University of Portland's Hot Start is No Surprise

University of Portland has started the season with a couple great wins - but those that follow them shouldn't be surprised. Here's a great 7-Minute Culture Clinic with Coach Eric Reveno

They run some really good offensive sets, and some serious specials. Here's a nice one they run for a 3 pt shooter - which they have a few of.

Then out of the same set they can attack the post off a great ball reversal

If you like teams that "play the right way" - catch some games in the West Coast Conference

Keep it Simple ... or Simple to Learn

I think a lot of times coaches get paralyzed by the phrase “K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). This does not mean we have to give up on teaching the game. It shouldn't scare coaches from implementing additional strategies or tactics that they feel necessary. What we can do is ensure that we are as concise and consistent as possible with terminology, principles, and tactics. If you are able to do this you can still take a pretty complex package and make it palatable for your players.

“The Princeton Offense” is looked at as complex, but that memorable backdoor to beat UCLA, in vintage Pete Carril lingo, was called "center-forward…because the ball goes to the center and then to the forward. Complex - but taught simply. Albert Einstein explanation of the complicated conversion of mass to energy is expressed in a formula so simple as E=MC². He once said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."

We should keep that in mind when we coach. We don’t have to BE simple, but we CAN coach simply.

Kansas BLOB for a LOB

Nice Baseline Out of Bounds play run by Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks against the Memphis Tigers to get Cole Aldrich a dunk.



I see too many teams pass on this great scoring opportunity and simply run a play to get the ball in. Unless you are running some clock - take advantage and run a play to SCORE!