Things to know to be a Better Team.

Hi Girls,

I know I have asked you to learn a lot of basketball. These are some of things we probably already know and have talked about in practice, but just in case you have not thought about them throughly please commit them to memory. Every possession is important. Every game has been a nailbiter. Little things add up to big wins in close games.

Things we should know and need to know to be a better Team.

1- Always hustle and play hard. By playing hard all the time and playing hard together at the same time it greatly increases our chances.

2- Always pay attention to exactly what the coach says. If I am hollering hands up it is for a reason. Maybe I can see the official is getting ready to call a reaching foul on you. Listen and think about what you hear!!!

3- Always be prepared to line up in the Press Offense and Sideout and Baseline Situations. By not lining up readily we give the other team an advantage we don't want them to have. Normally this is the PG's job to call for this but anyone of the floor can make the call, what does it cost. On the baseline and sideout plays line up quickly so you can get good position.

4- We have not been as good a rebounding team as we need to be. Work harder on the glass, box out, try to get inside position and learn to anticipate the shot. Rebounding is mostly desire, positioning and effort. Good hands also help.

5- Look down the court early before dribbling. A player sprinting in front of you is only going to be open for a split second. If you dribble twice then look up they will not be open any longer.

6- If a player is in the corner, any corner, trap her, hands up standing close and try to make her have to make a difficult lob pass to get the ball out of trouble. Try not to foul her. Hands up!!

7- See your man on defense and see the ball at the same time. If you see someone going for a lay up stepover and make them make a play with someone guarding them.

8- If you get beat talk, Holler for help, Maybe even "Lindy Help" Etc. Call players name.

9- Sprint the court and turn around quickly on fast breaks, try to beat the other team to the spot in front of the goal and turn to make a play. If you cannot catch up, try to tip the ball from behind off the dribble and play for the rebound. Don't Foul, its 50/50 if they are pressured and moving fast that they will miss the shot.

10- Always be ready to catch the ball. If you are open but your hands are down that split second might keep the passer from making the pass to you taking a potential easy shot away from us.

11- On defense make sure you take the sideline away. It is no need to leave the other team a path down the line(edge of the court). Step over, hold your ground and make her either crossover to her other hand or charge or dribble out of bounds. If contact is to occur you have to stand still. Force them to make a play. Directly under the basket try to seal off their path back out to the front of the goal. Away from the basket take the line away, expecially in the backcourt/midcourt areas. Again, force them to make a play, it is 50/50 that they can at full speed.

12- Understand the game and the situation. In late game situations get the ball to the players that are most likely to be successful in a key pressure situation. That said a lay up is a lay up, we always want a lay up. Never pass up a lay up for another lay up. If you have the lay up make it. If time is running out take your best shot, if there is time to pass to someone who might have a better chance to score try to make the pass.

13- Make the easy pass. Long low passes thru many hands are seldom lucky enough to not be stolen or tipped. Every pass is not going to be a home run pass. Sometimes to be a good team you have to make the pass that sets up the scoring pass.

14- Move the ball quickly with accurate passes. Watch the passing lanes, don't telegraph your passes, don't force passes that are not there. Have your hands ready to receive the ball and have a plan what to do with it(pass it back quickly, drive, shoot it, pass to another teammate)

15- Be quick but don't hurry. One of our thoughts for the day. Basically it means always be quick but don't try to get so fast you make a mistake like travel without dribbling or not catching the pass before taking off.

16- Play defense with your feet. Get in defensive position and square up on the girl. Take away the dribbling lanes and if possible force her to give her dribble up (Dribble Used) this will allow your teammates play the passing lanes hard until the opponents gets the ball to another player. If they do, play to force another dribble used and a possible steal again. Make them work to get anywhere with the ball. Every pass and every dribble should be contested. Teams that do not have a strong will to win will sometimes give in if its too hard to do for too long.

17- Do not reach across the body of a offensive player with your opposite hand when they are driving by you. It is an almost automatic foul call. Flick underhanded with your lead hand.

18- Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Give all the skill drills your full effort and concentration in practice. The little things make a difference. Work on your skills every time you practice and do them correctly every time you practice. Perfect Practice.

19- Play closer attention to detail. Know your job and the expectations of your teammates and
coaches. Learn to do it the way it is supposed to be done. Sometimes we have to improvise but for the most part if everyone knows what to expect it works out better. The little things.

20- Be strong and value the ball. Every time we turn the ball over it is 2 points we can't score and 2 points the other team has the opportunity to score. That is a 4 point swing possibility. It could win or lose lots of games as close and most of them we play are.

21- Execute it like we practice it. Don't re-invent the wheel. Have the mental discipline to do it a certain way. We practice it a certain way for a reason. One, everyone knows what to do. we always take a lay up or a short easy open shot but in general we need to play the way everyone is familiar with from practice. Winning teams don't surprise their teammates very often on the court.

22- We need to get more points out of our inbounds plays. Execute them very precise as a team. Make the play call and line up quickly so you can get good position. Right now this is a major difference between this team and the last two teams I had. Last year we averaged at least 6 points per game on inbounds plays. This year I doubt we are averaging 1 basket per game. Of course don't just throw it somewhere when we don't have reasonable chance to get the ball. Turnovers don't help either. Just execute better.

23- Get your hands up on shots close to the goal and make the opponents make the play over top of you. Don't swat down unless you are sure you can get your hand on the ball.

24- Fifty Fifty balls, we need to win the majority of them. If we cannot pick it up, tie it up. Especially try to tie it up under the other teams basket since a steal there would mean 2 points for them.

