mike Krzyzewski...

When our kids catch the ball, we want them to think ‘score.’  Every time they catch, they should look at the basket and see if they are open first – we call this ‘show shot.’  We want them to show shot on the catch so that they are ready to score if open and to get the defense off balance if not. In the split second that it takes to show shot, if they are not open to shoot or not open to drive, they should look in the paint and see if a cutter is open or the post is open.   Showing shot demands the same good footwork it would take to make a good interior pass to an open player. We put 5 minutes on the clock and practice catching the ball, squaring up, and showing shot using different actions out of a 3 out and 4 out setting. In the video below, Duke demonstrates how they practice showing shot in a 3-out setting by setting away screens or interchanges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaymSSwIDDQ We work on doing it out of the following actions: - ...

Below is a great article from Philly.com on how Jay Wright treated the Final Four as a business trip, keeping players away from all distractions, so that they could ensure maximum focus throughout the final days of the tournament.  You can read the article in full here . When Jay Wright arrived in Detroit for his first Final Four as Villanova coach in 2009, he wanted his players, coaches and support staff to enjoy the experience. But when the Wildcats went out for their national semifinal game that weekend against North Carolina, he knew that plan had major flaws. "It was about 10 minutes into the game and I knew," Wright recalled last week. "You could just see the focus in Carolina. You could see our guys were just playing a game. I knew I didn't get these guys ready. "Obviously, [Tar Heels coach Roy Williams] had been there many times. They were ready. They were playing on a completely different level than we were. We were there to play a fun g...