OFFENSETAILORING YOUR OFFENSE TO FIT PERSONNEL

I believe that whatever you run offensively needs to give your team the best chance to score. Depending on your personnel, you may need to tweak your offensive system to score efficiently and effectively. At Washington State, under Ken Bone, we had a different leading scorer from a different position each season. Our offensive success was largely due to the changes we made to our offense year to year.

At Seattle Pacific, we are committed to SPACING and opening up the floor, especially near the basket. This allows our offense to cut and drive to the basket.

I like to use the following mantra to describe our offense:

FAST: No tilted floor in transition, quick to 5th gear.

PATIENT: See the “Next” play, high efficiency, sharing the basketball.

EXECUTION: The little things matter, CUT & READ your defender when they react, every action is aggressive to score.

DEFENSE

BUILDING YOUR DEFENSE FROM THE GROUND UP

I have been blessed to learn a variety of defenses during my time at WSU & SPU, ranging from Pack-Line, Push & Deny, Match-Up Zone, 2-3 Bump Zone, etc. 

   Though I've been involved with many defenses in my career, what I've learned is that there are many ways to defend successfully but success doesn't come from the type of defense you run. Rather, it comes from how you BUILD your defense from the ground up. 

I learned how to BUILD a defense from working with Coach Tony Bennett. A good defense is built around basic principles & rules that are strictly enforced. These rules are vital for your team's defensive success and are clearly understood by team members.

At SPU, I created the mantra: WORK, ANTICIPATE, TRUST.

WORK: Do little things with HIGH ENERGY.

ANTICIPATE: See where you need to be BEFORE it happens.

TRUST: Know your teammate has your back.

To be successful using this mantra, you have to formulate practice plans that break down defensive situations to the smallest details and build up from there. 

For example: individual fundamentals, 2-on-2 / 3-on-3 / 4-on-4 scenarios and eventually 5-on-5.

OFF THE COURTYOU CAN'T WIN ON THE COURT WITHOUT WINNING OFF THE COURT

During my short time with Coach Ernie Kent, I learned that RELATIONSHIPS are critical to grow your personnel. What is a player-coach relationship? It is a connection with a player to help him or her both OFF and ON the court. Are you connecting with a player on a deeper level than just basketball?

Coach Kent made an impact on my coaching philosophy. At WSU, we initiated different policies to help our student athletes off the court:

I hope to implement other my own PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. This is a process of activities and lectures geared OFF THE COURT. The curriculum would range on a wide range of topics. Some of the topics we will include: Harassment, Nutrition, Branding Yourself, Drugs & Alcohol, and Choosing a Mentor.

Our culture is to be PASSIONATE in the classroom as well as on the court. Any missed classes, tutoring sessions or study hall absence is slippage and a failure to have CLARITY.

Our goal to be elite in the classroom and have 100% graduation. Each player will have a coach assigned to them that is expected to keep up with their studies and be invested in their player’s academic timeline. This coach’s role will be to mentor their student athletes and help them apply their strengths to their coursework. They are not to serve as a policeman but more as an interested, encouraging and devoted fan.

Each player is also expected to sit in one of the first three rows in the classroom, get to know their professors on a personal level and make a friend in class that is NOT an athlete. Also, new players on the roster are to engage in bi-weekly meetings with their coach to manage their studies for the quarter.