High School Basketball

[wwharton]

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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I'd say VDusen04 nailed a lot. One thing that is important (that you haven't mentioned) is the level of the competition. Either way, your main focus should be on defense. Offensive skills take time and willingness to learn but anyone can play defense if they want to. You just need to access your girls' athletic ability and build a defensive strategy based on what you have. Shooting from the unknown, I'd say your base set should be a packed in 2-3 zone. I agree with VDusen04 that fundamental man to man D is the way to teach, but I think we can assume you aren't preparing any of these girls for play in college, and you will probably need the extra time to work on other things.

I think the mistake a lot of coaches make is to assume that you just throw kids in a zone and call it a day. You should TEACH the zone. A 2-3 is fairly simple to grasp but there are holes and you should focus on how to cover them. You also should drill rebounding when in a zone because it's harder than when you can just find YOUR man and box them out. But a packed in 2-3 forces outside shooting and clock milking ball movement... both good things for a team trying to play above their level.

Other than that, I'd say conditioning and fundamentals are huge. Your goals to focus on should be rebounding (don't give up offensive boards, try to get offensive boards for easier shots), limiting turnovers (dribbling to protect the ball, passing... both under pressure), and transition D (limit fast break points, force half court sets).

On offense, a simple motion should be fine. It doesn't sound like you'll have any stars you should build your offense around. You want something that you can teach quickly (like on D) so you can spend a lot of time focusing on fundamentals.

Could say plenty more and I'm sure VDusen04 could also. Let us know if you get the job and/or have any specific questions.

[st0rmb11]

Re: High School Basketball

Spoilered my answer for length.

Spoiler

I wouldn't suggest a full court press with a bunch of girls that probably don't have much basketball IQ. At least not right off the bat. Work on it a little early, but I'd save that for after they've gotten more comfortable and familiar with everything. Too much of that is dependent on timing and positioning at the right time.

Also, running a full court press with a team that may not be too good, you're going to suffer through a lot of early games where they don't quite have the press figured out, and they'll be giving up a lot of layups. This can be REALLY discouraging to a, probably, young and inexperienced team.

Not to mention - to set up a press, you have to score. Sounds like you may have a tough time getting buckets for extended stretches. (of course, you could do what I had to do this year with my JV team. We had a great half-court press, but we were really struggling in the half-court, on offense. I just knew that if we could set up our press, we'd run all over this team. We just couldn't score, to set it up. So, I told a kid to just throw the ball out of bounds under the basket, so we can set it up. We went on a 20-2 run after that.)

But it really all depends on your level of athletes. If you have some good speed, you can pull off a full court press decently enough.


I had a very similar case when I first started coaching a few years ago. I started at the JV boys level, and they had gone 4-25 the previous two seasons combined. So, I came in and did the same thing a lot of these guys are suggesting - defense first. The difference is, I had freshmen and sophomores on the team, and a majority of the time, we could get away with pressure defenses because we were just that much more athletic than other teams. Had it been at the varsity level, I would have never jumped straight into a full court press because while my guys may have been more athletic than most JV players, they were sub-par athletes for their age group. Which is why I didn't press much with them on the varsity level.

However, with girls, you can risk pressure defenses a little more than you can with guys because the passes will be weaker, and the girls will have more time to recover and get to passes.

All of that said - here's my advice to you: I would pressure, but I'd keep it in the half-court, at least early on. Run a half-court trap (I run a 1-3-1 trap, with 3 guys lined up across the the half court line, then my best athletes at the front and the back. But what you run really depends on personnel.) The reason I'm more partial to a half-court press is because it's tougher for the offense to get someone loose for an open layup. Your defenders are already closer to the basket, and as long as they know when and where to get back, and they do it hard, they'll have no problems with giving up layups. Also, if run correctly, you can trap right past the half-court line, and man, that really puts the other team in a bind. Against a full-court press, they can usually pass backwards, sideways, or forwards. If you trap a player just past half-court, they only have one direction to throw the pass.

Still, to set that up, you'd either have to score or have a dead ball situation. You'll need some defenses to fall back on after turnovers and missed shots. I would say have 2, 3, even 4 defenses that you can switch up, to give the other team different looks. Including some that you can trap out of.

Maybe a 1-3-1, where you trap the corners. Most teams will have their weaker ball handlers in the corner, or maybe even a post player that had to pop out to receive a pass. Either way, it'll be someone that won't respond well to being trapped.

My favorite half-court zone defense is a 3-2, where the top defender (my best athlete) rotates to replace each other defender, depending on where the ball is. This really throws off offenses because the defense appears to be a 1-2-2, which coaches know how to exploit, but then it acts different, so I saw a lot of possessions where the other team would just pass it around the perimeter, trying to figure out why they can't get the openings they thought they could. And eventually, one of them would throw a weak pass that one of my guys would be waiting on, and we'd pick it off.

