[lawrence-newsletter][lawrence-related id=17929]Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard participated in a virtual coaches clinic this morning courtesy of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Via Zoom, Gard got out the clipboard and took us to the film room as he diagrammed offensive sets and then showed us in-game examples of them being run. His virtual session was a special on man-to-man offense, meaning offense designed to beat a man defense. From swing principles, to practice drills, to in-game sets, Gard made us basketball nerds, a category which I proudly put myself in, feel like we were at our version of Disneyland for a couple of hours.
In terms of offensive principles, everything Gard said kept coming back to two words: spacing and movement.
With spacing, Gard emphasized that in the swing offense (the principles that Wisconsin has based its offense on for years), spacing is absolutely everything. While you have to move freely to a certain extent, you also have to move smartly. Positioning of where you move next could make or break a possession in the swing. Gard also made it clear that spacing did not mean he would micromanage players and tell them where to stand at all times. That does not work at this level for obvious reasons. “I’ve learned more as my experience has grown don’t try to micromanage, don’t try to script everything. Theres gotta be a point in time where you let players play. Within the concepts ,within the spacing; good offense usually has great spacing, whether you create it with the dribble or with pressure at the rim,” said Gard.
In terms of movement, specifically off-ball movement, Gard preached that it was an extremely important part of creating open looks and that the Badgers practice it often. Specifically, Gard said that Wisconsin uses drills such as a 5-on-5 scrimmage with no dribbles in order to emphasize the need for off-ball movement when you are in a game setting.
Gard made it clear that his goal in terms of running offense, based on mentoring from former Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan, was to truly “teach the game” instead of just “walking around with a whistle at practice.” Today, he gave us an excellent, inside look at some of what that teaching consists of.