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9 Biggest Basketball Coaching Misconceptions

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................3
1. TREAT ALL PLAYERS THE SAME................................................4
2. IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT YOU RUN, ITS HOW YOU
RUN IT THAT COUNTS.....................................................................5
3. DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS ...............................................6
4. THE STARTING 5 ARE THE BEST ................................................7
5. YOU HAVE TO BE FAST TO FAST BREAK .................................9
6. PG, SG, SF, PF, C ...............................................................................10
7. EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS..........................12
8. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT ......................................................13
9. ITS NOT WHETHER YOU WIN OR LOSE, ITS
HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME.......................................................14
FINAL THOUGHTS .........................................................................................15

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INTRODUCTION
Every profession has its own set of myths and misconceptions that have been seemingly
passed on from generation to generation and coaching basketball is no exception.
In this special report we are going to look at 9 of the most common coaching
misconceptions. Some of the misconceptions are unique to basketball while others originated
as a wise or motivational saying that somehow ended up as coaching gospel.
These are certainly not all the misconceptions that a young coach has to wade through. In
fact, when I made my original outline for this report I came up with 18 of them and will
eventually write about the other 9 if there is enough interest.
Chances are you may not completely agree with everything that is written in the following
pages and that is certainly okay. The way I have looked at these concepts has worked
extremely well for me and my career but the important thing is for you to think things
through and come up with your own mental arguments and examples either for or against.
The process of thinking, questioning, disagreeing or defending is going to help make you a
better coach.
For generations, personal and professional success experts have stated that we all eventually
become what we think about most of the time. Our goal here at BasketballClassroom.com is
to get you thinking like a championship coach!

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1. TREAT ALL PLAYERS THE SAME

Many young coaches start off their career not only believing they should treat all players the
same, but are determined to do so at all cost. Experienced, championship coaches are much
more concerned with treating players fairly than they are with treating them equally.
Treating players the same and treating them fairly
are two entirely different things. Treat them fairly?
Absolutely! Treat them the same? Absolutely not!
Fortunately, we dont have to look far to see how
this misconception of treating players the same has
creeped into the world of athletics. To start with,
there are simply way too many youth leagues where
every participant is required to play the same
amount of time, where no score is kept, and
everyone gets a trophy at the end of the season. In
an attempt to protect our children from the terrible
disappointment of losing we are indirectly teaching
them that all athletes should be treated exactly the
same with no exceptions.
However, each player on each of our teams is
different. They all have different God given talents
and abilities. They all have different personalities, different motivations, different hot
buttons, and different goals. And as much as we hate to admit it publicly, each contributes to
the overall success of our team in a different manner. As people, every member of our team is
important and should be treated with respect and dignity but as players they deserve to be
treated differently.
Let me throw out some examples from my own team. I have one student who is struggling to
stay academically eligible and one who is a 4.0 student. I want the struggling student to
spend extra time with a tutor. Should I require the 4.0 student to do the same?
My best player has major college aspirations but needs extra work shooting from beyond the
arc. My 12th player is just thrilled to even have a uniform and had never played more than
five minutes in any game all season. Should they both be required to make 100 threes every
day after practice before they go home?
After playing four games in four days in which every team picked us up and pressed us full
court man to man, I gave my point guard a day off. Should all the subs, including our third
string post player take the day off too?

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Do you want to be treated exactly like everyone else or do you want to be treated the way
you deserve? Its been my experience that your best, most dedicated coaches and players
dont expect, need or demand to be treated like everyone else. They want to be held to a
higher standard because they have higher aspirations.
In life we dont always get what we want but we usually get what we deserve. Should
basketball be any different?

2. IT DOESNT MATTER WHAT YOU RUN, ITS HOW

YOU RUN IT THAT COUNTS
Have you ever heard someone
say It doesnt matter what
offense (or defense) you run, its
how you run it that counts?
Well at the risk of committing
basketball heresy, I am going to
go out on a limb and declare
that is completely false! Even
though execution is extremely
important on both the offensive
and defensive ends of the floor,
what you run is at least equally
as important! Regardless of your coaching philosophy and goals, these choices will be
absolutely critical to your overall success.
Now I will be the first to admit that championships have been won on various levels by
teams running the Flex, Triangle, Shuffle, Hi-Low, 5 Out Motion, Dribble Drive Motion,
and undoubtedly dozens of other offenses. Likewise, teams have won playing defenses such
as Pressure Man to Man, Pack Man to Man, 2-3 Zone, 1-2-2 Zone, 1-3-1 Zone, Full Court
Run & Jump, Half Court Trap, etc. etc.
BUT, that doesnt mean that a coach can just reach into a grab bag of offenses or defenses,
pull one out, run it effectively, and win. Yet, year after year that is essentially what many
coaches attempt do without taking into consideration the size, athleticism, depth, or talent
level of their team. As a result, its not uncommon to see teams that cant pass well struggling
to run the Triangle or teams lacking an outstanding point guard failing miserably when
executing a pick and roll oriented offense. Believe it or not I have even seen some really