If you can simplify the Syracuse 2-3 zone, it's a good asset to have up your sleeve. I ran a little of that one year. Again, just changing things up to give the offense and the other coach more to think about.

Whatever you do with zones - don't just let the kids stand in it. That's one reason I'm completely against the basic 2-1-2/2-3 defense that you usually see at that level. Kids just stand around. I like zones that force movement and rotation.

But I would strongly suggest working hard on a lot of man to man. It's always something that you need to have at your disposal, especially if you're behind in a close game, and you can't stand back in a zone while the other team dribbles out the clock. Plus, knowing the principals of a solid man to man will help the players in every other defense they'll play. It teaches them proper defensive positioning, as well as rotation principals.


On offense, if you don't have much to work with, I'd honestly simplify offense down to its most basic form. Show the girls when and where to cut against various defenses. I know that sounds a little odd, but I actually had to do this with my guys the first year I had them. I would spend entire practices setting up defenses, then walking the offense through every pass, and showing them where each cut could be or where it may come from. After a while, they really grasped it, and the ball movement drastically improved. I didn't have any sort of outside shooting, so it was tough to run many set plays against the zones because the way to beat zones is to shoot them out of it. If you can't do that, they'll just pack it in and make it impossible to get a good look inside.

But I would really work hard on showing them the basics of when and where to cut on offense. Show them where each defense is susceptible and where it can be broken down. Also have a couple of different sets against zones. High/Low post set, double high post set, double low post, 5 out set, etc. Again, though, that all depends on personnel. Of course, have some plays ready for when teams go man to man on you. You'll want some quick hit type plays, where you can run it for an open layup. Also, have a continuity play, of course. A flex or motion offense.

That's my input on the matter.

[dbeth]

Re: High School Basketball

I'm our girls varsity assistant here at our high school, as well as teach math. We just lost the State Girls Player of the year to graduation coming in to this year, so we were rebuilding.

The first thing you need to determine is a philosophy. If you haven't coached a lick of high school basketball before, I'm sorry to tell you, it's probably going to be tough to get the varsity head job. You need experience coaching at some HS level (I believe) before jumping right into varsity competition. You need to be able to go into that interview with what you're going to run on offense (motion, flex, princeton, dribble-drive, etc.) defense (man, zone, press, etc.), as well as out-of-season stuff. How will you handle parents, community, etc.?

As far as coming off a 1-40 record (close to what our boys have done the past two years...and I got passed over for that job), you need to stick to basics. This isn't NBA 2k. Get the girls to buy into your system, and don't try to spread things too thin. Personally, I wouldn't run and gun all over the place and press like crazy. You need to develop your team into being able to do that WELL.

Here's where I would start:

passing & catching (can't score if you constantly turn the ball over)
solid half court D (man or zone, you pick; BUT BE SOLID IN YOUR PRINCIPLES)
rebounding (limit the other team to one and done)
get easy shots on offense (whether that be inside-out 3s, elbow jumpers, backdoor layups...find something simple early your girls can run well).

Don't overthink the game too much. Have a core set of values you, your staff, and your team strongly believe in and hammer those early. When things go rough (and they will), stay true to them and work through the other issues. Basketball is a fairly simple game, if you prioritize the proper things.

Good luck!!

[wwharton]

Re: High School Basketball

Spoilered my answer for length.

Spoiler

I wouldn't suggest a full court press with a bunch of girls that probably don't have much basketball IQ. At least not right off the bat. Work on it a little early, but I'd save that for after they've gotten more comfortable and familiar with everything. Too much of that is dependent on timing and positioning at the right time.

Also, running a full court press with a team that may not be too good, you're going to suffer through a lot of early games where they don't quite have the press figured out, and they'll be giving up a lot of layups. This can be REALLY discouraging to a, probably, young and inexperienced team.

Not to mention - to set up a press, you have to score. Sounds like you may have a tough time getting buckets for extended stretches. (of course, you could do what I had to do this year with my JV team. We had a great half-court press, but we were really struggling in the half-court, on offense. I just knew that if we could set up our press, we'd run all over this team. We just couldn't score, to set it up. So, I told a kid to just throw the ball out of bounds under the basket, so we can set it up. We went on a 20-2 run after that.)

But it really all depends on your level of athletes. If you have some good speed, you can pull off a full court press decently enough.


