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Coach’s Advice

The Cross Over Movement – Basketball Development Blog by Brian McCormic

  • New Coaching Blog: Youth Basketball Coaching Association - My writing on this site has slowed. However, I am writing new blogs several times per week for the Youth Basketball Coaching Association. Elite Soccer as a Means to Teach Offensive Basketball Offensive Basketball: Disorganizing the Defense Ins and Outs of Motivation Motivating your Bench Players more Most of my training-related writing appears at Train for Hoops or in my Hard2Guard [...]
  • A Story of Two High School Basketball Players - I saw this post on socalhoops.com and found it informative: Player 1: Renardo Sidney (Mississipi/Artesia/Fairfax). His father just couldn’t bear to have his son stay in one place. Always grass is greener on the other side. Always looking for attention, to make a splash. Always looking for great players to surround his son (to cover up deficiences [...]
  • Scouts and Player Rankings - As a UCLA alumnus, there is great angst over the performance of UCLA’s sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson. He is the target of much blame, ranting and raving because anonymous message board posters believe that he is underachieving based on his reputation coming out of high school. Scout.com’s West Coast scout Greg Hicks had a lot [...]
  • Player Development Newsletters, Volume 3 - Each week, I send out a free weekly newsletter to thousands of subscribers and at year-end, I compile the previous years’ newsletters into a book. I recently published the 2009 Edition, Brian McCormick’s Player Development Newsletters, Volume 3. On twitter, former NBA scout and current youth coach and father Clarence Gaines left this tweet about the weekly [...]
  • Nike Adopts Cross Over’s Elite Development League - In 2006, I published Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development because of the problems that I perceived with the manner in which we develop youth basketball players in the United States. While the media criticized the development programs, nobody offered a solution. People like Sonny Vaccaro got lots of publicity for saying [...]
  • Women’s Basketball and Skill Development - Clay Kallam wrote an interesting column after the Cal vs. UCLA women’s basketball game that set a record for first-half futility with a 14-8 half-time score. Clay, a passionate women’s basketball fan, writer and coach, and I have argued on this topic for years. His stance remains consistent, as he expressed in his column: Recruit athletes, regardless [...]
  • Maturation of a College Basketball Player - During ESPN’s Feast Week, basketball fans, coaches, scouts and media tweeted away. One comment repeated often in tweets, on television and in articles is that “Player X would be better in a more open setting.” These comments used to be made about Indiana and Michigan State players. Now, people make these remarks about players at UCLA, [...]

Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Coaching Website and Playbook

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY

  • THE G.O.A.T. - The debate can go on all night long.  ‘Who’s the greatest player ever’? We can sit here and mention anyone from Wilt to Oscar.  Everyone has their own guy.  My argument for Jordan is he won 6 NBA titles and was voted MVP in all six.  For Wilt, the guy was unreal.  But when we [...]
  • CHOICE, NOT CHANCE - In 2001 while working at Michigan State University with the men’s basketball program, I came across a slogan in which the women’s team at MSU was always emphasizing; Choice, Not Chance. I often think back to that great slogan and think about how true it really is, not only in basketball but in life too. For the [...]
  • SHUTTING IT DOWN - With the start of our basketball season underway, I have decided to eliminate one of my blogs.  From now on I will only update my Coaching Blog; you will still be able to find Player Development articles and comments.  I’m in a way combining the two.  Time is valuable and writing two blogs seems to [...]
  • 5 STAR BASKETBALL CAMP - Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News on the camp where a lot of guys (coaches and players) got their start. Five-Star is an instructional camp, perhaps the first to gain national acclaim for its ability to teach promising young players how to better their games. Rick Pitino and John Calipari essentially got their coaching starts at Five-Star, [...]
  • LARRY and MAGIC - Last night I was reading the book, ‘When March Went Mad‘, written by Seth Davis.  The book is about the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship game in 1979 between Indiana State and Michigan State. Will we ever see players like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson again? Bird and Johnson were the two stars/key figures of the game which [...]
  • FORCING THE ISSUE - While browsing the Internet this morning I came across a few situations both at the collegiate and professional level.  In the college ranks, the Post-Gazette out of Pittsburgh says the University of Pittsburgh forward Gilbert Brown has been suspended for the Panthers first semester due to academics.  Hopefully Brown can get his GPA in order [...]
  • HELLO SPRINGFIELD - This week Michael Jordan will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. A few stories the next few days on MJ. Comcast SportsNet A website dedicated to Jordan with his 10 best plays of all-time.  To me, some of the plays can be debated as to which were better than others. -Coach Finamore Hoops135@hotmail.com PLAY THE RIGHT WAY! [...]

Brian McCormick on Associated Content

  • Developing Game Awareness in Youth Basketball -

    Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code argues that skills develop; they are not innate. However, some of his arguments are explained poorly and people will justify certain approaches because of his research which is a review of the real research.

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Aug 04, 2009

  • 2009 NBA Draft: Evaluating the "Real" Talent -

    Despite the number of scouts and "experts," we still misunderstand talent identification, as we ignore the important attributes which tend to lead to success and favor those physical qualities which are easy to see and measure.

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Feb 26, 2009

  • Basketball Analysts' Mistakes of Certainty -

    The best writing and analysis occurs through blogs. Not every blog, of course. However, the best bloggers - guys like Kevin Pelton, Henry Abbott, Ryan McNeil, Ken Pomeroy - exceed the content and analysis of most "real" journalists and analysts.

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Feb 12, 2009

  • The Problem with NBA Scouts: An Early Look at the 2009 NBA Draft -

    Drafting is an imprecise science. In the search for a star, scouts overlook the obvious by discounting production, attitude and personality and overvaluing vertical jumps, length or the way the player looks in a uniform.

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Jan 08, 2009

  • Olympic Developments -

    Every four years, the United States proves its athletic superiority in the Olympic Games, dominating the medal count and reassuring the American people of our athletic prowess.

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Sep 05, 2008

  • The Wisdom of an NBA Crowd -

    The Wisdom of Crowds suggests that groups of people, not experts, make better decisions. As an example, the book cites Who Wants to be a Millionaire, where crowds were correct over 90% of the time, while experts gave the correct answer about 60% of the time.

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Aug 13, 2008

  • Re-Thinking the NBA Draft -

    "One common basketball adage is that you cannot teach height. However, according to Buckingham's research, you cannot teach competitiveness, focus, discipline or other talents that Ericsson would argue are equally, if not more important to one's success."

    Contributor: Brian McCormick, CSCS
    Published: Jun 12, 2008

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