Special Situations- Comeback Game

It was a great weekend for basketball all over the world. I found myself flooded with emails and ideas for this weeks blogs. Two of the more intriguing games parralleled one another in regards to the situations. The NY Knicks vs the Miami Heat, Marquette vs Louisville, and Florida vs Tenn. were filled with everything you can think in terms of holding a lead late in the game and making a comeback. If you had the VCR on and were able to dub the games you would have a mini clinic on this particular situation.

Below are 14 things that happened in the final 3 minutes in each game from the side of the team making the comeback (Marquette, the Knicks, Florida). These things should appear in your skeleton when planning your practice structure for the season when preparing for a comeback situation.

1. You must stop the clock.
2. Take the ball to the basket and try to get fouled.
3. Attack the glass with numbers- it can give you momentum.
4. Know when to foul and who to foul- continuous trapping without a foul until you get the guy you want to foul.
5. Regular pressure defense- use traps when the offense puts itself in a situation where it is vulnerable.
6. Emphasize hustle plays- need to come up with every loose ball.
7. Get a good shot up early in the shot clock and rebound- transition into early offense (should have a 2 minute drill like football)
8. Sub off the FT to set up press
9. Have great timeouts
10. Call timeout off of a free throw or basket to adjust defense or set up press
11. Press with 1 man as a free safety
12. Have a foul platoon squad.
13. Platoon shooter and/or defensive specialist or rebounder
14. Develop the mentality that we never get beat ... we just run out of time.

It has been said that the measure of a coach is how the team executes when it is under pressure. You need to put your team in the position where the unexpected is minimzed.

Take a look at your season and review those close games that you either won or lost. Take a look at your strategy in hindsight and see what you would have done differently regarding a comeback.

Tomorrow's Blog:

I have received a great number of inquiries about the Spainish phenom Ricky Rubio. I will chronicle his recent championships and give detailed evaluations which span the last six years. He is being called the next Pistol Pete... not sure I agree.

Until tuesday.

DD