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Welcome to the Slappin' Glass Newsletter, exploring the best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world. Thank you for your support of what we do!

Today's edition includes:

• "Crunch Time" Returns: Johns Hopkins v. Swarthmore
• Brady Bergeson: Inside the Episode
• Best of the Week
• Steve Donahue: Q&A this Friday!

Let's dive in...

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Crunch Time - Johns Hopkins v. Swarthmore

Johns Hopkins Head Coach, Josh Loeffler, and Swarthmore Head Coach, Landry Kosmalski run two of the best programs in college basketball, continually ranking in the Top 10 Nationally in NCAA DIII over the past few seasons. Both are tremendous coaches, come from legendary coaching trees (Loeffler with Fran O'Hanlon at Lafayette, and Kosmalski with Bob McKillop at Davidson), and, perhaps most importantly, both are past podcast guests. 😂 ( Loeffler Pod | Kosmalski Pod)

In this weekend's newest "Crunch Time" film session we revisit the last 5 minutes of the thrilling 2020 Centennial Conference Championship game between Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore with Coach Loeffler. At the time, Swarthmore was the #1 ranked team in NCAA DIII with Johns Hopkins right on their heels at #8.

One of the areas of coaching that most interests us is the "when" of making decisions of all kinds. Tons of great playbooks, podcasts, PDF's, and videos abound about what or how to run sets, drills, meetings, defenses, etc., which are all extremely useful...but the secret sauce is in the WHEN. When will you run the counter you've got in your back pocket? When will you jump your team in a timeout? When will you start "mismatch hunting" down the stretch? When to give suggestions as an assistant? When do you peel-switch on a slot drive? And on and on. These "Crunch Time" film sessions are one of our favorite projects to work on because they're packed with opportunities to dive into both the hows and the whens of late-game decision making, strategy, and keeping a steady pulse down the stretch.

Here are a few interesting discussions we get into during the newest "Crunch Time" film session with Coach Loeffler:

Late-Game Mistakes & "Shot Spectrum"

*Spoiler Alert - The game ends with a classic buzzer-beater.

A couple of interrelated concepts Coach Loeffler discusses in the film session are 1) Learning from earlier Late-Game Mistakes and 2) teaching your team about "Shot Spectrum", including teaching your best players about the types of shots they can get down the stretch and when to shoot them. Before the last shot of the Johns Hopkins v. Swarthmore ending we flashback to talk about the growth of a team and player in understanding these concepts.

Coach Loeffler talks about an earlier matchup in the 2018-19' season in which the game was tied and they had possession to take the last shot. Whether it was due to youth, nerves, or the shock that Loeffler was coaching in a bowling shirt, Johns Hopkins takes a shot with a lot of time still on the game clock...

The opponent, Whitworth, rebounds the missed shot with about 9 seconds left on the game clock, and the worst ensues for Johns Hopkins...

Zooming In: Going back to the earlier point about the when of coaching, this difficult loss led to a lot of growth for Loeffler and Johns Hopkins in the way of teaching players time management and poise in end of game scenarios. In the case above, it was not a question of whether the location or type of shot was in question, just when it was taken.

Flash forward to 2020 (the season of the Swarthmore game), and Loeffler now has one of the best guards in the nation on his roster in DIII All-American, Conner Delaney. Delaney can score at all levels and has the ability to get to any spot on the floor with his skill, athleticism, and IQ. Since everyone in the gym understands that Delaney will have the ball in his hands down the stretch, Loeffler talks about the growth and maturity of Delaney understanding space, timing, getting to spots, and "Shot Spectrum" when it comes to taking a last second shot. As Loeffler says during the "Crunch Time" episode ...

An added layer of teaching "Shot Spectrum" is a player understanding how long it takes for them to get to a spot on the floor to take a makeable game-winner that fits their skill-set. This is where Loeffler discusses further about when he'd like Delaney to begin operating so he has enough time to get the shot off, while at the same time not leaving much time for a desperation heave the other way.

As fate would have it, Johns Hopkins had a similar late-clock situation the night before their Swarthmore championship matchup when they faced Haverford in the Semi-Finals, where Delaney had the ball with the opportunity to take the last shot of the 1st Half. In the play Delaney is able to isolate at the top of the key and sink a comfortable jumper as the clock runs out for the half...

Zooming In: The details to point out, and which we discuss with Loeffler, are both the alignment of the isolation, as well the space Delaney creates before getting his shot off. First, Loeffler discusses why he elects to get into a 1-4 Flat look rather than set a ballscreen, saying that he feared a potential trap in a ballscreen and instead elected to give Delaney space to operate without a screen. And second, if time permits, teaching Delaney to space almost to half court with the ball before attacking to get downhill momentum going into his move.

This end-of-clock situation in the Semi's proved fruitful, as the next night in the Conference final, after a thrilling back and forth game this exact scenario plays out again, with Delaney having the ball in his hands with the game tied and the title on the line. Here's the result...

"Crunch Time" with Josh Loeffler

Beyond the situations highlighted above, the "Crunch Time" episode with Coach Loeffler is chalk-full of late-game strategic insights discussing:

• Mismatching Hunting and Handling Veer Switches
• Defensive Ballscreen Depth and "Plugging"
• Defensive Free Throw Rebounding and Substitutions
• Watching Opponent's Timeouts
• And much more.

