Coaching advice

[ClifSpliffy]

Aleutian Islands?

pilipinas.
and don't think that i forgot ur pithy 'that is the question' comment.
high quality stuff right thar, i just don't recall which thread it was in to give it a major league 'like.'
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,

sounds like a fancy middle school coach's halftime speech to me.
or mebbe from the coach at choate or andover. gunnery school?

 

[husky429]

My team is all over the "IR" today, with three of my four best players either injured or sick.

That leaves one player who is easily our best athlete and leading scorer, but a complete black hole ball hog, especially when not sharing the floor with two of the three mentioned above.

I'm already accepting the fact we'll lose, but I want some semblance of an offensive system despite the fact that my team will be lacking in skill.

What do you think of a really simple 4-out offense that keeps the ball hog at point guard and focuses on give-and-gos and overloading sides of the floor?

Give and go situation. "MOVE 2"

View attachment 83694

A "3_" play where the 3 moves and the baseline guy moves opposite side?

View attachment 83695

This is a middle school team, right? They aren't going to be able to pick up plays like this in a day unless they're super advanced. I really couldn't install plays or sets last-minute except with kids until they were 16+... I think it's a cognitive barrier at the younger ages. This was true even with AAU kids who were almost all college-bound.

If I'm you, I'm telling the kids 3 passes before a shot, accepting the L and using it as an opportunity to teach Mr. Ballhog a lesson. You don't want to pass the ball? Sit on the bench.

If my memory of MS basketball is right, about 90% of teams play a 2-3 zone (and stifle their players' development completely). I'd just throw them in a 1-3-1 and have them make plays.

Instead of that, another option I would run gets the short corner and FT line players moving. We start in a 1-3-1 to have an odd front vs The FT line and Short Corner players alternate. when the ball is at the top of the key, we play from the FT line and short corner. When the ball goes to the wing, the short corner flashes to the corner (3 point land), and the FT line player can use the space anywhere in the short corner to the FT line to make plays.

When the ball goes back to the top, we're back into a 1-3-1. Reversal? Same thing... corner and drop to shor tcorner.

Not sure if that's making sense... I can draw it up and send it during my break in an hour if you want to try it.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

My team is all over the "IR" today, with three of my four best players either injured or sick.

That leaves one player who is easily our best athlete and leading scorer, but a complete black hole ball hog, especially when not sharing the floor with two of the three mentioned above.

I'm already accepting the fact we'll lose, but I want some semblance of an offensive system despite the fact that my team will be lacking in skill.

What do you think of a really simple 4-out offense that keeps the ball hog at point guard and focuses on give-and-gos and overloading sides of the floor?

Give and go situation. "MOVE 2"

View attachment 83694

A "3_" play where the 3 moves and the baseline guy moves opposite side?

View attachment 83695

'That leaves one player who is easily our best athlete and leading scorer, but a complete black hole ball hog,'
see?
'that guy?
he's a gunner and will crawl over glass to make sure the ball goes to him.'
middle school coaching 101. lol.

u post a lot of nice stuff. im nominating u for a nobel, or a razzie. either way, u'll win in a landslide.

 

[husky429]

@Hey Adrien!

This is what I'm referring to. Super basic. You can put all kinds of screens in their too. I always used this as my base zone offense since I love shooting it. Allows you to have a kind of 4 out vs a zone

 

[Hey Adrien!]

This is a middle school team, right? They aren't going to be able to pick up plays like this in a day unless they're super advanced. I really couldn't install plays or sets last-minute except with kids until they were 16+... I think it's a cognitive barrier at the younger ages. This was true even with AAU kids who were almost all college-bound.

If I'm you, I'm telling the kids 3 passes before a shot, accepting the L and using it as an opportunity to teach Mr. Ballhog a lesson. You don't want to pass the ball? Sit on the bench.

If my memory of MS basketball is right, about 90% of teams play a 2-3 zone (and stifle their players' development completely). I'd just throw them in a 1-3-1 and have them make plays.

Instead of that, another option I would run gets the short corner and FT line players moving. We start in a 1-3-1 to have an odd front vs The FT line and Short Corner players alternate. when the ball is at the top of the key, we play from the FT line and short corner. When the ball goes to the wing, the short corner flashes to the corner (3 point land), and the FT line player can use the space anywhere in the short corner to the FT line to make plays.

When the ball goes back to the top, we're back into a 1-3-1. Reversal? Same thing... corner and drop to shor tcorner.

Not sure if that's making sense... I can draw it up and send it during my break in an hour if you want to try it.

Thanks.

Opposing defenses have been amazing this year...NO zone D in four games so far!!

That said, a 1-3-1 lineup with weaker players (literally three players on my roster today have scored this season) makes a ton of sense.

I think a simple rule like if you make a pass on the perimeter, you MUST cut in between the low and high post would work.

To be honest, games where rosters are decimated are sometimes my favorite. There's a dog mentality and a bit of a "let's see what happens" situation.

Conversely, last game the other team didn't have enough 7th/8th grade players, so they brought 6th graders. Seeing that lack of size (I have size) left the team so complacent. I think we started like 11-0 and we ended up winning like 48-42 (granted I got to play my better players a lot less)...people stopped playing D and rebound and it irked me so much.

Random aside, I coached against Tyson Vann (younger brother of Isaac Vann) a few weeks ago and he was super nice and a great young coach. He's coaching at a small Catholic middle school with a great basketball tradition and a roster with a ton of CYO kids.

Met him at the end of the game, chatted a bit and he even let me in on a play that his team kept dominating us on (the Steph Curry elevator play). Most importantly, the kids seemed to have loved him as a coach and I wish him best of luck in his future!

 

[CONN78SEJ]

@Jre2000 good luck this season! I'm back with my 7th/8th grade boys and we should have a pretty decent team this year!

As @husky429 mentioned, keep the offense simple. I coach at my small school (~20 kids per game) where kids have to play a sport, so most of the kids I coach don't play basketball outside of school, but most of the kids know soccer pretty well.

I play a man D with a lot of focus on what to do in denial and help situations to help clog up the middle, generate turnovers and encourage teams to shoot from deep. Here's a drill I use for that:

A defense that generates turnovers is huge as half-court offense can get pretty ugly. I also will try to promote trapping in the corners and near the baseline.

On offense, try your best not to assign positions, as it makes the kids feel like they have to play like the position you assign them at.

Instead of positions, I assign them numbers and praise over and over again that the only options when you don't have the ball is either set a screen or find open space.

Here are a few simple plays I drew up:

"Thirty-x" and "Twenty-x"

Basically, it's a simple set that promotes movement from three of the offensive players. Any number I call that starts with thirty is this play. Any number I call that starts with twenty is the same play just with the 2 running and the 4 running the baseline an opposite way.

View attachment 82109

"COLOR" play

Another set just to get players moving. Any color I call is this play.

View attachment 82110

Terrific post! Well done, but where’s the Kentucky Shuffle? My middle school coach drilled us on that, 50+ years ago. Lol

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Final score: 50-16.

The conclusion: as long as our school remains small, has no tryouts and basketball only 2x a week, we should never be in the top division of our league. Even when we had winning teams, it’s always easy to change the lineup/strategy to allow the other team to breathe.

Speaking of that, the opposing team did a five pass before you shoot rule at the start of the second when we started that quarter 19-0. It was one of those private middle schools that also has a ninth grade so their varsity team was mostly ninth.

They could have scored 80 on us if their coach let them to.

Middle school leagues in the private level is silly. We’re 2-3, lost two games by 40+, won one close one, lost one close one and destroyed one team.

The parity is akin to this years March madness!