The basketball coaching blog that brings you the best drills, philosophies and learnings from the world’s greatest coaches
Two seasons ago I attended Villanova basketball practice. They had just won their second national championship in three seasons, and I was curious to see their practice routines. The person who guided me along the way…
Read More
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…
Read More
I vividly remember one awful game from this past season. I’m just going to call it the Game of Shame. We faced a double-digit halftime deficit. Not that that was anything new. It actually happened on…
Read More
I just read Kevin Eastman’s book Why the Best Are the Best. My favorite anecdote from the book relates to players waiting on the sideline during practice. Eastman, a former Celtics assistant, tells the story of…
Read More
After the skill work portion of practice, the entire practice was scored and competitive. And from the look of it, the teams were balanced with blue going against white. As a result, there were points in…
Read More
I wrote the other day about Villanova’s defensive skill progressions. That was only one drill during a three hour practice. Villanova allocated time to a variety of fundamentals in their brand of basketball. Among the skills…
Read More
Villanova used three managers and coaches to go through six levels of progression in their half-court defense. Here they are labeled 2, 3, and 4. For teams without the luxury of three (or one) manager, players…
Read More
For reader discretion this write up on Villanova ball screen actions is based on watching them during one practice. My interpretations might not be one hundred percent accurate with what their coaching staff would endorse. Take…
Read More
When our high school season ended in early March, I made our team pick out three measurable goals that they would work toward in the off-season and beyond if necessary. One of mine was to read…
Read More
I had the opportunity to watch the Villanova Women’s practice for an hour. I can remember watching a Merrimack practice the year before in which they ran a series of five-out sets. After practice, their coach…
Read More