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small, but slow teams aggressively try to press full court even though they had only seven
players in uniform!
Unless you are in a situation where you can recruit certain types of players to fit a
predetermined style of play, you might want to seriously consider matching your offenses
and defenses with the skill sets of your current players. Is your team big, small, or all the
same size? How many legitimate shooters do you have? How many can effectively dribble
and pass? What if they are pressured?
Thoroughly analyzing your team and then devising a master plan to maximize your strengths
and minimizing your weaknesses are two of the biggest challenges that a coach can face. But
putting your team in the best position to succeed doesnt mean you have to reinvent the
wheel every season. Personally, I have three offenses that I know inside and out and use
consistently. One is primarily inside oriented. One is primarily outside oriented and one
is a combination of inside/outside and can be tweaked in a myriad of ways depending on
our personnel. Then to fill in the gaps I usually add a few quick hitters that can be run to
ensure that our best scorers can get a wide open shot when we need one.
Choosing the right offense for each team can actually improve your execution because you
will not be asking your players to do something that is completely out of their collective skill
set. In other words, if you want to run offenses right then run the right offenses!

3. DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Weve all heard the age old saying Offense sells tickets, but defense wins games, or its
upgraded version of Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Both sayings
have a nice ring to them, sound good, and certainly possess a motivational quality, but they
are simply not true at least not entirely!
Yes, of course you must play good, solid defense and must be able to get a stop or series of
stops when needed! But teams that win constantly and consistently are teams that have the
ability to score. This is why a huge red flag is raised in my mind every time I hear a young
coach proudly declare that he or she spends 75% of their practice time on defense.
Offensive basketball requires many more highly developed and complex skills than does
defensive basketball. A decent athlete with an adequate amount of heart, desire, and
intelligence can be turned into an effective defender relatively quickly. But that same player
needs thousands and thousands of purposeful repetitions to become effective at shooting,
ball handling, and passing. As a result, offense is much harder to teach and takes much more
time to master than defense. (On a side note, if you want to help your players play at the

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next level, whatever that level may be, then you need to help him or her get better
offensively!. Lots of coaches talk defense but they almost all recruit offense!)
Because of this fact, I believe that many of those coaches who overwhelmingly stress defense
over offense do so because they lack either the necessary time or knowledge to develop their
players and teams offensively. In other words, they are taking the path of least resistance and
concentrating on what is easier.
Fortunately, coaching knowledge can be increased in several ways such as reading reports like
this and searching websites such as Basketballclassroom.com and Hoopskills.com. As far as
the necessary time requirements, UCLA coaching legend John Wooden often said that he
spent twice as much time working on team and individual offense than he did on defense..
Earlier this season I watched two of the best programs in the country practice (UCONN
men and UCONN women) and their time allotments were similar to Coach Woodens.
Now dont get me wrong Im not saying you should quit working on your defense and
focus solely on outscoring your opponents. What I am saying is that defense alone is not
going to get the job done alone. Offensive execution, rebounding, clock management, and
mastering special situations all factor into winning games and championships and need to be
nurtured and developed.
Take this time to look at not only your overall philosophy but also look at your practice
planning and determine if you are spending enough time improving ALL facets of the game.
Good defense will keep you and your teams IN most games, but dont forget its the team
that SCORES the most points who is declared the winner!

