Coaches’ Corner- John Wooden’s Advice- “Just 7”

One of my greatest thrills as a coach was to go to coaching clinics to hear legendary coaches share their “secrets.” I had the opportunity to hear Al McGuire, Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Geno Auriemma, Hubie Brown, Jim Valvano, and many others. 

One of the great experiences was to be able to listen to John Wooden share the UCLA offense, their press, and his organization. 

At the time Wooden was speaking, the NCAA did not allow freshmen to play on the varsity level. The idea was to give players a year to adjust to college life as a student before they had the pressures of playing. 

So Wooden shared his expectations for the UCLA Freshman Coach. Obviously he expected the coach to teach the famous UCLA offense and the 2-2-1 press. The most interesting thing he shared was about the use of the players.

Wooden said that he told the Frosh Coach to play 7 players. The Frosh Coach was not to play just 6 players and not to play 8 players- 7 player only. Wooden was talking about “regulars”- the number of players he wanted used on a regular basis while the game was on the line. 

Wooden wanted the Frosh Coach to use the five starters plus 1 perimeter sub and 1 forward/post sub- that’s it. 

Wooden explained his reasoning. If the coach was only playing the five starters or just one sub, the coach would not be “developing” enough players to play at the next level. All 7 players probably were not going to become varsity regulars but by playing 7 it increased the pool of players moving up. 

Coach Wooden related a story that usually the Frosh Coach would come to him and say, “Coach, there is really no difference between my 7th and 8th player, is it ok if I play 8 regularly?”

Wooden claimed his reply was always the same, “No matter how close they are in ability, make a decision who is #7. You can base it on a particular skill they have, their athleticism, or what you think is their potential. However you want to make the decision- pick one. If you play that player as a regular, in a month they will clearly become better than your #8.”

This may sound harsh but Wooden went on to explain his logic of why only 7. He felt if a coach tried to play 8 players, it would mean cutting the minutes back on the other players enough that it would impact their development as a player. 

He wanted to see his best players playing at least 30 of the 40 minutes, and his subs to get 20-30 minutes per game. He felt when you started playing 8 or 9 players, then the best players’ minutes would drop from 30 minutes per game to 25 minutes, and the subs probably would go from 20-30 minutes to only 15-20 minutes. 

So Wooden felt that playing 7 maximized the teams’ performance and playing more importantly maximized those 7 players’ development. 

Obviously this is just one philosophy. Other coaches are very successful using a rotation of 9-10 players, and feel it helps promote team morale and develop an uptempo style. Each coach must decide what best matches their philosophy and program goals.