High School Basketball: Tips for a Successful Basketball Season

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Success = “the peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success

Time management: Time management is one of the most important life skills that a student-athlete can learn. It will be helpful in college, in a career, as well as being a parent. One questions that drives this point home is “How are you going to spend your day?”

For a high school basketball player, school and academics will take up the majority of your day. Basketball will be another few hours, and the rest is going to be up to you. Cell phones have become an increasing problem with teenagers Spending an average of 7.22 hours a day on screens. If a player can eliminate or reduce cell phone use during the basketball season you’ll have more time to focus on things that will put you in a position for success.

Rest and Recovery: If you are a competitive high school basketball player, you probably have been exposed to strength training. Rest and recovery is critical to build muscle mass. Rest is also critical for a growing adolescent. It is recommended by experts to teenagers get between eight and 10 hours of sleep.

Most teenagers fail to come close to this number and this will result in decreased performance and mental awareness. It will impact school performance, as well as performance on the basketball court. If a player can make sleep and rest a priority, this will significantly increase the chances of having the basketball season that all players hoped for.

Sleep: Studies have shown that catching up on sleep during the weekend can also be beneficial. Parents may not be pleased with this, however if a player can get additional sleep on the weekends that will prepare you for a better for the week and will help your body recover.

Eat Healthy: Many parents, doctors, and trainers preach this so it probably sounds familiar. Players have been hearing it from pediatricians, parents, coaches, health teachers, and grandparents. Cookie Monster has even changed his stance on this one over the years.

Be sure to eat as healthy as possible. It is tempting to have candy, soda and other sweets that might not help with your performance. Include fruits, salads, and other healthy options. Drink milk with meals. Eat breakfast every morning. Make eating healthy during the season is top priority. This should be a top priority all year, and can be a great life habit.

Focus on Your Studies: Take care of your academics. Once again this is advice that you have heard from many different people over the years. Your basketball career will end one day. For many student-athletes that day will be in high school. If you are fortunate enough to play in college or professionally, you would like to have as many skills as possible. The air comes out of the ball, even for NBA Hall-of-Famers.

A players will have a career after your playing days are over. So pay attention in class. Don’t wander the halls during school. Take it vantage of study periods. Seek extra help when necessary. Raise your hand and participate in class. Make eye contact with teachers. Say thank you at the end of each class.

There are many great Division III basketball programs that have great academics. Players should strive to have as many college basketball options as possible. Having a high GPA, good SAT test scores, and positive teacher recommendations will help a player become more attractive to a college or university. There are so many talented high school basketball players playing at challenging academic institutions.

Many division II and Division I athletes forgo a scholarship to play at an excellent academic institution at the Division III level. This will be a goal of many high school players. Having good grades will give a player many more options than being a mediocre or poor student.

Have a Positive Attitude: In the documentary Survive and Advance, NCAA Champion Coach Jim Valvano shares a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Be the most enthusiastic person you know. Be the most enthusiastic person in your grade. Be the most enthusiastic player in your program, maybe the league or even the state.

Understand the Meaning of Success: Authors and philosophers have often grappled with the question what is success? As a high school basketball player you should familiarize and analyze John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. This was a life long mission of Coach Wooden to figure out how to define success, and how to achieve it. There are many blocks to achieving greatness and his definition of success is one that should make a lot of sense to a high school basketball player.

Wouldn’t carefully selected to cornerstones industriousness and enthusiasm. Make these cornerstones a part of your basketball season and he will be pleased with the results.

NCBCA COACHES VS CANCER

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Leadership, maybe one of the most over-used terms in coaching today. Every team needs it, every coach wants it, every player thinks they are a leader. The question is really, how do we teach leadership? How do we model that leadership as coaches? Are we developing leaders for tomorrow or more worried about winning in the moment. The North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association firmly believes that leadership is far deeper than winning a game or even a championship. Leadership is preparing our youth, our players, for a better tomorrow and how to be better, more productive citizens! We promote servant leadership with our coaches and our athletes. 

