Basketball Strategies

Parents, and players, I know in the coming weeks I will be getting a ton of questions about what my philosophy and my playing style is.  So, here are the answers!

First, philosophy.  I love this game.  One of the reasons I love it so much is because I feel that the course of a basketball game and season really mimic the course of life.  Basketball is a game of runs, you have good runs, and other teams have good runs.  What determines the difference from a good and bad team is how you handle the runs of the other team.  Life is very similar to that.  We have good times, we have bad times.  How do you handle yourself when things are going great, and how do you handle yourself when times are bad?  When you are up big, do you showboat?  Do you degrade and show up your opponent?  Are you humble through victory?  When you're down do you lash out at your teammates or your opponent or your coaches?  Or do you work harder to make sure you never lose like that again?  I believe that sport, and especially basketball, can really teach our young men how to become good men.

Second strategy.  I currently believe the game is over coached and the kids do not know how to play anymore.  For this reason, I will install the Read and React offense.  The point of the R&R is to teach the players to recognize and take advantage of scoring opportunities at any moment of the possession.  At first, we will probably struggle to score, but by the end of our time together, the boys will be really hard to stop if they learn to take advantage of the situations the defense gives them.

On defense, we will play mostly an active 2-3 zone and man to man.  I feel that many young players don't like man, so by the time they get to high school, where most teams play man, they are behind.  I really want to teach them the importance of defense and to take pride in their play on the defensive side of the ball.  I hope to be the best defensive team in our leagues and teams will be frustrated by the end of each game trying to score against us.  The best compliment I ever received wasn't actually a compliment.  It was a coach yelling at his team to take better shots because they were not getting good looks and were only getting one opportunity to score because of our rebounding.  This is what I strive for, to be a strong defensive and rebounding team, and to be opportunistic on offense.

If we do this, not only will we be a good team, but each player will become better!