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Basketball Insight & Drills from Indiana’s Tom Crean

Notes taken from the 2012 Brayden Carr Foundation Coaching Clinic. Indiana University Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Crean spoke on numerous aspects of basketball and gave a few of his favorite finishing drills!

Introduction

• When talking and/or thinking about motivation, remember that long-term memory with this generation of players is only about 3 days. You must inspire them to become self-motivated!
• How do you get your message across / Keep your players’ attention spans? Recommended the book “100 Things a Presenter Needs to Know About People”
• He likes guys that have worked their way up through this business. No silver spoons, just hard work!
• One of this favorite quotes from Jim Calhoun, “Within the first 20 minutes of walking into your practice, I should know what you stand for”.

Expectations

• Of His Staff (Each day in practice)
  1. Intensity
  2. Enthusiasm
• Of His Players (Each day in practice)
  1. Come mentally prepared to work
  2. Come with energy
  3. Come ready to compete

The Will to Compete

• If you think working hard is going to do it, you’re wrong. You need to compete!
• It hurts more to lose than it feels good to win.

Being in an Offensive Stance

• Everyone talks about the defensive stance, but you never hear how one’s body alignment  should be offensively.
• Not sure you can do anything offensively with even feet. On the catch, you should always have staggered feet.
• On the drive: Play low, drop your shoulders and push the ball out in front.

Finishing Drills

Finishers

Players start with the ball (Staggered Feet) and throw a bounce pass to the coach who taps it back to them (Sometimes a good pass and sometimes bad). Players must step into the pass, drop their inside shoulder and push the ball out and finish through contract from a pad.

Under Finishers

Player starts with the ball and he passes it to the coach who passes it back. The player rips the ball baseline and drives underneath the rim (through the pad of the coach and underneath the rim) to finish on the other side of the rim as a coach whack down with an arm pad. The player puts back any misses (next guy in line waits for him to score).

 

Under Finishers with Weakside Defense

The player catching and driving now reads the Weakside Defense to see if X4 will help or not. If he does, then he throws a pass to 4 relocation to the corner. On 4’s catch, the pass will make a half-circle underneath the rim to get to the weakside for the rebound. If X4 stays home on 4, than 1 finishes the lay-up.

 

Contact Drives

Players catch the ball and make their dribble move as they approach the coach with the pad (eyes up, shoulders dropped). He watches for shoulders, eyes and where the feet are when they make contact with the pad (getting the lead foot to face the rim). Drive at the defender’s body and off their shoulder.

 

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• Yell when you get hit attacking the rim
• For some reason players think they only need to jump high on dunks; Make sure they are fighting for air space (Jumping as high as they can on their lay-ups).
• No saving yourself, practice with a high level of intensity.
• If does not matter if you are open, it only matters if the ball handler can see you.
• Pete Carrill: “The quality of the pass leads directly to the quality of the shot.”
• Practice as many game-like dribbles moves as possible. At Indiana he stresses the Hesitation, Inside-Out, and Crossover moves.
• If a player is struggling attacking with their weak hand, take a look at their shoulders. On left hand drives it is all about how low your right shoulder can get.

Florida Gators Pick & Roll Motion Offense

This play is a short three frame diagram that illustrates the Florida Gators pick & roll motion offense from Billy Donovan.

To see EVERY play Florida ran in the 2014 Final Four you can do so in my eBook Championship Execution!

Film Breakdown Part 3: Individual Player Meetings

In my 3rd and final segment of Film Breakdown, I am going to discuss my thoughts on the important aspect of watching film with your players individually. If you happened to miss Part 1 or Part 2, click over and check them out.

Meeting with your players on an individual basis is just as, if not more important than bringing in your entire team for critique. As a coach, you are mentor first, X & O’s come second; meeting with your players 1-on-1 allows for that special time of bonding and showing your players that you care. As a high school coach, it can be difficult at times to schedule frequent 1-on-1 meetings because practice is typically right after school and there is little time in between to meet. Furthermore, most players jet out of practice as soon as the huddle breaks. It is important to MAKE time to meet with your players; even if it is just for 5-10 minutes. If you can’t find 5-10 minutes, then utilize your down time in practice to strike up conversations (i.e.- Pre/Post Stretching, Water Breaks, Free-Throws, etc.)

Toughness Defined by Jay Bilas

If you have not yet read Toughness: Developing True Strength On and Off the Court by Jay Bilas, I highly recommend you do. It is one of the best books I have ever read. So good in fact that it gave me the idea to share all of my favorites quotes and moments from the book. Below you will find that each Chapter and Section is marked to give you a reference of the topic the “quote” came from. Anything not in quotations is a direct remark from Jay Bilas himself.

I hope you enjoy what I have shared. It is only about 1% of what the book brings to life, but hopefully it is enough to convince you to read it in entirely.

Toughness is Defined

Toughness isn’t physical. It has nothing to do with size, physical strength or athleticism. It’s an intangible, an attitude, a philosophy…I believe that true toughness is a skill that can be developed and improved in everyone.

Toughness is a descriptor of how much energy a material can absorb before breaking. Being tough is being Unbreakable!

Coaching Mental Toughness

“Toughness is doing what it takes to make a difference.” – Tom Izzo