Tag Archives: Austin Carr

Advice to a Young Player

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At the tail end of last season, one of my clients asked me to take a look at some YouTube footage of his high school junior in action and to offer advice for his development. The video featured the young man’s ball handling and shooting routine – jukes and drives to the rim, step-back jump shots and lots of threes. I don’t think he missed a single shot during the entire video clip. It was impressive.

Here’s the response I emailed to the dad. (I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent!)

“Bob, just watched the footage of Tim in action — very neat!

I’ve been out of the game for a long time… and obviously I haven’t seen Tim in an actual game. But here are a couple of ideas to consider in his development:

• Beware of “game stoppers” — I want a dribbler to go somewhere with the ball as quickly and simply as possible; a lot of kids waste the possession with an array of dribbling motion that actually contributes little or nothing to the offensive attack. They effectively “stop the game.”

• Develop skills without the ball — cutting, moving, creating space; using angles, change of direction, and quickness to become un-guardable; playing defense with your feet and heart.

• Develop a midrange jumper, particularly the 8-12’ pull-up jumper. The college three-point line will eventually be moved back — better get ready for it. AAU coaches and ESPN glamorize dramatic dunks and corner threes but the best players remain those who are offensive threats from multiple spots on the floor.

Finally, watch this video of Austin Carr setting the NCAA tournament record of 61 points — without the advantage of the three-pointer. At 6’3” he averaged 38 points per game and shot 52% from the field. Never a wasted movement. He kept everything simple and epitomized the advice offered above.

Good luck!”

It’s a Simple Game

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In The Physics of Baseball, Yale professor Robert Adair describes the difficulty of hitting a baseball hurdling toward the batter at 90 miles per hour. Yet, the greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams, was able to reduce Adair’s detailed study into a simple law that separates the strong hitter from the mediocre. Just as Einstein was able to reduce his theory of relativity to a single equation, Williams was able to distill the science of hitting in a single sentence: Get a good pitch to hit. I have long wondered if we could do the same for the game of basketball. 

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The Best Matching Zone You’ve Never Seen

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We’re three months into the 2013-14 season and the more vocal critics of the new hand-check and block/charge rules are beginning to quiet down. (See C.J. Moore and Matt Norlander’s recent columns.) Compared to last year at the same point in time, fouls are up by only four while scoring has increased by six, and most games have been completed in less than two hours.

I happen to think that the rule changes are the best thing to happen to college basketball in a long time. Eventually the players will more fully adapt, learning that defense is played with one’s feet and heart, not with arms, hands, and hips.

In any event, some coaches are turning to various forms of the zone defense in an attempt to cut down on fouls and keep their starters in the game. In early December, using statistics compiled by Synergy Sports Technology, The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen reported that the use of zones was up by a 6% since last year with Top-25 teams facing zones on nearly 24% for their half-court sets.

If that news sparks your interest in the zone defense, here’s an in-depth look at the most comprehensive match-up ever devised.

Click here to read Rediscovering Gene Sullivan’s Matching Zone Defense, Part I