I had a very similar case when I first started coaching a few years ago. I started at the JV boys level, and they had gone 4-25 the previous two seasons combined. So, I came in and did the same thing a lot of these guys are suggesting - defense first. The difference is, I had freshmen and sophomores on the team, and a majority of the time, we could get away with pressure defenses because we were just that much more athletic than other teams. Had it been at the varsity level, I would have never jumped straight into a full court press because while my guys may have been more athletic than most JV players, they were sub-par athletes for their age group. Which is why I didn't press much with them on the varsity level.

However, with girls, you can risk pressure defenses a little more than you can with guys because the passes will be weaker, and the girls will have more time to recover and get to passes.

All of that said - here's my advice to you: I would pressure, but I'd keep it in the half-court, at least early on. Run a half-court trap (I run a 1-3-1 trap, with 3 guys lined up across the the half court line, then my best athletes at the front and the back. But what you run really depends on personnel.) The reason I'm more partial to a half-court press is because it's tougher for the offense to get someone loose for an open layup. Your defenders are already closer to the basket, and as long as they know when and where to get back, and they do it hard, they'll have no problems with giving up layups. Also, if run correctly, you can trap right past the half-court line, and man, that really puts the other team in a bind. Against a full-court press, they can usually pass backwards, sideways, or forwards. If you trap a player just past half-court, they only have one direction to throw the pass.

Still, to set that up, you'd either have to score or have a dead ball situation. You'll need some defenses to fall back on after turnovers and missed shots. I would say have 2, 3, even 4 defenses that you can switch up, to give the other team different looks. Including some that you can trap out of.

Maybe a 1-3-1, where you trap the corners. Most teams will have their weaker ball handlers in the corner, or maybe even a post player that had to pop out to receive a pass. Either way, it'll be someone that won't respond well to being trapped.

My favorite half-court zone defense is a 3-2, where the top defender (my best athlete) rotates to replace each other defender, depending on where the ball is. This really throws off offenses because the defense appears to be a 1-2-2, which coaches know how to exploit, but then it acts different, so I saw a lot of possessions where the other team would just pass it around the perimeter, trying to figure out why they can't get the openings they thought they could. And eventually, one of them would throw a weak pass that one of my guys would be waiting on, and we'd pick it off.

If you can simplify the Syracuse 2-3 zone, it's a good asset to have up your sleeve. I ran a little of that one year. Again, just changing things up to give the offense and the other coach more to think about.

Whatever you do with zones - don't just let the kids stand in it. That's one reason I'm completely against the basic 2-1-2/2-3 defense that you usually see at that level. Kids just stand around. I like zones that force movement and rotation.

But I would strongly suggest working hard on a lot of man to man. It's always something that you need to have at your disposal, especially if you're behind in a close game, and you can't stand back in a zone while the other team dribbles out the clock. Plus, knowing the principals of a solid man to man will help the players in every other defense they'll play. It teaches them proper defensive positioning, as well as rotation principals.


On offense, if you don't have much to work with, I'd honestly simplify offense down to its most basic form. Show the girls when and where to cut against various defenses. I know that sounds a little odd, but I actually had to do this with my guys the first year I had them. I would spend entire practices setting up defenses, then walking the offense through every pass, and showing them where each cut could be or where it may come from. After a while, they really grasped it, and the ball movement drastically improved. I didn't have any sort of outside shooting, so it was tough to run many set plays against the zones because the way to beat zones is to shoot them out of it. If you can't do that, they'll just pack it in and make it impossible to get a good look inside.

But I would really work hard on showing them the basics of when and where to cut on offense. Show them where each defense is susceptible and where it can be broken down. Also have a couple of different sets against zones. High/Low post set, double high post set, double low post, 5 out set, etc. Again, though, that all depends on personnel. Of course, have some plays ready for when teams go man to man on you. You'll want some quick hit type plays, where you can run it for an open layup. Also, have a continuity play, of course. A flex or motion offense.

That's my input on the matter.

I wanted to reply to this because there is some GREAT general advice here that I think I disagree with for the situation you're entering, so wanted to elaborate a bit. I'm assuming 1) your girls will have trouble scoring and 2) need to start from scratch with defensive principles.

So with that said, any kind of press (half, full, 3/4) is probably a bad idea to focus on. I agree 100% with st0rmb11's line of thinking for athletic kids who may not be fundamentally sound. But if the kids aren't athletic trapping defenses lead to easy baskets which is the last thing you need. He does make a good point about the man defense principles, and that should be factored in long term. But personally I have no problem with a very simple zone defense for low level girls and younger boys when you're trying to win games. They can not just stand around though, they need to learn how to actually play it. But depending on the level of competition it can be very helpful.

dbeth also makes a good point about having a plan to handle parents, school philosophy, etc. That will be VERY important.

