As the calendar turns over, basketball coaches begin conference play, and hope to have the answer to how their team can win. Through the experiences gained from October to December, most teams have had an opportunity to be challenged, learn from adversity, and establish an identity. Below are three questions that you had better know the answer to, if you want a chance to win your league:
✔ What does your team do better than anyone else in your league?
✔ What is your team’s biggest weakness, and how can you help your team overcome it?
✔ Do your players know and accept their roles?
These three questions are guiding thoughts, which will give your team a chance to play their best basketball. We hope this helps your coaching staff evaluate where your team is at, as you prepare for the most important stretch of the season.
You can follow Dynamic Coaching Tools on Twitter at @DynamicCoaches
-
ARTICLE: Treadmill Mentality
NBA rookie, Javon Carter, wrote a letter to the City of Memphis. There were a lot of great takeaways from players, and some interesting insights into the program at West Virginia. Here are some of the things that stood out to me.
“See, it was like this at West Virginia: The only thing that mattered to Coach was that we played harder, every single play, than the other team.”
“Coach’s whole philosophy was about maintaining focus, minimizing mistakes and working hard. He wanted to make sure that no matter who we were up against, we were not going to be the first ones to get tired.”
“I remember when he first scouted me at an AAU game my senior year of high school. It was an 8 a.m. game. I wasn’t being recruited by that many D-I schools, even by my senior year. I remember that after the game he told me he liked me because the other guys on the court looked sluggish — but not me. He told me that he thought I was quicker than people gave me credit for, and that he was impressed that I got my hands on a lot of balls. I had been the top scorer in the game, but he didn’t talk about that at all.
No coach had ever talked to me about deflections. Huggins was different. I liked him right away. And when he gave me an opportunity, I jumped at it. That was all I needed.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE
-
Drill of the Week | Transition Shooting
Transition Shooting is a drill that is a great way to start practice, work on passing the ball ahead, or it can be used as a game day shooting drill. The drill is used for five minutes and should include a target score. This score should be adjusted to an appropriate level for each team. Below are some suggested scores.
MS TEAM = 100 points | JV TEAM = 125 points
VARSITY TEAM = 150 points | COLLEGE TEAM = 200 points
The drill begins with three lines on each baseline. On one baseline, where the drill will begin, there is a ball with the first person in the middle line. There is also a ball with the second person, in the outside lines. On the other end, the two outside lines have a ball (see diagram below). The three players who are running will all touch the ball once, which means that two passes will be made. The ball should not need to hit the floor. The final player to touch the ball will score a lay-up. The other two players will receive a pass from the outside lines on the baseline, to shoot a 15-foot jump shot, or a 3-point shot. The middle line will get the ball out of the net, from the lay-up, to initiate the transition the opposite direction. Below is the scoring:
Layups = 2 points
15-foot shots = 2 points
3-point shot = 3 points
If the ball hits the floor = 0 points
Below is a diagram of the drill. If you need more information, or want to know about alternative ways to run the drill, you can reach out to CoachBrotherton@dynamiccoachingtools.com
-
The Truth About Shooting More Threes
“The Truth About Shooting More Threes” by Coach Doug Brotherton was originally published by HoopGrind Basketball
In the NBA, teams are embracing the analytics, which encourages teams to shoot lay-ups and threes. According to the data, mid-range jump shots are inefficient and do not lead to success. Like most things in basketball, the NBA is the trendsetter, so now college basketball coaches are doing the same thing, and even high school coaches are preaching that lay-ups and threes are the key to building a successful team. High School basketball is where the debate heats up, as a lot of long time successful coaches are not interested in adapting to this new strategy. After reading a recent debate on Twitter, I decided to dive into the numbers. Below is the process that was used for this project.
- Use MaxPreps to gather three-point shooting statistics
- Find the three-point attempts per game numbers for all of the 200 teams that qualified.
- Separate the teams who shot the most three point shots per game (30+ attempts per game), from the teams who shot the fewest three pointers per game (under 20 attempts per game).
- Look up the WIN/LOSS RECORD of all of these teams, to find out if increased three point attempts per game correlate to a higher winning percentage.
- Gather the POINTS PER GAME for each team, to find out if increased three point attempts results in a higher points per game average.
Here is the table that I created:
THE RESULTS
DOES INCREASED THREE POINT ATTEMPTS RESULT IN MORE SCORING?
After diving into the data, it supports the belief that shooting more three pointers will result in scoring more points offensively. In fairness, this study does not include pace of play, or any metric to judge the caliber of opponents. It simply shows that high school boys teams who shoot 30+ three pointers per game, score significantly more points than teams who attempt less than 20 three point attempts per game. This remains true, despite the fact that the teams shooting more three pointers, shot a much lower percentage from deep.
- Teams shooting 30+ three pointers shoot at an average percentage of 31% and score 76.9 points per game.
- Teams shooting under 20 three pointers make 37% of their attempts, but only score 63.7 points per game.
DOES INCREASED THREE POINT ATTEMPTS RESULT IN WINNING MORE GAMES?
The results here actually show the exact opposite. Shooting more three pointers, at the High School level, does not correlate to winning more games. In fact, teams shooting under 20 three point attempts per game won 73% of their games, while the teams shooting over 30 three point attempts per game won only 67% of their games. As one can see, this study only involved the 200 teams that MaxPreps listed. The requirements to be listed are that a team must have played at least 18 games, and attempted a minimum of 226 three pointers on the season.
- Teams shooting 30+ three pointers won 67% of their games.
- Teams shooting under 20 three pointers won 73% of their games.
In conclusion, this project is far from perfect, but it supports something that most experienced coaches already know. There are a lot of different ways to win high school basketball games. If your philosophy is to score more points, then attempting more three point shots should help your team accomplish this goal. It is just important to note that shooting more three point shots does NOT guarantee that your team will be more successful. If you want your team to maximize their ability, then you must find the balance between what your players do well, and how that can be incorporated into your system.
To further the discussion, you can contact Coach Doug Brotherton via Twitter: @CoachBrotherton
Or you can reach him via e-mail at: CoachBrotherton@gmail.com
You can also reach us via Twitter at: @DynamicCoaches