It's been over a week since the last Phoenix Mercury game I watched and it seems they are still resigned to running their matchup zone defense. They played the Los Angeles Sparks tonight in LA, and they Sparks absolutely picked apart the Mercury's defense. The Mercury made a few late 3-pointers in the 4th quarter to prevent the blowout, but essentially, they didn't make any required adjustments.If...

Fresh off the news of his new $111 million contract with the Washington Wizards, I thought I would share this short clip with Gilbert Arenas playing keepaway with a bunch of high school kids. I've run a drill like this in the past but we used 2 defenders trying to get the ball away from 1 dribbler. Take a look,Dribbling is one of the skills that I see that is practiced a lot but not done particular...

Part of the Five-Star Basketball Lecture series, Mike Fratello here in a short 5 minute segment talking about closing out on defense. First off, I just want to say that I love Mike Fratello, he's a great defensive mind. I love his nickname too, The Tsar, given to him by Marv Albert because Marv thought Mike was such a wizard with the tele-illustrator breaking down those plays for TV. Anyways, I dig...

Hey all, just wanted to wish you all, especially the Americans out there, a happy fourth of July. I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of the readers and posters on the forum for their contributions and passion for this game we all love. 2008 has been a great year so far and I'm sure many of you are already busy preparing for the season ahead. Finally, I want to give a special thanks t...

From the latest Xavier Newsletter, this is Larry Brown's Transition Offense explained. I really like the concept of transition offense as a way to counteract an opponent that is overly aggressive on the offensive glass. Make them pay the other way by creating a numbers advantage. Here are his rules,Larry Brown - Offensive Concepts:1. I tried to program our players in South America during the Olympi...