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In today’s coaching landscape, it’s easy to feel pressure to do more. More plays. More defenses. More drills. More technology. The belief is simple: if we just add one more set or install a new press, we’ll get over the hump. But the reality is, most teams don’t suffer from a lack of tactics. They …

Continue reading “Eliminating Tactical Clutter: Why Simplicity Wins in Coaching”

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Part Two of our series on Essentialism in basketball coaching.  Most successful basketball coaches operate with a clear, well-defined philosophy. Without one, it’s easy to get lost in trends, constantly shifting tactics and strategies without a consistent foundation. Defining your philosophy is the key to sustainable success. It gives your program direction, helps players understand …

Continue reading “Defining Your Coaching Philosophy: Less But Better”

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The power of doing less, but better. Coaching basketball in today’s world comes with an overwhelming number of choices. There are hundreds of offensive systems, countless defensive schemes, and endless training methods. Every season brings new trends, new analytics, and new voices telling you what you must add to succeed. The result? Many coaches constantly …

Continue reading “The Essentialist Mindset in Coaching”

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It happened again.  The University of Virginia Men’s Basketball team made another early exit from the NCAA Tournament by falling to Colorado State 67-42. UVA’s performance was dreadful and left many wondering why they even got in the tournament in the first place. The Cavaliers and their head coach Tony Bennett face some well-deserved criticism …

Continue reading ““That System Won’t Work””

If you are football fan, chances are you’ve heard the term “RPO” during broadcasts. In that sport it is an acronym for the “Run/Pass Option” concept where the quarterback is reading the defense and based on that read the play could be a run or a pass.  In basketball, and in the ball screen in …

Continue reading “RPO: The Roll Pop Option”

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In the Summer of 2015 I was encouraged by some coaching friends to start sharing some of the basketball coaching ideas I used as a high school basketball coach. They encouraged me to use Twitter. I was not active on Twitter at the time so I was starting from the ground floor. I suppose the …

Continue reading “The Perils Of “Feature Creep””

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One of the beauties of the Princeton Offense is that there’s always a counter. It is said that “Princeton” has no beginning and no end. Point Spin is an example of this zen-like quality.  Point Series At its core, the Princeton Offense is a series of two and three-player actions stemming from various shapes and …

Continue reading “Point Series: “Spin” Options”

Below is a mini-playbook of breakdown drills designed to get shots within the actions of the Point Series of the Princeton Offense.  Included are breakdown drills for Point Over, Point Away and Point Spin. The objective of the drills is to get volumes of shots specific to the offense. A coach could advance the drills …

Continue reading “Princeton Offense: Point Series Shooting Drills”

Coaches are humans and they come preloaded with differing viewpoints on how to do the job. Demeanors are different. Personalities vary. Coaches have different opinions on what should be prioritized. That’s ok! There is room for many coaching styles.   One of the differences in coaching styles is whether a coach is more internally focused or …

Continue reading “Coaching Styles: Internal and External Focused”

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One of the best “Princeton Offense teams” in recent years was the Stanford Cardinal women’s team. This offense powered their run to a national championship in 2021.  What follows are five videos breaking down Tara VanDerveer’s version of the Princeton Offense known as “Jersey” in their program. In this series I used the language Stanford …

Continue reading “Stanford Cardinal Video Playbook”

The role of help side defense often goes unnoticed. It’s easy to see the tenacious on-ball defender and the lockdown defender one pass away, but in many ways it is the help defense that separates a good defensive unit from a bad one. In this piece we’ll review help defense and offer three tricks of the trade …

Continue reading “Help Side Tricks of the Trade”

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The Post Split, a signature feature of the Princeton Offense, is one of the Miami Heat’s favorite concepts. What goes into it and how do we spot it? More and more we are hearing that post play is dead. It is true that NBA teams use fewer post ups and attempt fewer shots from post …

Continue reading “The Post Split”

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I am often asked whether specific X’s and O’s from the NBA are applicable to lower levels of play. The rules and the skill level are different from other levels of play and that surely impacts the applicability. If you hang around the sport long enough you’ll notice that things trickle down. College coaches study …

Continue reading “Five Tips For Playing Like The Pros”

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Note: This is the fourth and final post in a series on the “superpowers” coaches can add to level up in the coaching profession. Previous entries: Coaching Superpowers: Drill Creation Coaching Superpowers: Simplification Coaching Superpowers: Mental Strength In the video game world, an adept player earns “superpowers” which help them advance to higher levels in …

Continue reading “Coaching Superpowers: Cueing”

Note: This is the third post in a series on the “superpowers” coaches can add to level up in the coaching profession. Previous entries: Coaching Superpowers: Drill Creation Coaching Superpowers: Simplification In the video game world, an adept player earns “superpowers” which help them advance to higher levels in the game. Perhaps, through skillful play …

Continue reading “Coaching Superpowers: Mental Strength”

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Note: This is a the second post in a series on the “superpowers” coaches can add to level up in the coaching profession. First entry: Coaching Superpowers: Drill Creation In the video game world, an adept player earns “superpowers” which help them advance to higher levels in the game. Perhaps, through skillful play and experience, the …

Continue reading “Coaching Superpowers: Simplification”

Note: This is a the first in a series on the “superpowers” coaches can add to level up in the coaching profession. In the video game world, an adept player earns “superpowers” that help them advance to higher levels in the game. Perhaps, through skillful play and experience, the character in the game earns x-ray …

Continue reading “Coaching Superpowers: Drill Creation”

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In an attempt to make clear to coaches a way in which they can evaluate the quality of their offensive possessions, we have devised this template. Spacing – Do we “show up” on the offensive end in our “spots” with wide and deep spacing? Action – If no easy scoring opportunity is present in transition …

Continue reading “Spacing, Action, Advantage”

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Every January I select a topic to focus my reading for the upcoming year. All of the non-fiction books I read in that year share a common theme. In years past I have selected topics such as History, Politics, Leadership, Travel and Behavioral Economics for example. The topic not only frames my non-fiction reading for …

Continue reading “How To Make Losing Disappear”