After several years of dipping our toes in the waters with our servant leadership model, we decided to put our name to it and promote it. Along the way, we were partnering with Coaches vs Cancer for some small events and donations across our state. In 2013 we launched an event unlike any other in the country, The NCBCA Coaches vs Cancer Shootout. The event is hosted in the beautiful mountains of Asheville North Carolina. This two-day event has brought high school basketball teams from across our state together for one cause, to help the fight against cancer. To date we have raised over $185,000 for Coaches vs Cancer and The American Cancer Society. Cancer is an opponent that we are familiar with and that has no loyalty. Everyone in their lifetime has been or will be affected by this disease. We hope that by inspiring the current generation to get behind this cause it may eventually lead to a cure.  

Each year of the event, we select a large number of schools to participate in this event and invite them to Asheville, North Carolina.  We have the teams participate in a formal banquet where they will hear how they can be a part of the team in the fight against cancer. We ask each school participating to engage in some form of fundraising at their school level over the course of the fall sport season and be prepared to make a donation to Coaches vs Cancer on the night of the banquet. Each school is also asked to select a “hero” that is someone from their respective communities that has or is currently battling cancer. We honor those heroes at the banquet and ask the schools to discuss what their hero means to them, the ways that they raised money in their honor, and most importantly, the lessons that have been learned along the way. Its an evening filled with lots of smiles, lot’s of laughs, and not to mention, a lot of tears are shed. The next day, we have the teams come back to play a game vs an opponent that that would not really ever see in any other format. We have used the amazing facilities at UNC-Asheville with the Sherrill Center formally known as Kimmel Arena. 

Like most things, Covid wreaked havoc on our event causing a two-year shutdown of the event. After those two years, we decided to relaunch the event and rebrand the event. We have now moved the event to a two-day event where each team plays two games at a local high school in the Asheville area, and we are very proud that the NCBCA Coaches vs Cancer Shootout is now back up and running and as successful as it was pre-pandemic. We are most proud of the impact we have made in the lives of student athletes across our state and the communities that they live in. We would encourage all coaches, state associations at all levels to get in some event or association, be more about the life lessons you can teach your athletes. If you would like more information, please contact coachesvscancer.org or contact your local American Cancer Society. 

High School: The Winter “Basketball” Season

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The high school basketball season is what every player works for. The whole year is designed to get to the point where a player can have a successful season and team can reach it’s potentional.

It is still important to focus on one week at a time. We will try to provide with some key points for each week of the season.

Week #1 November 27th – December 3rd High School Basketball: Tryout Week

Week #2 December 4th – December 10th High School Basketball: Preseason and Scrimmages

  1. High School Basketball: Preseason Scrimmages

Week #3 December 11th – December 17th Let the Games Begin (Week #3)

  1. High School Basketball: FIVE First Game Facts

Week #4 December 18th – December 24th Last Week Before Christmas Break (Basketball Jokes for Christmas)

Week #5 December 25th to December 31st: High School Basketball: Christmas Vacation Week

Week #6 January 1st to January 7th

  1. New Year’s Day Practice
  2. High School Basketball: Back to School Week

Week #6 January 2nd to January 14th

High School Basketball: 13 Tryout Secrets

For tryouts it is important to have a great mental approach. You determine what type of player the coaches see. Remember it is everything other than offensive scoring that will help you make the team.

