In the “HOF Insights”, I ask a group of successful, veteran coaches to share their thoughts on a variety of topics. Each week, I ask a different question. The questions can be focused on helping coaches, parents or athletes to have a more successful athletic experience.
Today the coaches were asked to describe their plan for approaching practices before their first games. Usually teams have about two weeks to practice and then play a game. How did these great coaches approach practice in preparation for the first game?
Sean Taylor- Moline
1. What’s on your checklist of team concepts that you need to get in?
Hopefully, we cover the foundation or base of our team concepts before Thanksgiving so we can at least know and be prepared for anything we might see in the first few games. That will allow us to be prepared along with being able to evaluate what and how we teach and build the rest of the season.
Specifically on Offense
A. One of the biggest concerns I have is not being prepared for different types of presses. We spend one practice segment per day in the first 2 weeks of practice working on beating different types of presses(man, zone, run and jump).
B. Out of bounds situations -when we work offense to defense we start the offense on the baseline, sideline or endline out of bounds. In the past I would only work on these situations late in practice and in many cases I would rush through that part if not eliminate that segment. By working on these throughout practice I know that we have them covered.
C. Zone offense-maybe because we mostly play man defense we work more on our man offense throughout the year. Every other day we have a segment in practice that focuses on Zone offense and how we want to attack different zones.
D. One new one this year is playing with the Shot Clock. In all 5 vs 5 parts we are going to play with it. I hope by doing this we will cover a lot of the situations we might see in a game. The shot clock will certainly play a part late in quarters but coaches and players will also need to be more aware on both offense and defense when the clock gets below 10 seconds. Experience is the best teacher so I hope we can give our players a ton of different shot clock situations in practice every day.
Specifically on Defense
In the first two weeks we focus more on our fundamental principles on defense. This includes guarding the ball, shell drill concepts, and guarding different 5 vs 5 actions. Every drill we do we have an assistant in charge of box outs and rebounding the ball. In the first part of the year we focus more on what we do and less on scouting reports for individual players and opponents sets and.
Conditioning
Most things we do in practice we do with a ball. We try to get our players in shape through playing. This includes 5 vs 5 but also 1 vs 1 thru 4 vs 4, shooting competitions, and competitive drills that we score. The only time we get on the line and run is when a team loses one of the competitive drills.
Todd Borrison- Mediapolis
Pressure Defenses
For us we are going to jump right into our Full Court Game w/ our Base presses-Man Run and Jump and our 2-2-1 which we use on missed baskets. Both presses we add wrinkles as the season moves along-for example we will use denial in our 2-2-1 after several possessions to hopefully catch their guards napping. Once the ball is in we morph back into the 2-2-1. How much we add early depends on the players and the amount of experience they have.
Press Offense
Hand and hand w/pressing is our press offense which we work on at the same time - like most teams that press we get more out of it early in the season.
Fastbreak Offense
We will pick and choose what offensive sets we focus on early, but to stay with Tempo preference we will work on our fast break options along w/ our secondary breaks.
Half-Court Sets
For the nights we play more half court than we want to- we have a couple continuity plays-( a version of flex, circle motion, and a version of dribble drive we are more of a set team as we feel that helps more with controlling tempo. As the season moves along and for us (mainly Holiday break) since we can’t play we will add and sometimes take away depending on what we're seeing.
Zone Offense
We do see quite a bit of Zone so Zone Offense is another thing we will address early.
Ability to Go “Off-Script”
The first week we go two A-days 6-7:45 A.M. and 3:30-5:15 we try to eat up as much gym time as we can before the boys start the next week, and it really allows us to go off script, and address things that may not be going well.
Conditioning
As far as conditioning 90% of it is in our base drills, which are mostly up tempo and relate to the style we're asking them to play, and again with two a days they are being challenged both physically and mentally-especially later in the week.
Mark Cooper- Ottawa
Three Weeks of Conditioning
The three weeks before practice begins are critical in creating a baseline of conditioning. We condition three days per week, with each session increasing in intensity until the start of practice. This allows players to be physically prepared when official practice begins.
Two Weeks of Practice Preparation
Creating a two-week outline before practice starts is a must. This ensures that every offensive concept, defensive concept, special situation, and game routine is covered at a comfortable pace before the first game.
Offensive Concepts
Man Offense
Man-to-man offense
Man offensive sets
Zone Offense
2-3 Zone
1-2-2 Zone
1-3-1 Zone
Matchup Zone
Box-and-One
Triangle-and-Two
Zone offensive sets
Out-of-Bounds Offense
Baseline out-of-bounds vs. man
Baseline out-of-bounds vs. zone
Side out-of-bounds vs. man
Side out-of-bounds vs. zone
Press Breaks
Full-court zone press
Three-quarter-court zone press
Man run-and-jump defense
Defensive Concepts
Man Defense
Zone Defense
Pressing and Trapping Defenses
Special Situations
Free Throws
Free throw check-outs
Side Out-of-Bounds
Alignments
Plays
Jump Balls
Alignments
Responsibilities
End Of Quarter
Man Set
Zone Set
End-of-Game Situations
Fouling while up three late in the game
Intentional free throw miss for a two-point basket
Intentional free throw miss for a three-point basket
Set to get the ball in bounds late in the game
Six-second play, length of floor
Two-second play, length of floor while running the baseline
Two-second play, length of floor without running the baseline
Advance the ball to half court and call a timeout
Half-court side out-of-bounds set with one second remaining
Game-Day Preparation
Pregame Warm-Up
Halftime Warm-Up
By following a detailed two-week plan, every concept can be installed before the season begins. We will use pre-practice time to install new concepts and post-practice time to walk through what will be installed the following day. Once practice officially begins, we do not want to spend valuable practice time introducing new topics. Players should already be familiar with the concepts, allowing practice time to be focused on teaching, repetition, execution, and refinement.
Bob Anderson- Williamsfield
Legendary Williamsfield coach, Bob Anderson broke down his pre-season prep into five areas- 1) Offense, 2) Defense, 3) Transitions, 4) Situations, 5) Conditioning.
Here is detailed breakdown of what he wanted to cover in each area:
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Past articles in the HOF Insights series….
HOF Insights- Coaching Panel
Bob Anderson- Williamsfield (Boys Basketball) Retired
Bob is retired as boys basketball coach at Williamsfield. At a school of only 89 students, in 45 years, his teams won 732 games along with numerous tourney and conference championships. His 1997 team made it to the Elite 8.
Kimberly Barth- Washington (Girls Basketball) Retired
Coach Barth, a State Championship coach whose passion for the game began at a young age, inspired by her father and coaches who help shaped her love of the game. In her 10 years at Washington varsity head coach, she earned 8 IBCA COY Awards. In 2025 the Panthers took 3rd in State, and in 2026 they won the Illinos State Championship. While her accomplishments speak to her success in the court, her greatest impact has been developing young women through the game she loves- teaching them to compete, lead, persevere and believe in themselves.
Greg Bennett- Lewistown (Football, Track, Girls Basketball, AD) Retired
Jay Hatch- Alleman, Riverdale (Softball, Basketball) Active
Coach Hatch has won 4 State Championships- 1 in Girls Basketball and 3 in Softball. In 32 years coaching at West Des Moines Valley (Ia), Alleman, and Riverdale, has a record of 651-351, has won 19 Regionals, 8 Sectionals, 3rd in State (2002) and 1st in State (2005). Jay is in the IBCA Hall of Fame and the Alleman HOF.
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