Coaching Advice, Part V

To help build chemistry, Memphis head coach John Calipari has his team eat breakfast together every day.

Baylor head coach Dave Bliss believes a coach should know what the best tempo for his team should be.

Auburn head coach Cliff Ellis tells his post players that if they want to make $1 million, all they have to do is get one rebound every three minutes.

If you are going to run a motion offense, Coastal Carolina head coach Pete Strickland believes you must talk shot selection all the time.

Hoggard High School (NC) head coach Bill Boyette demands constant intense pressure on the basketball. He wants his players to yell “hey” every time their man catches the ball.

Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey gives his post players the following options in their zone offense:   screen behind the zone and flash from behind the zone.

In his motion offense, LSU head coach John Brady wants players who end up in the corner to be patient. He believes this patience will pay off with a teammate setting a screen for you.

Former Tennessee head coach Jerry Green wants to keep basketball as a game for his players.

Alabama head coach Mike Gottfried likes players who have great enthusiasm, have super pride, are undying workers, and can take care of business like a man.

If he has a big man who can shoot, Mike Brey likes to use that man in the high post game against zone defenses.

One of the ways John Brady will individualize his motion offense is to have certain players stop in the post every time they face out.

Mark Gottfried believes success comes in cans, not cannots.

Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun wants to make poor ball-handlers bring the ball up against his pressure defense.

Former North Carolina head coach Bill Guthridge believed in playing some tough non-conference games.

California head coach Ben Braun likes to end offensive drills with conversion to defense and end defensive drills with conversion to offense.

Jerry Green believes in using the whole-part method of teaching.  He wants to break the parts down into one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three, and four-on-four.

Mike Brey does not like to send his point guard away after making a pass to the wing against a zone because it encourages the other team to trap.

When running his four-on-four motion breakdown drill, John Brady will communicate what type of action he wants to see in that possession (staggered screens, for example).

Former Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Cremins taught his players when to foul and when not to foul in game-ending situations.

For those coaches who want to play fast-break basketball, former NBA head coach Hubie Brown makes the following points:   your team will make more turnovers, shot selection will become even more important, you must emphasize getting the ball to the top of the key as quickly as possible in transition, you must have rebounding balance, and finally, you must decide whether you can live with that tempo.

Kentucky head coach Tubby Smith wants his team to make 35 deflections in every game.  He includes five-second and ten-second violations in that total.

Jerry Green does not want to change a game-ending situation from a win-tie to a lose-tie.

To improve his pressure defense, Jim Calhoun plays two-on-two full court two times a week.

One of the keys to Bill Guthridges’s teams’ success at the foul line was that each player had a free-throw ritual.

Ben Braun encourages situations where his players can tell him what they think about the job he is doing.

Since he wants his team to play up-tempo, Jim Calhoun will keep the ball live during most drills, make or miss.

Bill Guthridge wanted his team to shoot under game-like situations in practice.

Ben Braun likes to use fast-break drills to get his players in condition.

Georgia head coach Jim Harrick gives the following coaching points for shooting the ball:  stance, index finger, hand on the ball, “t” with thumbs, sighting the basket, elbow to toes, and knees bent.