A Game of Imperfection

I got to see the St. Edward at Garfield Heights game last Thursday. It was a great high school game. Two really talented teams. The house was packed to the brim. The game was highly competitive and played at a very fast pace. The skill level and athletic ability of the players was very high. In the end, in a game that could have gone either way, Garfield Heights won the game. They executed a few great plays offensively in the last two minutes, and made some key defensive stops that allowed them to beat St. Eds.

While I was watching, I charted missed layups by both teams in 3 different phases. This is something I really like to keep track of and monitor. I keep track of it most nights when I am coaching at Brecksville. It's a pretty simple thing to keep track of. I think it's a great stat to keep at the high school level. The results are nothing groundbreaking, and in fact it probably creates un-needed headaches for coaches and players. BUT, concentrating and looking the ball all the way on layups is important.

I chart 3 different kinds:
1. missed layups
2. missed pressure layups
3. missed layups while fouled.

The first ones are pretty self explanatory. They are layups missed where you have a pretty clear path and no real defenders making it hard on you to finish. Pressure layups are any layups you shoot where there is noise and bodies flying around you. Good defense by your on ball defender. Good help by guys in the key. Foot steps from the guy guarding you and a help defender jumping to try to block your shot. You get the idea. Most all layups in a competitive game between good teams are pressure layups. The third category is when you get fouled and miss the layup. Now think about it, there are a lot of instances when guys feel they are gonna get fouled and give no effort and concentration to finish the shot. They have an excuse not to finish cause they got fouled. When in reality, if they play through the foul they can make most of them, and get three point plays. The good guys make sure they get 3when they can. The bad guys get 1, maybe 0. Legit hacks are different. So on these ones I chart if they the guy made both free throws, or if he split the pair of made none.

In the Eagles-Bulldogs game, I expected it to be very fast paced with a lot of possessions. With a hectic pace I also expected a lot of missed layups. The results were almost dead even:

Garfield: 1 missed layup, 18 missed pressure layups, missed 7 layups while fouled making 10 of the 14 free throws

St. Eds: 1 missed layup, 17 missed pressure layups, missed 5 layups while fouled making 6 of 10 free throws

Now this isn't rock solid stat keeping. I might have missed 1 or 2 here and there at times where I was watching the action. But I kept a pretty close eye on it.

Now my message here today from a coaching and player improvement standpoint is just the importance of concentrating and being fundamentally sound with our layups. It would be interesting to look back at that game film and see how many layups did guys deserve to miss because they were totally fundamentally unsound with their angles, footwork, balance, eyes, ball position etc. As a coach, I would like to be able to say, "Okay, we missed 11 layups and half of those I chalk up to just the heat of the game. BUT, we deserved to miss 5 of those because our fundamentals were shitty. Let's talk it through with our players and drill this today."

Things to think about:

Eyes make layups, feet make shots. Eyes make layups, feet make shots. Eyes make layups, feet make shots. Look the ball all the way. Get your eyes on your target (corner of the sqaure) as soon as you can and keep it there. Concentrate.

Square your shoulders to the basket. This is my number one rule. One of my favorite players ever, Steve Logan--his shoulders were square to the backboard almost every freaking time. That's why he was so soild and such a good scorer. By squaring your shoulders, help defenders have to come through more of your body, which means they are going to foul you more and block you less. The squaring your shoulders movement also gives you better balance going up. Whether you are driving from the baseline, at the top of the key, or from the block, the key is getting your shoulders square.

Know where you want to get to. This goes for when you're running a lane on the break, or driving into the key. Work hard to run to good angles on the break. Work hard to stay on a straight driving lane in the half court. Make sure you get to the angle you are comfortable with. Preferably, they are spots you have practiced and repped hundreds of time.

Get balanced as you get into your jump to the basket, explode and square your shoulders.

Be a finisher. Get the ball into the basket at a high percentage. Attack the basket, look the ball in, move on with your day--Go defend and get a stop!


Basketball is a game of imperfection. Missing shots and layups when there's pressure and heat on you is always going to be part of the game. The two best high school teams in the area missed about 40 layups combined. So you can imagine less talented teams miss their fair share too. It's important for coaches and players to make layups a priority. Find ways to practice them hard at game speed. Work on fundamentally sound finishes. Work on pressure layups--put live defense and help defense in drills. The better you can simulate it, the more prepared you will be in games. Find ways to let your guys know how important these things are. Getting rid of 4-5 botched layups a game can win a lot of games.