I have a couple of outstanding coaching books written by Bob Huggins and so I try to watch his teams play on TV every chance I get.

Earlier this week I was watching Texas and West Virginia play on ESPN’s Big Monday telecast.

In crunch time WVU went into a 1-3-1 zone, got eight straight defensive stops and pulled out the win.

What’s interesting is the story behind the story. John Belein taught the 1-3-1 to his WVU players before leaving to take over the program at Michigan.

In turn those players taught the principles and intricacies of the zone to current coach Bob Huggins.

Huggins, not caring where an idea comes from as long as it works, is now using the 1-3-1 as a defensive change of pace and now has won at least one extra game because of it.

Coaches, don’t let your ego get in the way. Sometimes players see things in the heat of battle that you can’t always see from the sidelines.

Just the fact that you are open to ideas and suggestions will encourage your players to become better students of the game and that’s a win-win situation for everyone.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2013 at 6:41 am and is filed under Coaching, Defense, In the Press, NCAA, 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.