4. THE STARTING 5 ARE THE BEST

This misconception has undoubtedly been around since the very first basketball game was
played and I am positive it is prevalent in other sports as well. The widespread acceptance of
this myth, especially amongst parents and fans, can certainly make a coachs job even tougher
than it already is but that still doesnt make it true.
Great coaches understand that the starting 5 is just that the starting 5 nothing more and
nothing less.
In fact, there are so many reasons NOT to start your best 5 players that we cant even list
them all in this report but here are a FEW of them:

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1. Want to start in the press and create havoc before your opponent is thoroughly
warmed up physically and mentally so you need more athleticism
2. One of your best players gets nervous at the beginning of games and plays more
relaxed after watching the action for a few minutes
3. You want to establish a physical presence from the very beginning but dont want
to risk your best post player getting in foul trouble
4. You dont want all your best players getting tired at the same time
5. You can emphasize defense by starting your best defender even though he might
not be strong in other aspects of the game
6. Your best 5 players dont always play well together
Team morale and chemistry is another thing to take into consideration when determining a
starting lineup. Several years ago North Carolina had a starting 6. The starting lineup was
different every single game (which made their opponents scouting and pre game preparation
much more difficult.) and every sixth game one of the starters came off the bench. It didnt
matter how well or how poorly they played during the game before, they followed the
rotation throughout the entire season.
I know that my situation may be different than yours but we usually have a normal playing
rotation of about 8 players and I try to have 3 of our top 5 players on the floor at all times.
Notice I didnt say 3 of our starters; I said 3 of our top 5 players! If I was coaching a youth,
middle school, or club team then I would play even more players every game in order to give
everyone more of a chance to grow and develop and I would constantly rotate starters.
I think its important to help your players understand that you may not start your best
players and that they shouldnt get too excited if they happen to start the game on the floor
nor should they be disappointed if they start the game on the bench. Ive found that most
players will respond very well as long as they know the reasoning behind your decisions.
Parents, on the other hand, are not always as understanding as their kids and so I would
make sure that my philosophy of starters and subs is addressed in my preseason parent
meeting. (A detailed discussion and sample outline of such a meeting is included in the
BasketballClassroom.com curriculum.)
Parents and players alike need to know and understand that if winning is the primary goal
then who starts the game is not nearly as important as who finishes it.

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5. YOU HAVE TO BE FAST TO FAST BREAK

Fast break basketball has nothing to do with being fast! Instead, it is all about attitude,
commitment, technique, and teamwork. If your team has these things then you can have a
dominating, game changing, crowd pleasing, transition game even if you have below average
team speed. If your team is lacking these four things, then all the speed in the world wont
make a significant difference in your running game.
The ideal fast break attitude is an aggressive,
constantly attacking mentality. Youve heard of
pressure defense? Great fast breaking teams
think in terms of pressure offense! Nearly every
player Ive ever met says he likes to run and fast
break but that attitude needs to be constantly
encouraged and developed to the point where it
becomes an integral part of your teams identity.
When it comes to commitment, coaches and players must buy in completely in order for their
fast break to be a dominating factor. Coaches who want to fast break must first realize and
then accept the fact that they will not always be in control of the action, and that can be
very difficult for those coaches who want to influence or direct every possession. Coaches
who are fully committed to implementing fast break basketball must thoroughly train and
then trust his team to make good decisions while playing at full speed. Again, the training
part is sometimes much easier than the trusting part, especially in the early stages when
everything looks a little chaotic.
If you want to have a championship caliber fast break, then all of your players, regardless of
the position they play or the foot speed they possess must commit to running hard on
EVERY possession, even during those times when they know that they have no chance of
getting the ball. Teams dont have to be fast but they must be relentless! More teams
sabotage their own fast break by refusing to constantly run hard on every possession than do
their opponents with transition defense.
There isnt enough room in this short report to fully explain all the techniques and
intricacies involved in teaching and implementing a great fast break offense. (More detail can
be found at www.BasketballClassroom.com) However, I can quickly mention two ideas that
will help you fast break with a slow team. First of all, practice and then insist on deep
outlet passes. Many coaches like their rebounders to literally hand off the ball to their point
guard who must then negotiate defensive traffic the entire length of the court. Instead, outlet
the ball at least as high as the top of the key and preferably as close to half court as possible.
Now your point guard is only two or three dribbles from getting into an area where he can
really make things happen.

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Secondly, utilize the three point line. Years ago fast break basketball meant trying to get
layups before the defense got back. While that is still an option, now running a fast break
provides great opportunities for wide open threes because defenses are trained to sprint back,
get in the paint, and protect the basket. It doesnt matter how much faster your opponents
are if they are not running to the same spots that you want!
Now lets say your wings are running to spot up on the three point line. Since guards and
wings are usually the first ones back on defense they have to decide whether to protect the
basket or stop the three. If they run to the paint then the three is open. If they stay wide to
stop the outside shot then the middle is left unprotected which gives your ball handler an
open lane to attack or your trailers a chance to cut to the rim.
The last ingredient necessary for a great transition game is teamwork because selfish play will
kill your fast break before it ever gets going. For your fast break to be most effective, players
need to be willing, able, and even anxious to pass the ball to their teammates who are open
down the floor. Some point guards play like the ball is glued to their hand and that wont
work if you want to run. A point guard who wont pass will soon find himself fast breaking
all by himself as others will not display the commitment to sprint every possession if they
never touch the ball.
The ball can be advanced down the court much, much faster by passing than by dribbling
and that is the main reason why you dont have to be fast to fast break. Its not how fast your
players get down the court that is the most important but rather how fast you can get the ball
down the court that really matters!