[msuduo]

Re: High School Basketball

Yeah. It's worse than I thought. We are talking scores of games like 81-3. 51-7. 79-5.


All I could possibly preach is fundamentals and just getting better every day.

I can't imagine that it would be a career suicide situation but boy, going 0-fer again would be tough to get out of.

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[mb625]

Re: High School Basketball

On the plus side, there's nowhere to go but up!

[msuduo]

Re: High School Basketball

On the plus side, there's nowhere to go but up!

Thats the only thing that's keeping me from declining the interview. Not many people get the chance at a head coaching gig their second year of teaching, no matter how bad it is.

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[st0rmb11]

Re: High School Basketball

What has been the previous coaching history, do you know?

I know in a lot of cases, when there has been that kind of losing going on, the program has probably had a revolving door of coaches, which really wears on the players and makes it tough for them to fully commit to playing and discourages them.

Also, one thing I'll warn you about with a school that small, and a team with a history of losing - the parents will think they are more entitled to an opinion than at larger schools. (I say that from personal experience. The school I've coached at for 3 years has about 180-200 students, and the kids are at this school for a reason; their parents have money and they think that they and their kids are entitled to things. They want their kids coddled to. I'm not saying the school you're interviewing at is like that, but just be ready for it..)

It sounds like you'll have a tough time getting enough girls out there for most of the advice that I gave, and that others gave. If you're looking at a team that is only 6 or 7 deep, you can throw out pressing. And I think you can throw out playing a lot of man to man. You won't have the depth to be risking foul trouble, or to be running those girls ragged by pressing a lot.

One thing I don't want you to misconstrue - while I did advise some pressure defenses, I do NOT think you should consider a run and gun style. Usually on a team that will likely be inept offensively, I think you should slow the pace down as much as possible. Make every possession you have count, and limit the other team's possessions.

Before even worrying about your game plan or schemes, I would spend the first few weeks of practice doing nothing but fundamentals. Passing, dribbling, shooting (layups, free throws, etc.), boxing out, defensive positioning and basic rotations (whether it be for a man to man or 2-3).

Make sure they girls understand the importance of taking care of the ball, and throwing good passes because I know you don't have any clue what your personnel would be, but as I said earlier, it sounds like you may REALLY want to control the pace at all costs. Walk the ball up the court on offense, if you can. Maybe have early practices, where you don't allow the girls to shoot until they've made a certain number of passes. Get them in the habit of not rushing shots or taking bad shots. Like I said, control the number of possessions the other team gets.

And when the other team has the ball, make sure they are limited to just one shot. Defensive rebounding is paramount when you're pretty sure you won't be able to put up many points. You have to keep the other team from getting multiple chances to score.

[wwharton]

Re: High School Basketball

More good advice from st0rmb11. Adding to the thought that there have been a carousel of coaches and it's hard to get girls to come out for the team, let alone stay motivated... whatever you do, put some fun in it. Every kind of drill can be a competition and promote teams getting behind even the smallest amount of success. It sounds like you're going to make these girls understand how being on the basketball team can be fun beyond winning games so focus on the fun in learning in practice.

Yeah. It's worse than I thought. We are talking scores of games like 81-3. 51-7. 79-5.


All I could possibly preach is fundamentals and just getting better every day.

I can't imagine that it would be a career suicide situation but boy, going 0-fer again would be tough to get out of.

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Is your goal to coach or be a teacher? I don't see it as career suicide either way... your expectations should be very low coaching that team. But just wondering.

[VDusen04]

Re: High School Basketball

Yeah. It's worse than I thought. We are talking scores of games like 81-3. 51-7. 79-5.

All I could possibly preach is fundamentals and just getting better every day.

I can't imagine that it would be a career suicide situation but boy, going 0-fer again would be tough to get out of.

I say do not let their history get you down. Taking on a team that's struggled that mightily should not negatively affect your other possible coaching experiences in the future. Thankfully, high school level coaching most often tends to be different in that regard. The good administrators are going to care more about who you are, how you coach, and what you teach (on the court, but also off it).

Win or lose, I think it's possible to earn a worthwhile and enjoyable experience out of this situation. I went winless in my first season as a head coach (middle school boys basketball) but we all had a blast. On top of that, we learned and developed, both on the coaching front, and as players. After their winless season with me (and the winless season that came before me), they eventually went on to win a district championship their senior year, and I've never been prouder. The small victories you may be able to earn with that girls team could end up being just as rewarding.

[msuduo]

Re: High School Basketball

Well, here goes nothing! Thanks for the wisdom ladies and gents. I'll let ya know how things go.

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