Last One Holding The Chalk...Usually Wins!

(January 2008)

Assortment of plays, drills and ideas to help your program improve.

LOB PLAY Series

From Coach Jay Monahan at HoopChamps.com

Lob Play 1

Lob Play 2

Lob Play 3

Lob Play 4

Lob Play 5

Lob Play 6

Lob Play 7

Lob Play 8

Lob Play 9

Lob Play 10

Jack Easley
Associate Head Coach
Iowa State University
jeasley@iastate.edu

Coaching Philosophy-Jack has coached for 5 coaches and played for 4 coaches.
Applied for many jobs last spring and the issue of his childhood and philosophy came up.
Parents were not sports parents, his dad worked a gas station in Kansas City from 6 am to 10 pm. Work ethic instilled at an early age.

1. HS coaches taught him the fundamentals and teamwork. They got him interested in coaching.
He says not many players and coaches have told him how much they appreciated everything he had done for them.

His JC coach told him he was not one of the top10 guys on the team and it was his job to help everyone else get better. Later on he realized it was good that he got that message, humbled him. Another coach was a great man, a farmer, but not a great coach.

2. Experiences as a player. His experiences have been good for him and he uses a lot of it when coaching players today.

3. Coaches he's worked for.
On the job training as a first year head coach.
2nd coach made him grow up as a coach, letting him learn through trials. i.e. -he was left alone at camp to coach 70 kids how to pivot all by himself.
Coach at Oklahoma State taught him a lot, 350 games won, 3 Big 8 Titles.
Woman's coach at Providence was different. A zone coach, different way to play, do things. 9 months on the job. Great feeling he had leaving that job.
ISU experience-Bill Fennelly. Most passionate, most organized coach he's ever seen.
A master at figuring out ways to allow their team to win. Bill's daily question to team is how many teams have better athletes in the Big 12 than us? All of them. So we have to do the things to win. He figures out ways to win.

Other coaches at clinics - Kevin Eastman, Nike, ISU men's practice, HS games. He says he really pays attention to all kinds of learning opportunities.

Has coached for 31 years and 1,000 games.

Mistakes he made and what he would do different.

1. Would have spent a lot more time teaching players skills.
2. Would be much more organized.
3. Develop a system and style of play. He likes the system that wins the most games. You must have a base, but need to be flexible with it.
4. Learn to be yourself. Develop your own identity.
5. Spend more time with the X and O's of the game.
6. Establish the best work ethic for coaches and players. Players pick up on how hard the coaches work.
7. Be open minded, listen to others, be receptive to change.
8. Establish discipline. Your administration wants your kids disciplined.
9. Get everyone to believe what you are doing.
10. Stay away from/don't listen to parents.

Story-Met with Mr. Iba at Mr. Iba's house and Jack showed him the flex offense.
Mr. Iba-- "Do you understand this offense," and "do you know how to teach it?" and "do your players know this offense?" Yes. "So what's the problem?" Mr. Iba said.

COACHING PHILOSOPHY
Jack handed out a sample philosophy for all of the coaches.

POST WORK OUTS

Every day workouts-

1. Mikan drill-make 18 in 30 seconds, x2.
2. Duck Ins-a big part of their offense. Pivot with outside foot.
3. Catch-turn and shoot.
Key-he tells post players to "trust the passer" and make you move based on the pass.
4. Step thru-or up and under-teaches compact shot fake, and step through as close to the defender's body as possible.
5. Sikma or Wilkins drill-Step out and face the basket.
6. Release to short corner or elbow-used as a pressure release.
7. Bounce-bounce ,drop step-Created it for Nicky Wieben, two bounces and then a drop step.
8. Must be able to make free throws.

Bobby Sandquist
Head Basketball Coach
Johnston HS, Johnston, Iowa
bobby.sandquist@johnston.k12.ia.us

He thanked everyone for the opportunity to speak at this clinic.
He has experience as a coach in Class 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A and Drake University for Gary Garner for two years, including the best record in 20 years.
Has had 2 assistants win state titles in Iowa.
He introduced staff at Johnston High School and the girl's coach who was in attendance also.

