Exploring basketball's best ideas, strategies, and coaches around the world

Happy Sunday! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, Last week we looked at how offenses can attack the short, awkward recoveries we’re calling Micro Closeouts and how to train players to read the defender’s angle, momentum, and space in those moments. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Martin Schiller & Alex Pribble Socal Coaches Summit Clinic Release!

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Matt Fletcher | Concordia St. Paul

🔑 The Practice Lab: Player Selected Scoring

🥇 Best of the Week: Rebounding​

PNR Defense & Program Building

Three weeks ago, we wrapped up a tremendous weekend in sunny Southern California for our annual SoCal Coaches Summit. This year’s Summit featured coaches presenting on a wide range of topics, from analytics and pace to scripting rotations, play calls, PNR defense, program building, and everything in between.

Now, we’re excited to start rolling out those clinics on SGTV.

Over the next three weeks, we’ll be releasing presentations from the Summit and giving coaches who weren’t able to attend a chance to experience and learn from the clinics.

This week, we’re honing in on University of Utah Assistant Martin Schiller and University of Idaho Head Coach Alex Pribble.

Martin Schiller: Building Pick And Roll Defense With Advanced Shell Drills

University of Utah Assistant Martin Schiller has coached across professional, college, and youth levels, and his clinic was less about one specific PNR defense and more about how to build, teach, and develop whichever coverage a team chooses to play.

One idea sat at the center of the presentation:

“Good teams have one thing that they’re good at, and then they have alternative coverages.”

For Schiller, that starts by building the coverage from the ball outward.

His progression begins with the two defenders directly involved in the PNR, developing the technique, positioning, and communication required by the coverage before adding the responsibilities of the defenders behind the action.

Only after those habits are established does the work become increasingly random.

The larger takeaway was useful: the drill should reflect the coverage. A team playing drop has different problems to solve than one hedging or blitzing, and the practice environment should account for those differences.

​SG+ Members can watch Coach Schiller’s full clinic, including his 2v2, 4v4, and 5v5 progression for building PNR defense, now on SGTV.

Alex Pribble: Program Building And Five Decisions That Drive Improvement

Coach Pribble has been part of four program rebuilds over the last 12 years, with each eventually winning a championship by year three. At Idaho, that process has taken the Vandals from the bottom of the Big Sky to the NCAA Tournament in three seasons.

His clinic centered around what he calls the “belief-building business” and five decisions that have helped Idaho improve year over year.

One of our favorite ideas was his approach to roster construction:

“Build your best five, not your five best.”

For Pribble, that means creating clarity around how each player helps the team win, then connecting their development back to that role.

That same thinking carries into the larger program.

Rather than simply talking about improvement, Idaho has built systems around it: identifying where the team needs to get better, putting accountability around those areas, and keeping them present in the daily work.

Pribble also spent time on two areas coaches often treat as fixed parts of their identity: pace and defensive system.

His view is much more flexible. Pace can change with the opponent and game situation, while the defensive system has to fit the roster actually sitting in your locker room.

That lesson came from experience. After attempting to bring a defensive system from a previous stop to Idaho, Pribble and his staff eventually rebuilt their approach around the personnel they had.

​SG+ Members can watch Coach Pribble’s full clinic, including all five program-building decisions and a deeper look at Idaho’s Big Help, No Sep, and Solid defensive designations, now on SGTV.

The Learning Loop

Thoughts from Drew Dunlop in building The Practice Lab

Brick

This week, I worked with a player who felt like too many shots were missing right or left.

I wanted to build a low-load shooting workout that combined “get good” and “feel good” reps while still providing plenty of variability. To guide the player’s attention toward shooting the ball straighter, I initially reduced their score whenever they hit the right or left side of the rim.

It made sense in theory. In practice, the score kept dropping, frustration rose, and the player became increasingly focused on avoiding misses. The scoring system added more noise than clarity.

Takeaway

We found more success by simplifying the scoring to reward only swishes and “BRADs” (Back Rim and Down).

The player chose which result was worth more, giving them some ownership over the challenge. Instead of being penalized for undesirable misses, they accumulated points for the outcomes we wanted their attention directed toward.