  1. Relax: It is just basketball. Basketball is very important, but remember it is not life and death. Just go out and play the best basketball you can. Play within yourself. Don’t try to do too much. KISS keep it simple stupid.
  2. Be early: Get to a side hoop and do Mikans and form shoot if you can. This will show coaches you know fundamentals and will be a great warmup.
  3. Be up front when coach is talking: Listen with you eyes and ears.
  4. Be first or last in drills: When you do drills if you know it, be in the front. If it is a new drill, be towards the back to see how the drill is done correctly.
  5. Want it: Give it all you got. You have worked hard for this. If you are fighting for a loose ball fight for your life. That player is trying to take your spot. Get on the floor.
  6. Sprint all the time: Don’t stop sprinting on offense, defense, when the coach call everyone in.
  7. Great Shot Selection: Scoring is not critical. Good overall fundamentals are. Get to your baseline front and reverse.
  8. Box Out and Rebound: Coaches love players who box out and rebound.
  9. GREAT body language no matter what, have great body language.
  10. Next play: Always play in the present. Do not worry about the previous play. Play in the present.
  11. Talk on defense. Be the most talkative player. This will separate you from others. The majority of players are mutes on defense.
  12. Move without the ball. Set screens on offense OFF THE BALL. Raise your hand with a fist and say “use me use me.” Another thing no one else will do.
  13. Thank coach at the end of each practice. Not all players will do this. Little things are the big things.

High School Basketball: “Time Will Tell”

The final full week of the basketball off-season is here. “time will tell.” is a common saying that seems very appropriate for this point in the basketball year. From a high school basketball standpoint, this is a great quote just before the start of tryouts and the season.

A player’s performance, improvement, and skills will be evaluated very closely during the 2 – 5 day high school basketball tryout period. The results of how a player prepared for the season will be very clear to teammates, and more importantly coaches,  It is a scary but critical question for all high school basketball players: “What have you done with your time this off-season?” 

The basketball off-season is an incredibly long time. It is a minimum of 36 weeks and 252 days. Realistically how much time can be spent working on improving as a basketball player – probably 252 – 504 hours on basketball skills. One to two hours per day seems to be a reasonable amount of time to commit to baskeball workout. It is certainly more than most high school players will commit. Players will miss workouts, go on vacations, work, get a driver’s license, etc. So even committed players will probably not come close to reaching 252 hours.  

What a player has done during the hours of the off-season working on basketball will determine his fate for the upcoming season. 

According to our calculations, with 14 days left, a player has somewhere between 14 and 28 hours of basketball left in the off-season (1 – 2 hour workouts per day). Not much time. Right now, there is absolutely nothing that can be done about what you have done during the previous weeks of off-season. So whether you’ve worked out religiously, or hardly picked up a ball, it is time for you to face the music.

Fom this day forward, make a commitment to knowing your role, embracing your role, and mastering your role. Now is not the time to do anything out of the ordinary. If you have not been lifting during the off-season. Don’t start lifting, it will probably hurt your chances of playing well at tryouts.

What Can A Player Do? 

Set effort and repetition goals. We never like to set up players for failure. Setting a goal of averaging 22 points per game is a recipe for failure. Teams can play a box in one and deny a player every inch of the court. A player may get hurt. A player may be on the team with an incredible scorer who will take the majority of shots.

We prefer sitting effort goals. We also firmly believes that all goals right now should be no longer than a week or two. It is a short season. And we like to break it down into manageable time periods. One of the most exciting and important days of a basketball season is the first day of tryouts.

  • Set a goal to be early.
  • Work as hard as you can.
  • Listen with your eyes and ears.
  • Take more pride in your defense than anyone else on your team.
  • Have fun.
  • Be a supportive teammate.

Conditioning: It is not too late to improve your conditioning for basketball, but don’t overdo it. If you haven’t run a mile in over a month don’t try and run three. If you haven’t done, any basketball conditioning drills, start slow. Be reasonable. Only do conditioning that will not result in pain or injury. But being in shape is a critical factor in having a great tryout.

Shoot Free Throws:

Many coaches like to place players on the free-throw line with a chance to make one free throw or the team will run during tryouts. This gives the coach an opportunity to see who can shoot the ball under pressure. He can look at the players free-throw routine, and get a good sense of if the player is a shooter or not. And lastly, he can see who is capable of making a big shot, down one with five seconds left in a game that will determine the state championship, a league title, or simply a win. So a player never can waste time shooting free throws.