Defensive Philosophy-Push the ball to the side, pressure the ball.

The great coaches:
" Know what they want to do
" Sell it
" Teach it
" Demand it!

Must have a sound philosophy and be true to it.
Research shows some amazing things-Hand out of detailed basketball statistics over a 500 game study.

His talk tonight is about "beyond the X and O's."

Dealing with player's parents
In the city it's face to face, in the suburbs you get emails from parents.
Parent meetings-
The parent test (from Don Meyer). IF parents ever disagree about playing time, ask them whose playing time should their son take? Then tell that parent they need to call that kids parents and ask them for more playing time.

Player Evaluations-"Team Perception Test", (hand out)
Players rank his teammates in each category. Asst. coach will fill it out also.
Results will tell you a lot about your team.
One time he had 10 different players that thought they were in the top 3.

Mid season progress report (hand out).

Dealing with Toughness.
Has to be more than saying "be tough."
Soft players will get you beat.
Physical toughness is easier to gauge than mental toughness.
Mental toughness depends on the player's focus, ability to let go of mistakes, and performing under stressful situations. Have to be in the present. Player's cannot time travel. They cannot focus on things that are out of their control, like officials and the crowd.
He suggested that your team adopt a "CUE" word to use when a teammate is mentally upset…to free them up so they can move on…. For example, "cancel."
How do you develop it? Talk about it, Jack and Jill analogy. Get up and keep going.
Drills to develop toughness.
Use pictures sometimes-stick man-head, heart, guts, and sometimes parts of their anatomy are diagrammed when he need to question their manhood.

Motivation-
One of the biggest challenges we face as coaches. Kids need to fall in love with the game to accomplish what they want to accomplish. Workouts for 40 minutes and chart it. 10,000 shots in a summer creates interest and effort.
In the summer-Row shots---keep track how many shots they can make in a row, ie-129 FT's straight this summer by one player.
Drills must be competitive.

Play the game with the game-win the TO game, OB game, outshoot them FT, FG, and threes. Make more FT than opponent attempts.
Physical motivators-towel on a board, wall sits, lane slides. 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5.
Kevin O'Neill-all players run a 32 sec. sprint and all players must make it.
Frozen push up-inch from the floor. Indians and Cowboys.

Only put 5 balls in the rack and on each turnover, one more ball taken out of the rack. When it get down to the last ball, he gets that one….sometimes kicks it in frustration (boy, that feels good).

Rebounding-
Morgan Wooten-ask players what their rebounding range is. 4 players all on same team. Coach shoots and players rebound. Then take 3 steps back. 3 more steps, then to half court. Now in the back court they can still get the rebound. Lesson for players-they always can get to the rim and have a chance to rebound.

It is easier to motivate kids with high self esteem and hard to motivate a player with low Self esteem.

Player must play good defense. Takes pride in defense average. Posts it under each basket on both ends.

SDQ chart-Single digit quarters. History of it, in 96 he started 4 sophs. Keep track of it and kids really bought into it. Also had single digit halves!

Defensive cards they keep in their pocket on game day, a commitment to playing defense.

The defensive stick.

Example of how much players think they are doing things correctly all the time--Give game tape to kids--$1 to each kid if all 5 are in a stance at same time, and they give you a quarter when they aren't. Gets them thinking about stance and defense. Coach can get rich on this!

Must rebound to be a good defensive team. Teach players it isn't just the first shot that kills you, but the 2nd and 3rd shots that get you.

What do kids say to their parents when they get home after practice? Think about it!

Build relationships with young people, teach them life lessons. Think about how you treat your players. Story about how a Sr. guard committed suicide and he didn't realize he was struggling and it really made him think about how he treated kids.

