Dead Legs

Pace. Conditioning. Execution. Rest

Those are the four factors that every System coach has to keep in balance throughout the season, and last week we frankly forgot about maintaining that balance.  As the game was unfolding, I kept asking myself, "Why is the opponent breaking us down so easily?  Why are we having such a hard time in transition creating good shots? Why do we seem a half-step behind?  I thought we were farther along than this!"

Then it dawned on me.  We overdid it.  We came back from Christmas break, had hard practices on Sunday and Monday, lighter on Tuesday. Hard road game on Wednesday.   Moderate practice on Thursday, too hard on Friday (concern about our defense), walk-through on Saturday morning.

Result?  Dead legs.  I should know better by now and should have been more proactive in advising Michelle about the dangers of a long week.  Live and learn. 

But we all fall victim to the "More is More!" temptation at times.  We know how importance System pace is, so we practice at sprint speed.  We know how important System conditioning is, so we go full-court every day.  We know how important System execution is, so we work out too long.  And we know how important System rest is, but we figure, "They're kids... they'll recover."

No, they won't.  They didn't.  We were tired physically and mentally. My bad.  So I thought back to Gary Smith's passage in our book, Coaching the System (pg. 298-99) about how they kept things in balance at Redlands during his 132 point season.  At the risk of plagarism, I will quote that passage in full (oh, wait... can a co-author plagarize from his own book? :-)

• Mondays--Hard practice.  Some scrimmage work, shooting, game plan in place.
• Tuesdays--Strength training for thirty minutes before classes in the morning (circuit training format) followed by 25-30 minutes of shooting drills.  That was all:  no afternoon practice that day.
• Wednesdays--Game day! No walk-through, but optional shoooting for those that wished to, prior to our team meal.  There was no pressure to be present, and many were not.  Then, game at 7:30.
• Thursdays--Practice varied on these days.  Sometimes we practiced fairly hard, other times we did only shooting and skeleton work, and watched some video.
• Fridays--Repeat Tuesday's format.
• Saturday--Game Day! Repeat Wednesday's format.
• Sunday-- No practice.

At this point in the year, if they don't get the System, they probably never will.  So if you've been overtraining, back off a little and see how much fresher they'll be.  And at the risk of being repetitive, I'll remind you (and myself) again of that old System truism...

Less is more.

Learning Curve

NCC 67- WHEATON 106
92 FGAs
53 Threes
37% ORBs
28 TOs
+11 Shots

So much for press variations.  When the opponent shreds your press and shoots layups all night, it doesn't really matter if you are using "On," "Off," or "Slow Trapping."  Seems we were "Slow Pressing" tonight and my guess is that either Wheaton is one of the better passing teams we've played this year, or we were fatigued following a long week without rest.  Probably both.

We did look a step slow all night and this gave our opponent time to move the ball quickly from spot to spot before we could set our traps.  They finished very well too (54% FG) to their credit, but we didn't help matters by shooting very poorly ourselves: 18-92, 19.6 % from the field, and 9-53 17% from the arc.)  Our performance was uncharacteristically tentative, and we seemed to have a mental block, forgetting much that we thought we'd mastered already about System execution.

But these things happen.  I hope it's a one-time occurance and that we will get rested and back on track Wednesday vs. Elite 8 opponent Carthage College on Wednesday.  In any case, it's a reminder that the System isn't an automatic guarantee of success... like any other style of play, without good effort and good execution it doesn't work very well. 

And, unfortunately, one reason that many coaches try the System and then give up on it is that when you lose, you can lose badly at times.  But that's part of the deal, part of the painful learning curve.  At one point late in the game Michelle turned to me on the bench and asked, "Did this ever happen to you at Olivet?"

"Sure," I answered, "but it still doesn't feel very good."

Press Variations

With half a season under our belts and conference play beginning, now is the time to start adding a few wrinkles to our pressing scheme.

I think it's a good idea to avoid getting complicated, especially early in the season, and especially with a first year System team.  But we are ready now to implement certain "adjustments" in response to the different ways opponent's can attack our press.

Saturday, for example, we will play a team that has their PG inbound the ball and then receive a quick return pass, before the weakside wing defender can rotate to cover the lag.  Our adjustment?  "Slow Trap," which means our on-ball defender simply delays one count before moving to the trap, which prevents the quick pass back to the inbounder, giving the wing time to rotate and cover that lag receiver.

Other good press adjustments include:

• Trapping tighter (vs. press breakers that like to pass) or looser (vs. dribble-attack press breakers).
• "Change" to change the look of our press from On to Off just as the referee hands the ball to the inbound passer, giving us an (unexpected) extra defender on the throw-in.
• Inside-Out.  Normally, we use full-deny "outside-in" coverage on receivers, but when we are being out-quicked by the opponent, we move to inside-out denial so as to force the inbounds pass to the corner and hopefully have a better chance at a containing the ball in a quick trap.
• "Stay Home" safety coverage.  Normally our safeties rotate to the arc if necessary to help cover good shooters and/or get involved in the trap.  But sometimes we like just keeping them at home near the basket to give us better inside coverage, taking our chances vs. teams that won't shoot the three.

This is not a complete list, but when combined with our basic On and Off presses, gives us more than enough looks to adjust our defensive game plan and hopefully disrupt the opponent's attack. 

And if it's not enough?  In that case, we just shoot 'em up and have some fun, and congrat the other team on a job well done!

Now I get it

I left right after practice tonight and headed back home to catch the second half of ONU vs. Purdue-Calumet, a battle for first place in the CCAC.

