In Stuff Good Players Should Know we have now moved into what I like to call the Killer B's. They are the killer b's because if these subtle things are ignored they can abosotely kill any kind of flow you are trying to create on offense and defense.
Ball Defense- While all coaches have there phrases and sayings about how to defend, especially on the ball, some simple truths for any type of defense remain constant. The book outlines these areas:
- your body position and weight
- position of your hands
- "get in the bubble"
- dictating the action of the ball
- your commitment to yourself
Getting into these areas properly has to be done efficiently. In our program we refer to "air time" as the time when your on the ball defense begins. You should anticipating the pass and moving to the proper body position. Where do you close out to? If you have a plan, then the rest of your team will have a plan. You have to jump into that person's bubble. I credit Lavall Jordan of the Michigan staff with the phrases, "Don't be tricked, don't be ignored." When the ball is live you have to be in a stance ready to defend. Keep your weight down and have active hands. "Guard your yard" and make it personal, I am going to stop my man this time!
Blocking Shots- This is in direct relationship to killer B number two. Blocking shots is the most overrated stat that we can measure. Stat from the book- 99% of basketball players block one shot or less per game. If that is accurate what are we doing out of our stance attempting to block shots. The average shooter is likely to hit around 40% of their shots. Why would we risk not blocking out and losing the six possessions for the hope of blocking one shot. In the long run that is not winning basketball... If you allow yourself to get tricked the rest of your team will pay the price, they score, you foul, a teammate fouls, they shoot bonus, or an and 1 occurs. There are way too many negatives that outway the one positive of blocking a shot. EXCEPTION: At some point you may find yourself helping off the ball and rotating over or in the paint battling. Challenging a shot here might work, but most likely you are doing this because you have not "done your work early" and are now trying to recover.
B-U-B- Ball-U-Man is a pretty simple concept yet one that some players don't get. We are trying to play five on five. It is of utmost importance that you are at the level of the ball or ahead. There is no need to guard someone behind the ball (unless you are in full denial on that player) as they can not hurt you and you can always closeout to them. General rule I love: you should be as close to the basket as the ball in a ball-u-man position. If you do this you will constantly be around the ball and in a position to play great team defense.
Bent Elbow Pass- I first saw this pass stressed by Coach Beilein at a Michigan clinic. It is the simplest pass in basketball to make and should be part of every players skill set. In our program we have borrowed the phrase, "Fake a pass, to make a pass," and while I still love this phrase we need to be clear that these fakes are short bursts of movement with a bent elbow (bent elbow is the key) so that we can get the ball around the defender without having to recoil our arm. See the book for more detail, but it is so simple a cave man could do it. I think is part of the problem because sometimes coaches see these things and don't stress them because we assume they can do them already.
My dad taught me at an early age not to assume because when you do... well we can save the rest of that line for another time. If you want to be invaluable to you team share the ball with a service mentality. One of our core beliefs... make a teammate better!
Upcoming the C's.
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