Category: Features »
How to put on a summer basketball camp
When I became a head varsity coach, I strongly believed it was essential to organize and run a youth summer basketball camp at the high school. Prior to this time, there was not an organized youth basketball camp in the community. I was 40 years old...
How Central Missouri shocked the Goliath of DII women’s basketball
March 12, 2016, was the last time Ashland University had lost a game heading into this year’s NCAA Division II women’s national championship. Its 73 consecutive wins was the fourth-best streak of any division, and its 99 points per game was enoug...
Making time for skill development in practice
At the beginning of the season, you have many different things you must implement into your basketball practices, and unless you are fortunate enough to have a core group of returners to your program, you may have to reteach everything. You have to b...
Psychologically healing injured athletes
Because of the high demands placed on elite athletes, injury is virtually inescapable. With increasing early sport specialization comes a particular vulnerability to developmental and overuse injuries. In 2013, an estimated 27 million athletes betw...
Teaching your players to get tough
The most important virtue for any basketball player is talent. But what’s talent without the competitive spirit, or toughness, that consistently motivates your team and drives it to victory? Teaching your team to play tough and battle during every...
Team culture wins the locker room
We spend countless hours on player evaluations, recruitment, practice preparation, scouting and film breakdown. Those tasks are time consuming but also necessary for our teams to be prepared and successful. But how much time do you spend fostering te...
‘You… and Your Program:’ Five valuable lessons for athletes
As coaches, we often fail to define what we actually mean with the terminology in our programs. I’m no different. During many years of coaching, I assumed players understood the meaning behind my words and phrases. For those who make the same mist...
‘The Freak’ defense slows opposing offenses
We have all tried gimmick defenses to steal possessions or slow down the opposition’s best player. “The Freak” defense is a modified triangle-and-two or box-and-one, depending on how you implement it into your defensive arsenal. The defense wo...
