“The Laughing Coach”
In the present moment, offering help for seeing March Madness clearly. A playful guide to enjoying the game from an irreverent view of an experienced basketball coach.
My goal is to help you to see the game from fun new angles and to light – up the Madness for you in the process. May it be refreshing for you to experience a completely different view than those relying on acronyms such as “Quads”, “NET”and what I refer to as “Dumb-Alytics”. (to be further looked at in the future)
Episode one ! “pass is not a pass.”
My friend, also an experienced coach with decades of coaching experience, and I, are laughing as we watch another exciting NCAA men’s college hoops game. We enjoy predicting the silliness as it is about to occur. We have seen it often whilst watching hundreds of games. Here comes the modern version of the fast break ! The ball dribbled down the middle 3 versus 2 with tall defenders waiting in front of the basket. Will the dribbler pass the ball ? No way ! He drives straight into the defenders who are anxiously waiting happily to greet him. When he arrives within three feet of them he attempts a lay-up which is summarily blocked by the defenders. This used to be considered a bad shot. It could land you on the bench next to the coach if done more than once. At any rate, the blocked shot leads to an opposition player with the ball going rapidly towards the other end of the court and pulling up for a 3 point shot without ever making more than one pass or no pass at all. The three point shot, more often than not, barely grazing the rim. We are laughing again. This kind of “rim grazer” shot, we notice has become so often an occurrence in games that my buddy and I wonder if there is a new rule giving one point for a long shot that touches the rim ? Perhaps the players shooting these rim grazers believe it is so ? Or are they prisoners of dumb-alytics.
Historical context may be helpful. Passing the ball during a 3 on 2 fast break used to be what was taught – and what was effective. Now the tactic is dribble head down until you crash into Goliath(s) and “passing to a teammate” – what’s that ? There used to be a word for this , “selfish.” Now we enjoy it as entertaining and worth laughing at as what does not work is repeated again and again.
A case in point. Another fun tactic in the beautiful game. A tactic that is seen frequently now and was seen less in the past. The “dribble off of your foot” strategy. This is worth multiple laughs as this mistake is repeated frequently. “ Do what works”is sometimes not the mantra that comes to mind in watching the games. As you view games may you enjoy the predictable excitement of this one ! The player dribbles hard from the wing position to the baseline short corner area. (often nearer the basket than the corner)This often leads to disaster for the offense when done against a good or even decent defensive team. The dribbler has hopes of scoring or making the predictable, easily defended pass to the opposite corner. Two things, filled with delightful action. often occur upon the dribbler getting stopped along the baseline near the basket – he dribbles off of his foot (usually seen multiple times a game) or the dribbler is forced to stop his dribble, gets flustered by defenders, has no easy passing option and loses the ball unless he manages to make a pass back out to the wing area. In my practices I call this dribble into that spot “the dribble into the valley of death.” Normally this leads to stopping the action at that point in practice and asking the obvious question, “Why did you dribble there ?” “What good thing did you think would happen?” Ah yes, there are times when this dribble is effective but take note as you watch, it’s more effective if the ball has been passed side to side to side.
This brings us to a phrase from the great Princeton coach Pete Carril, “A pass is not a pass when it is made after you’ve tried to do everything else.” Or try this one from Coach Carril as well, “Keep your dribble. Use it when you’re going to do something useful.” This is an old school idea. In today’s entertaining, action game see how often players dribble first the instant they catch the ball – and then take turns dribbling, head down,often without obvious purpose. Oops, note the shot clock. Note the teams who move the ball quickly side to side and who pass accurately. Often they are the winning teams. May you enjoy the beautiful ballet of the wonderful sport ! May you also have plenty of laughs along the way.
The author is a graduate of UCLA during the John Wooden era who has five decades of coaching experience. This includes coaching high school young men’s championships in Southern California to coaching winning club teams in Germany including pro-players and, in between, also building winning teams from previous losing teams wherever he coached. He and his good friend have 80 years of combined coaching experience.