Shaka Smart VCU Basketball Clinic Notes by Gibson Pyper

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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Basketball Coaching | Basketball Coaching Clinic Notes

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October 25, 2013

Shaka Smart Basketball Clinic Notes

Here is an a short sample of the Shaka Smart Basketball Clinic.

3 Rules on the court
-Play Hard, Play Smart, Think Team

Those are just words but if we can back those up with the way we play, train and work out we have a lot of things
covered.

People ask us why our guys play so hard. We don’t have magic dust. First, we make a point that anything less
than 100% effort is unacceptable. Then I think the number one reason our guys play so hard is because of our
relationships with our players. We spend a lot of time with our players off the court. When I was at Akron I
learned a lot about the importance of relationships with players and spending time with our players and we’ve
brought that here. There, all the coaches were required to go into the locker room after every practice to spend
time with all of the players to develop relationships off the court.

5 CORE VALUES
Appreciation – Enthusiasm – Competitiveness
Unselfishness – Accountability
“Can we live these words, can we let our life reflect our words.” – Herm Edwards

Appreciation: When I was a kid the best thing my mother ever did for me was make me work a couple jobs that
I really hated. I worked as a landscaper and in asbestos removal I found out that I never wanted to do that again.
So I’m very lucky and appreciative to be able to be a coach.

I think entitlement is the opposite of appreciation. So we really fight entitlement and try to make sure our guys
stay humble and appreciative like Coach Gillen talked about.

Enthusiasm: I would rather you come away from practice saying we are the most enthusiastic team in the country
than say “those guys are really good.” Having enthusiasm gives you an opportunity to get a lot better if you aren’t
already good.

Competitiveness: We make everything competitive in practice and you can tell the way we chart wins that we
make that important to our players.

Unselfishness: Whatever you want to do takes more than 1 guy. Its not enough to be on the basketball court with
a mentality of “Ok, I’m gonna get mine, it doesn’t really matter if the other 4 guys on my team know what is going
on.” A big emphasis for us this season has been echoing the call so that we can get everyone on the same page
on offense and on defense. In the same vein we really think its important to make our guys huddle during the
game to communicate and help the other guys on your team.

Accountability: something that a lot of our players hadn’t had before they came to VCU.
-Birds Fly, Fish Swim, Kids Mess Up
– The highest form of love is discipline

I think that you are going to like Coach Gipson Pyper’s basketball plays that he has assembled. He is one of our newest basketball contributors that we have added on Men’s Basketball HoopScoop.