High School Basketball

[msuduo]

So... Who knows anything about coaching high school basketball?

A teaching position I am interviewing for was tied to the high school girls assistant coach position as well. Fine. I started at the varsity level in high school. I've coached track and soccer as an assistant at the varsity level.

Now, the teaching gig is tied to the head coach position. I was told this today, interview is Wednesday.

Any help from experienced middle school and high school coaches would be appreciated. The team I'd be coaching was a combined 1-40 the last two years.

Philosophy in regards to basketball? Offensive ideas? Defensive ideas?


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[snepp]

Re: High School Basketball

A team that awful, starting from ground zero? I'd probably push physical conditioning and go with an unrelenting, non-stop full court press. Boom or bust. Harass the ever living **** out of your opponents every game. If nothing else, it'll weed out the players that don't want to put the work in.




Caveat: I have zero coaching experience, and was a lousy basketball player.

[mb625]

Re: High School Basketball

While I'm hardly "experienced" I did spend this past season as an assistant for a MS girls basketball team that, as of the end of this season, has only won 3 games in the past 2 seasons (5th-6th and 7th-8th). Biggest thing I can say is to focus on the fundamentals. If you have a team that can execute the fundamental parts of basketball, you will have success regardless of what your personal strategy is (as long as you run whatever it is well). Also, know your team. If you've got girls who are inexperienced basketball players (on a team that has gone 1-40, you may run into that), don't be trying to implement complex offenses on day one. Anything you try to build is going to take time. It won't happen overnight.

There may be someone smarter than myself who can give you more insight, but those are my 2 cents.

[Jr.]

Re: High School Basketball

A team that awful, starting from ground zero? I'd probably push physical conditioning and go with an unrelenting, non-stop full court press. Boom or bust. Harass the ever living **** out of your opponents every game. If nothing else, it'll weed out the players that don't want to put the work in.




Caveat: I have zero coaching experience, and was a lousy basketball player.

This is probably your best idea. It may be difficult to find the girls that really want to put the work in to condition that way, but it'll be the best way to become competitive.

Offensively you'll have to hope for turnovers leading to easy baskets. If you have to teach a half-court offense, I have no idea what to suggest.

[mb625]

Re: High School Basketball

I don't know if I love the full court press idea. I can see the thinking, but I would opt for a hard-nosed, tight half court D and emphasize defense. Maybe I'm all wet on that, but I'd go for defensive fundamentals personally. I do agree with the conditioning idea, though. Conditioning is key.

[TCM]

Re: High School Basketball

A team that awful, starting from ground zero? I'd probably push physical conditioning and go with an unrelenting, non-stop full court press. Boom or bust. Harass the ever living **** out of your opponents every game. If nothing else, it'll weed out the players that don't want to put the work in.




Caveat: I have zero coaching experience, and was a lousy basketball player.

I have no basketball experience, but this seems right. You want dedicated players and if you make them work hard, the lazy ones will find their way out or find the dedication you're looking for. If you make it apparent you don't stand for slacking off, they'll learn to respect you.

As for strategy? Get them to score points on offense, and on defense, make sure the other team doesn't score points. That's all basketball is right? No? Alright, I'll see myself out...

Edit: stand for, not don't deal with.

[Hawaii_Stars]

Re: High School Basketball

Whether half court or full court, I would apply constant pressure and trapping. Along with that, you have to teach proper rotations so nobody gets out of position. Nobody likes to be pressured constantly.

[VDusen04]

Re: High School Basketball

I'll step in and play devil's advocate for a second here, regarding the full court pressure and dedication. That might be tough to pull off in a girls program that's 1-40 over the last two years. Depending upon your area, trying to push your players well beyond their limits just to see who's committed.... might lead to a realization that no one's really that committed.

Furthermore, asking a team with a .025 winning percentage over the past two years to suddenly begin pressing half and full court for entire games could possibly only exasperate the issue. I guess it depends upon personnel and who's willing to push to that level, but it might be a tough extreme to hit up off the bat. On top of that, if the talent's not there to run an effective press, opposing teams might end up getting easier looks than they did before.

Again, it's tough to say too much without knowing the particulars of the situation, but with a team that low on the totem pole, my first thought is usually to start from the bottom and work my way upward. That means developing fundamentals, working on the things that should be second nature but likely aren't (ball handling, passing, righty and lefty layups, setting screens, how to fill lanes, etc.). To be real, if the team is in need of as much attention as their record seems to indicate, I think it's going to just be about teaching the game and building - virtually any drill or learning opportunity will be good for them.

If you end up having interest in turning the program around, it'll go much deeper than your varsity squad. Oftentimes, varsity coaches are in charge of the entire program, having a heavy hand in JV, Freshmen, middle school, and even elementary hoopsters ball. A lot of times, it's how those youngest levels are run that will set the table for how successful your squad will be at the varsity level.

All that said, I don't want to throw the press thing out of the window. Depending on your area, some other girls teams may struggle against even the worst presses. In my region, our girls conference is probably half comprised of teams full of ball players, executing & making basketball plays, while the other half stills seems a little stuck behind the times with rosters largely full of girls who merely thought playing for the basketball team might be a good idea. That lower level is often susceptible to a lot of opposing junk concepts.

