Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Playbook from the Bahamas by John Zall

Written by Coach Peterman

I have coached at the NCAA Division 2 (Southwestern Oklahoma State University), NAIA (USAO), and JUCO Levels (Blinn College and Carl Albert State College) as well as high school. I just felt that fellow coaches especially young coaches need to constantly work on their “game”. Just like the basketball players that we coach. We as coaches need to improve ourselves. That is my story and why I do this blog.

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August 15, 2014

Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Playbook from the Bahamas by John Zall

It might only be the second week of August, but if you’ve turned on ESPNU in the past few days you would of seen that college basketball is back. Even if it’s only temporary; the fact that we can some live, competitive college hoops in August is fantastic. There’s also no better team or program to kick off the 2014-15 season than the Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Team led by John Calipari.

Last season during Kentucky’s’ Midnight Madness celebration he declared that Kentucky, “ doesn’t just play college basketball, they are college basketball.” Regardless of how you feel about that statement, it’s hard to argue with Calipari. Every game, coaching decision, recruit etc. is dissected and written about in articles and blogs across the country.

Last season the Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Team and their young supporting cast bordered on mediocre all season. They advanced to the SEC Championship game in a weak conference before falling to eventual Final Four participant Florida. However, once the Wildcats entered the NCAA Tournament something clicked and they reeled off five straight wins over top competition including previously undefeated Wichita State, in-state rival Louisville, and the previous years’ runner-up Michigan. Their run finally ended in the National Championship game against UConn.

Success is not new to Calipari; his first five seasons at Kentucky read something like this: Elite Eight, Final Four, National Champions, NIT, National Runner-Up. Mind you, every season he is accomplishing this with an entirely different roster than the year before. He has won 20 or more games for 20 straight seasons dating back to his time at UMass.

With precedent working on Calipari’s side, he has to be down right ecstatic about this seasons version of the Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Team. Kentucky returns 59% of their scoring from last season and boasts a roster of nine former McDonald’s All-Americans. To put that into perspective the entire Big 12 Conference only has 7 former McDonald’s All-Americans combined.

Due to the fact that it is only August and there has been minimal practice time Kentucky’s offense is still in its’ basic stages. Most of it is just one or two actions designed to create movement and let the players play off of it. An encouraging sign for Kentucky fans has been the Wildcats insistence on making the extra pass and their ability to hit open shots.

Below are 5 quick hitter sets that the Kentucky Basketball Team ran on Sunday against the Puerto Rican National Team. All of these plays are out of a “Horns” set.

John Zall BIO

Coach John Zall just completed his first season as an Assistant Coach at Division II Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. This past season Franklin Pierce University won 20 games and advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. Zall arrived at Franklin Pierce after spending the past 3 seasons as the Associate Head Coach/Head JV Coach at O’Bryant High school in Roxbury, MA. During his tenure at O’Bryant the program improved from 4 wins to 12 wins and qualified for the MIAA State Tournament twice.

Coach Zall also has experience as an AAU Head Coach for the Boston Warriors. As Head Coach for the Warriors his team won the 2011 16U State Title and twice competed in AAU Nationals down in Orlando, FL. On top of being a student at Northeastern University, Zall was named Head Coach of the Men’s Club Basketball team for the 2012-13 season. During his lone season as Head Coach, Northeastern finished second in the Northeast Regional Tournament featuring colleges from throughout the East Coast. Coach Zall has also spent time as a Head Coach in the Bay State Games where his team won the Bronze Medal in 2012 and at various camps including: Five Star, Boston Celtics, NIKE, Franklin Pierce University, Hoop Group and The Elite 75.