My High School Coach played and coached in the EBA/EPBL (later became the Continental Basketball Association) - "You don't need better players, the players you have need to play better"!
We all miss Mag, but no excuse for playing sloppy basketball.
What I learned from my high school coach:
- Game Plan: Players practice against the opponent's offense and defense
- Execute: Players are responsible for executing the Game Plan offense and defense
- Discipline: Follow the game plan and trust what you did in practice
- Individual Player: execute on your designated game role
- Make the opponent's best shooters uncomfortable (make them pass when they are at their inside or outside best spots on the floor)
- Make Game Time Adjustments to offense (tell specific players what their adjusted role is in the game - i.e. specific player to shoot more, specific players go to the basket - leave hot shooters that night in the game longer) and defense (switch defenders to make a hot shooter uncomfortable - leave hot defenders in the game longer because of matchups)
- Passing Angles: Reduce offense turnovers by not putting a player in a bad passing position (i.e. double team down low to a big man and no one to pass back OR trying to force the pass when there is no good passing angle)....Rutgers turnovers in the last three games is guilty of this mistake.
- Figure out player combinations without Mag....Rutgers is still struggling with this task
- Build more confidence in players that are pressing instead of letting the game come to them...Cam is a great example whereby he is forcing shots..i.e. set up plays early in the game for Cam where the fifth pass is a wide open 3-pointer to get him started.
- When you have a shooting slump in a game, go to the basket - we should not care if we get a layup or score 2 points from the foul line
- No whining or blaming other players...or you can watch from the bench
- Each player pulls his own weight
- Never give up, even if you're getting blown out
- There is no "I" in team.
Overall, you cannot replace Mag, the second-best team defender and a smooth offensive player.
We need to take advantage of each individual player's strengths on offense and defense and find the right combination of players based upon the game situation.
Rutgers needs to figure out its new team identity.
We all miss Mag, but no excuse for playing sloppy basketball.
What I learned from my high school coach:
- Game Plan: Players practice against the opponent's offense and defense
- Execute: Players are responsible for executing the Game Plan offense and defense
- Discipline: Follow the game plan and trust what you did in practice
- Individual Player: execute on your designated game role
- Make the opponent's best shooters uncomfortable (make them pass when they are at their inside or outside best spots on the floor)
- Make Game Time Adjustments to offense (tell specific players what their adjusted role is in the game - i.e. specific player to shoot more, specific players go to the basket - leave hot shooters that night in the game longer) and defense (switch defenders to make a hot shooter uncomfortable - leave hot defenders in the game longer because of matchups)
- Passing Angles: Reduce offense turnovers by not putting a player in a bad passing position (i.e. double team down low to a big man and no one to pass back OR trying to force the pass when there is no good passing angle)....Rutgers turnovers in the last three games is guilty of this mistake.
- Figure out player combinations without Mag....Rutgers is still struggling with this task
- Build more confidence in players that are pressing instead of letting the game come to them...Cam is a great example whereby he is forcing shots..i.e. set up plays early in the game for Cam where the fifth pass is a wide open 3-pointer to get him started.
- When you have a shooting slump in a game, go to the basket - we should not care if we get a layup or score 2 points from the foul line
- No whining or blaming other players...or you can watch from the bench
- Each player pulls his own weight
- Never give up, even if you're getting blown out
- There is no "I" in team.
Overall, you cannot replace Mag, the second-best team defender and a smooth offensive player.
We need to take advantage of each individual player's strengths on offense and defense and find the right combination of players based upon the game situation.
Rutgers needs to figure out its new team identity.
Last edited: