Arizona's Fouling Mistakes

If you have not seen or heard about Arizona's ridiculously bad late game mistakes from Tuesday night you can watch the clip here.

If you make that mistake once in your life or see it once in your life you should learn the importance of time and score immediately. For it to happen twice in the same game by the same team in the final minute of a game is just absurd. It will make a coach's head explode. I guess it shows the importance of communication even with things you assume players know. Assuming players know something will always get a coach in hot water.

I can imagine the Arizona coach didn't want to dwell on the mistake in the huddle when they were designing their final shot but you probably must say if there is a turnover or missed shot just get back on defense and make them hit a tough shot. That way you don't dwell on the huge mistake, but also remind the other players that you don't need to foul.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

By the way this is one of the areas of coaching I have tried to improve the most and I think I have made leaps and bounds but still need even more improvement. Coaching is just like playing...you are either getting better at it or getting worse. I don't believe you can stay the same. It might be a tiny fraction for better or worse but there is change.

Fast Breaks

I was able to watch a lot of games with ESPN's marathon of games to kickoff the season and the way teams have been running the floor in the early part of the year was trying me nuts. About 90% of the fast breaks I have seen have been poorly executed by the offense. They either don't get wide enough and allow one guy to guard two people or they don't pass the ball on time. Meaning, they get down too far and then decide to pass it which usually leads to a turnover and a non-finish by the guy receiving the ball. Have teams quit running 3-man weave drills? I don't think so. Have teams quit doing fast break drills? I don't believe so. I guess it is just early season mistakes because they want to score so badly that they actually keep themself from scoring.

Kevin Eastman, who is an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics, had a good article on his blog about spacing. He talks about why you need spacing and what spacing the floor actually means. Some players know they are supposed to space the floor, but they are never taught why they need to so they don't realize how important it is. I believe players learn quicker if they know why they are supposed to do something. If they ask why it forces the coach to know why. If the coach doesn't remember why than he should probably re-think his point.