Developing Our Roles As Coaches

Players that know their role thrive and contribute greatly towards the success of the team.  How about you, coach?  Do you know your role?  Do you know how to keep growing in your role?

Although we are not perfect or anywhere near perfect, I believe that our staff at Bob Jones University does a tremendous job of working together and performing our individual roles.  I recently had a discussion with another assistant on our staff and he asked me, "When you're around me, how much effort do I give?  A percentage."  I really appreciated his question as it showed his desire to learn and grow, but it also challenged me to assess my effort in my current role.  As we carried on our conversation we both determined that we could give more to the team and keep encouraging each other's growth to position our program in the best way possible.  You see, no matter how good we think we are doing or how well our program is portrayed, there is ALWAYS room to get better.  

We all know the various responsibilities you need to carry out as a college basketball coach such as scouting, film breakdown, & recruiting.  But I wanted to give you a few leadership skills that we often overlook that can help you perform your role at an elite level.  These are all aspects of my development as a coach that I am working on currently.

EFFORT

When you work a million hours a week (or so it seems sometimes) it's hard to imagine that you aren't giving your best effort.  As I had my conversation with Coach Miller, he challenged me with the fact that we can give so much more effort in many ways.  But how do we give more effort?  What does that look like?  The following traits will all contribute to giving our maximum effort on a daily basis.

ATTITUDE

Come to the office every day with a positive mindset.  Be determined to impact those around you by making them better.  Smile more, complain less.  Be interested in other's lives and ask questions about them.  If you can go in to every day with the ability to make someone else better you will be setting yourself up for success.  

ENTHUSIASM

Many people mistake enthusiasm for "Rah Rah" type of talk and shy away from being enthusiastic.  However, enthusiasm is defined by dictionary.com as:

1. absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit; lively interest:

2. an occupation, activity, or pursuit in which such interest is shown:

Being enthusiastic as a college basketball coach simply means giving your best when your best is required.  It means taking your passion to another level and using your gift to impact others.  You can show your effort by being more enthusiastic even when you don't feel like it.

FOCUS

Focusing on a task for long periods of time is always a struggle for many, including myself.  I don't know why, but it's definitely an attribute that people need to improve!  Your effort is directly impacted by the focus you put forth in anything you're doing.  As coaches, we owe it to our staff and our players to commit our focus to things that will make us better.  Make yourself a quiet place to concentrate for a little bit.  Find some music that will keep your mind focused on what you're doing.  Whatever you need to do to focus better, do it!

Although there are so many more character traits that we can develop to be more successful in our roles, I believe that these are all things that we can control and get better in.  They are basic, but they are powerful.  Let's continue to hold each other accountable and keep growing and learning together as coaches to impact the lives of those around us!

Eliminating Baskets in Defensive Transition

In the article, Factors to Successful Pack Line Defense, I briefly wrote about three characteristics that make our Pack Line defense successful for our program at Bob Jones University.  I would like to take each of those factors and go more in depth with them.

TRANSITION DEFENSE

Our transition defense always begins when we take a shot or turn the ball over on offense.  On the shot, it is our practice to aggressively send THREE offensive players to the glass, while our 1 & 2 guards GET BACK.  Obviously, if we get the offensive rebound we will continue to execute our offense.  However, if we do not secure the ball we will need to immediately get back in transition and stop the ball.  In a turnover scenario, everyone will just immediately get back.  In order to successfully accomplish this, we will need each one of our players to perform their role at a high level.  Note: each of these role descriptions should be performed with the three MUST-DO'S at the end of this article.

Roles Defined

It is the duty of the point guard to initially STOP THE BALL!  He is the first line of defense and his role is crucial in eliminating easy baskets in transition.  His job is to engage the ball handler by the time he reaches half court. He needs to slow down the ball handler, eliminating any passes up the sideline.  He will do this by attempting to turn the opposing player 2-3 times.  By doing this, our point guard is limiting the ball handlers options to either retreating or making an ill-advised cross court pass. 

Our 2 guard is SPRINTING immediately to the paint.  His primary responsibility is to eliminate anything that comes near the rim.  Whether it is by dribble penetration, a pass ahead, or a post feed, it is this players responsibility to take away any baskets in the paint.  He will perform this role until his teammates get back in position at which point he will closeout to the perimeter player.  