25- Defensive position, square up, force the dribble to their weak hand. If beaten off the dribble sprint in front of the player and then turn around and square back up. Make them make a play.
Jesse does a great job of this everyday in lay up chase in practice. Lets use it more in a game. Beat them to the spot and don't bail them out by fouling.

26- AVCSS.Com is a good website to go to for game improvement basketball skill drills according to Nancy.

27- Always pass the ball ahead when your teammate is open in front of you. Make a good catchable pass and follow the play in case they miss. If its is close and you can get to the goal easily take it in yourself.

28- If a team is trapping us at the half court line stop before you cross the line if you know you are going to be caught in a trap at the edge of the half court line and corner. Be aware of the 10 second count. You can dribble around to the middle or dribble back a little and create a passing lane. The easiest play is to stop short of the half court line and pass to someone usually the other backcourt player who is still behind you a little. We do have half court press offense play also.

29- Absolutely do not waste your dribble. A few of you have a habit of automatically dribbling the ball as soon as you catch it and then after one bounce picking the ball up to look for somewhere to pass it. Try to think catch and triple thread position then make your decision. I your teammate makes this error break to her immediately before she gets trapped. Conversely if our opponents do this get up on her tight and make it hard to pass and take away her receivers, it is the same thing as forcing a Dribble Used and playing the passing lanes, which is one of our defensive goals.

30- If you are being contested for the ball use your pivot to get your body between her and the ball. Be strong with the ball and try to rip thru the hands while pivoting.

31- Do not reach across the inbounds line, jump up and down and move your arms and try to make it hard to make the pass. If you hit the ball while it is in the other players hand on out of bounds situations it is a technical foul. You can also be called for a technical by reaching over the line even with no contact.

32- You cannot enter the lane on a foul shot until the ball has hit the rim or the backboard. This goes for the shooter and for the rebounders. Penalty is they disallow the shot, even if it goes in.

33- Once the foul shooter has the ball in her hands you cannot change positions on the foul line. Even if no one is in a spot it has to stay that way until they shoot if the shooter has been given the ball. Also you cannot call time out once the ball is handed to the shooter.

34- Shooting the Ball: BEEF Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow Thru. Good balance, Eyes on the front of the rim in the middle from where you are shooting. Some player look at one of the little grommet that hold the net, I usually just look at the front of the rim. Elbow in close directly under the ball. Shoot and Follow thru finishing in good balance with you arm extended and you wrist fully released. The shot should leave you hand as a one handed shot. The non shooting hand is just to balance the ball and should not influence the shot. The shot itself is a up and over motion with a wrist snap. You can tell if it is good form if the ball rotates with a perfect backspin vs. side to side and is on line. A good practice drill used at the UNC Basketball camps is to sit on the floor of your living room and hold the ball properly and shoot and release with a perfect rotation over and over. Then practice it on the court. I would say 50 shots per day or so. Practice does not make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect.

35- Lay ups; Focus on the spot on the backboard that you need for the ball to hit to make the shot. Then relax and shoot it. I still think we are guilty of trying to see if the ball is going to go in too much of the time. We need to dedicate ourselves to focusing on making lay ups. If we had not missed any lay ups this year I know for a fact we would be undefeated in the Conference.
Also, it you are going fast, faster than you can control on the drive for the lay up slow down to a makeable speed at the last couple of steps. However, don't slow so much that it is awkward feeling to make the lay up, find the right pace. If you have gotten that far and are actually in the shooting motion it would have to be a great block to get to the ball, and it will usually be a foul. Be strong and be focused on making your lay ups and put backs.


36- We need to remember when trapped and unable to pass the ball to either use our dribble or to pivot our body away from the pressure and move the ball away from the reaching hands. These two manuevers are especially useful when trying to make the outlet pass after a defensive rebound.

37- Never be lackadasical with a soft floating pass under the opposing teams goal after getting a rebound. If they intercept it under the goal it is an easy two points for the other team. Lots of teams play this pass lane looking to pick up easy points by waiting for a player to make this mistake. Be aware of it and look and think before making a risky pass.

38- After a made basket we can run the baseline end to end as long as we get the ball inbounds and touched by a player within 5 seconds. We then have 10 seconds to get the ball past half court.

39- On any inbounds situation except a scored basket, FG or FT it is a spot throw in. This means we cannot move our pivot foot after the referee hands us the ball. If we do it is traveling just like traveling on the court. A good official will say its a spot throw in, but not all officials are good officials so know the rule.

40- If we step on the line or in the court across the line before the basketball is contacted on the court by a player it is a violation giving the ball to the other team.

41- In general always make a bounce pass when passing thru traffic under our goal to someone cutting to the basket. One it is much easier to catch and two it is much more difficult for the defense to get their hands on the ball.

42- On inbounds plays, always make the pass with 2 hands. This is because if a player steps in front of the pass receiver you can pull the ball back without making a turnover. Now the one exception to this would be if you were making a baseball pass to a receiver a long way down the court. Again be sure you do not step over the line and you have 5 seconds for the ball to be touched.

43- On a baseball pass down the court try to make sure the target player can catch it in the air if it is a shorter throw, or if it is a long throw that the receiver can chase and catch on the bounce and take it to the goal the throw needs to be down the middle of the court since at any angle it could go out of bounds before Jamie or whoever else might be the chaser could catch up to it. Also by being down the middle it is a straight line after the catch to the goal for a lay up, the ultimate objective for use of this pass.

Revisit this spot later because as I think of other things I will continue to add to the end of the list.

Thought: Big opportunities come to those who make the most out of small ones. Roy Williams. UNC. Girls, these little lessons are small opportunities for you to get better, read them and learn them.

Coach May