After managing to sneak in unnoticed, I parked myself in an upper corner of the bleachers opposite the bench, happy to see Olivet start the second half with a 59-50 lead.  ONU stretched it to 12, using an "Off" press against PCU's unusual press attack, in which they spread out in the back court and then flashed one or both of the deep receivers up to provide options for the inbounder.  I guess "Off" worked pretty well against it, because Olivet forced 37 turnovers, making me proud of the great job that my former assistant and now head coach Lauren Stamatis is doing!

Offensively, ONU had to attack a 1-3-1 zone all night, and did a nice job moving the ball and spotting up in the curl and fade spots for open threes.  They also penetrated effectively, something many system teams seem to forget about against zones, but which ONU used to good advantage.

I hear the final score was ONU 108- PCU 100, but I must confess that I couldn't take it.  I was a basket case watching my old team play, and had to leave with 8 minutes to play.  Call me a coward, but now I comprehend the truth of what my wife told me when I got home:

"Now you understand what I went through for 14 years!"

ORBs

NCC 90- ELMHURST 97
93 FGAs
39 Threes
32% ORBs
38 Turnovers
+26 Shots

Comments:  When you force 38 turnovers and create a +26 shot differential, you ought to win.  Unfortunately we came up short in our first conference game on the road.  We did a nice job in the second half, coming from 22 down to cut the lead to 4 points, but if you've learned how to interpret our "Formula Goals" above, you can easily see that ORBs were once again our Achilles heel.

I've said for years that offensive rebounding is the Rodney Dangerfield of basketball statistics... it gets no respect.  Most coaches in conventional basketball don't even keep this stat, and if they do they are only concerned with the raw total ("We got 12 O-Boards tonight!"), not being aware that ORB's must be calculated relative to total missed shots in order for the stat to be meaningful.

Anyway, last night we only had 6 ORBs at halftime for a stellar 19%.  No wonder we were down.  In the second half we captured 45% and that accounts for our improved second half performance (outscoring Elmhurst 49-44).  And by the way, we didn't do any rebounding drills in the second half.  Offensive rebounding is not about technique and drilling... it's about desire and awareness. 

Moral of the story:  Offense sells tickets... but offensive rebounding wins games.

Break 'em down, build 'em up

Something most people don't know about me is that when I was in college I was a member of the Men's Glee Club, an all male choral group.  I joined Men's Glee only after the basketball coach informed me (via a cut list) that he really didn't need any 6-3 centers on his team.

But our director, Mr. Halvorsen, was a great teacher who made learning easy and fun.  (He was so good that we referred to him as "Coach.")  Under him, we committed dozens of pieces of music to memory, and I never forgot the teaching method he used:  whole-part-whole.

First, Coach would have our accompanist play the entire piece through on the piano, as we followed along by reading our part in the musical score.  Then starting with the basses, he would have the pianist play the first line of their part only, after which the basses would sing their part.  Then the baritones would do the same, after which Coach would have the basses and baritones combine their parts and sing together.  He would repeat this process with the first and second tenors, and finally put all four parts together before moving on to the next line.

Part by part, we would put the entire number together, committing it to memory while he gave us constant feedback to smooth off the rough edges.  We would review and polish the piece the next day, and return to it as often as possible in the days leading up to a concert, making sure we were sharp.  And that is what coaching is... demonstrate the big picture, break it down, build it up, review and polish until it's perfect. 

I'm not as patient as Coach was.  I get irritated with poor execution... but not frustrated.  Irritation is just my natural mode of coaching, and reflects my personality and my perfectionistic nature.  I get irritated because I want players to execute flawlessly at game speed.  Flawlessly, at game speed.  That's the standard and until that happens, I'm not particularly warm and fuzzy, though I DO like praising even imperfect attempts as long as I'm seeing effort, concentration, and improvement.

But I don't get frustrated.  Frustration implies there's nothing the coach can do to get the team to execute, resulting in a feeling of helplessness.  No.  You are never helpless.  There is always always something you can do to get your team to execute flawlessly at game speed (or at least moving in that direction).  What can you do?  Break them down, build them up.  Whole-part-whole.

Players will execute precisely as well as you expect them to... precisely as well as you demand they do.  There's always a way to get better.

Back from the Break!

I always love coming back from Christmas break.

Players are refreshed and although our timing is typically sloppy the first few days, there's no substitute for fresh legs.  In addition, something seems to happen during the time off, like a gestation period.  Everything they learned in the fall semester percolates and we often have our best performances right after the break.

So, our first two practices have been good as we work on the fast break and our press.  We know that it will take some time to get back to the level of conditioning we had before Christmas, and working on the break is the way we did it on Sunday evening, using our "Fast Break Cycles" drill (2 1/2 cycles, with a different player shooting on each possession), and the "5/5 Blockout" drill (rebound and break off a coaches shot, 1 cycle, no press, then reset).

Yesterday we reviewed the press and I still really like our "Free Throw Press" drill for that purpose.  Our defensive team shoots a free throw,  and presses the opponent whether the shot is made or missed. Once the ball crosses halfcourt, the offensive team must align in a spread-delay set (2-1-2 alignment) and attempt to hold the ball (no shot allowed) while we work to take away lag and high post passes. 

We use the shot clock in this drill, putting up 15 seconds and starting it when the opponent first touches the ball.  We then have 15 seconds to force a turnover, and will work on our "Fast Break after a steal" situation if that occurs.  This drill is the most realistic way we know of teaching players to prevent an opponent from holding the ball on us, as failure to take away lags becomes very apparent.  We must constantly remind players during defensive transition that they must run to a person (trap, lag or high post) rather than sprinting back inside the arc first, which is their initial instinct. 

We've made a lot of progress in this area, and many others, but with the new semester and the beginning of conference play on Wednesday, we'll see how far we've come, and whether the "light bulb" is ready to come on.