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I shared the notes from the Coaching U LIVE clinic here last week and hope to share the notes from this one as they become available. Sadly, I did not attend. I truly hope to one day. Invite only clinics and clinics that have the focus this one does are the best. Back in the late 80′s and early 90′s a group of us used to hand out assignments: BOB’s, P & R Defense, Specialty Plays, Late Game, etc…, convene at the Final Four, meet in an empty room and go. It was truly awesome. Each person was responsible for bringing in enough copies of written material for the group. Each coach had about an hour, with time for Q & A after. Sadly, that disintegrated.
The “recruiting” aspect of the Final Four… college guys hanging with AAU guys to solidify the relationship for X player took over and the time for X’s & O’s was prioritized out of the equation. Everyone said, “We have to do that again.” It never happens.
Kudos to Coach Shyatt and the Florida staff for keeping it alive and growing the game in a way outside of recruiting. As they said, the reason why many of us got into it in the first place.
This was a good article on what the clinic is truly all about.
First thing Monday morning, and Larry Shyatt is standing on the men’s court inside the Florida basketball practice facility, welcoming those who have assembled on this SEC campus to talk hoops in what feels like a genuine and pure environment. There is nothing glamorous here. A white board on the court, folding chairs lining a baseline and sideline, and little more. The room is filled with everybody from future Hall of Famers to junior college coaches, and Shyatt, Billy Donovan’s associate head coach at Florida, has just one instruction before turning things over to Butler’s Brad Stevens.
Matt Painter shares information about the motion offense he has perfected over at Purdue. (Courtesy: Gary Parrish)
“No holding back,” Shyatt said. “If you’re not willing to share, this is not for you.”
What happened next was nice to witness.
The subsequent 14 hours featured one speaker after another — Stevens, NBA icon Del Harris, Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon, Boston Celtics assistant Kevin Eastman, etc., — talking about a variety of subjects, exchanging ideas, discussing, debating and thoroughly enjoying a two-day clinic Shyatt created years ago that continues today thanks to the support of Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and the willingness of those invited to make time to attend. They talked about transition defense and motion offense, about mental toughness and proper shooting techniques. They talked about how to deal with certain situations in the media, how to handle players who won’t work, what to do with student-athletes’ sometimes embarrassing addiction to Facebook and Twitter, and then they went to bed, awoke early Tuesday, and did it all again.
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As we all begin a new academic year I wanted to share with you some “wisdom” I have gathered along the way. Many sources, many people.
These thoughts can apply to any walk of life, any career, any program or organization.
Hope it is helpful as the journey begins for 2010 – 11.
* PRINTABLE copy is available at the bottom.
what is possible, what is desirable, what is sustainable. It’s time to RE-WRITE the rules.A printable copy is here.
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.
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