Game management is a vital piece of your coaching philosophy that your players should all know and rehearse in practice throughout the entire season. Knowing the time and score and how to handle these situations can and usually will determine how your season ends on the court. Today we are going to focus on an end of quarter situation in high school (College and NBA have a much higher number “end of” situations because of the shot clock.
Once the clock hits 1 minute in quarters 1-3, our offensive demeanor changes. If our team has the lead in this time frame, we want to work our offense for a good, wide-open lay-up. This is the best way to win the momentum game from quarter to quarter. In order to do this, there must be a level or trust and understanding between the coaches and the players, if an unguarded lay-up is available, it is expected that it will go in since it is the highest percentage shot on the court. With that being said, once the clock this 30 seconds, if we still have the ball we want to take the last shot.
Here is the difference from most teams, I want our players taking the last shot while still running our offense as the clock ticks down. Holding the ball at half-court allows the defense to rest and get “set”. By continuing the run the offense with crisp passes and hard cuts, the defense is constantly in a rotation.
When should the last shot be taken? I prefer around the 3 second mark. This is enough time for a possible offensive tip-in; worst case the defense gets a 3/4 court shot at the buzzer.
Stay tuned for more Game Management topics soon!
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Shot Selection is about Communication
Shot selection usually wins or loses most big games. If we want to win these games, we must fully understand what 
good shot selection is so we aren’t thinking about it while we are playing. Coaches communicating to their players on a consistent basis is the key to this learning process. Read more…