6. PG, SG, SF, PF, C

Primarily because of the influence of the NBA, a common misconception has developed over
the years that it is necessary to play with a so called traditional lineup of point guard,
shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center. Because these current positions
have been seemingly ingrained in popular culture its extremely common for young coaches
to feel almost obligated to field a team with similar classifications. They take the biggest kid
and make him the center, the next biggest kid is the power forward, and so on until the
smallest kid becomes the point guard. For example, while watching my daughters middle
school tournament, I heard one coach tell a 53 90 pound sixth grader that she was going in
the game to play power forward!
There are three issues with the misconception that you need to play this way. First of all, I
think assigning any player younger than high school age a position is a big mistake. Simply

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calling these kids a power forward or shooting guard does not make them such and may
very well prevent them from developing a complete and versatile skill set. Secondly, too
many youth and middle school players with outstanding potential are cut from teams
because there are already too many playing that same position on the roster. Rosters should
be filled with basketball players not positions. Thirdly, playing with a traditional line up may
not necessarily be the best way to win games. If you are running a 3 out 2 in High/Low
motion offense with a guard that you are calling a power forward, you are not only doing the
individual player a huge disservice but the entire team as well.
Instead of coaching your players to play specific, predetermined positions, coach them to be
complete, all around players and then play to their strengths. Then either design or choose
your offenses and defenses around what your personnel really is not what they are labeled.
Realistically, every team falls into one of the following six categories:
1. 5 Smalls
2. 5 Bigs
3. 4 Bigs and 1 Small
4. 3 Bigs and 2 Smalls
5. 2 Bigs and 3 Smalls
6. 1 Big and 4 Smalls
Now in the above groupings Big and Small refer to general skills sets not body types
The only one of the six even close to being a so called traditional line up using todays labels
is #4 3 Bigs and 2 Smalls. However, there are competitive advantages with all six groups
and when paired with the right offenses and defenses and then coached properly, each group
can have championship potential. In other words, take what you have and work like crazy to
make them better. Coach your team and ignore what others say in regards to what your team
should be like or look like.

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7. EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS

Everybody likes to make a big deal about experience. During the NBA and NCAA
championships the announcers are always talking about which teams have the biggest
advantage because they have the most experience. Plumbers, electricians, lawyers, politicians,
babysitters, and countless others all publicize how much experience they possess. Even
McDonalds wants to know about your experience before they will hire you!
Thats great and everything except for one thing experience alone is neither a prerequisite
or accurate predictor of success. Why? Because all experience isnt the same and so doesnt
necessarily carry the same weight. What if all of someones experience is bad, negative, or
dominated by failure? Is that experience you can count on?
Now what does this have to do with coaching basketball? Several things. As a young coach
you may find it difficult to get a coaching job because you lack experience. You cant get a
job because you dont have experience and you cant get experience without a job! Im not
saying that its right; Im just saying often times way too much emphasis is placed on
experience. As a young coach you may want to look for a mentor to guide you. If you do,
whether its in person or on line, dont be fooled into thinking that just because someone has
been doing something a long time that means hes good at it. Everyone should be much
more concerned and impressed by talent and results than by experience!
The same principle holds true when working with players. You cant expect to have a great
team just because you happen to have a little experience on your roster. Nor can your
returning players expect to have a stellar season just because they are now a year older. This is
how I explain the situation to my players at the end of every season. I tell them that one of
my goals is to always be better next year than we were this year, regardless of how successful
we already are and there are only two ways to accomplish that. One, our players can continue
to get better or two, we need to bring in better players. I really dont know of any other
option because talent is always more important than experience!
UCLA great John Wooden, who coached long before college players were allowed to leave
early for the NBA is quoted as saying Id rather have a lot of talent and a little experience
than a lot of experience and a little talent.
These days there are a lot of NCAA coaches who shy away from recruiting the best high
school players in the country for fear of them leaving after one or two years. Kentuckys John
Calipari is not one of those coaches. He wants to put on the court the most talented players
possible even if they have limited college experience. Of course, experienced talent is best,
said Calipari. But if I had a choice between a talented team and an experienced team, Im
taking talent every time.

