Long time head coach Ralph Willard, who is currently an assistant at Louisville, once talked about the “Circle of Opportunity” at a coach’s clinic in Myrtle Beach:

If we execute these 8 things we will win 95% of our games and have a chance to win the other 5%.

1. Deflections – our goal is 40 a game. 40+ deflections equals a .900 winning percentage
2. Block outs – we go back through game video and chart everyone on this
3. Shot Contest – every shot the opponent takes needs to be contested on the ball side of their shot. Does no good to contest a shooter’s left shoulder if he is shooting with his right hand.
4. Offensive Rebounding -  everyone who can get to the glass needs to get to the glass
5. Charges – chart how many times guys step up and attempt to take a charge and how many times they shy away
6. Ball Pursuit – all 50/50 balls are ours! Great rebounders get in proper position and then pursuit the ball. Chart “Out of Area” rebounds and reward the leader
7. Confidence – players must have confidence that they can win every game
8. Transition Defense – no layups and no open 3’s in transition

There is nothing in this circle that we can’t do as a team and so I’m not asking you do anything that you are not capable of doing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 at 6:31 am and is filed under 2012, Coaching, Stricklin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.