Defensive Drills for Coaches
The key to every good team is the ability to stop the other team from scoring. Any great coach will tell you that. They will also tell you that the key to winning is getting more talent than the other team. Great defense will always beat good offense though and that is the absolute key.
I’m biased but my favorite program to watch play defense is Illinois. Bruce Weber knows his stuff. He was an assistant under Gene Keady for 18 years before getting a head coaching offer at Southern Illinois. Coach Weber really got the Salukis playing well and made a name for himself there and when Bill Self left Illinois for Kansas, Weber got the job. He immediately turned the team into a contender and got them to the final 4 his second year there and was within 5 points of winning the title that year.
Coach Weber has a DVD set on defense that is titled: Bruce Weber: 20 Competitive Drills for a Championship Defense and it’s very good. With on-court demonstration, Weber introduces 10 full-court drills for defending in transition and fastbreak situations. Weber also shares 10 half-court man defense drills covering competitive rebounding, aggressive perimeter and post defense, and end of game situations. In addition, Weber shares 10 things every coach needs to do to build and maintain a successful team at any level of competition!
I’ve watched nearly every Illini game in coach Weber’s tenure and he is highly regarded as one of the best defensive coaches in the country. They get after it and make every team they play very uncomfortable. The past few years they struggled but it wasn’t because of their defense and very soon the Illini will be near the top of the rankings again.
