For the 2015\/16 season I coached the Marion<\/a>\u00a0sophomore boys basketball team. \u00a0It’s a 3A school in Marion, Iowa. \u00a0The high school consists\u00a0of around 620 students.<\/p>\n Due to injury, players not going out, and players moving up… we had an unusually small roster. \u00a0We only had 7 sophomores to start the season. \u00a0After a week into the season we moved up 3 freshman. \u00a0This gave us enough to compete\u00a0yet we rarely had enough to play 5v5 in practice. \u00a0We made it work.<\/p>\n We lost our 2nd and 3rd games of the season. \u00a0Then we went on an 18 game winning streak to finish the season 19-2!!<\/strong><\/p>\n Since this was a completely new team I didn’t have high expectations.\u00a0In the back of my mind I would have been happy if we won half of our games. So going on an 18 game streak was a nice surprise!<\/p>\n The season was very successful in my opinion. \u00a0We won 19 games but more importantly all the players\u00a0improved, had fun, got along, played extremely well together, and I hope they all learned some good life lessons.<\/p>\n It truly was a “team” that came together collectively to accomplish some great things…<\/p>\n No one of the team averaged more than 8 points per game — \u00a0and 7 different players averaged 4 or more points!! \u00a0That is pretty incredible. \u00a0It was a very balanced attack, sharing of the ball, and lots of teamwork. \u00a0Probably the most balanced team I have ever coached.<\/p>\n It made this season a lot of fun!<\/p>\n As a team we averaged:<\/p>\n What’s most impressive is the balanced scoring and shot distribution…<\/p>\n We had 7 players average more than 4 points per game. \u00a0And nobody averaged more than 8 points per game. \u00a0It was very balanced scoring.<\/p>\n The shots locations were also balanced. \u00a028% of our shots were 3pt range. \u00a046% of our shots were lay ups or within 8 feet of the basket. \u00a0And 26% of our shots were mid range. \u00a0Pretty good balance in my opinion.<\/p>\n The following images\u00a0show\u00a0our shot chart and distribution percentages. \u00a0(To chart shots and keep stats in real time, one of our injured players used the Breakthrough Stats App<\/a>\u00a0during the games.)<\/p>\n Here’s a link to the transition offense<\/a> we ran. \u00a0Not much to it. \u00a0Rarely\u00a0practiced it. \u00a0Just showed the transition\u00a0a couple times.<\/p>\n We ran when there were opportunities. \u00a0But we didn’t push real hard\u00a0since with our small roster we didn’t have much depth.<\/p>\n Looking back, I gave players a lot of freedom. \u00a0I never once specified who should take the ball out. \u00a0They just figured it out and decided on their own who should take the ball out.<\/p>\n I usually just gave guys a framework and objectives\u00a0— then\u00a0let them make decisions and figure things\u00a0out.<\/p>\n We ran a motion offense<\/a> the entire season. \u00a0It mostly had a “5 out” look but we\u00a0posted up quite a bit and we allowed quite a bit of freedom to deviate. It was all based on spacing, ball movement, and taking good shots. \u00a0Here’s the offense…<\/p>\n Primary Requirements:<\/strong><\/p>\n Spacing and ball movement until you get a good shot. Get all rebounds.<\/p>\n General guidelines:<\/strong><\/p>\n You can deviate from the guidelines below at any time as long as you have spacing, ball movement, take good shots, and go after all the rebounds.<\/p>\n I was extremely happy with our motion offense. \u00a0As sophomores it worked great for us\u00a0and we still have plenty of things we can improve. \u00a0I think having plenty of room to improve is\u00a0a good thing and means your offense has plenty of upside.<\/p>\n I loved the flexibility, effectiveness, and skill development aspects of the offense.<\/p>\n I could go on and on about it. \u00a0I’ll keep it brief with a couple points of interest…<\/p>\n Fundamental Execution and Emphasis is Key<\/strong><\/p>\n Our motion offense was really simple. \u00a0They keys to the offense were skill development and the fundamental aspects of their spacing, cutting, screening, posting up, and so on. \u00a0We literally taught the offense in 20 minutes. \u00a0The rest of the season was spent working on both individual fundamentals and team offense fundamentals.<\/p>\n When facing zone defense we ran our motion offense with a few minor adjustments…<\/p>\n Technically those were the only adjustments. \u00a0But to make it effective we had to emphasize:<\/p>\n We never really practiced our zone offense since we didn’t have enough to go 5on5 or even have players that knew how to run zone defense. \u00a0But it was simple enough where they could just learn during the games. \u00a0It was a little rough at first but in time it worked well for us.<\/p>\n We had a few simple set plays that worked as both quick hitters and entries into our motion. \u00a0We didn’t run the plays very often. \u00a0And we didn’t score with them very often (maybe 20% of the time). \u00a0They usually just gave us a post up or ball reversal to kick-start our motion.<\/p>\n When running set (called) plays I wanted the plays to give us a great shot (lay up or post up) and also serve as an entry into our motion. \u00a0I didn’t see a reason to run plays for jump shots since we can get those any time we want with our motion.<\/p>\n To be honest, the only reason I added the third\u00a0and fourth\u00a0play was because they were new for me and I wanted to test them out. We didn’t need them.<\/p>\n We ran 3 BLOB plays. \u00a0They worked great. \u00a0Probably scored an average of 8 points per game just off our inbounds plays. \u00a0They were all from the box set. \u00a0We disguised the plays with a numbering system and since they all started from the same formation, opponents didn’t know what we were going to do.<\/p>\n We also had another play we ran against zone trying to pin the middle defender. \u00a0Otherwise we just ran the plays about and told players to find gaps. \u00a0You can find other good zone and man BLOB plays here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nothing fancy. \u00a0We just wanted to get the ball in. \u00a0When needed, we used these two plays:<\/p>\n We used this\u00a03 across press breaker<\/a>\u00a0against zone presses. \u00a0Worked great for us.<\/p>\n If a team played man to man or even double teamed the ballhandler, we just cleared out. \u00a0We did enough 1v2 dribbling drills so it was not a problem. Our guards on occasion\u00a0would beat 3 defenders in the open court.