I need to write more

I noticed I get decent traffic to my blog even though I have been averaging less than 1 post per month lately. I haven't been doing anything new and exciting lately to enhance my coaching career.

One thing I have looked into is being a D-2 student assistant coach. I have emailed a large number of D-2 coaches to ask about the position. Most D-2 teams do not list a student assistant on their sites. If they listed a student assistant on their site, I sent the coach an email about the position. I have not gotten a good response so far. A few have said they are nothing more than managers. It seems like a good option to kick start your career while getting some money for tuition.

I have also begun to email schools to set-up my camp schedule for this summer. It is too early to email them about summer, but I wanted to get an early start. UNC already turned me down saying they have plenty of help from former players and people who have been working the camp for 10-15 years. It is disappointing, but it is obviously hard to get into a camp like that. I'm planning on working the Butler camp for at least two weeks in June and then branching out for the last two weeks in June. Then maybe finding a couple of camps in July to work around AAU tournaments.

For Christmas, I asked for and received some literature from coachmeyer.com. He has written out some very good stuff. He really lets you in his head. I like to hear about the coach's thought process, I believe that's how you grow as a coach. I would suggest his site for any coach.

I think that is all I have for now, but I promise I will write more blogs in the future!

Rare Update

I haven't updated recently because I haven't been coaching. I am only coaching my AAU team this year so this is still my off season I guess.

I have been watching all the games I can though. I have picked up a few plays and sets from different college teams. I have been watching NBA games also. I haven't been a big fan of the NBA since Jordan retired but this year I have been excited to watch games. I haven't picked up too many sets from NBA games, but their late game situational plays are probably what I can incorporate the most.

I have planned out what I want to do offensively and defensively with my team. I am now working on how I am going to teach my stuff systemically. I really want to run stuff that is going to help all the player progress individually while also letting us have success as a team. When you win in AAU tournaments consistently and make deep runs frequently people start to notice and will check the team out. That gets players attention from colleges and player ranking services. So that's what I am currently thinking about.

Congratulations to Zack Novak who broke the career scoring record for Chesterton High School in the first game of the season. He has had a great career so far and I hope he gets a chance to contribute to a division I program next year.

Start of the season

Quick update...the college season has already begun. I have made it to three college practices for three different colleges so far. I hope to make it to a few more places before the season starts. It is fun to see how each coach teaches something...the terms they use, the way they get their point across. Basketball is a simple game and most of the time people make it more complex than it really is by trying to do too much.

I am looking for some good coaching books/DVDs. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I will update the blog soon when I have more time.

It's been awhile

Let's see what is new since my last post. I moved, I started school, I started a new job and I am currently looking for a weekend job. School is my main priority right now. I think it is important for me to have a strong first semester back. I'm motivated and have a goal to work towards. Motivation and knowing what you want to do makes boring work just that more bearable. I really can't wait to finish school and start my career.

I haven't been thinking much basketball. I read my daily websites and sometimes those provoke a thought or two but I haven't been doing much else with basketball. I should find some old games to watch. Something to keep the mind sharp. I don't have a coaching job for this winter lined up. I might just focus on school and work with possibly volunteering somewhere. I think I will just go with the flow on that one.

An esp. educated young person who is anti materialistic, purposeless, apathetic, and usually works in a dead-end job by definition is a slacker. I was the living definition from 2003 til now basically. I had never looked up the word before, but it's not that bad of a word by definition. I think being anti materialistic is a very positive thing(I guess I am biased). Purposeless...hardly any young person really knows what they want to do with their life or what they want to have to eat for the next meal. It takes experiences in order to find a passion. A true passion is hard to find. Many people chose a career choice without having a passion for it. I am genuinely sorry for those people. They might even think they have a passion for it because they think of the material rewards tied with their career path. People usually find out that without a true passion they won't gain those material goals. Then they are either stuck in a job they hate or they have to find something else to do.

The stigma of being labeled a slacker is the worst part. Most people associate being a slacker to being a "loser" and labeling anyone a loser is probably unfair. I had a post about depression in young adults a few months back. I would guess most of the young adults fighting depression in the U.S. could be defined by the word slacker. So I urge everyone to embrace slackers. They are not losers. Their lives are not over. Many former slackers are among the richest people in the world. Once a slacker finds their passion the weight of the world is lifted off their shoulders and you will not meet a happier person no matter what situation they are in.

It's just a thought...I could be wrong :)

Long time, no post

Well let's see...I was in Florida for about a week and a half for two AAU tournaments. It was fun, learned a few things but it was a long time to be on the road. We did pretty well in the two tournaments. The same types of mistakes were the team's downfall in every game. Basketball is a very simple game in which poor fundamentals hurt you immensely. Poor fundamentals do not allow you to beat teams that are more talented than your team or teams that are very similar in talent/skill. Poor fundamentals are a habit though just like having good fundamentals. They are hard to change once you do things a certain way for many years. It's something that you have to really concentrate on to correct. Those mistakes have probably costs a couple of our guards scholarship offers, not saying that they won't get them later but for now they are lower on the list than they should be.

