Sunday, October 4, 2009

What Are Your "Acceptable Turnovers"?

I went to a clinic at Marshalltown Community College today and listened to Coach Rick Majerus speak. While I didn't pick up a lot from the Xs and Os side (he shared some PnR material that was pretty basic, good, but stuff I had seen before), I picked up some great lines within the presentation. Some stuff was just amazing he said. But something he said was that he had some "acceptable turnovers", which were turnovers he wouldn't get upset about. The one he shared was a player getting a three second call because he was posting hard. I agreed with that statement, and decided to put together a list of my own. Below are mine, and a little reasoning on why. What are yours?? Why??? Feel free to post and share on here, or shoot me an e-mail!

1. 3 Second Call When Posting Hard
-For this, I agree with Coach Majerus, don't fault a player for posting hard. Now if it happens a third time you start to get on the player about it.

2. Offensive Charge Three Feet Around the Basket
-Some of you are shaking your heads on this one, but first, before you laugh, let me explain. I want our players attacking the rim hard, if they have to worry about changes, they are not going to go as hard. Also, if you make a player take a good hard charge, and you attack him hard, he's definitely going to think twice about taking another one. He may end up turning or flinching the next time and gettting a foul called on him instead - so a positive for us. Again, if it happens more than twice with the same player, we have issues that need to be addressed.

3. Rebounding Foul
-Don't care what you say, I want my players to battle for a rebound within every inch of the rules, and if they pick up a few fouls on the way so be it - as long as they are not dangerous and flagrant. It's about creating a culture of toughness and not worrying about those fouls is OK by me.

4. Foul, turnover, or Out of Bounds Violation When Going After a Loose Ball
-Sometimes, you are going to get a foul diving for a ball, or you are going to grab it and turn it over by travel 0r out of bounds. I can live with it, as long as the player is on the floor.

5. Five Second Call On the Passer When No One is Open
-This is another one that might make you wonder. But for me, if no one is open, don't throw them the ball. I have this for two reasons, it relieves pressure on the passer and puts some ownership on the other 4 players to get open in a dead ball situation. It doesn't give the passer the excuse of "I threw it because I was going to get a five second call". Also, if we do get a five second call, the turnover is going to be a dead ball foul, thus allowing us to set up our defense. So if no one is open, don't throw them the ball.



So there are my five. What are yours? Do you have any?? Just something to think about on a Saturday night!

2 comments:

Lightning Dave Bolton said...

I know I just commented last week, but this is another great post John. Made me think about this part of coaching.

Bob J said...

I agree with all five of yours especially the rebounding. I want my kids to be so agressive blocking out that by the second half the other team doesnt want to fight for boards anymore and if you have to commit a few fouls to accomplish this then so be it.