Sunday, November 17, 2013

Best of MBCA Clinic - Part 1

After a month of, trying to get back at it. Had this post in the hopper since the 2nd of Nov. when we had the clinic.

The previous two days for me have been spent at the Minnesota Coaches Association Clinic in Minneapolis. It was a great event, as usual, and I picked up a lot of great information. The speakers where Fred Hoiberg (ISU), Chad Walthall (MN State Moorhead), Steve Bergman (Iowa City West HS), Steve Collins (Madison Memorial HS, WI), Dave Thorson (DeLaSalle High School, MN), and Mike Dunlap (Former Bobcats, St. John's, Metro State), and Richard Pitino (U of M). So overall it was a great clinic lineup. I was very pleased with the number of high school coaches in attendance because I feel that while watching the big boys (college and NBA) is fun, and there are some great things, many things they talk about are not applicable to you in your situation as a high school coach. For example, Coach Pitino talked about pressing and how he recruits a certain kid. Sorry, at the high school level I can't recruit that certain kid - I get what I get! At these clinics it's about getting all the good ideas and using the ones that fit your system anyway, but I would much rather hear from high school guys who are in the same boat I am. With that said, below is the first installment of great things I picked up from the clinic. 

1. Important Statistics that Win
Those of you know know me, know I love statistics (which is funny for how bad I am at math). But a few different coaches brought up some good statistical points over the weekend. 
      -Coach Walthall talked about the 4 things that impact point differential, which is similar
        to Dean Oliver's
        "Four Factors". 
                        1. True FG%
                        2.  FT Attempts (not always makes)
                        3. Total Rebound %
                        4. Turnovers

     -Have to get 3 of 4 in order to assure victory.

2. Math Behind Why You Should Run the Fast Break
Steve Collins, head coach at Madison Memorial HS (WI) talked about some statistics associated with good transition teams and why teams need to run. These statistics come from what he's calculated with his teams and they make sense. Scoring in the break is likely more efficient.
     *Points Per Possession
          -Transition Offense: 1.05 ppg.
          -Half Court Offense: .83 ppg
     *Turn Over %
          -Transition: 14.2% of possessions end in turnovers.
          -Half Court Offense: 17.2% of possessions end in turnovers.
     *Field Goal %
          -Transition: 57.7%
          -Half Court Offense: 44.5%

3. Style of Play
Almost every presenter at the clinic said something about establishing your style of play and having that style of play show up in how you think about practice.

4. Steve Bergman Dominator Game
Iowa City West head coach Steve Bergman gave a great talk. One thing he does in practice is play a dominator game. His JV and varsity practice together with about 18 guys total. He runs a game where the top ten play against the bottom 8. At first it sounds unfair, but the expectation is that the top ten must DOMINATE the game. He sets goals when they are on defense such as not giving up X number of open shots (not even makes), etc. On offense they must score in X amount of time, get X amount of good shots in 10 possessions.

The reason I love this game is that is solves an age old problem. You want your first string to play together, but at the same time if you play regular they win and don't have to play very hard. This makes them play extremely hard and be almost perfect.

5. Coach Thorson's Presentation
Did a great job explaining why his program at DeLaSalle is great. I'll just post his PowerPoint. Great stuff!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1B2_B1rG991YRb9_qGtGhQFtZI09FBj9VfUzUP3S9oag/edit

6. Mike Dunlap Cutthroat
Coach Dunlap is just great at teaching basketball. He spent an entire two sessions showing how he uses cutthroat to teach basketball. It's something we've adopted this year, with other SSGs, and seen amazing results.

Basically you play 4 on 4 on 4 cutthroat and emphasize that you want. If you want your players to learn how to catch and square to triple threat, show it then play cutthroat where every time they catch the ball they must square up or it's a turnover. Same for defensive emphasis.

Also, he talked a lot about how the NBA is superior in it's ability to space the floor in transition. Hopefully it's something we can work toward.





As always in a clinic there were a lot of other great points and Xs and Os. The above, however, was most likely the most important things that I learned. Best of luck to all of the coaches as we start our seasons, going to be a fun journey!