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Impress upon your returning players that they must continually work to improve their skills
because experience alone does not give them the right to play and to be successful. Impress
upon your new and younger players that the best, most talented players are going to play,
regardless of how much or how little experience. Take the stance that talent is more
important than experience and stick with it!
Now as a coach, you too must work constantly on improving your skills and subscribing to
BasketballClassroom.com is certainly a big step in the right direction because throughout the
program you are going to get access to the knowledge, skills, and strategies that are still
helping us win year after year.
Everybody can gain experience but only those who work at it can improve their skills. And
that holds true for both players and coaches!

8. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

One of the most used sayings by young coaches also happens to be one of basketballs biggest
misconceptions. Although we all wish it were true, the simple phrase practice makes
perfect is not completely accurate. Much more accurate phrases would be practice makes
permanent, and perfect practice makes perfect.
Granted, its a proven fact that repetition is the mother of all learning and that without hours
and hours of practice a player has absolutely no chance of ever perfecting his game.
In fact, Malcolm Gladwell supports this idea in his book
Outliers, when he writes, The idea that excellence at
performing a complex task requires a critical minimum
level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of
expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they
believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten
thousand hours.
While 10,000 hours might be the magic number in terms
of how long a person needs to practice, what is often
overlooked is how a person should practice. No matter
how long you practice, you will not achieve excellence or create perfection if you are
practicing incorrectly. Instead you will only make bad habits permanent.

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This is why its crucial for coaches at all levels, but especially important for those who work
with younger athletes, to constantly teach and reinforce the correct fundamental techniques
of dribbling, shooting, footwork, and passing in every single team and individual work out.
It is much easier to start creating a good habit at the middle school level than it is break a
bad habit at the high school level and then be forced to start over!
Since it takes a fair amount of time to become excellent, make sure that you and your players
are spending your time wisely. I completely agree with former Princeton coach Pete Carrill
when he says players need to be good at the things that happen the most. There is no sense
in being great at something that never happens, so always concentrate on the basics.
Practicing the right things, the right way, for the right amount of time is the only way a
player can ever perfect the skills necessary to be great!

9. ITS NOT WHETHER YOU WIN OR LOSE, ITS HOW

YOU PLAY THE GAME
You might have said that occasionally to your players hoping to make them feel better; to the
parents of your players to keep them off your back, and to your school administrators in
order to keep your job, but you as a coach cannot believe that. You MUST NOT believe
that!
As coaches we have a unique
opportunity to teach young people
life lessons through competitive
athletics and one of the most
important lessons that need to be
both taught and learned is that
results matter. By teaching our
players that trying our best on the
court is the only thing that
matters, we run the risk of
teaching them that trying hard off
the court is all that matters as well.
Like it or not, we live in a results oriented society. The salesman who tries hard but doesnt
sell anything is going to struggle to support his family. The student who tries hard but gets
only average grades is not going to get into the best colleges. Should we be satisfied that we

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are trying to win the wars on crime and illegal drugs? What about those who try their best not
to drink and drive do they deserve a pat on the back for their efforts? I could go on and on!
Do we need to teach our players to do their very best at all times? Absolutely! Teach them
that playing hard matters; playing fairly matters; playing unselfishly matters; working hard
matters, and persevering matters. But young people need to know that winning results
matter too! Not only on the court, but more importantly off the court!
This brings us to Part #2 of this misconception and that is the idea that Losing Builds
Character, as if to suggest that losing could actually be a good thing. Losing doesnt build
character; losing reveals character because it requires some type of reaction. It requires either
accepting defeat or regrouping and taking on the challenge even stronger and more prepared
than before. Lou Holtz has been quoted as saying, Life is 10% what happens to you and
90% how you react to it.
Helping your players build and strengthen their characters is an ongoing process. If you
and/or your players are lacking in character to begin with, losing is certainly not going to
help you build it!

FINAL THOUGHTS
We hope you got something out of this special report. If you are interested in reading about
any of the other misconceptions and myths that are floating around the world of basketball
coaching, or if you happen to know of any that we should be aware of, please contact us
through www.BasketballClassroom.com. We would love to hear from you!

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