I discovered a new BLOG through the Fast Model, FastDraw family of coaches… 48 Minutes of Hell. Pretty good stuff, very detailed and really good use of FastDraw diagramming tool.
Real good entry on San Antonio Spurs defensive principles.
Bruce Bowen
Chances are, if you’re a regular reader of this blog you have a pretty good idea of what the San Antonio Spurs like to do, and avoid, on the defensive end of the floor.
But from time-to-time, I find it helpful to review things to keep them fresh in my head. And seeing as it’s mid-August and the NBA is on vacation, I thought we’d take a look at a couple of the bedrock principles of the Spurs’ defense.
Force guards away from the middle of the floor
It’s easy to boil it down to this: when the ball-handler gets to the middle and into the lane, bad things happen. This is because the offensive player has options. And the basic premises of defense are to limit the number of ways the offense can score and make it as hard as possible for them to do that.
When opposing guards get into the lane, they cause damage. They get good looks at the basket, find open teammates and draw fouls. A ball-handler in the middle of the lane usually has a better look at the basket than when forced towards the sideline or baseline. Additionally, he probably got past the defender guarding him en route to the lane. This means other defenders will have to rotate over to help on the ball-handler, leaving other offensive players open if the ball-handler can find them with a good pass.
In the play diagrammed below, Steve Nash got to the lane against the Spurs defense late in Game 2 of the teams’ Western Conference Semifinal series. The Suns had a eight point lead with about a minute left in the game. It’s a pretty significant advantage that late in the game, but not insurmountable. On the play, Nash used a pick at the top of the 3-point arc from Amar’e Stoudemire to get by George Hill and into the lane.
Continue Reading…
Posted 4 days, 3 hours ago at 4:52 PM. 1 comment
I really enjoy stories of perseverance…
Steve Megargee
Rivals.com College Basketball
With the confidence of a coach and the passion of a preacher, Zach Lipson has spent much of his teenage years telling anyone he meets about his plans to join one of the nation’s elite college basketball programs.
It didn’t matter to him that he’d never played a minute of organized hoops. Or that he stood little chance of ever being more than 4 feet tall. He still gave the same speech to just about everyone he met, whether he was chatting at a dinner table full of strangers or sitting across from a skeptical guidance counselor.
He was born with a spinal deformity, so he already had overcome long odds. What was to stop this Nashville resident from proving people wrong once again?
Zachary Lipson's passion has him headed to Kentucky as part of the basketball program.
Lipson’s story proved inspirational enough to earn him a spot as a student-manager at Kentucky. He is expected to live at Wildcat Lodge – the same building that houses the players.
That represents a stunning turn of events for someone who has overcome more obstacles in his 19 years than most people face in their lives.
Lipson was born eight weeks premature and weighed less than 2 pounds. He required CPR in the delivery room. He has undergone more than 30 surgeries. And if that weren’t enough to make him curse fate, Lipson also has a twin brother who is healthy. Lipson doesn’t need to wonder what might have been: He has a walking reminder in his home.
Lipson has resisted the temptation of self-pity. He instead has faced every challenge with the same upbeat approach that has helped him serve as an inspiration to friends, family members and classmates. Kentucky’s latest recruit won’t develop into the next Tony Delk, but he just might become the next Tony Robbins.
“It’s an amazing story, pretty incredible,”Lipson acknowledged. “Whenever you have a goal in life, there are always going to be some obstacles that try to stop you. There will be people who try to tell you, ‘No, you can’t do it.’ But you can’t let it beat you down.”
Continue Reading…
Posted 6 days, 14 hours ago at 5:03 AM. 1 comment
Shared with us by Ross Comerford of Fast Model Technologies…
“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
Posted 1 week ago at 3:32 PM. Add a comment
From everyone I have spoken to this event was one of the best coaching resource tools they have ever been to. People continue to rave about the University of Florida Coaches Clinic that Coach Donovan and his staff put on every year (sadly, I have not attended either – that will change next year). These two coaching resources must be “Top 5″ for coaching growth and development.
If you attended either of these events (or others) and can provide information and feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.
Post a comment and I’ll share it with everyone.
Above is a link to 70+ pages of notes provided to a friend of mine by:
Adam Cohen - University of Southern California
I don’t personally know either of these guys, but they did a tremendous job detailing the information provided by Coaching U LIVE. On first impressions, these are two young, detail oriented guys who “get it.”
Thanks for sharing with all of us.
Notice the diagrams provided by FastDraw.
CLICK HERE for .pdf of FastDraw play
Easily the BEST play/drill diagramming tool available. Nothing else compares to it. Combined with FastScout it is no wonder 28 of the 30 NBA teams (nearly 900 college and close to 10,000 high school and youth coaches) use it for their scouting, drill and play diagramming needs.
Purchase it below.
FastDraw
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago at 10:43 AM. Add a comment
Link for the U of A Newsletter – August 2010.
To join the newsletter list please email seanmiller@arizona.edu, or visit our website each month for a copy.
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago at 1:08 PM. Add a comment
