Learning from the best

THE GAME OF MY LIFE By Bill Velasco
Saturday, September 15, 2007

The first BAP-SBP National Coaches Conference at the Astoria Plaza was a refreshing experience, in terms of the willingness of the best coaches from all over the country to participate and share their knowledge with the body. The tone was set from the start by executive director Pato Gregorio, who stressed the philosophy of working together to build a successful system that will outlast any personalities involved.

National team head coach Chot Reyes spoke candidly about the experience in Tokushima, and once again took responsibility for our defeat there, while at the same time acknowledging that the team was not prepared to play every day in a big international tournament.

Chot emphasized three things to the body, after the grassroots and juniors programs had been explained. The first thing he stressed was that we had to teach our big men to shoot.

“We say we don’t have big men,” Reyes began. Let me correct that: we don’t have big men who can shoot. Let’s teach the few big men we have how to shoot the three-pointer.”

The second thing he stressed was passing, which is efficiently and effectively done in Europe. The third, which was based on the FIBA-Asia experience, was to train players to be able to play every day. We have leagues in the Philippines, but not tournaments where we play every day. The former San Miguel Beer head coach elaborated, “If at an early age, players learn how to prepare not just physically, but mentally and psychologically, to play every day, it will make things a lot easier.”

Fourth, Reyes wanted us to get out of training players rote. Let’s teach concepts, so the player won’t just know plays, but the reason behind it. Making players smarter should be our ultimate goal.

Lastly, Reyes emphasized that the basketball community should make it a solemn vow never to be suspended from international competition again.

The highlight of the morning session was a taste of what it was like to listen to the European perspective from a highly successful practitioner. Former Serbian national coach Vlade Djurovic, who met the Philippine team in Belgrade in June, spoke briefly and in a very entertaining fashion about how difficult it has been for American coaches to win in Europe. They have very few concerns in American, and are blessed with talented players whom they can just throw the ball into when they get into trouble in close games.

The first of four things Djurovic stressed was rebounding.

“It’s okay to miss, but if you do not rebound when you have a good opportunity, that is criminal,” said Djurovic in his heavy accent. “If you do not rebound, I will cut you and I will replace you.”

The second thing was turnovers. Djurovic said that, in Europe, 12 turnovers are an acceptable number for a team in one game, far less that the 20 or so which seem to be the norm in local college basketball.

The third item was free throw shooting, but not percentages. Coach Djurovic said that the number of free throws was important, because it affects the outcome of a game in a big way.

“We may both shoot 50 percent free throws,” he explained. “But if you make five out of 10 and I make 10 out of 20, that means you only missed five, but I missed 10. It is not the same.”

The last item on his list was luck. Luck, as he described, was getting bad referees or having them make bad calls (such as the RP-Iran game in the FIBA-Asia tournament wherein a Greek referee – a friend of Djurovic – called a technical foul that determined the outcome of the game. It was also losing because of a lucky shot, or having a player slip on the floor in a crucial situation.

Djurovic said that if you have three of those four, you will win games.

More on the European philosophy in an upcoming piece.