A FEW JACKSONISMS

1. Dribble penetrate into the paint to pass not shoot. If you dribble penetrate looking to pass then you'll find the open receiver and if you are open you will be able to find the goal because you know your court geography. But if you dribble penetrate looking to score and the shot is cut off, now you have to hurry and find the open receiver.

2. Follow a layup shooter. Most missed layup come directly back in the direction they were shot. So whether on offense or defense follow the layup shooter.

3. Follow the player jumping out of bounds to save a ball. 90% of the time the player will throw the ball back in directly behind himself (along the path he traveled to save the ball).

4. On a baseline drive fill the opposite corner ready to shoot.

5. There are three things on Offense and three things on Defense that if you accomplish, regardless of your style of play, will aid in your team being successful

OFFENSE:

(a) take care of the basketball - eliminate turnovers

(b) take good shots

(c) make your free throws

DEFENSE:

(a) make them shoot over you

(b) only give them one shot

(c) don't foul unnecessarily.

6. If there is a time-out, your opponent is playing man-to-man and it is the opponent's ball coming out of the time-out. Make a substitution, and run a play for the substitute. He may be left wide open.

7. Teach your small guards to hit the floor after a layup attempt has been blocked.

8. Screen the zone.

9. If you screen in your offense (man-to-man or zone) it is more important to teach how to use a screen than it is to teach how to set a screen. A player who knows how to use a screen can use a bad screen. But a great screen is useless if the player coming off the screen doesn¡¦t know how to use it.

10. GIVE your team a free throw routine. We all know that it is important in free throw shooting to have a routine. BUT how do you really know if all 10-12 varsity players are doing their individual routine each time they shoot a free throw? If you GIVE them the routine, now everyone has the same routine, now you know when a player isn't following his routine.

11. A player NEVER calls time out on his own. NEVER! You tell the player when to call time out. In the last two minutes of the game you may say, "we have three time outs left call one if you get in trouble.!¨ But he is still not calling it on his own.

12. The same player inbounds the ball on every inbounds situation. A Designated Inbounder. If the Designated Inbounder is not in the game you have a #2 Designated Inbounder. When the ball is being inbounded is the only time in the game that the defense out numbers the offense on the court.

13. The most important part of defense is Defensive Rebounding!

14. If your players don't understand what they are doing; they are not really doing it.

15. On a missed "Pass & Catch" situation BOTH the passer and receiver are credited with a turnover.

16. Work on the Pass Fake and the Shot Fake every day in practice, otherwise they will never use them

17. Offensive rebounding has to be taught and more importantly practiced.

18. The Little things aren't Little.

19. Your program is the most important program. I never wear Houston Rocket clothing, Lamar University clothing, I wear Deweyville Pirate clothing! And that is what the players wear at games! They can wear caps as long as they are Deweyville Pirate caps.

20. Refer to yourself as "we" and "us¡".

21. If your best player isn't your hardest working player you may be in for a long season.

22. Fake a pass to Make a pass.

23. Good passers make good shooters.

24. Defense starts with footwork.

25. Conditioning will make you a better player.

Being a better player will make us a better team.

Conditioning is something the best teams have.

Therefore, Conditioning is a privilege.

The better you do, the more we will run.

26. Finish practice on a positive note.

27. You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but if you aren't careful you'll be one of them .

28. When in danger, when in doubt,

Run in circles, scream and shout!

If you try to give your team too much = confusion.

29. RULE OF PROBABILITY

Once the ball goes into the low post player, if the post can encourage the defender to make an aggressive attempt to block the shot, then the probability of a foul being committed will be high.

Basketball consists of predicting your opponent's actions sufficiently to encourage him to commit himself to a probability of failure.

30. Coach = Teacher / Good teachers ask good questions.

31. "I only use statistics that reinforce what I already think." -- Dean Smith

32. "The Team is the Star." -- John Wooden

33. "Other people go to work. I get to coach basketball. I know I'm blessed." -- Jim Valvano

34. Study the Masters of the Game: Adolph Rupp, Bruce Drake, Henry Iba, Pete Newell, Lou Carneseca, Ralph Miller, Don Haskins, John Wooden, Ray Meyer, etc.

35. Call coaches and ask them about their program. I will always remember as a junior at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, I called Ralph Miller to ask him about his 1-4 High Offense. He spoke with me for two hours. I was in heaven ---- until I got my phone bill.

36. Things that get rewarded get done.

37. If you reward OK effort, you'll get OK effort. Only reward great effort.

38. The best and most lasting form of reinforcement is positive and VERBAL!

39. Execution is the best offense.

40. Borrow, don't copy!

41. Write it down!