Still, 1-40 is pretty awful. That reeks of a program that needs to be built from the bottom up. It can be a lot of fun though. If you approach the game as an opportunity to teach an enjoyable game to a group of kids, it's possible to provide a worthy experience for all involved (including yourself), even if you're still losing a lot.

[VDusen04]

Re: High School Basketball

My apologies for being long winded. Specifically regarding defense, I think again, it's going to be a matter of going back to basics. In particular, I envision a lot of practice time being devoted to shell - that is, stressing the man-to-man fundamentals of guarding ball, being in deny (one pass away) and being in help (two passes away). Even if you end up introducing zone concepts, shell/help defense is still going to be at the core of everything you guys do (seeing man, seeing ball, always looking to stop ball, rotations).

I'm usually not huge on having bad teams sitting in zones, as it can handcuff learning and general defensive development, but I think it'd be a good idea to have that option there. Again, totally depending on your league and level, but I've also coached against some girls teams in my day who struggle very mightily with outside shooting and are therefore quite susceptible to opponents who pack the paint.

If the team is as bad as advertised, I'd keep the offenses relatively simple as well. The triangle or no-look backdoor bounce passes are probably going to take some time to develop. A general motion offense may be a good start, as it will entertain important team concepts like screening, moving without the ball, and sharing the rock as a means to improve ones scoring position. I'd stay away from the four-out, one-in sets that have been all the rage lately. They can be effective, but mostly in systems that contain the type of talent to make them work.

I guess I should have asked this to start, but what level is this school? Class A (Michigan speak for biggest schools)? Class D (smallest)? Or a solid in-the-middle type? Are they 1-40 because they're running in a tough conference full of many female ballers? Or are they 1-40 because girls at this school don't like the game (or if they do, they don't know how to play it)?

[TripleCrown9]

Re: High School Basketball

Girls basketball, you say?

[Herky]

Re: High School Basketball

Here in Iowa all the girls teams outside class 4A (the biggest class) still played 6 on 6. Then my senior year the entire state went to regular 5 on 5. If you know anything about 6 on 6 you'll understand that some girls have never shot a ball in their life or ever had to dribble more than 5 or 6 times ever. Then you have the girls on offense who really never had to play defense. If you don't know about 6 on 6 look it up and you'll get how different it was then normal basketball.

The coach had to basically teach girls ages 16-18 how to shoot, pass, dribble, guard, and run plays. He went right back to the basics that you'd see in 5th grade basketball for these girls. It was a real struggle as his team went from going to state the year before in 6 on 6, to only winning 2 games the following year.

[VDusen04]

Re: High School Basketball

Here in Iowa all the girls teams outside class 4A (the biggest class) still played 6 on 6. Then my senior year the entire state went to regular 5 on 5. If you know anything about 6 on 6 you'll understand that some girls have never shot a ball in their life or ever had to dribble more than 5 or 6 times ever. Then you have the girls on offense who really never had to play defense. If you don't know about 6 on 6 look it up and you'll get how different it was then normal basketball.

The coach had to basically teach girls ages 16-18 how to shoot, pass, dribble, guard, and run plays. He went right back to the basics that you'd see in 5th grade basketball for these girls. It was a real struggle as his team went from going to state the year before in 6 on 6, to only winning 2 games the following year.

That's so wild that a state was still in the 6 on 6 format until recently. Were you guys the last to cross over? I feel like I read about the last state crossing a few years ago but I couldn't remember if it was Iowa or someone else.

[msuduo]

Re: High School Basketball

Here is another kicker. They only had 6 girls last year. No JV team. No freshman team. The high school is only 97 strong.

So far, my 3 pillars, if you will, would be conditioning, fundamentals, and free- throws.
I have no clue of the skill sets but obviously isn't good.

In terms of offense and defense, is there anything I should stay away from? I don't have the job yet but would like to at least sound prepared heading into the interview.

I guess my calling card heading into this would be that my high school team sucked as well and there are things I wished we did differently (more conditioning, more fundamentals) and will base everything I do on past experience.

Thanks for the ideas guys (and gals)

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[mb625]

Re: High School Basketball

That's so wild that a state was still in the 6 on 6 format until recently. Were you guys the last to cross over? I feel like I read about the last state crossing a few years ago but I couldn't remember if it was Iowa or someone else.

That was a while ago. 1993. But we were the second to last. Oklahoma switched in 1995.

[mb625]

Re: High School Basketball

Here is another kicker. They only had 6 girls last year. No JV team. No freshman team. The high school is only 97 strong.

So far, my 3 pillars, if you will, would be conditioning, fundamentals, and free- throws.
I have no clue of the skill sets but obviously isn't good.

In terms of offense and defense, is there anything I should stay away from? I don't have the job yet but would like to at least sound prepared heading into the interview.

I guess my calling card heading into this would be that my high school team sucked as well and there are things I wished we did differently (more conditioning, more fundamentals) and will base everything I do on past experience.

Thanks for the ideas guys (and gals)

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Sounds about like the school I was at. Not a ton of bodies. I don't know about anything you should stay away from. With that skill level I'd say just try to keep it simple. Basic offenses. Motion, flex, etc. Man to man or a basic zone at least to start. As your team grows and learns you can start to branch out. Good luck with your interview!