Gameday Prep

#GameDayPrep is one of the most important parts of being a coach. #GameDayPrep means that the season has begun, and it’s gametime. This is my opportunity to break a team all the way down and find every advantage possible that would give us leverage to win. I enjoy this more than just about any aspect of coaching because I love to win. I believe that the effectiveness of how you can dissect a team has everything to do with what your wins and losses columns look like as the season progresses.

During the days leading up to a game, I am the type of coach that will briefly go over the scout for the other team. Of course, we would like to know the basic plays that they run, BLOBs, SLOBs, presses etc. However, I am a firm believer in fine-tuning what we do as a team.

I believe that if we play our game, it really doesn’t matter what another team is doing. If we handle our business, we will win the ball game.

Because of this, I focus on both, but the practices leading up to a game are more team-centric with a touch of scout-focused.

In preparing for a game, the first thing that I would do is pull the 3 most recent games from the upcoming opponent. I like to see the pattern of what they have been doing in there last 3 contests. I not only check for wins vs losses, but who were the key contributors, what they did best, what they struggled with, and what were the things that were most effective against them.  From there, I can begin to formulate the scouting report and film for film sessions that will give my team the plan of attack that we will execute to win this game.

Once we go over our scout while watching film, we will then take everything to the court to play out the plan for victory and exactly how it will be executed.

On gameday, the thing that I have found most helpful for me is the pregame talk before we take the court for the final time. That is a time where I have typically went over our 4-5 goals that we are trying to execute. Also, this is a time that we briefly revisit the plan of attack and keys to victory, to give the players a quick refresher before they hit the floor. I feel that this is a time for them to really lock in before battle. Throughout the game, especially at halftime, we revisit those goals to see where we’re at in terms of meeting them. After the game, win or lose, we go back over those goals to see if we have met them.