The last minutes of a basketball game

In the last minutes of last night’s A1 match between G.S. Peristeri and A.E.K. , the home team had a lead of 7 points (55 – 48).

From that point on, AEK relied on personal baskets by Keith Langford and 3-pointers by Matt Lojeski, so that in the final minutes of the game, they made the turnaround and took the winning result with a partial score of 7 – 18 (final 62 -66).

You can read about the course of the match in the detailed article of SPORT 24.

With the course of the game at this particular point in time, the words of an American college coach, coach Raymond Meyer, came to mind.

This coach was born in 1913 in Chicago and passed away in 2006.

From 1942 to 1984 he coached at De Paul College with a record (724 – 354).

One of his players, George Mikan, changed the way the game was played with his skills (the first big man) and execution technique near the basket.

In a seminar in which he was a speaker, on how a basketball team can keep the pace of the game, or turn it in their favor, he had this to say:

If you don’t have the ball, get it!
And if you get it, do something smart with it.
So at this point in the game, A.E.K. achieved the reversal relying on its own correct offensive and defensive tactics, exploiting from the opposing team all those mistakes in possession of the ball but also in its defensive reactions, which led to the loss of the rhythm in the game.

Of course, in a basketball match, the shots must also be included, especially at the critical points of the game, and luck should also smile at you. Nikos Zisis scored – with a fair amount of luck – the basket that shaped the final result.

To return to the technical and tactical elements of interest to us coaches, here are some of coach Raymond Meyer’s notes related to the pace of the game.

The coach, therefore, in the games where the score was in his favor, in order to maintain the rhythm of the game, he would say to his players:

“Keep possession of the ball with patience. Use the last seconds of the attack for shot selection. Opponents want to change the situation. They want the ball. We don’t give it to them!”
In training, he used a specific methodology, so that the players would learn to maintain the rhythm at the critical points of the match.

He had a drill where the players played 5v5, the defense tried every way to steal the ball, as the timer was sometimes 1 minute and sometimes 2 minutes, with the defending team trying to get possession.

He gave every steal and every defensive rebound some points that went on the scoreboard and changed the outcome.

In this way and by adapting to FIBA’s 24-second attack time data (possession of the ball was for 45 seconds then), he sought from his attacking players to maintain possession, with good distances and a passing game for 15 seconds and then select the shot attempt. He wanted the shot to be made with good conditions for a rebound about 4 seconds before the end of the attack.

After this exercise add an extra defensive player.

So in 5 vs. 6, his players had to overcome the difficulty of being outnumbered.

To maintain possession of the ball in a clearly more difficult situation, to have better options in the pass by “reading” the defensive mode of operation of the 6 opponents.

All this, of course, in the development basketball of the Americas, in the design of which the University Championships are also included. There, possession time corresponds to a large development plan.

In this design, young players don’t have attack time as a noose around their neck.

They start at the young ages where there is no possession time and gradually introduce attack time as the age levels change.

They seek to learn the sport as properly as possible and then as complete players, depending on the talent and work of each, to jump to professional leagues around the world.

Of course when their teams have more athleticism, more talent, they have the option to play a faster style of game, not caring so much about the timing of the attack.

The conclusion we can reach by returning to yesterday’s match between Peristeri and AEK is that whatever style of play is chosen depending on the conditions of the match, it must have been properly “worked” in training.

The way a team participates in the match is a reflection of the work that has preceded it in training.

And as coach Takis Panoulias has said, we seek to create difficult situations with mistakes in training, because these mistakes and to differentiate the contents, depending on the needs of each group).

2nd PHASE: Lasts 1-2 weeks and since in the closed “family” environment of each team, there has been no problem with cases, the transition is made gradually to player-three partnerships.
3rd PHASE: Duration of 2 weeks, followed by the organization of friendly preparatory matches. At the end of this phase, the ability of the teams to participate in the respective tournaments will be redefined.
4th PHASE: Duration of 3 months where the organization will take place in one round of matches, of each league (without fans or with a minimum number of masked spectators). In this one and only round the development teams will also participate without taking into account the score in each respective match. Also, each organizing authority will decide with logic, what will happen in terms of relegations or staying in the categories.
5th PHASE: End of May and beginning of June 2021, each organizing authority (hoping that the pandemic situation will have improved and vaccinations will have progressed), will hold the Final 8 or Final 4 event, perhaps with a limited number of fans , for the selection of the champion of each event.
6th PHASE: July 2021, planning is being done with summer activities camp and 3 IN 3, with the hope now, our life in general and sports, will return to normality with health for the whole world.