100 COACHING TIPS FOR WINNING BASKETBALL GENERAL "Coaching is preparation"....Pete Carril "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"....John Wooden “Basketball is a thinking game but, as a coach, one of your major responsibilities is to take as many situations as possible out of thought processes and turn them into quick reactions requiring no thought at all”….Dick Divinzio "Tell them what you want done, not what you don't want done. We spend too much time telling them what they did wrong. We should spend more time telling them how we want it done."....George Raveling Surround yourself with the best assistant coaches possible. Don't be afraid that one of them will take your job. And when you surround yourself with good assistants, know when to get out of the way. When you surround yourself with good people, don't set a bunch of restrictions. “I don't like sloppiness on or off the court. Players not only were well- groomed and dressed neatly on road trips, but also put towels in the towel basket and not on the floor, picked up soap and turned off their showers and put gum and candy wrappers in the wastebasket”….John Wooden "When you are speaking to your team after a game, never talk about the kid who was the star of the game. Talk about what your other players did to help the team win. Be sure to spread the wealth....then have individual meetings with one to three players to praise and reinforce. Make sure you touch them."....Mike Krzyzewski "At Boston University, I motivated negatively, and I found that although it can work at first, by the end of the year everyone is dying for the year to end and you have lost them. The last two years at BU, I motivated positively and got much better results." ----Rick Pitino "Every day you teach attitude."....Don Meyer “Leadership by all leads to leadership for none, and that spells chaos and confusion. You must be secure in your sense of unchallenged authority in order to be a real instrument in your team’s success”….Jim Bonder When selecting a captain, choose the player who can lead and who can get things done for you. Don’t leave the position of captain to a popularity contest that you best leader may not win. I think just about all teams are over coached. They have a lot of defenses, but not one which they do particularly well. They have several offenses but too often fail to take advantage of openings and mismatches. They have handfuls of out of bounds plays, but seldom screen well or make sharp, well-time cuts. “We clearly define “roles” that help players play to their strengths and away from their weaknesses. I specifically tell each individual what we need from him, where his shots should be taken from, and where he stands at that particularly point in the year.” Before the first game, I call a team meeting and define each player’s role as it stands at the moment. Each player must know exactly where he stands with the team. I have found that players would rather know where they are than to guess and be disappointed after the first game.”…John Calipari Coaches must constantly strive to improve their knowledge of their particular sport. Old dogs can still learn new tricks. “It has been our experience that an inordinate number of ahletes are motivated by one stroke in particular--an excessive need for approval....this is the single most destructive need an athlete or anybody else can have.....an inordinate number of athletes are not only motivated to participate in sports but also compelled to succeed in sports because of their insatiable need for approval from both significant and not-so-significant others.”… Michael Scott & Louis Pelliccioni “A physical mistake is more apt to result in a loss of confidence than a mental mistake. Of course some coaches are quick to yank a player out of the game after she makes an error. Generally speaking, I don't think this is a good idea because it re-creates the negative spiral I've talked about earlier. The only time I'd ever take a player out for making a mistake would be for a mental lapse, if I thought she wasn't concentrating, for instance....All sports are built on mistakes and failures and being able to overcome them. If you take someone out for a physical error, then you're negatively applying the dynamics of performance.”…Tony Dicicco "Remember the difference between a boss and a leader. A boss says, "Go!" - A leader says, "Let's go!"....E.M.Kelly “As head coach, insist that every assistant plunge into his work with the same zeal and enthusiasm you do. As their leader, give them their just due. Tell the student body, press, and players that team success is not due to your contributions but to the outstanding ability of your assistants. Praise them to the skies”….Jim Bonder “I believed strongly in scheduled one-on-one meetings with our players. It was a good way to keep communications open as well as to learn what was goiong on with them. They also learned in greater detail what I was thinking about their overall college and basketball performance.”….Dean Smith The younger the team, the more positive you must be with them and the more teaching that must occur. Avoid excessive “chewing them out” for they need you to boost their confidence rather than to tear it down. To a bad passer, for example, instead of saying to him, “you are the worst passer I have ever seen,” say “you are too good of a passer to make a sloppy pass like that. Be sure you concentrate.” Study how you correct your players’ mistakes and see if you can correct them in a positive manner. “It’s not what you tell them—it’s what they hear.”….Red Auerbach “The only lasting form of discipline is self-imposed discipline.”….Dale Brown “I am regularly appalled at how often coaches of teams playing poorly spend the majority of their time trying to help the referees do their job. The misplaced focus of these coaches is truly laughable. They have a whole team full of players desperately in need of instruction, and the coaches are yelling about a tough foul or urging the refs to call a 3-second violation”….Dick Divenzio Teams that are winning can be driven. Teams that are losing are more vulnerable to criticism. Shouting at them may be harmful. They need more positive coaching. You get more out of one-on-one talk than you do in a group. When you are talking to a team critically, players tend to think you are talking “to the other guy”. You must be specific. A coach's job is to put players in position that they can succeed. (Ed. Note: When a coach brings a non-ball handling big player outside to handle the ball and he turns it over, it is the coach's fault for putting the big in position where he could not succeed.) Keep mediocre talent on a tight rein. Unleash superior talent, and let it run. Identify areas where kids are talented, where they can be successful and then find a way to use them…Most coaches get obsessed where kids come up short. They spend so much time trying to take care of their deficiencies that they lose sight of their players' talents. There's far more over-coaching than under-coaching. Look for opportunities to make players, assistant coaches, and everyone associated with your program to feel important. Be as friendly to the janitor as you are to the principal or president. Telling a guy that he stinks doesn't make him a better player if you don't tell him why he stinks and what he needs to do to become a better player. Lou Carnesecca motivated his players by telling them how good they could be; by building them up, instead of tearing them down. CORRECTING A PLAYER: How do you criticize a player who hustles to get a ball going out of bounds and loses it--when it would have been your ball had he left it alone. You could shout at him, "Bill, it would have been our ball!" OR you could say, "Way to hustle, Bill. It would have been our ball, but don't worry about it, keep up the hustle! “You have to have control of the three major aspects of offense: shooting, passing, and dribbling. On defense, you have to make sure that your team is truly working to make it difficult for the other team to score. And you have to have players that have the right approach to playing and practicing the game.”…Dick Divenzio Your consistency is crucial. If you notice a bad shot one time but then let bad shots fly unnoticed the next two times, your players will quickly recognize your inconsistency. But if you are able to correct what you consider most important—consistently—your players will quickly learn to do those things you consider most important, consistently. “I also started to recognize that the five best players don't necessarily make the best team. Of course, I'd prefer to have my five most talented student-athletes starting a game, but to become a starter, the player needed to combine talent with teamwork.