Gary Garner
Assistant Basketball Coach
Iowa Energy-NBDL,
Former Head Coach at Drake, SE Missouri, Ft. Hayes State.
(No email….still uses a Smith-Corona typewriter and rotary dial phone)

It is really good to be back in Iowa working with Nick Nurse and the Energy.
Quote that he tells players constantly, "It's not what happens but how you react to it."
This goes for an individual player and the team. After big win, tough loss, for example. Example-A player gets his 3rd foul or gets shot blocked.

What's the most important thing to bring to practice?…..concentration!
If they are dialed in, your practices will last half as long and players will look forward to coming to practice.

Norm Stewart said, "The biggest mistake I made because the practices were too long."
Whose responsibility is it to have a good practice? Gary used to tell his staff a bad practice is the coaching staff's fault. Preparation is concentration=Darryl Royal.

He wants to talk about three things tonight.

We all want to be excellent at every part of the game. But, you cannot emphasize everything.

Mr. Iba-to win a championship, you have to be the best team at one thing, better than anyone else.

Al McGuire-told Norm Stewart that you can't be a good offense coach and a good defensive coach. The way your mind operates, is the where you are going to spend time.
Example-If you have one hour before the next game, what will you spend the hour on?
Must be able to say, "This is what I think are the most important things in the game."

Bob Knight said that number one, you must be a good defensive transition team.
Moe Iba is the best defensive mind he knows. Moe said "Gary, did you think about getting two back?"

Diagrammed his "Get Back" drill for defensive transition on the board.
Guards start in corners in backcourt. One sprint to the other end and puts his head under the rim, the other sprints to half court.

"I've been known to take a guard out of the game for getting an offensive rebound."

Take your game tapes and see how many points you give up in transition….

I'm not talking about running, by God, I'm talking about RUNNING!
Guards have only 3 seconds to get back.
Gary's Top 3
1. Get back
2. Rebound
3. Don't foul

A study 20 years ago said that the team that fouled the least won the most.
It goes deeper.

Fouls come from:
a. Body position
b. Floor position
If you can get your players to do this, you will foul a lot less.

Do your players know that fouling is a mistake, just like a turnover is?

Story about Ohio Valley Conference championship game. With 12 seconds left, his team is up one and has fouls to give. His point guard had 4 fouls and did not foul. His guy goes coast to coast for Murray State hit a shot and won. He (the player) didn't want to foul!

We are going to get back and rebound and not foul every day!

Drill-5 vs. 3, on one end, shot goes up. 3, 4, 5 go to offensive boards and then RUN back outside the middle of the floor. That area must be free for the guard at half court to slow the dribbler and push him to a side.
Verbal-Point and Holler! Each player points and calls out his man.
On a pass up the sideline, two guards must talk it out as far as who takes the ball.
Very important to have 1 and 2 get back on all drill work, even if you are staying in the half court.

If he plays a team that scores 50-60% of their points in transition, he will DROP 3. On the shot, the 1, 2, and 3 man sprint back.

John Wooden-It's a game of easy baskets. If you give up 6 easy baskets or more you lose.

Shell drill, Gary calls 4-Spot. He runs 4-spot full court. Teaches the 3 man to get back if 1 or 2 drives to the basket.

It puts pressure on and many opportunities for 3, 4, and 5 to rebound. They take pride in rebounding. He tells his team: "We have 2 guys back; your other three guys go to the boards".
After sprinting back, they must get EVEN with the ball or below the line of the ball.

Mr. Iba at Gary's practice at Drake for 3 days. His son, Moe, was on Gary's staff as an assistant.
Gary says, "He was such a gentleman but he can get to the point pretty quick to."
After practice he told Gary who the Top 5 players were, and he was right.

Mr. Iba-"The best teams I've ever had, rebounded the ball with 2 hands!"

Mr. Iba told story about making players run to the top of Gallagher Arena, with 2 turnovers they ran twice………then……I did not learn until my last 4 or 5 years of coaching that the bench was the best punishment for players.
The best medicine in the world is the bench, and if that doesn't do it, do you want that player anyway?

My Offensive philosophy---don't turn the ball over and don't take a bad shot. I don't know what else can happen other than the shot clock running out.