"Coaching is preparation"....Pete Carril

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"....John Wooden

"Basketball is a thinking game but, as a coach, one of your major responsibilities is to take as many situations as possible out of thought processes and turn them into quick reactions requiring no thought at all"….Dick Divinzio

"Tell them what you want done, not what you don't want done. We spend too much time telling them what they did wrong. We should spend more time telling them how we want it done."....George Raveling

Surround yourself with the best assistant coaches possible. Don't be afraid that one of them will take your job. And when you surround yourself with good assistants, know when to get out of the way. When you surround yourself with good people, don't set a bunch of restrictions.

"I don't like sloppiness on or off the court. Players not only were well-groomed and dressed neatly on road trips, but also put towels in the towel basket and not on the floor, picked up soap and turned off their showers and put gum and candy wrappers in the wastebasket"….John Wooden

"When you are speaking to your team after a game, never talk about the kid who was the star of the game. Talk about what your other players did to help the team win. Be sure to spread the wealth....then have individual meetings with one to three players to praise and reinforce. Make sure you touch them."....Mike Krzyzewski

"At Boston University, I motivated negatively, and I found that although it can work at first, by the end of the year everyone is dying for the year to end and you have lost them. The last two years at BU, I motivated positively and got much better results." ----Rick Pitino

"Every day you teach attitude."....Don Meyer

"Leadership by all leads to leadership for none, and that spells chaos and confusion. You must be secure in your sense of unchallenged authority in order to be a real instrument in your team’s success"….Jim Bonder

When selecting a captain, choose the player who can lead and who can get things done for you. Don’t leave the position of captain to a popularity contest that you best leader may not win.

I think just about all teams are over coached. They have a lot of defenses, but not one which they do particularly well. They have several offenses but too often fail to take advantage of openings and mismatches. They have handfuls of out of bounds plays, but seldom screen well or make sharp, well-time cuts.

"We clearly define "roles" that help players play to their strengths and away from their weaknesses. I specifically tell each individual what we need from him, where his shots should be taken from, and where he stands at that particularly point in the year." Before the first game, I call a team meeting and define each player’s role as it stands at the moment. Each player must know exactly where he stands with the team. I have found that players would rather know where they are than to guess and be disappointed after the first game."…John Calipari

Coaches must constantly strive to improve their knowledge of their particular sport. Old dogs can still learn new tricks.

"It has been our experience that an inordinate number of ahletes are motivated by one stroke in particular--an excessive need for approval....this is the single most destructive need an athlete or anybody else can have.....an inordinate number of athletes are not only motivated to participate in sports but also compelled to succeed in sports because of their insatiable need for approval from both significant and not-so-significant others."… Michael Scott & Louis Pelliccioni

"A physical mistake is more apt to result in a loss of confidence than a mental mistake. Of course some coaches are quick to yank a player out of the game after she makes an error. Generally speaking, I don't think this is a good idea because it re-creates the negative spiral I've talked about earlier. The only time I'd ever take a player out for making a mistake would be for a mental lapse, if I thought she wasn't concentrating, for instance....All sports are built on mistakes and failures and being able to overcome them. If you take someone out for a physical error, then you're negatively applying the dynamics of performance."…Tony Dicicco

"Remember the difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, "Go!" - A leader says, "Let's go!"....E.M.Kelly

"As head coach, insist that every assistant plunge into his work with the same zeal and enthusiasm you do. As their leader, give them their just due. Tell the student body, press, and players that team success is not due to your contributions but to the outstanding ability of your assistants. Praise them to the skies"….Jim Bonder

"I believed strongly in scheduled one-on-one meetings with our players. It was a good way to keep communications open as well as to learn what was goiong on with them. They also learned in greater detail what I was thinking about their overall college and basketball performance."….Dean Smith

The younger the team, the more positive you must be with them and the more teaching that must occur. Avoid excessive "chewing them out" for they need you to boost their confidence rather than to tear it down. To a bad passer, for example, instead of saying to him, "you are the worst passer I have ever seen," say "you are too good of a passer to make a sloppy pass like that. Be sure you concentrate." Study how you correct your players’ mistakes and see if you can correct them in a positive manner.

"It’s not what you tell them—it’s what they hear."….Red Auerbach

"The only lasting form of discipline is self-imposed discipline."….Dale Brown

"I am regularly appalled at how often coaches of teams playing poorly spend the majority of their time trying to help the referees do their job. The misplaced focus of these coaches is truly laughable. They have a whole team full of players desperately in need of instruction, and the coaches are yelling about a tough foul or urging the refs to call a 3-second violation"….Dick Divenzio

Teams that are winning can be driven. Teams that are losing are more vulnerable to criticism. Shouting at them may be harmful. They need more positive coaching. You get more out of one-on-one talk than you do in a group.