Play Basketball: Ultimately, being able to play team basketball well is what coaches are looking for during tryouts. Playing 1 v. 1, 2 v. 2. 3 v. 3. and 5 v. 5  will help you to start to get into the mentality of what it means to play team basketball. When you play these games, focus on talking on defense, playing hard, and moving without the ball. At some point during tryouts you will be playing basketball, so this is probably the best use of your time this week if you are playing competition at your level.

Know Your Range: Having great shot selection at tryouts is such an underated aspect of tryouts. If you are not a good shooter, shooting the ball and missing more shots than you make will not help you make the team. I would like to repeat “If you’re not a GOOD shooter, don’t shoot the ball!” Take hug percentage shots. For some players this may mean only shooting wide open layups.

Define Shooting Range: One of the craziest things is that most basketball players at all levels do not know what their range is. The definition of shooting range we use is the spot where a player can consistently make five shots in a row. 

If you can find a rebounder, this makes this drill a lot easier. But it can be completed with one player as well. Simply start under the basket and shoot the basketball. Stay at one spot until you make five in a row. Continue working your way back to a spot where you can no longer make five in a row. This spot is out of your range. 

To be a good shooter, a player must have good shooting fundamentals. A shot develops over a career and cannot be significant changed in 7 to 14 days. So the shot is what it is. Continue to work on your shot and make minor adjustments, and try to get as many repetitions as you can. 

Take a step in to completely recognize what your range is. do yourself a favor take another step in. During tryouts do not take a shot that is further back than this location. One little known fact for players trying out for a team is that players who shoot often and miss often have exes put next to their name. Players who shoot rarely and make shots while doing the other little things often get noticed.

Players who are guaranteed a spot on the team should also follow and shoot only in their range. Because now, if you have made a team must find a way to get on the four and get quality minutes. You will only do this by knowing your role and knowing what a good shot for you is. One of the biggest reasons a basketball player will get pulled from a game. He’s poor shot selection. Do not let this happen to you.

Set effort and repetition goals. We never like to set up players for failure. Setting a goal of averaging 22 points per game is a recipe for failure. Teams can play a box in one and deny a player every inch of the court. A player may get hurt. A player may be on the team with an incredible scorer who will take the majority of shots.

We prefer sitting effort goals. We also firmly believes that all goals right now should be no longer than a week or two. It is a short season. And we like to break it down into manageable time periods. One of the most exciting and important days of a basketball season is the first day of tryouts.

  • Set a goal to be early.
  • Work as hard as you can.
  • Listen with your eyes and ears.
  • Take more pride in your defense than anyone else on your team.
  • Have fun.
  • Be a supportive teammate.

At the end of practice go up to coach look him in the eye apps give Max a handshake and say thanks Coach. Looking forward to tomorrow. Go home get your rest and get up again the next day or

Youth Basketball: November

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  1. Compose a Pre-Season Email: This initial email should be sent out at least a week before the 1st practice. It is a great way to start the season on the right foot!
  2. Plan the 1st tryout:

October 28th – November 3rd

November 4th – November 10th Some Youth Basketball teams are having tryouts, while some have been selected and are having practices. Be sure to focus on grade appropriate basketball skills.

November 11th – November 17th Week #13: Be sure to Thank a Veteran. Many teams have been selected and the practice schedules are being established! Be sure to have a plan for the season!

November 18th – November 24th Week #14:

High School Basketball: Week #1 Tryouts & Cuts

High School Basketball: November

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Fall Season

In November, the high school basketball season is so close you can almost taste. How much can a player improve during the final weeks before basketball? How hard is that player willing to work?

High School Basketball Tryouts

October 28th – November 3rd Week #11:

November 4th – November 10th Week #12: The countdown to the season is less than a month away. Election Day is off for many US schools. Go out and get some workouts in! It is not too late, but soon it will be.

