Getting Ready Time
High school summer basketball practice and tournament game play in California is in full-steam-ahead mode as seniors graduate and the underclassmen assume the responsibility of the vacancy above. No doubt there is a pecking order – unofficial, of course – among the players over playing time which hopefully leads to spirited competition. As a former player, I knew to assess my competition for playing time while at the same time be a good teammate. Summer is when a competitive player needs to figure out how to play meaningful minutes. Summer is also the time to work hard on what those needs are, be it improving foot speed for on the ball defense or getting shooting reps stacked on top of more shooting reps.
As coaches it’s fun to create new drills for the players such as ball-handling, finishing at the rim and the aforementioned shooting. Incorporating some defensive slides into the offensive drills is a double benefit. The key is to keep the workouts fresh, instructive, competitive and directly applicable to game time situations.
Off the court, players should be watching game film of themselves from this past season to get an unemotional and analytical assessment of their playing time. Same for coaches. Now’s the time to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and how to make changes to improve team efficiency.
This past season the University of San Francisco shot a team-wide EFG% of 53.7%. They scored 2,616 team points and allowed 2,284 for a team-wide +/- of +332. The team Reb% was 53.8%. TO% was 15.46%. Individually, player TO%, Reb%, Assist to TO ratio, Points Per Possession (PPP), Free Throw Rate, and many more available statistics, are all clues to teach and raise the standard of play.
On our Coaching Stats page, we see USF had 2,901 offensive possessions and averaged 1.23 points per outcome by making 614 2-Pt. shots, 327 3-Pt. shots and 415 FT’s (on 339 trips and shooting 69.6%). That’s the standard for next season.
As a coach or a player, you can watch each and any one of those shots or possessions. Or sets – they are already clipped and organized. What % of which plays worked? What % of 2H plays worked? What was your team-wide PPP in the 2H of games w/n 5 points? On Hoopsalytics, you’re 2-3 clicks away from finding out.
Getting Ready Time. Reminds me of one of our practice drills: Attack, Retreat, Finish. Watch the video. Look at and analyze the stats. Figure out a way forward. Go get it. Attack, Retreat, Finish. Getting Ready Time.