EP 106: What The Best College Basketball Teams Are Doing

Hey Coach,

One thing I've noticed watching thousands of hours of game film alongside other coaches is that most coaches watch film completely wrong.

They try to watch everything, which means they see nothing.

I've learned there's one metric that matters.

Watch this episode of The Hours to see what it is.

Watch the full episode here:

Key Takeaways

• Actions are not the goal. Advantage is. Both teams executed their actions well. Both teams struggled to punish the advantages they created. That ratio reflects where practice time actually goes. Ask yourself: what percentage of your practice teaches players to play once they have an edge?

• Evaluate possessions by what they created, not how they were executed. A SAVI coach watches a play and asks "did we create advantage?" A traditional coach asks "did we run it right?" Those are completely different questions. One drives better outcomes. Start watching your own film through the advantage lens.

• Defense takes something away. It also gives something up. Every coverage has a cost. If you blitz ball screens, someone is open somewhere. The question is whether the other team can find it. Coach from aggression. Dictate the terms. Make the other coach prove his team is prepared, instead of coaching from the fear of what you might give up.

• Your first adjustment should already be decided. Before the game. Before halftime. Know your primary coverage and your counter. Know when you'll press and when you'll pull back. SAVI coaches are not attached to their scheme. They're attached to their standard.

• Pace is a practice decision. Both teams played slower than they needed to. Pace is not just about tempo. It is sprinting to screens, rolling hard off ball screens, running your actions earlier in the possession. If your team plays slow, look at how you practice, not just how they compete.

One Action Item

Run a constrained game built around a situation your team struggles to play through. Pick a scenario you know will come up in your next game.

Two on the ball. High-low coverage. Whatever it is.

Three things to make it transfer:

• Keep the defense on for multiple reps so they can actually learn and correct.

• Play to points so there is real competition.

• Rotate different offensive players in each possession to create variation the defense has to read.

Bonus: run it four on four before you add the fifth player. The extra spacing makes it harder for the defense and closer to real game pressure.

-Tyler

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