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Fundamentals: A heartbreaking lesson

Every coach preaches the fundamentals of basketball. They preach it in every team meeting. They preach it in every practice. They even preach it before, during, and after games. Players hear their coaches and sooner or later they don’t even pay attention anymore to those words of wisdom. After Monday April 7, 2008 players may start to listen again. One of the most fundamental parts of the game of basketball is the free throw. A free throw is an uncontested shot, 15 feet away from the basket, that makes some of the best players in the game crumble. The national championship of 2008 will go down in history as a model for players to watch and listen to their coach when he or she tells them to practice their free throws. Any coach will tell you that the simple one point shot is severely important. After the 2008 Championship game that could never ring truer. Watching free throw after free throw and Memphis’s national title hopes clang off the rim was gut-wrenching.

Before the national title many analysts had said that Memphis’s Achilles heel was their poor free throw shooting. Memphis had coasted throughout the NCAA tournament not having to rely on free throw shooting in the clutch, but when it came time to make those uncontested shots they faltered. This ballgame showed that it takes more than talent, skill, or determination to win a basketball game. It takes sound fundamentals. If Memphis had made one or even two more free throws down the stretch they may be national champions today instead of the Kansas Jayhawks. Those simple uncontested shots ripped a national title right out of one team’s hands on April 7, tearing apart the hopes and dreams of the players, coaches, fans, and families.

So what lesson can be learned from such a gut-wrenching display of sub-par fundamentals? Listen to your coach. When the coach says to practice the fundamentals of basketball, they truly mean it. Those simple free throws that everyone is taught growing up playing the game of basketball made the difference between what team took home a national championship. A second thing that can be learned is simply practicing your free throws. No one truly knows if Memphis practiced shooting free throws or not during their run to the national title game, and no one may ever know. This game could serve as a lesson to players to not disregard the 1-point shot and to practice it as much as possible. This could serve a lesson to coaches to make sure their players practice a shot that has been shown to be as critical as a 3 point shot. It also may serve notice to the basketball world in general that although the free throw may not be as worshipped as the dunk, as high scoring as a 3 point shot, or as complex as a zone defense, that the free throw can and will decide basketball games. As players of the game of basketball it is your obligation to make sure you listen to your coach and take the words of wisdom they offer when it comes to the fundamentals of basketball to not only help yourself become a better player, but maybe one day to help your team win the game.

Matthew Lambert
(coach's grandson)


Two Concepts for Breaking Full/Half Court Pressure

There have been tons of books written, DVD/tapes made and endless workshops held on ways to break the full court pressure.

If coaches zoom in on just two concepts to work on at practice their teams in no time will be handling full court pressure effectively and in a lot of cases will have not changed any of their press breakers to defeat the press.

The two concepts are Face Them & Come and Meet the Pass.  Which of these is more important is a difficult question to answer but without either, you are a good pressing team away from a defeat.

How many times have you seen a player turn at the last minute and not realize a double team is starring at them? How many times have you seen players wide open on the floor but the player with the ball has their back to the action, feeling more in their comfort zone if they can’t see the floor?  When a team begins to pivot, turn and face the defenders the minute a pass is caught that is when that team will take most pressing teams out of the defense by having little trouble in-bounding and then working the ball into the front court.  Facing the defender gives the player with the ball the opportunity to make a decision based on where the defenders are on the floor and at the same time they are able to locate the open players a lot quicker and make the proper decision on whom to pass the ball to.  If a player simply begins dribbling and then turns to head down the court they are at a big disadvantage as they have no idea where the double team is coming from or if they have open space on the floor to dribble or pass the ball.

There are countless times during a game when an offensive player who is receiving the ball stands flat footed or moves slowly toward the pass while a quick defender steps in and takes it to the rack the other way.  Teams that meet the passes cut down the steal opportunities for the opponent and to some degree negate some of the weak passes that teammates throw from time to time.  Players need to get in the habit of meeting the pass when the opponent is a pressure type team and as a matter of fact meet the passes even if the opponent is a passive team on defense.  You will have one happy teammate whenever they toss a weak pass but still see the receiver of the pass moving toward the ball and thereby cutting down on the distance the pass must travel to be completed.

Yes many things go into successfully breaking the press but if you face the opponent and meet all passes you are on your way to a successful trip down the court.

Coach L

Web Design Ruth Lambert
ral220@zoominternet.net