I believe that Ben Franklin was correct when he coached his first basketball team and said that “a point saved is a point earned.” When it comes to the scoreboard, a point you save from being scored by your opponent is just as valuable as a point that you score. These ideas, strategies, tips and techniques are to save your players from giving away baskets they should make or to keep your opponent from picking up preventable points Most of these ideas can be executed at any level of basketball and all of them are helpful to championship teams.
I have not seen any statistics, but I would say that roughly 75% of all basketball games are decided by fewer than 10 points. I consider it to be a sound defeat when a team loses by double digits. Working from that premise leads me to believe that changing 4 plays during the course of a game (3 2twopoint possessions and 1 three point possession) could change the outcome of most games.
I believed as a coach that it was imperative for me to develop a system of play that wasted no possessions and that is was also essential for me to teach the game in a way that our players understood and believed in the 4 possession difference.
The difficult part was that no one knew going into the game or during the game which of those four possessions would be the swing possessions for that game. It was not hard for any of our coaches or players to conclude that we could not waste any possessions by deviating from our system of play or our game plan. In addition, we felt that the more we could do to plan ahead and prepare for what occurred in the game as “little things” and then ended up being one of those 4 swing possessions, the better off we would be.
Following is a list of a few of those types of plays and how we felt they should be handled.
#1 Always save the ball toward your team’s basket. And if you can’t just land out of bounds with it so you can set your defense. At best one of your players could beat the other team to the ball and score an easy basket, but at worst, you will have an opportunity to set your defense if the other team retrieves the ball or it goes out of bounds under your basket. Both scenarios are much better than giving your opponent a running start in a scrambled situation and trying to defend that. The save it to your basket also applies at the 10 second line. If one of your players is trying to save a ball from going over and back and cannot throw it in the paint at your baskets end, all you are doing is fueling the opponents’ fast break by saving it 10 feet from the half court line. #2 The cardinal rule for this situation is NEVER EVER EVER save the ball under the opponent’s basket.
The best way to gain extra possessions regardless of the tempo you play at is to #3 take the last shot of every quarter. At best you could end up with 4 extra possessions if you play by quarters and two extra possessions if you play by halves. Obviously, the score is going to determine your strategy at the end of the game, but that is the subject for another article. We all see games where the coach is up at the end of the quarter or half holding up one finger. To me, that should never be necessary. You should have drilled and drilled in practice on when you will begin holding for the last shot (30 seconds, 25, whatever makes the most sense for your team each year) and what that last shot play will be. The only exception would be free throws if you are fouled, or a wide-open uncontested layup or power shot. That could be something that changes each game, a different play at the end of each quarter, or I have seen very successful programs that ran the same play at the end of every quarter (with several options of course). You also need to decide what you will do if the other team decides to go for the last shot before you get the ball. Will you play it straight, trap to speed them into a quick shot or to force a turnover, or wait patiently and concede the last shot? The final decision you must make is when to start your play (12 seconds to go, 10 to go, etc…) and when you want the shot to come. I liked 5 seconds in the first three quarters because that gives you time for an offensive rebound, but if the defense rebounds, they are not going to call timeout to get a shot and if they do get a shot it will be a full court heave. For the final shot of a game, I liked to shoot at 3 seconds-enough time for a putback, and if the defense rebounds, not enough time to get a good shot, even with a timeout.
When you do take the last shot of the quarter, work with your players over and over in practice #4 to not look at the clock and to #5 not try to beat the clock with the shot. I know, I know, at first that sounds crazy, but what good is looking at the clock other than to slow them down and distract their focus, and have you ever seen someone make even a put back with those alligator arm shots to try and beat the clock? My next question is have you ever seen an official count a shot that did not go in? So, if none of those rushed shots ever goes in, it never makes a difference in the game. I have, however, seen shots that went in, but were actually after the horn counted in the frenzy at the end of the period. I would rather have the player score and have it waved off as late than to throw up some lame alligator shot that never goes in. It is also human nature to think that you have less time in pressure situations than you actually do. So by getting your players to slow down and score, they are actually going at the speed that they really need to anyway.
Check next week’s article for five more ideas.