Currently, I am getting ready to move, looking for a new part-time job that will work with my school schedule and possibly a coaching job, but I'm also looking for a coaching job and still setting up my school for the fall. Moving won't be bad because I don't have many big things so I'm not too worried about that. The job is what I am worried about. I need to find something with flexible hours and good pay. Good pay is a tough thing to find in Indiana. All of the surrounding states have a minimum wage of $7+/hr while Indiana is at $5.35. It is ridiculous. Indiana is about 5 years beyond on everything though...music, fashion, beliefs, everything basically. It a good thing we have perfect weather or no one would ever want to live here! ha!

P.S. I'm glad Tiger Woods won SportsCenter's Who's Now segment. It was possibly the worst SportsCenter segment ever and I'm just glad it's over. Hopefully, they never do that again. Just stick to highlights and Kenny Mayne segments...life will be a lot better!

Year Objectives

Before the AAU season started I made up a list of objectives I wanted to complete with the team. Basically, things I thought an AAU coach at this level could get done or help improve. I'll copy/paste my list and just put a Pass/Fail grade for each objective...

1) Prepare players to compete at the Junior Varsity and Varsity level -Pass

2) Improve players offensive and defensive fundamentals-Pass

3) Teach the motion offense with a team emphasis, which includes but not limited to the following concepts…

a) Proper screening and screening angles-Tough one, probably a Fail

b) Proper use of screens

i) Cutter-shoulder to shoulder-Pass

ii) Cutter-reading the defender to curl, flare, straight cut, or backdoor-Pass

iii) Screener-setting solid screen then being the second cutter-Pass

c) Teach how to get open without using a screen

(1) “L” cut-Pass

(2) “V” cut with no “dancing”-Pass

(3) Backdoor cuts-Pass

d) Assist in the development of good/consistent shooting form

i) Using correct foot-work around screens and off the dribble-Didn't concentrate much on this for the most part they did this well already

ii) Getting set-up before the pass comes-Pass

4) Teach and improve defensive fundamentals that are key to any defensive strategy

a) Individual principles being as follows…

i) Head on ball, hand in passing lane, butt down-Pass

ii) Pressure ball handler, but not overly aggressive where there are frequent blow-bys-Pass only late in the season...Memorial Day weekend on it was excellent

iii) Influence ball handler to sideline and baseline-Fail, just never could get the importance of keeping a ball handler out of the lane to them.

iv) Run at open shooters with hand up in shooting vision and butt down to react to driving possibilities by the shooter-Pass, not perfect but habits were finally forming late in the year. It was just a matter of creating good habits.

v) Jump to ball when man you are defending passes to another player-Fail

vi) Front or play 3/4^th’s on all post players-Pass

b) Team principles being as follows…

i) Help defense is almost zone like-lots of movement, helping and recovering=Pass, improved greatly late in season

ii) Soft hedges on all screens (ball, down, and back screens)-Fail, they had the technique correct but didn't have the habit or recognition to hedge every screen

iii) Teach different ways to defend screens-Over (2^nd person), under (4^th person), slide through (3^rd person)-Pass and did this well

iv) The possession doesn’t end until we have the ball

(1) Make contact with opponent-Fail, always wanted to chase the ball instead of getting into their opponent. In the last game of the Best of the Midwest, they did this very well. So they knew how, it was a matter of them thinking it was important because they knew they couldn't out jump an opponent for once.

(2) Step through opponent with same side leg that you made contact with your arm

(3) Then finish the block out by reverse pivoting into opponent with hands at shoulder level

Overall, my objectives were a passing grade. This is probably because I am grading my own exam, haha. Early on most of the objectives were easily a failing grade. I would say for most of the points things really clicked during the Memorial Day weekend tournament in Fort Wayne and then kept improving the rest of the way. Effort was better especially on the defensive end. Attention to little things like blocking out, where we caught the ball in the offense, pass faking against pressure, staying out of dangerous areas against traps, staying with a play after a mistake, ignoring missed calls by the refs...all of these things improved dramatically! I would argue the last two things mentioned were the most important. Controlling emotions especially when dealing with things that are out of your control is extremely important in basketball. You just move on and hustle even more instead of giving up and feeling sorry for yourself. It was exciting to see things change seemingly overnight even though it definitely was not overnight!

Tournament and Fife

The Hoosier Shootout was held this past weekend in Indianapolis. It is the start of the insane month of July for recruiting. College coaches are out in force evaluating players and fighting over the top recruits. July can make or break programs for many years to come.

My freshman to be team played in the event. No college coaches attended any of our games obviously, but I'm sure some scouting services were in attendance. We played well the whole tournament. It was a small, but very talented field. I believe there were 16 teams in our age group. I would say 12 were very tough teams.

We ended up coming in 3rd place in the tournament. We could have been in the championship game very easily. It came down to our inability to handle a full court run n jump defense. The traps were poorly executed and very exploitable but we didn't keep our heads up and realize where the double team was coming from. That literally was the only thing they had to do. They were trapping from straight on which is a horrible way to trap, but when you dribble with your head down you can't see it coming and you are in trouble.

Frustrating to say the least. We were leading the whole game basically until the 4Th quarter. Our effort was very good and I can't always say that. Our defense has improved greatly. I think that was partly because they spent all of June with their high school coaches and I'm sure they were scolded for their defense.

I was heading over to the court where the older team was playing when I heard someone say "hey Trevor" from the college coaches section. It was IPFW head coach Dane Fife. I really didn't think he would remember my name because he wasn't overly involved with the IPFW camp I worked. It was good to know he remembered me. I really built some nice connections in the month of June which I'm very happy about!