November 11th – November 17th Week #13 / Elite Eight Football: Be sure to Thank a Veteran and then get your tail out of bed and work. It is a great day to get better

November 18th – November 24th Week #14: Final Four Football This is the final full week of school before tryouts. Most fall sports seasons have ended, so if a player has the time, put in the time. Make the most of the last few days of the off-season.

November 25th – December 1st Week #15: Final Four Football The Final Week of the off-season. It is a very short school week because it is the week of Thanksgiving. Do not each to much and be sure your are ready for High School Basketball: Week #1 Tryouts & Cuts

High School Basketball: December

High School Basketball: How Big is Your Pond?

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“Are you a big fish in a little pond, or are you a little fish in a big pond?”

This phrase is often used in athletics to evaluate an athlete based on the quality and quantity of talent. This post will break down the different ponds for players. Ponds are not permanent and players can jump from one pond to another. With each year, a player’s pond can change based on the amount of improvement and commitment during the off-season. 

My Grade, My School: This is the first level that every high school basketball player must navigate. Making a high school basketball program is a big accomplishment in many cases. The #1 priority of a freshman basketball player is to hang on an earn a uniform for a high school team. 

In order to be a good high school player, the player MUST be one of the top three players in a grade. On a 15-man roster, the starters are the bench mark for all other players. A player should keep a current depth chart of his rank within his grade. If a player is really serious, he will figure what he must do to be one of the top three players in his grade. Many players will remain in this pond until their career is over. 

  • Big fish (Top 5 / Above Average) = starter
  • Medium fish (Middle 5 / Average) = role player
  • Little fish (Bottom 5 / Below Average) = limited time

To be successful in high school a player needs to be a big fish in his grade. This is the smallest pond and to be a big fish in this pond is a great accomplishment. 

My School / My Program: This is the pond that most players dream of when they area youth player in the stands watching the varsity team play. To be a starter on a varsity high school basketball team is really amazing. Only a few players in each grade (usually less than 5) reach this elite level. There is no greater thrill for a high school player than to have you name announced as a starter. The earlier a player reaches this level, the more likely he will search for a bigger pond.

  • Big fish (Top 5 / Above Average) = starter
  • Medium fish (Middle 5 / Average) = role player
  • Little fish (Bottom 5 / Below Average) = limited time

My League: When a player is a big fish in a pond, he starts looking at the other ponds to see if he can really swim with the other fish. When a player becomes a starter at any level, he will look at the starters on other teams in the league and possibly realize they can be one of the top players in their league. These players strive to be the #1 player listed on the whiteboard for a scouting report. All the players on the other team know that this player is the one to stop. 

At the end of the season, the coaches will meet to vote on all-league players. This is an INCREDIBLE honor to receive. Very few players will perform at a level that will gain the respect and admiration of opposing players and coaches. 

My State Division: The ultimate goal of all high school basketball teams is to win the state championship. Most states assign teams to different divisions or classes based on school enrollment. More often than not the top players in the division have a chance to lead a team to a deep playoff run and in rare cases a state championship. It takes a lot of talent and hard work to be one of the top players in the division.

At this level, playoff success is a requirement. The player must play his best when the lights are brightest. He is fearless and pays great attention to the fundamentals. He is not afraid to take chances or big shots. He enjoys pressure and excels in the moment.  

My State: Being selected as the best player in something most players can only dream of. But without fail, every year, there will be a player in each state that will receive this honor. This player will be THE BIG FISH in the state pond. States vary in size and skill level, but no matter what state, this player is special. 

My Country: The Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year will most definitely be a household name before receiving the award. The list of past winners is VERY impressive. These special players are often gifted with height, athleticism, and speed. They also possess an above-average work ethic. 

McDonald’s All-Americans also would fall into this category of big fish in the national pond. 

To all players, follow the wise advice of Dory “Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!”