If you’ve heard me speak or have read the many of my blogs and tweets, you know how much importance I put to life long learning as a means to reach your goals and dreams. I’ve done extensive reading on successful people in all walks of life and one of the common denominators is they [...]
Basketball Specific
Concept of Accumulation
A great quote reads, “It is the accumulation of the hundreds of minute decisions that is the difference between mediocrity and true excellence.” This is so true with what we do as coaches, what our players do as players, and what anyone does in their career. If we’re truly striving for excellence, we must take [...]
Coaching U LIVE 2012!
Date and site to be announced in early February! As many of you know, the NCAA has changed the recruiting calendar, and we are now waiting for all of the tournaments to pick their dates and sites. We will then announce COACHING U LIVE 2012 details. We have already lined up a great staff and [...]
Understand the Process
As college basketball gets into full swing, one truth exists for all teams: no team will stay the same as the year goes on. That means some will get better and some won’t. Whether a team improves will depend how players approach the “process.” Improvement is a process; success is a process; becoming the best [...]
Practice
What a great time of year! College practices have started, with the high Schools soon to follow. Everyone is excited to be in the gym sweating, learning, and getting better. But no matter what the level, practices can seem to go on forever before that first game rolls around. So what makes some teams able [...]
Bullet Basketball
An ongoing exercise for me is to find ways to “tighten up” my thoughts on the game. I call it “bullet basketball.” It’s a process I use to try to put everything that I would ever teach into 3 or 4 bullet points that are easy for the player to digest and remember. For example, [...]
Jay Bilas on Coaching U LIVE 2011
Coaching U Live is the brainchild of NBA assistant coaches Kevin Eastman and Brendan Suhr, two of the best teachers in basketball. The clinic was two days, and the quality content of teaching techniques, strategies and concepts was staggering. Speakers included Eastman and Suhr, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, former college head coach George Raveling, [...]
Coaching Decision: Your Ass or Their Legs?
I’ve read and heard a lot throughout the year about coaches at all levels who were having rough years. There are many consistent quotes and thoughts in these articles. The main theme is that we are just going to “work harder; and if that doesn’t work, then we will work even harder than that!” While [...]
Championships and the Right Emotions
All of us know that competition is often a very emotional experience. We experienced a very positive one when our team was able to raise the championship banner in the 2008 NBA World Championship ceremony. Those are the emotions that we all dream about and work for. But we also know that we have to [...]
Bring Value to Yourself
As I look back on the good fortune I have had in my career (from a Graduate Assistant making $2,000 a year to an Assistant Coach with the 2008 NBA World Champions) I keep coming back to a theme: LEARNING and PERSONAL GROWTH. The ability to move up the ladder and improve your salary in [...]
Excellence Before Ego
Ray Allen had a night to remember when he broke the NBA Career 3-Point Field Goal record formerly held by Reggie Miller. As I said to Ray when he got to the bench, “all those hours of work do pay off!” His just reward is to go down in NBA history. Many have already asked [...]
“GET” into Defense
We’re all looking for ways to “GET” our teams to understand and appreciate defense and how important it is to winning. So often we talk to our team about having to GET things done in order to be a good defensive team. Our “GET” game is the following: 1. GET a good shot – harder [...]
Dealing With Injuries
All teams have injuries at some point during the season. Some teams will use this as an excuse while others will just continue to work and strategize to win the game regardless of personnel circumstances. Having been through a number of injuries to very key players on our team this year, I am very impressed [...]
Defense: “Who Knows” is the Key!
Many things can go wrong on the defensive end, and we can find players to blame at every turn. But one thing we have to address is when a player makes a decision that is not within the framework of our defensive philosophy. The most common one to us is when a player switches. He [...]
Numbers Behind the Numbers
Lawrence Frank, our new assistant with the Celtics, has a great question for every coach to think about and for every player to understand: “what are the numbers behind the numbers?” We all keep stats, and some of us are more “stat guys” than others. This question asks you to go deeper with your stats [...]