Same intention. Clearer feedback. Better response.

It reinforced that scoring systems do not always need to account for everything. If the goal is to guide a player’s attention and intention, emphasizing the desired outcome may be enough.

Sometimes subtracting points only adds frustration. Rewarding the right information can create all the clarity the workout needs.

Tinker

Now I’m thinking about how player-selected scoring could work within a group.

Could every player choose whether a swish or BRAD is worth more based on what they are currently trying to improve? Could two players participate in the same shooting game while operating under slightly different scoring systems?

The structure of the game could remain shared while the challenge becomes individualized.

That might allow a group workout to preserve competition and connection without requiring every player to pursue the exact same outcome.

Together with Hudl

Faster from Film to Scout

The season is live. How long does it take your staff to put together a full scout? How many platforms are you bouncing between to do it

The programs running Hudl - Sportscode, Instat, Fastmodel all connected - aren't asking those questions. They're getting to the clips that matter faster and spending that time actually coaching. Film, data, and scouting in one place. Fewer tabs, faster prep.

Learn more at hudl.com/slappinglass​

Subscribers to Slappin' Glass can also directly email Winston Jones of Hudl at winston.jones@hudl.com.

Slappin' Glass Podcast

🎙7 Lessons from Matt Fletcher | Concordia St. Paul

This week, we were joined by Concordia St. Paul Head Coach Matt Fletcher to discuss building offense around personnel. Fletcher broke down their “Bump, Tap, Hit” guard-to-guard screening system, how they teach and time cuts, and the difference between playing fast and shooting fast. Here are seven of our favorite lessons from the conversation.

Listen to the full conversation now on the Slappin’ Glass Podcast.

Together with the NABC

Stay Connected to the Coaching Profession

The season moves fast. NABC membership keeps you connected to the coaches, ideas, events and issues shaping the profession.

More than 5,000 coaches across every level are part of the NABC, with member access to the NABC Convention, regional clinics, mentoring, exclusive awards, discounts and professional development opportunities throughout the year.

Just as importantly, membership helps strengthen the collective voice of coaches on the issues affecting the game and the profession.

If coaching is your profession, the NABC should be part of it.

Renew your membership — or join for the first time — at NABC.com/membership.

Tactical

📺 Andrea Trinchieri - Mismatch Rebounding​

"Andrea Trinchieri explaining his defensive rebounding strategy against mismatches."

🔒 Pair With: Coach Thibodeau discusses the advantage of crashing the offensive boards from the corner. Generating easy points and kick out threes.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on Opening the Rebound, a subtle rebounding technique to create early vision, cleaner outlet angles, and immediate pace.

Interesting Reads

📚 Inside Curt Cignetti's Uber-Efficient Practice at Indiana​

"I'm a firm believer in our blueprint," said Cignetti, whose sixth-ranked Hoosiers begin their title defense Saturday against North Texas.

Short, efficient practices are a hallmark of that blueprint.

"One thing with Coach Cig, he respects the coaches' and players' time highly," said fifth-year linebacker Isaiah Jones. "But don't F with his time. Don't jog. Don't be lazy. That's his time. That's his practice time.

"You go hard out there, he's going to give you the off time."

📚 How Program Culture Prepared UCLA Women for Another Final Four​

"Team culture is not this nebulous thing or phrases on a wall," head coach Cori Close explained as she met with the media after the win. "It's a group of people that are willing to be committed to the hard right behaviors over and over again. That's everybody from the staff to the managers to everyone in between -- most importantly, every single person in the program."

​
📚 Is Your Organizational Culture Too Nice?​

One effective way to shift the behavior of your senior leadership team in this regard is through structured peer feedback. Create a process by which each senior leader receives candid, confidential input from colleagues about the behaviors that help—or hinder—the team’s effectiveness. Then create space for each leader to reflect on that feedback with their peers, ask questions, and commit to specific changes, both individually and as a team. When the CEO goes first and models openness about their own shortcomings, it signals that the goal isn’t evaluation or blame, but collective improvement.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, Eric, and Drew

info@slappinglass.com