PhD Hoops Virtual Coaches Roundtable Notes (April, 2020)

(Section I: Written by Coach Kelsey Long)

• What are you doing right now to make yourself and team better?
  • Coach Matt O’Brien (HC, Southwestern College, KS) – Reading “Relentless”, NABC webinars, online platforms = taking advantage of Zoom
  • Coach Drew Richards (HC, UNC Pembroke, NC) – Been able to gain information from best coaches in the league and learn from them. Ask direct questions to learn and pick brain: culture, bench, atmosphere (what are you doing to create that)? 
  • Coach Noah Godwin (London, England) – Grateful for connections in US. UK coaches are much more closed off. What can they work on without a hoop or ball? Ball handling, footwork, work with what you have.
  • Coach DaeShawn Beasley (AC, Pine Manor College, MA) – It’s about execution: it’s about what you do with the knowledge once you’ve been given it. What are core principles that we need to teach and how we need to teach for such a young team?
  • Coach Jon Ramirez (HC, Hillsdale HS, CA) – Matt Jones: Hardwood Texas ‘www.hardwoodtexas.com’ free roundtables.
  • Coach Brandon Huntley (AC, Northern Arizona University, AZ) – Connecting and sharing scouts with assistants in the league. Learning from each other.
  • Coach Carlos LeBron (HC, Bridgeton HS, NJ) – Sending videos to his high school team. No excuse as to why they can’t get to a court or hoop to work on ball handling or shot.
  • Coach Arvin Mosley, Jr. (Founder of Triple Impact Coaching) – Work on footwork and don’t need a hoop to get better. Visualize shot going in will make you better. 

• In the offseason, what are the most important fundamentals to work on? 
  • Jon Ramirez – Fundamentally sound, pass with off-hand, strong base
  • DaeShawn Beasley – Attack defense with limited dribbles, timing v-cuts to get open, it’s a simple game
  • Brandon Huntley – Work on 1 on 1 during this time (during the season is mostly team focused) 
  • Coach Kelsey Long (AC, Ferrum College, VA) – Working on the mental toughness, maturing through the game
  • Noah Godwin – What was your action? Why? What’s the other action you could have done? 
  • Arvin Mosley, Jr. – Do the tough stuff first in practice.
    • Trevor Moawad – Mental Strength Coach – getting them to a neutral state. https://moawadconsultinggroup.com
    • Sports reality phrase: “Hang in there, things will change”
    • Sports focused – Hold your follow through, bend your knees, eyes on the rim
    • Trust and ability – You got it, done this a million times, we worked on this last week, easy money
    • Tell them they’re about to do something hard, honest and up front, not out of fear 
  • Jon Ramirez – Bad shot, running the next 3 sets away from you, show them that they’re not the only one that can score. Not taking them out but will still understand it’s not a good shot. What’s the relationship you have with the kid?

• Closeout? One hand or two? Top foot, baseline, middle?
  • Brandon Huntley – One hand, stays lower, force baseline – hand in face, not trying to block shots on perimeter. Guard your yard, tag the teammate who’s in gap, stunt and recover, fill the gap with your body. What terminology you use- make it your own.
    • Curry- run them off line
    • Kobe- play drive and shot
    • Rondo- dare them to shoot the 3
  • Drew Richards – Throw up the rock- throw something up and contest 
  • DaeShawn Beasley – One hand up, off hand to deflect – Biomechanically, when you raise both hands your hips come up, have to have hands down to slide…
  • Noah Godwin – Able to react better with 1 hand closeout
  • Arvin Mosley, Jr. – https://www.coachesclipboard.net/teaching-closeouts.html
  • Jon Ramirez – Turn and run if you get beat instead of slide, force baseline to use it as another defender, backboard if they get too low
  • DaeShawn Beasley – Play straight up but don’t give middle

• Sets, motion, continuity- offensive preference? 
  • Jon Ramirez – Turned Princeton into sets 
  • DaeShawn Beasley – Depends on personnel – free flowing motion 
  • Noah Godwin – Sharing the ball, movement, great defense- depends on age and skill level of team

• Feedback (Large Group Takeaways)
  • DaeShawn Beasley – Closeouts, the biomechanics of hips, sets vs. motion
  • Drew Richards – Calling coaches in league to learn something from them. Zone, press or offensive set. Direct questions
  • Coach Bridgette King (HC, AAU, TX) – Have the girls do their own scouting report: what they need to work on, improve on, work on footwork, things without a ball
  • Coach Tanner Massey (AC, G-League) – Play quick, taking the right shots, gaining right looks with early pitch ahead, have everyone develop the skills to play at each position. 1.4 points per possession vs. 1.13 points per possession when taking a shot at 18 secs on the shot clock vs. 17 seconds

(Section II: Written by Coach Bridgette King)

*Takeaways from Today’s PhD Hoops Virtual Coaches Roundtable (Coaches in Participation: 11 states represented, as well as, London; International-Grassroots Levels) 

• What Are We Doing to Keep Ourselves and our Players Engaged During the Pandemic?
  • Recording working videos for players 
  • Sending Player Development Workouts to players
  •  Zoom Meetings with players (weekly and/or bi-weekly) 
  • Coaching Development 
  • Have players write their own Scouting Report 

• Topics of Discussion
  • Offense – Motion offense was the offense of choice for most coaches (teaches players to read the floor, create scoring opportunities, creates mismatches; master role-playing); Footwork; One-handed vs Two-handed Rebounding; Range-shooting (having a shooting arsenal from mid-range shots to three-pointers) 
  • Defense – Closeout Drills (Curry Closeout; Kobe Closeout; Rondo Closeout; Rodman Closeout); Footwork; How Zone Defense has stalled Defensive development at the Grassroots level 
  • FIBA vs American styles of Basketball 
  • Transfer Portal issues 
  • Stressing players making the right decisions on the court even if it means them not scoring but sharing the ball 
  • Issues with high school coaches only wanting certain trainers to train their players 

• Coach Bree’s Personal Takeaways 

          *My question to the collegiate coaches- “What are you looking for when recruiting?” 

• Players who have not played on more than two high school or two club teams for one sport barring extenuating circumstances (gauges loyalty) 
• Players who play defense! Specifically, in 1 on 1 situations, closing out, rebounding, not giving up points 
• Players who understand that they will play a “role” at the collegiate level! Everyone will not be the star scorer and have to be okay with having a designated job to do in the games and only do that. 
• Players who can read the court 
• Culture-building players (want to be a team builder, want to be a contributor on team, not looking to jump into the Transfer Portal if things don’t go their way) 
• Players who communicate coming through the door as Freshmen; Don’t just not speak up because you are a Freshman! Don’t wait until you become an upperclassmen! Speak up as a Freshman! It shows buy-in into the program and shows that the player wants to be a part of the team. 
• Players who work on their Leadership skills