You can watch a portion of the "Crunch Time" Session for free here...

Or access the full video (and over 350 others) by becoming an SG Plus member here...

"Crunch Time" will return in a couple of weeks with former New Orleans Pelicans Head Coach, Stan Van Gundy, digging through the film of a close win over the Golden State Warriors last year. 🔥

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Best X's and O's

📺 Oympiacos - Top Weave Action ​

"The weave action is a great masking agent to set up a PnR. Get the defense moving, and confuse their shell responsibilities."

➕ Pair With: Coach Jaka Lakovic's (Ulm) tremendous playbook utilizing "Side and Top Weave Actions".

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📺 Olympiacos - Shallow & Stack PnR ​

"Distorting the defense with the shallow cut & DHO prior to the Stack PnR. Creating bad spacing in order to generate great spacing."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with Euroleague PG, Frantz Massenat, on navigating the Stack/Spain PNR Action. ​

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📺 From Connor Harr: New Zealand's "Pop and Burn Reverse Screen Action"​

"Appears to set up like your typical reverse angle P&R with a backside flare. However NZ dives the flare man early, similar to a 45 cut which gives the screener space to attack in space."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with Ryan Pannone on some of his favorite off-ball PNR Actions. ​

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Interesting Reads:

📚 How to Be Successful: 13 Thoughts​

"Most people get bogged down in linear opportunities. Be willing to let small opportunities go to focus on potential step changes."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with St. Thomas Aquinas Head Coach, Tobin Anderson, on early career growth and seizing opportunities. ​

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📚 Matthew Woodcock on First Team Meetings

"As many college teams gather officially for the first time with the beginning of a new school year, I wanted to gather my thoughts on how to best handle such an important meeting by exploring how some of the best coaches approach it."

➕ Pair With: Coach Woodcock was kind enough to include our podcast with Eric Musselman in his post. You can hear it HERE.​

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📚 Quieting Your Mind and Thinking Objectively ​

"Chatter happens, Kross explains, when we get stuck in a mental rut, retreading the same worries over and over again without reaching any useful conclusion or consolation. Breaking out of that rut requires putting some emotional distance between you and whatever is troubling you. It's hard to figure out how to solve a problem when you're super upset over it."

➕ Pair With: Our conversation with NBA Player Development Coach, Joe Boylan, on "in-season mindfulness." ​

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Inside the Episode

Regis University Head Coach, Brady Bergeson, is one of the most respected coaches in college basketball for his ability to teach, communicate, and foster relationships with players, and we were fortunate to dive into all three of those areas in this week's newest podcast. Here's a look inside the episode:

3 Key Concepts:

1. Fostering "Peer Leadership": A great conversation about the realities of "peer leadership" on a team and in a locker room, and the ways that Coach Bergeson tries to build that in his leaders. We discuss what great team leaders do in crisis, how they interact on and off the court, and the value of developing a "Leadership Group" to aid in the process.
2. Educated "Start Points" in Pre-Season Planning: Coach Bergeson discusses how he and his staff use "educated start points" in the preseason for both schemes and player roles. From these "start points" we then dive into how both small and major tweaks may be made as the season progresses and roles become more defined.
3. Teaching Cutting in Half Court Offense: One of the more difficult skills to coach are the whens and hows of cutting in the half court, and Coach Bergeson discusses some of his thoughts and rules for teaching players to cut effectively. Especially highlighted is the "baseline" or "corner" cut on a top-down drive to the middle.

2 Key Quotes from Coach Bergeson

1. On true leadership: "I look at it kind of like the law of the jungle when figuring out who your leaders are, and I think it's important for coaches to be aware that your leader is whoever the eyeballs look at under pressure. You ask the team who the leaders are, they're gonna know. I can put a 'C' on a guy's chest, but ultimately it's going to be the guy everyone looks to for answers under pressure."
2. On surrounding yourself with great people early in a career: "One of the best investments is who you put yourself around, and who you put around yourself. I think who you work for matters when you're growing up as a coach... you'll fall back on that experience under pressure as your career goes on."

1 Interesting "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

• Topic: Preferred skillset of a 5-Man in "Open Offense"
• Options: As a passer, as a driver, as a screener
• Coach Bergeson's "Start": As a Driver

You can listen to the entire episode with Coach Bergeson here...

Listen to Brady Bergeson!

Podcast Extras: Beyond the podcast conversation, here are some other pieces of content we put out in conjunction with the episode:

• ​Brady Bergeson Voiceover Video discussing their "Corner Cuts" ​
• Brady Bergeson's full "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" Video

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We're excited for this Friday's next Live Q&A Session for SG Plus members, this time with UPenn Head Coach, Steve Donahue!

Here are the details:

When: Friday, September 17th @ 12pm EST/18:00 Central Europe

Where: Live on Zoom! We'll post the link in the "Coaches Corner". ​

Coach Donahue is one of the most respected coaches in the college game and we look forward to the conversation with you all! If you'd like to hear more about Coach Donahue, you can listen to our podcast with him below. See you Friday!

Listen to Steve Donahue!

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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