When you are talking to a team critically, players tend to think you are talking "to the other guy". You must be specific.

A coach's job is to put players in position that they can succeed. (Ed. Note: When a coach brings a non-ball handling big player outside to handle the ball and he turns it over, it is the coach's fault for putting the big in position where he could not succeed.)

Keep mediocre talent on a tight rein. Unleash superior talent, and let it run.

Identify areas where kids are talented, where they can be successful and then find a way to use them…Most coaches get obsessed where kids come up short. They spend so much time trying to take care of their deficiencies that they lose sight of their players' talents.

There's far more over-coaching than under-coaching.

Look for opportunities to make players, assistant coaches, and everyone associated with your program to feel important. Be as friendly to the janitor as you are to the principal or president.

Telling a guy that he stinks doesn't make him a better player if you don't tell him why he stinks and what he needs to do to become a better player.

Lou Carnesecca motivated his players by telling them how good they could be; by building them up, instead of tearing them down.

CORRECTING A PLAYER: How do you criticize a player who hustles to get a ball going out of bounds and loses it--when it would have been your ball had he left it alone. You could shout at him, "Bill, it would have been our ball!" OR you could say, "Way to hustle, Bill. It would have been our ball, but don't worry about it, keep up the hustle!

"You have to have control of the three major aspects of offense: shooting, passing, and dribbling. On defense, you have to make sure that your team is truly working to make it difficult for the other team to score. And you have to have players that have the right approach to playing and practicing the game."…Dick Divenzio

Your consistency is crucial. If you notice a bad shot one time but then let bad shots fly unnoticed the next two times, your players will quickly recognize your inconsistency. But if you are able to correct what you consider most important—consistently—your players will quickly learn to do those things you consider most important, consistently.

CONDITIONING

"The first thing a Gonzaga freshman basketball player does when he gets on campus is track-and-field. Freshmen are paired with seniors, and they compete against teammates in a two-man decathlon. It includes a mile run in a required six minutes (with a penalty of morning conditioning for the laggards); a 40-yard dash, a mile relay, each member running two legs alternately; three weight-room exercises, including bench press, military press, and pulldown; a jump reach; a side-to-side box jump; free throws; and a two-on-two game of hoops"….Mark Few

"All drills--except free throws--had running as a by-product, whether it was shooting, playing defense, or rebounding. This was my method of conditioning players, rather than having them run laps or up and down steps tediously"….John Wooden

REBOUNDING

ALWAYS BLOCK OUT? NO. The majority of players will do a better job rebounding when they use blockout techniques. However, many of the quicker and better jumpers will not rebound as well when they concentrate on blocking out. They tend to fail to jump for the ball. For these select players, it is better to move in front of their offensive opponent, then "go get the ball." This was John Wooden's philosophy on his way to 10 NCAA championships.

When you are working on rebounding, emphasize the offensive rebounder should convert the shot. An opponent is most vulnerable when you get an offensive rebound….it is devastating to the defense if you score the basket.

Make sure your three big men hit the glass (when a shot goes up) and "go to a crouch" every time. If your big men don’t get to a crouch, they aren’t really in position to get a rebound.

"All great teams have two things in common: defense and rebounding."....Larry Brown

PRACTICE

It's hard to tell your players they have made a mistake if that is what they do in practice every day. Coaches should realize that you work in practice on what you will do in the games. Every drill must duplicate a situation the player will see in a game.

MAKE YOUR PRACTICES COMPETITIVE: Evaluate your practice plans and determine how you can make most of your drill work competitive. Players have a tendency to work harder and to enjoy practice more when they are competing. As often as possible, make practices competitive. Games are played to be won and lost, so the more competition you can have in practice, the more used to competition your players will be.

"It's hard to tell your players they have made a mistake if that is what they do in practice every day. So, I learned, over the years, that you work in practice on what you will do in the games. Every drill must duplicate a situation the player will see in a game"…Dan Peterson

"I believe you win games by what you do from your first practice until your first game"....Jack Ramsey

"I would rather have a player who has mastered 2 or 3 moves than to try to teach him 6 or 7"....Norm Sloan

FUNDAMENTALS

It is unbelievable the importance of making lay-ups is in college and pro basketball. High school players seldom really realize their importance.

