NCDS: Chris Kreider, Asst. Coach - Georgia Southern ("Carry-Over")

(Courtesy Georgia Southern Athletics)

We all would agree that basketball is a “game of inches”.  As we head down the stretch of conference play, it becomes a “game of centimeters”.  Within each “inch” or detail on both sides of the ball, there are now two to three things that have been practiced over and over that must now be executed in the game: the play within the play.  Every team in the conference and country has been practicing and playing for months.  In the Southern Conference, with so many great coaches, each team has been prepared in practice for virtually every possible game situation.  But that was practice, and this is live competition in what is many times a hostile environment.  More often than not, the winning team is the team that is locked in as a unit and has “carry-over” from practice or walk-thru situations to forty plus minutes of live action.

The ability of a team to have “carry-over” in implementing a game plan, paying attention to scouting report defense, executing a set or even performing in late game situations is usually the difference between winning and losing.  Beneath the surface of a win or a loss, either situation can be attributed to whether or not what you have practiced was executed or not.  Before you can have “carry-over”, you have to know what it is and what it takes to get it.  With 60% of our roster experiencing all of this for the first time, we took the opportunity to coach it.

Here are some of the things we have implemented and stressed to our young team as we move towards being able to have “carry-over”:

We begin every practice with “Enthusiasm” (team on the sideline clapping it up and getting themselves going) to stress the fact that each player and coach must bring energy and concentration to each practice session.  There will be no “carry-over” if you aren’t locked in every time you step on the floor!

Every drill in practice is a drill that is used to simulate a game situation.  Drills have been carefully designed for a reason.  It seems obvious, but to a young team nothing can be assumed.  When we watch film, we make the connection between what happened in the game and when we work on that same situation in practice.

With a limited roster as we head into late February, we have cut down on practice time and have been more correction and mental walk-thru oriented in our preparation (especially with a one-day-prep in conference at times).

We work on late game situations in practice so that our guys are confident down the stretch with or without a time-out.  Constant repetition leads to confidence!

Communication is demanded.  In film, we force them to talk about the opponent, their individual match-up and our game plan.  Basketball IQ starts with being able to speak intelligently about the game.  Getting the communication to spread from the film room to the court is the true gauge of a championship team!

In our pre-game preparation: each player receives a scouting report (player tendencies, breakdown of opponent’s offensive and defensive system, etc.), we will watch an edit (player tendencies, opponent’s favorite actions and sets and defensive system) and go over our opponent’s actions and sets and how we will defend them in shoot-around.  In our post-game evaluation, we will watch an edit of our game (both good and bad) that is made by the assistant coach who had that scout.  In watching this edit, as a team we are able to evaluate how successful we were in our “carry-over” level.

What it takes to be successful and win at the college level can be explained in words, but often times can only be learned the hard way.  What it took for many of these student-athletes to get where they are now both individually and collectively is simply not enough at this level.  Relying on talent will only take you so far.  Playing hard will take you even farther.  From that point, “carry-over” is needed!

Until next month, GO EAGLES!

Chris Kreider
Georgia Southern Basketball

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