The Cross Over Movement Blog

by Derek A. Vargas

Yesterday I attended the Garden State Coaches Clinic at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, NJ. Some coaches I know shun these events…price is usually steep, you see many of the same speakers - often with the same topic or shtick - over and over and over again (for example, I saw Jim Boeheim discuss his 2-3 defense for about the 10,000,000th time), and more and more the tendency seems to be to feed the masses with more drills.

Me? Normally I go because I’m looking for a different way to teach the same thing. I simply sit, listen, and filter. Another reason is to question. If a coach is teaching something differently than I, well…I want to try to figure out why is he/she doing that? Is it more effective than what I’m teaching?

Yesterday I had two different reasons for going: Bob Hurley, Sr. and Hubie Brown. If you haven’t seen either of them speak, and you’re a coach or aspiring coach, make it a point. I personally don’t think we’re likely to find better teachers in our lifetime (and I’m no pessimist).

I’d like to outline what I take away from listening to these guys, but I’d do them no justice, and am not all that efficient with a keyboard. A few comments though:

1. Coach Hurley Sr. made one comment that explained what most coaches just don’t get. After demonstrating a practice drill, he mentioned that he got the drill from another coach. He (Hurley) had lost in the semi-finals this past spring, which gave him an unexpected free day. He picked up the drill using that free day to go and observe another team practice.

Why so poignant? He’s going to watch someone else TEACH. In clinics, for the most part, presenters SHOW. In practices, good coaches teach. If you want to improve as a coach, go see more practices.

2. Coach Brown (easy 50 times or more in 2 hours): “Why…?”, “Why not…?”, “Are you…?”, “Do you…?”, “Will you…?”, “How (would, should, could, etc.)…?”, “If…?” and so on. Telling.

3. Hubie draws a crowd. You have to look around to see who shows up JUST when Hubie is on…yesterday: Knicks coaches, Nets coaches, UConn coaches, Liberty coaches, Villanova coaches, etc. etc. etc. all are scribbling furiously (including a few guys who likely didn’t take one note in four years of college). There’s a reason.

4. To the GSCC organizers: I know you gave Coach Brown an hour and forty-five minutes, and everyone else an hour. But you know what? Hubie is going to run over. You know this. Let the man talk. I know you stopped the clock before the buzzer, and let him go 10 minutes past his time before he turned to ask how much time he had left. You told him he was up. He was legitimately upset. He apologizes to the audience…says he wasted too much time and had so much more to show. Then goes on to talk for another 5 minutes. For future reference…when Hubie asks how much time next year, tell him as much time as he wants. Please? The man is 74. God willing we have a lot more time to learn from him, but you just can’t be sure. I don’t care who’s next. Really I don’t. No one else does either.

As to the balance of the day, there were other good speakers there: Billy Donovan, Boeheim, John Beilein and Tom Crean, though I didn’t stay for the latter two…it was between them and 3 hours of traffic through NYC… Of course, all of these guys usually bring something useful to the table, but again, sometimes you have to really listen.

For example, Donovan discussed “player development.” Probably should have (more accurately) been entitled “drills you can run with 5 assistant coaches, 12 managers, 4 courts, 8 hoops, and 2 months of dedicated planning.” Thing is, if you read between the lines…really listened…the takeaways were NOT the drills (which were a good 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 build-up), a technique or two, and a comment early on about making sure your bigs participate in ball-handling drills.

The takeaways were in his thought process:

1. THIS is our overall offensive philosophy: defense is weakest in transition and on close-outs, we look to create situations which take advantage of this, and, anytime we can force 2 defenders to guard the ball, we do.

2. Your player development, practice drills, and situations should be developed within your offensive framework (philosophy).

Therefore…

3. Here are the drills we designed to develop players based on what we run.

What’s unfortunate is that many of the coaches there will leave the clinic and build in practice drills designed to run the Florida offense despite the fact that they run the Shuffle (or whatever).

The GSSC proceeds go to the Coaches vs. Cancer Foundation. Next year, Coach K is signed on, and I’m hopeful that Hurley Sr. and Brown will be back. Worthy cause and a good day. www.gardenstatecoachesclinic.com

Also – Sunday November 26th, 6th annual St. Anthony’s Coaches vs. Cancer Clinic in Jersey City, NJ. Great day, good teachers, lunch included, affordable ($25 non-resident, $30 day-of) and you watch Bob Hurley Sr. run St.Anthony’s practice for the last hour-and-a-half.