"Poor body balance is related to over 65% of a team's turnovers."....Jerry Wainwright

"To improve shooting mechanics, we'd have our players stand fifteen feet from the wall and shoot the ball at it. We wanted them to work on spinning the ball correctly, getting the proper arch on it, releasing it properly, and keeping their eyes on the target."….Dean Smith

It's not throwing and receiving....its passing and catching. Coach must emphasize that both passing techniques and receiving techniques are very important.

Try practicing once or twice a week with a small rim. They can be purchased and easily placed in the regular rim.

Unnecessary dribbles are devastating to a team, but many coaches don’t realize this, and hardly any players realize it. But to have a good team, you absolutely have to control your team’s dribbling.

During your scrimmages, punish bad-pass turnovers uniquely. Traveling Violations, three second violations, charges—these have none of the devastating effects of a pass to the other team. Your team must learn to pass the ball to each other.

"Never begin practice shooting 3s. Start shooting close to the basket and gradually move out."…Michael Jordan

"Bad shooters are always open."...Pete Carril

FREE THROW TIPS

Two good ways to get to the line: (1) Throw the ball inside; and (2) Drive the ball inside.

How do you intentionally miss a free-throw? You may be faced with that situation and your players should know how.

"One of the best ways to motivate players to improve their free throw shooting is to give each player on your team a free throw shooting partner. Match a strong shooter with a weak one so that can needle each other into getting better. Then, toward the end of practice, when the team is tired and wants to hit the showers, have these gfree throw shooting teams spread out evenly at the baskets and challenge each other. The players rotate so that each one takes two shots. The first pair that makes 30 free throws gets to leave. The losers then face each other and shoot 20. Soon only two teams are left."….Tom Amberry

Know (1) who your best FT shooter is in normal play and (2) know who your best FT shooter is in the clutch. (This often is two individuals)

You need a one word signal to let your players know when you want an intentional foul. You might say "emergency", "red", or something similar. The worst thing you can do is to holler at your players to intentionally foul. The ref hears you and will more readily call the foul an intentional.

SUBSTITUTION

JOHN WOODEN: In describing a decision to bench Walt Hazard, "I gave him three choices: Play the game my way, sit and not play, or go someplace else" (Note: Hazard played it Wooden's way and emerged an All-American).... AND MORE WOODEN: "I found the bench to be the greatest ally I had to make individuals comply with what was best for the team."... USA TODAY

"The number one thing on offense is shot selection."…Ben Howland

TEAM OFFENSE

The more the ball goes inside, the better your offense.

Coaches hate to give up the 3-point shot. Because of this they tend to constantly stress to their players to defensively attempt to stop the 3-point shooter. Therefore, the use of a good 3-point shooter as a decoy can achieve strategic offensive results. In both man and zone offensive patterns, encourage the good 3-point shooter to remain outside the 3-point line even though he may have little, if any, intention of shooting the ball. The defense will tend to stay out toward him and free up the middle for inside play. This decoy ploy has the effect of "stretching out the defense.

"In the earlier days of my coaching career, I found it difficult at times to have the right player shooting the ball at the right time, especially at pivotal points in the game. As I thought about it, I decided that I needed to have better control of who shoots the ball and, more important, when he shoots the ball."….Bill Kuchar

Putting a good passing guard in the middle of a zone defense can cause defensive problems. This is particularly true if the guard can score in traffic.

"To encourage the taking of good shots, we sometimes scrimmaged without keeping score on the board. I secretly gave the score to a manager, and all the scoring was based on shot selection. A great shot (layup), even if it didn't go in, was worth three points; a good shot, even if it didn't fall, was two points; for a shot that was merely acceptable because of the shot clock winding down, one point. If a player made a tough three-point shot that shouldn't have been taken, zero points. Loss of ball without getting a shot was minus two points. We defined a good shot as one the shooter could make most of the time that was taken with our rebounders in position, unless it was an open layup."…Dean Smith

If your star comes out of the game in foul trouble, adjust the game tempo to shorter the time you play without him/her.

"The number one thing on offense is shot selection."…Ben Howland

"In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience."...W.B. Prescott

Don't teach long 2s. Make sure players know where the 3 point line is.

Team offensive tips: (1) Control who shoots; (2) Teach the Drive to all players; and (3) Emphasize offensive rebounding (If you don't emphasize it, you won't get it).

Have verbal signal to indicate to team that you want the ball to go inside.

Three-point decisions a coach must teach his players: (1) When to shoot the three; (2) Who will shoot the three; and (3) Will the shot be taken on the fast break.

