How to Run Youth Basketball Tryouts
The worst part of coaching basketball at the youth and high school levels is making cuts after tryouts. The next worst part is informing a player that was hoping to be on one team that he…
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Author: Mark Schruender
Finding Balance Coaching with Enthusiasm
I was listening to Chris Oliver’s podcast recently and they were discussing practice enthusiasm. The guest mentioned that Jeff Van Gundy said every time he goes to a college practice, there is a sense of high…
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How to Handle and Prevent Blowouts
I just read the book The Captain Class by Sam Walker. Walker’s research indicates the one constant among the greatest teams in history is a captain. All of the captains are incredibly competitive. Competitive often to…
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Teaching Offensive Rebounding After Free Throws
Yesterday I wrote about the importance of rebounding off of missed free throws on the defensive side. Many of the same observations that apply to defense also apply to offensive rebounding. Players are occasionally out of…
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Coaches Need to Emphasize Free Throw Rebounds
In my experience as a high school girls basketball coach, each team gets roughly 70 possessions per game. Games are 32 minutes long. That means that the average time of a possession is 13 or 14…
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Three Useful Basketball Resources
This is the last post that I will make regarding my trip to Merrimack College. One question I ask in my visits to the school is a longer version of, “What’s new?” Coach LeBlanc told me…
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Players that Grow the Most Exhibit Uncommon Discipline
A question I like to ask coaches is, “Think back on a player that you coached or played with over the course of multiple seasons that improved more than anyone. What are the one or two…
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Implementing a Terms Index for the Team
Merrimack Coach Monique LeBlanc gave me a simple and effective idea. She told me that the entire team is going to become familiar with a terms index. The idea was spurned out of watching University of…
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Balancing Recruiting Challenges with the Current Roster
Merrimack Women’s Head Coach Monique LeBlanc was generous enough to share her thoughts with me last month. She always is. Last July we discussed managing individual expectations and five-out concepts. The year before she elaborated on…
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How to Practice Closeouts in a 2-3 Zone
Merrimack College usually plays a 2-3 zone. One of the challenges of that defense is getting out on shooters. They used a closeout drill to simulate the movement of the ball from the top to the…
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