<\/p>\n If a team denied full court and we had trouble getting the ball in, we either used a\u00a01 Up Press Break<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Indian<\/a>. \u00a0We generally saved the Indian play for the last 3-4 minutes of the game when teams were denying full court and trying to get 5 second calls.<\/p>\n Our opponents averaged 37 points per game. \u00a0I wish I had better stats like our opponents EFG% and PPP… but coaching 3 different teams this year, I just didn’t have time to watch film and record those stats.<\/p>\n Considering that we averaged 49 points, which is nothing off the charts, and our opponents averaged 37 points… I’d say our defense was pretty solid.<\/p>\n We play 100% man to man defense. \u00a0Almost always half court. \u00a0We played a full court man to man press allowing the trail defender to trap on a few occasions. \u00a0But 99% of the time we played half court man to man.<\/p>\n We followed most of the fundamentals and concepts\u00a0taught in this Jim Huber Defensive DVD set<\/a>.<\/p>\n Regarding some of the details, we chose to follow the same\u00a0preferences of the varsity. \u00a0The assistant varsity coach often spent time with us running the\u00a0shell drill. \u00a0This helped A LOT\u00a0to develop consistent language and teaching methods throughout the program. \u00a0Some of those details included:<\/p>\n We really emphasized NO lay ups, keeping the ball out of the paint, moving on the flight of the ball, staying down in the defensive stance, and containing the dribble drive.<\/p>\n Here’s\u00a0a link to the core values<\/a> that we emphasized. \u00a0I tried to talk about core values\u00a0in every practice and game. \u00a0Tried to use them as opportunities to teach life lessons and build character. \u00a0We probably talked about “leadership” more than anything because so many lessons steam from being a good leader. \u00a0Examples include…<\/p>\n Part way through the season, I really didn’t coach that much. \u00a0During time outs and half time, I would often just say…<\/p>\n “What do you guys see offensively? \u00a0What do you see defensively?”<\/p>\n I then might ask a couple other follow up questions. \u00a0The players would respond and have good insight. \u00a0They knew what\u00a0they needed to do. Sometimes I’d even learn something from them. \u00a0Then once they gave their thoughts I might add something or just say… “Ok. \u00a0I agree. \u00a0Everybody got it?” \u00a0They would coach themselves and they could figure things out on their own.<\/p>\n Honestly, when you put the ego aside, they didn’t really need me all that much. \u00a0I’m just their coach. \u00a0I can’t really do anything. \u00a0They have to take all the shots, make the stops, and make the decisions on the court. \u00a0I didn’t even get to score one point\u00a0this year!!!<\/p>\n Here are the drills we probably used the most during the season:<\/p>\n Ballhandling warm ups<\/strong> – a variety of stationary dribbling, on the move dribbling, etc<\/p>\n 1v1 full court. \u00a0<\/strong>Self explanatory I think. \u00a0We just tried to use multiple areas to keep everyone active and working.<\/p>\n 1v1 advancement with random traps<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 1v2 full court\u00a0<\/strong>advancement<\/b><\/p>\n Post and perimeter footwork.<\/strong>\u00a0 To get lots of reps, everyone had a ball and we usually did spin outs<\/a>. \u00a0I taught same\u00a0footwork shown in\u00a0the Attack & Counter DVDs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Competitive post 1v1<\/strong> (after the pass and cut — or pass and screen). \u00a0Many of the\u00a0full court and post 1v1 drills can he found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Form shooting<\/strong><\/p>\n Rhythm shooting with partner.<\/strong> \u00a0Start 8 feet from the basket. \u00a0Take 8 shots. \u00a0Then take one step back. \u00a0Total of 40 shots.<\/p>\n 3 and 4 player shooting<\/strong> (off the catch… high reps).\u00a0Each player shoots and gets the rebound. As soon as Player A shoots, Player B shoots and repeats the process. Player A passes to B, B passes to C, C passes to A. \u00a0Players get an average of 14 shots per minute.<\/p>\n 1v1 dribble moves followed by lay up or pull up jump shot<\/strong><\/p>\n Triangle pass and cut<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Fill and read defense<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Screen away shooting. \u00a0<\/strong>Just taking a piece of our offense and turning into skill building drill. \u00a0Also ran a ball screen shooting drill.<\/p>\n 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 with various rules and emphasis<\/strong> — ball screen attacks, screen away, post ups, full court rugby, no dribble, etc, etc. \u00a0We used these drills quite a bit. \u00a0Many of these drills can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.breakthroughbasketball.com\/haefner\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/EPSON118-e1455821544740-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOffensive Stats<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Balanced Attack<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>![\"Soph](\"https:\/\/www.breakthroughbasketball.com\/haefner\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Soph-2015-16-Shot-Chart.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Soph](\"https:\/\/www.breakthroughbasketball.com\/haefner\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Soph-2015-16-Shot-Distribution.png\")
<\/a><\/h2>\nTransition Offense<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Half Court Man to Man Offense<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Half Court Zone Offense<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Half Court Set Plays<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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BLOB Plays<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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SLOB Plays<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Press Breaker<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Defense<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Core Values<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Asking Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Drills We Used the Most<\/strong><\/h2>\n