Duke thrives on getting to the foul line on offense, often attacking the basket with dribble penetration. The Blue Devils place equal stress on keeping opponents off the line. Krzyzewski considers the latter a "critical" aspect of playing intelligent basketball. His teams practice situations in which they have six fouls and must strive to play tough defense without incurring a seventh that would put the opposition on the line with a one-and-one opportunity. Six Krzyzewski squads were so good at achieving this balance they made more free throws on the season than opponents even attempted.

"To have a successful basketball program, it is essential to view your off-season as your "other season." ...Successful coaches and players must have the mentality that there is never a time when they are completely away from the game of basketball."…Bill Kuchar

"Two keys to being effective with the ball are the shot fake and the pass fake."... Bob Knight

"It's better to have a good player with the basketball in late game situations than to have plays"....Rick Pitino

Drive the ball at the person who is fronting the post. It forces that player to pick up the dribbler and the driver can make a short bounce pass to the player being fronted.

"Unnecessary dribbles are devastating to a team, but many coaches don’t realize this, and hardly any players realize it. But to have a good team, you absolutely have to control your team’s dribbling"…Dick Divenzio

When you are considerably behind and are fighting back, emphasize the inside game or the driving game. Either get the ball inside to your best

inside players (even though that may be a guard or small forward who you send into the post) or have your best drivers drive to the basket. Inside scoring moves and driving attempts result in a lot of fouls and such fouls STOP THE CLOCK which helps as you come from behind.

"We spent much practice time working on end-of-game situations...In most instances I didn't want to take a time-out in these late-game situations. After all, we had worked on these things in practice and knew what to do. Calling time-out allowed the opposing coach to set his defense and make some defensive substitutions."…Dean Smith

FAST BREAK

Always know how many players your opponent normally sends to the offensive board. If they send four players in most situations, expect to get some 2 on 1 fastbreak opportunities. If they keep two players back, most of your fastbreak opportunites will be 3 on 2 or 4 on 3. You must also know how many they send to the defensive board so you can plan your fast break defense accordingly.

TEAM DEFENSE

When behind and pressing late in the game, consider double teaming your opponents point guard BEFORE the ball comes inbounds. Preventing the point guard from handling the ball may increase your chances of getting the ball.

Good defensive teams are taught to be aggressive but to avoid fouling. Players must be aware of how careless fouls hurt their team.

Fouling the shooter often occurs when a player is attempting to block the shot. It is rare for a team to have a player who can successfully block a hot on a consistent basis. Players should be taught NOT to attempt to block the shot, but to get their hands straight up and maintain defensive position. It is amazing how many 6 foot players try to block a 6-5 shooter and get a foul called.

In defending a high scorer, prevent the number of catches he receives. Tell your defender, when he catches it the third time you are taking the defender out of the game. It will be amazing how hard the defender works to keep the high scorer from catching the ball. While this may not be a good idea on a regular basis, it can be excellent in defending a particularly high scorer.

"You don’t switch to rest….you switch to attack."….Mike Anderson

"If the opponent had the ball in a tie game with the shot clock off, we weren't about to back off defensively and let it hold the ball without a problem. Instead we pressured it, tried to trap out of our double teams, tried to make it uncomfortable and force a turnover...However, at ten seconds remaining, we would back off with our defense, pay special attention to the opponent's best shooters, and hope for overtime."….Dean Smith

"When you press, the last ten minutes of the game is when conditioning becomes a big factor."….Mike Anderson

You are playing a man-for-man defense, but have several players in foul trouble. The opponent's best shooter is removed from the game because of foul trouble. Switching to a zone while that player is out of the game may be your best strategic move. Always know how good your opponents second team point guard is. If he is a mediocre ball-handler as many backup points are, switch to a full court press when he enters the game and the starting point guard goes out.

When a team runs a 1-4 flat along the baseline at the end of a quarter, half, or game, I like switching into a 1-2-2 zone.

If you switch on your man for man defense, let your players know that they are not switching to rest, they are switching to attack!

Use "shell" defensive drill as one method to teach foul management. Teaching the "shell", set up situations with players, such as how many fouls they have, who do they deliberately want to foul, etc.

Teach players how to play "safe" when they are in foul trouble. This does not mean not playing defense. It means playing extra smart. Set up the situation every day in practice.

"To play good pressure defense, you have to use the switch."...Ralph Miller

If your opponent has an outstanding scorer far better than his teammates, a four man zone and one man man-for-man may be your best defense. If the opposing high scorer is a guard, then play a diamond shaped 4 man zone (you will need more zone strength on the backline); if the opposing high scorer is a front line player, then play a box type 4 man zone (you will need more strength at the guard