Nike Clinic Notes: Geno Auriemma

*Do what fits your system.

*Be flexible and willing to adapt what you do to your personnel each year.

*Do drills in practice that fit you and do them every day.

* All of Coach Auremma’s practice drills are part of what they do on offense and defense.

*(Drill) Put a player at each elbow and  two lines at half court that line up with each player.  Have players at half court pass the ball to players at elbow then cut off that player at the high post, receive a hand off and score the ball.  You can progress this to fake the handoff and spreading out to the wing, receive a pass from the player at the elbow and then play the different facets of the two man game after that.

*(Drill) Have players run the 3 man weave, when reaching the other end of the court have one player take a jump shot, the other two players running the weave will then fight for the rebound, trying to gain position and get the rebound, once one of the players has rebounded the ball the two players will play 1 on 1 until somebody scores.

*(Drill) Run the 3 man weave and make your shooters make 13 in a row before the drill is over.

*(Drill) 3 man passing drill: Players will pass the ball back and forth while running down the court, whenever the middle man receives the ball at the opposite end of the court ,on the 3 pt line, he must then turn and speed dribble, using the least amount of dribbles as possible, and score the ball at the other end of the court.   The other guys will fill the lanes and be ready for a pass.  The next progression for this drill is for the PG to pass the ball to the wing as the wing goes in for a layup.

*(Drill) Basic Passing drill that is the shell of UCONN’s fast break.  The drill progresses to what will end up being the full fast break utilizing all options to score. 

*3’s in transition are the best 3’s to get.

*When setting a ball screen, the screen should turn and run hard to the basket after setting the screen.

*When running a 4 out 1 in and the ball screener is not the 1 guy that is in, when the ball screener runs to the rim, have the 1 post guy flash to the high post to make room for the roll guy.

*If you don’t have a really good PG use two guards up top and put them on the lane lines when running your offense.

* Spend more time on offense.

*When practicing spend lots of time shooting the ball, have a player or manager track every shot that your players take during practice.

*You have to put the ball in the basket to win.

*Geno doesn’t put anybody on the floor that can’t score the ball.

*Put players on the floor that can dribble, pass and catch.

*(Drill)-Using at least 2 people work on your individual moves using the least amount of dribbles as possible.

*If you can’t make 12 out of 15 shots from the block in practice, with nobody guarding you, you can’t play.

*When working on layups work on different layups that you will do in a game, not just the standard.

*(Drill)-Passing and shooting drill

*(Drill)-Feeding the post drill

*When giving individual workouts split your guards and posts to work with them for a time.

*Have your players take shots that they will be taking in your offense.

*Come up with drills that are specific to your offense. 

*When your team is less talented on offense work to score in transition more often.

*Set your offense up for your best players.

*If you don’t give up 3’s and keep teams off of the FT line you have a great chance of winning.

*Maximize your timeouts.

*Geno runs his man offense against any junk defense that the other team may throw at them.

*To get players talking have them call each other’s name out.

*Teach your team to take the right shot at the right time.

*In your pre game warm up do things that you will be doing in your offense.

 

Geno Auriemma (Zone Offense)

*Any team that has really good shooters but no post player will struggle against the zone.

*When playing in the post against the zone, post players should look for contact.

*When playing offense against a zone create as many as closeouts as possible. (good way to do that is using the skip pass)

*When you have the ball on the wing, if the top guard guards you throw the ball to the top of the key, if the bottom forward guards you throw the ball into the post, this is a simple rule to create scoring opportunities against a 2-3 zone.

*Never bring the ball towards the man in the post that you want to get it against the zone.  This is the same concept that Bob Knight taught…take the ball away  from the guy that you want to receive the ball using the dribble ,then pass the ball the opposite way that you are dribbling. This will cause the defense to shift and create scoring opportunities.

*Geno runs his man offense against the zone.  He forces the zone to play them man to man. 

Geno Auriemma (Man to Man Defense)

*What kind of man defense you run will be dependent on what kind of players/athletes that you have.

*Where do you want your team to pick up at?

*You can’t pressure the ball at half court with a slow player, you will have to pack it in and pick up closer to the 3 point line.

*You do not want to let the ball get into the box when playing man to man defense.

*When guarding the ball, get in a defensive stance and put your head elbow level of the offensive player.

*When guarding the ball your hands should be away from your body.

*When guarding the ball you want to force the ball handler out of bounds, do not let the ball handler round the corner.

*When you are on defense keep your feet wider then the offensive players feet.

*Work with kids on staying on their feet.  Don’t fall for the shot fake.

*Eliminate all face cuts.

*Defending the post will depend on who you are playing, fronting the post may cause you to give up some offensive rebounds.

*The best defenders always know who is beside them and who is behind them.

*When playing help defense, the weak side guy needs to drop all the way to the baseline.

*Basketball is not a game of how you do it but rather it’s a game of when do you do it.

*(Drill)-Defensive Progression:

-Individual defense (on ball, guarding the post, taking away cuts etc)

-4 on 4 shell

-4 on 4 shell baseline drive takeaway and trap on baseline

-4 on 4 shell cut and rotate takeaway.

*When playing against a good point guard get the ball out of his hands.

*When defending the ball screen hedge early, don’t worry about the roll guy because your helpside D is taking care of that for you.

*Late in game or shot clock switch on the ball screen.

*3 ways to defend the ball screen

-Switch

-Trap

-Hard hedge

*Guard the ball screens with help defense, recognize who the weakest offensive guy on the court is and use that defender to help on everything.

*Anytime teams ball screen near the sideline against UCONN they trap.

*Less talent may cause you to run a more packed in defense, force the other team to shoot jumpers.

“I’ve never recruited a kid that I could see had a bad attitude or that I thought would piss me off at some point.”-Geno Auriemma