Friday, July 18, 2008

Talking basketball with Greek coaches

Had the pleasure of working the coaching clinic here in Greece (for the Greek Basketball Coaches Association) with three terrific coaches:

Neven Spahija (photo at left) coached his club to a Spanish League title. He's also coached the national team. Neven talked about offensive transition, defensive switching, and weakside action. [Here's some video of Neven.]

Only 40-years-old, Oktay Mahmuti is considered to be one of the most successful coaches in Europe. He's an expert on defensive tactics. His clubs have won four Turkish National Championships. He talked about building team defense, low-post offense, and offense versus a switching defense.

Mike Dunlap is a two-time NABC Coach of the Year. His teams won two Division II national championships (2000 and 2002) at Metro State in Denver. After serving as an assistant for the Nuggets the last two seasons, he's joined the U. of Arizona's staff. Mike talked about offense versus the zone, 1-1-3 defense, and defensive transition.

With the help of a translator, I spoke about the pick-n-roll (offense and defense), trapping defense, and special situations. Let me know if you'd like me to email you the outline.