You have the ball!

I discuss the concept of Direct Responsible Individual (DRI) in my other blog, The Delicious Uncertainty. I will, somewhat reluctantly, illustrate the concept with a mistake I made for years as basketball coach.

Here's the situation. The ballhandler is dribbling down the court and throws a pass to a wide open player. The ball goes out of bounds because the player wasn't looking. I yell at the player who wasn't looking. Over and over again.

Not that many years ago, I realized the player running down the court didn't control the situation. The ballhandler does. Why would you throw a pass at someone who isn't looking at you? YOU have the ball.

Here's an example of the right way to react. I was coaching the juvenile girls at Compagnons de Cartier in Quebec City. By the way, that was one of my favourite teams ever. My point guard came to me one day and complained that our big inexperienced post didn't catch the pass when she was closely guarded. The right answer came to me immediately. "Don't throw the pass unless you're sure she can catch it".

Here are some ways I apply the principle.

1. Only throw a difficult pass if it will lead to an easy basket or if you have no other choice.
2. You have the ball. Your job is to throw the ball at players who are looking at you.
3. Point guards have to call the offense, make sure everyone is set then throw the first pass (to someone on our team...). A 90% success rate isn't good enough.
4. Great players throw lots of early, easy passes. We forget this when we think about their great passes.

PS
A friend told me she sometimes throws the ball deliberately at someone so they will look at the ball in the future. The truth is both are important. The ballhandler has the ball and is ultimately responsible for balls lost because someone wasn't looking. Looking at the ball is another post.