The other three players need to GET BACK as quickly as possible by SPRINTING.  A tendency of many inexperienced players is to be content in "buddy running," which basically means they run even with the player they are guarding.  To be successful in transition, this can't happen!  We need our post players to recover to the paint to relieve our 2 guard of his duties.  They will then need to fulfill the responsibility of protecting the rim.  The last guy back will need to sprint to the weak side of the floor and eliminate any ball reversal that takes place.

After successfully eliminating the primary break many teams will ease up.  Great teams understand that their job, however, is never done and the real fun now begins!  Players will now need to instinctively go from a "transition" mindset to a "half court" mindset.  This is the time that our defense can now make a statement.  

Championship Habits in Transition

Realistically, many teams perform their roles that are listed above, but still find ways to give up easy baskets in transition.  Why?  Because they do not perform the minor details that great teams demonstrate.  These following habits are MUST-DO'S for any team that wants to become great in defensive transition:

1. Proper Floor Balance - When each player performs their role correctly, proper floor balance comes naturally.  However, there are still times when one or two players will run to the wrong area, leaving an opposing player wide open.  Great teams make it second nature to be in the correct place to keep the defense balanced.
2. Exceptional Effort - Effort is 100% controllable by each member of your team.  If anyone lacks desire to sprint or communicate properly, one would have to question why that player is in the game.  Players will NEVER (yes, that's an absolute) be able to to perform their roles to the best of their ability without exceptional effort.  Transition defense is something to take pride in at all times.
3. Clear and Precise Communication - Verbal and non-verbal communication is crucial to successful transition defense.  Not only should each player be verbally talking through what their role is, but they should also be non-verbally giving their teammates cues about where to go and who to pick up. 

All three of those MUST-DO'S go hand in hand and will only be successful if they are habitually ingrained in your player's minds.  

Factors to Successful Pack Line Defense

There are many factors that go into playing great pack line defense, but there are three in particular that are of the utmost importance and need to be stressed.  

ELIMINATE EASY TRANSITION BASKETS

We feel very confident in our ability to defend.  We need to make certain that we force our opponents to play vs. our pack line defense in the half court.  Ways we can achieve this are:

1. Offensive rebound with 3 players and send 2 back to defend the initial break.
2. On turnovers, every player needs to SPRINT back and recover.
3. Communication.  We need to use both our VOICES and SIGNALS to let each other know what we are doing (use NITE).
4. Build a wall and always STOP THE BALL first.
5. Do not allow passes ahead and do not allow post touches in transition.

I heard a statistic one time (I can't remember where) that 95% of defensive transition mistakes are because of either 1. Poor Floor Balance, 2. Poor Effort, or 3. Poor Communication.

PROTECT THE PAINT

Paint touches are the #1 killer of any pack line defense.  As an offense, we thrive on attacking the paint, so we understand the importance of protecting the paint from a defensive perspective.  Ways we can consistently protect the paint are:

1. Never give up a baseline drive.  In pack line, there is NO help on the baseline.  We need to make every effort to eliminate the baseline from our opponent.
2. Pressure the ball handler.  We want to apply as much ball pressure as we can without getting beat.  This will be different for every player and team, but we need to communicate this in our scouting reports.  
3. Level off the ball handler on drives.  Never let your opponent attack the rim in a straight line.
4. Build a wall in the gaps.  The ball handler should never see the light if he is thinking about getting into the paint.
5. Closeout on shooters.  Know your personnel and closeout at the right distance.  Every offensive player is told to "attack the closeout," so we need to make sure we don't allow opponents to get past us.  We have three types of closeouts that we do depending on the skill set of the offensive player.  

CRASH THE GLASS

Lastly, we cannot give up 2nd chance opportunities.  When we play defense we need to make sure we secure every loose ball that comes off the rim.  Here are a couple ways to make this happen:

1. All FIVE guys need to properly box out and crash the glass.  Be aggressive and have the mindset of getting every ball.
2. Be in proper gap/help positions.  If we are always in position to defend, we will always be in position to box out and rebound.  

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Obviously, there is a lot more that goes into the pack line defense than these factors.  However, I firmly believe that if we can execute and perform the basics, we will be laying a solid foundation to build on.  As with anything coaching related, I am always learning and seeking out wisdom from other coaches in this area.  Many of these principles I have talked about stem from the knowledge of guys like Jim Boone, Tony Bennett, Richie McKay, and Sean Miller.  There are so many great pack line coaches out there, so I would encourage you to seek these guys out.  If you have any questions regarding our pack line defense that we run, please don't hesitate to contact me!  Good luck as you implement this tremendous defense into your program!