That Basketball Life

One of the biggest problems that coaches have in general is closing out a game.  Many times a coach will want to take the air out of the game by slowing things down too early.  This causes his team to get out of their rhythm and takes the intensity out of the team.  There are two questions that need to be answered when addressing when to close out a game when leading.  Is it worth taking the air out of the ball at all?  If it is when is a good time to do so? The answer to the first question is "it depends."  I know it sounds like a cop out but stay with me for a second.  As a coach you need to read the vibe of the game.  Specifically you need to ask yourself the following question:  Which team has momentum at the end of the game?  The way I see it there are 3 different scenarios in a game when your team is winning a close game: Your team is winning and has the momentum. Your team is winning but the lead has shrunk and the moment...

Okay.  You're coaching a game and your team is down 5 with 3 minutes left.  You have decided that it is time that your team starts extending the game.  How do you do this?  The next topic that needs to be covered is how to extend a game. In order to start discussing this topic we need to break it down by offense and defense. Offense: On the offensive end you need to be prepared to speed everything up.  You will want to make sure that you have your best players in their best positions and ready to run a quick hitting part of the offense or some quick hitting set plays in an effort to get your team back in the game.  Your team needs to be aware of the fact that this is the point of the game where they need to be super aggressive.  You want to take action towards the basket.  The reason for this is twofold: The other team will not want to foul you for fear of giving you an and 1 opportunity. Taking the ball to the basket increases your chances...

The first topic I'd like to discuss concerning EOG situations is when to begin the process of extending a game.  A coach will want to extend a game when they are trailing in hopes of buying time in an effort to get back into the game.  There are 2 questions that need to be answered: At what point in the game do you start the process? At what point do you not bother with extending the game? The answer to the first question  depends on the age group you are coaching and the kids abilities.  If your team contains a bunch of grinders and its tough for them to score you may want to start the process earlier.  If your team is a good scoring team then you may start a bit later.  In general I like to use a 3 point per minute +1 minute rule.  How this works is that if you are down 3 points you can wait for the last 2 minutes of the game to extend (1 for the 3 point deficit +1 more minute).  If you are down 8 points you start extending the game at th...

Over the next few posts we will be discussing our philosophy on certain End of Game situations.  Specifically we will be discussing the when and how of certain EOG situations. Specifically we will discuss the following: 1 When to extend a game when trailing. When to speed up a game when winning. How to extend a game when trailing. How to speed up a game when winning. More to come.

When playing sports there some obvious and some not so obvious things that the athlete needs to work on and experience in order to get better.  Some of the things that are obvious, is experiencing the intensity of a game, hitting a jump shot in a game, shooting a free throw in a game.  The list goes on and on.  The obvious choices are almost all fundamentals based and they are all important.  One of the most important areas of a basketball game often gets overlooked by teams and coaches alike.  These are end of game situations and one of the most important is how to close out games that your team is winning. During the game, most kids tend to relax as the game is approaching the final quarter and they find themselves up by a couple of baskets.  This is the wrong attitude to take in a game where a couple of baskets can turn a game completely on it's head. As a matter of fact at the end of a game that is close, against a good team what you should be expecti...