How to Beat Teams that Run a Great Transition

Coach Sar · **Posts:** 3139

Gad -

When do your finals start? How is your game plan progressing? Hope all is well.

eteug · **Posts:** 13

Coach
we have our last regular season game tomorrow night.Its a against a relegation bound team so there is realy no much big threat there.
I just have a concern,i realise after watching the video of our game last sunday,my guys are not realy executing plays that much.what do you think i should be doing to make sure these guys execute.I must note though that defense is great and am thinking our defense is getting us points,they are also not playing bad basketball its just that am not seeing much of our offensive sets being run.Do you think am being worried for nothing or something?
Gad

Coach Sar wrote:

Gad -

When do your finals start? How is your game plan progressing? Hope all is well.

Coach Sar · **Posts:** 3139

Gad,

Being the anal guy I am ....... LOL.... I think I would approach it this way....

1- Guys, you are playing great defense - that is what is winning us games right now... so keep up the good work there!

2- Our offensive sets seem to be a little sloppy and IF we are going to make it to the next level, we need to clean that part of our game up. Lets try to do a better job of executing them.

3- Tomorrow night is a good oportunity for us to work on execution.... lets NOT look past this game.... we don't want to lose our last regular season game going into the playoffs.... we should be at the top of our game right now.

Then end it on another positive note... something like..... we are playing very well and we need to show everybody that we are a GOOD team... NO, a GREAT team -go out there and PLAY HARD - PLAY SMART and HAVE FUN.

IF you have one more practice I would work on the execution of those sets / your offense.... don't allow them to do anything in practice from now on that you don't want them to do in a game.

You might put up a big board saying what your goal is..... WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP - Maybe get a picture of the team that won it last year and put it up along side ??

Thoughts?

eteug · **Posts:** 13

coach

we won yesterday so now we have started work towards playoffs that start in the next two weeks.
my question would be, puting into consideration what weaknesses i told you and the solutions you gave which i believe are vital(we are working along them),what would you do in your sessions? i.e would you screamage more or drill alot?
thanks
Gad

eteug wrote:

Coach,
Totally agree with you.Picking our poison is the way to go because the two post players i told you about have the best shots in the league actually,so we run a defensive scheme yesterday that does not allow easy passes to the post and also forces them to play mostly from the outside.Today is the final prep for the game and i sure would like to try and ensure that the guys slow down the tempo of the game the way we did in the last game.I just also got the video of the last game and so we will watch it before the game tomorrow,although am thinking of letting the guys also watch our last years final championship game and challenge them not to allow anybody take away that moment from them? Your thoughts on this ASAP will be great.

Also if it were you in this position,what would you tell your guys?

Thanks alot.

Coach Sar wrote:

I liked your game plan Gad ... make them play D! Most guys don't want to do that for any extended period of time. I would use that same philosophy in the next few games too. Make them play your style. Teams hate to be dictated too....

As regards our next game and my team,its a semi pro team i coach so my oldest guy is about 35yrs and youngest is 24.These opponents get points from the 3 and drives to the basket and also have two youthfull post players who are racking up a combined 35points per game.

It seems like this next team has a lot of weapons... inside and outside..... Sometimes we have to pick our poison.... IF this was me, I would make sure that they don't get the ball inside ( or as little as possible ) stop the drives and force them to beat you from the arc. Its hard to stop everything but at least you can say that IF they are going to beat me, they are going to have to shoot well from the "3" ---

Pack your defense and pressure the guy with the ball.... ?? Pack your defense and challenge the 3 point shooter .... thats how I see your options here.... I would control the tempo again...... 3 point shooters like to get in a zone so to speak..... but if they are not getting their touches and shots, they become antsy and will take bad shots. Shorten the game - keep yourself in the game to the end and then do what you need to do going down the wire.

Thats how I would play this game.... what are your thoughts?

Coach Sar · **Posts:** 3139

IF you have two weeks before your next game you could spend a little more time on sharpening up some areas of concern for you......

Write down the areas that you are concerned about for the next game... then drill them until you feel comfortable that they can handle them in game situations. So while drilling is important you still have to scrimmage to see if it has transfered to game situations.

Go back to the 5 things we talked about before that you need to work on to insure victory or at least put you in position to win.

Then the 5 things that YOU NEED TO DO TO WIN
1- Execution of your half court offense and sets
2- Control the tempo
3- Force them to play half court defense for extended periods of time
4- If they are going to beat you it has to come from their half court offense
5- Control the boards and JAM their rebounder to slow down their transition

I would tell your team this... " That the team that is most disciplined right now is the team that has the best chance for success. "

Coach Sar · **Posts:** 3139

Gad,

How are things going in preparation for the big series?

kelbickd · **Posts:** 186 **Location:** Miami, Fl.

I think you need to be a little bit careful. A major part of your job is determining what your team does best. Then you fit that into your game plan according to your opponent. Sometimes your strength might fit into your opponent's and then you have a game.

If you change what you do according to your opponent and you have 20 opponents you will have 20 styles of play, not be good at any of them. Your team will become confused and lose faith in you.

Always steer toward your strengths, not away from the opponent's.

eteug · **Posts:** 13

Always steer toward your strengths, not away from the opponent's.
coach i like this one in particular.we actually talked abit bout this yesterday after our practice.it came from one of the players.But today i just got news that we are playing another team that plays the same style.we lost to them twice this year,but at the time;we were not strong mentally.so now we just need to adjust the program abit and see how to move forward.i shall be consulting you on monday night on your insights.
Thanks
Gad
[/quote]

kelbickd wrote:

I think you need to be a little bit careful. A major part of your job is determining what your team does best. Then you fit that into your game plan according to your opponent. Sometimes your strength might fit into your opponent's and then you have a game.

If you change what you do according to your opponent and you have 20 opponents you will have 20 styles of play, not be good at any of them. Your team will become confused and lose faith in you.

Always steer toward your strengths, not away from the opponent's.

Coach Sar · **Posts:** 3139

While in theory I agree with you Don, but IF your team is always the underdog you better have some Plan Bs sitting around. :-)

I played without a shot clock so it was easier for me to get teams to play the style I felt gave us the best chance to get the W. But, as my friend Creighton would say - " IF your Jimmy and Joes are better than my Xs and 0s, you will win "

What I have been telling Gad is to get them to play his style, to his strengths while taking away theirs. Offensively, you are correct - DO WHAT YOU DO BEST - while attacking their weaknesses. Defensively, you do whatever is necessary to shut them down. We played m2m and a match up zone, there were some teams that we just couldn't play the match up against...... even though I thought our match up was better than our m2m.....

kelbickd · **Posts:** 186 **Location:** Miami, Fl.

I don't disagree but, you still must start with, "You are who you are." If you are a running team, you still have to run. If you are a m2m team, you still have to m2m. You have to game plan, make adjustments and play the game as it presents itself but you still have to be who you are. Unless, of course, you're not who you think you are.

Most of the teams I have been with have been continuous underdogs. What I found to be successful for me was to limit the things we did to only those things we were good at as opposed to expanding to things we weren't good at. It usually gave us a chance. You have to believe in what you do first, then adjust, not run away from what they can do.

Sometimes it works, sometimes, not. I remember when Dean Smith was really selling the point guard system, which was new when I was young. I was impressed by the way he stuck by it. I asked him, "This is great when you have 1 good guard. What would you play if you only have bad guards. Wouldn't you rather more players to help in the back court?" He said, "I would still play the point guard." When I asked him why, he looked at me straight faced and said, "I'd rather have 1 bad guy back there than 2 bad guys."

Kinda makes sense.