BasketballCoach.com Presents: 35 Best Passing Drills

• Geno Auriemma, 11x NCAA Championships, 2x Olympic Gold Medals
• Kevin Boyle, Montverde (FL) Academy Head Coach; 6x High School National Champions
• John Calipari, University of Arkansas Head Coach; former Kentucky Head Coach; 2012 NCAA Champion
• Sherri Coale, University of Oklahoma Women's Head Coach from 1996 to 2021; 6x Big 12 Champions
• Chris Collins, Northwestern University Head Coach
• Joe Dooley, East Carolina University Head Coach from 2018 to 2022;
  former Florida Gulf Coast University Head Coach; 2017 A-Sun Coach of the Year
• Bryce Drew, Grand Canyon Head Coach; 3x Horizon Coach of the Year
• Andrew Grantz, Providence (IN) High School Head Coach
• Drew Hanlen, Pure Sweat Basketball; NBA Strategic Skills Coach & Consultant
• Bob Hoffman, Central Oklahoma Head Coach
• Fred Hoiberg, Nebraska Head Coach; 2012 Big 12 Coach of the Year
• Bob Hurley, St. Anthony's (NJ) High School Head Coach; 4x National Championships, 28 State Championships
• Tom Izzo, Michigan State University Head Coach; 2016 Naismith Hall of Fame; 2000 NCAA Champions
• Dean Lockwood, Michigan State Women's Assistant Coach; 2x NCAA Championships (at Tennessee)
• Gregg Marshall, Wichita State University Head Coach from 2007 to 2020; 2014 Naismith Coach of the Year
• Sean Miller, Xavier Head Coach; 3x Pac-12 Coach of the Year
• Chris Mooney, University of Richmond Head Coach
• Steve Schmidt, Mott Community College Head Coach; 4x NJCAA National Champions
• Bill Self, University of Kansas Head Coach; 14x (Consecutive) Big 12 Champions; 2008 and 2022 NCAA Champions
• Jay Wright, Villanova University Head Coach; 2x NCAA Champions ('16 & '18); 2x Naismith Coach of the Year

Many top coaches feel assists are one of the most important stats related to winning. Assists reflect a team's ability to take advantage of multiple threats and to place players in a position to score. Getting the ball to the right player at the right time is a vital key to victory, especially in a close game.

This video takes you inside the practice sessions of top coaches and trainers to show you how to improve your team's passing abilities. With an amazing diversity of drills that work on catching, bounce passing, outlet passing and more, this video will give you a wide variety of drills to choose from to increase your team's offensive efficiency.

Warm-Up Drills

Kevin Boyle begins with a pair of warm-up drills designed to work on passing and movement. The first works with v-cuts and perimeter player exchanges. The second utilizes shots fakes, middle drives, baseline drives, and drift passes to the corner.

To develop the fast break, Tom Izzo uses a three-player drill, starting with a rebound and outlet pass by a post player, to focus on finding transition jumpers and mid-line hunters while advancing the ball as much as possible on each pass.

In working with post players, Gregg Marshall profiles a drill designed to simulate rebounding and making the outlet pass. Coach Marshall emphasizes blocking out a would-be rebounder, rebounding the ball at its apex with two hands, and making the outlet pass to the correct side of the floor.

Bob Hurley introduces an outlet passing drill used at the start of his team's practices. Working in pairs and using both ends of the court, one player will throw the ball off the backboard and rebound the ball with two hands before making the outlet pass. The player receiving the outlet pass will dribble down the court and get to the middle of the floor before making a jump stop inside the free throw circle and passing to the rebounder who runs wide and to the outside.

In a practice format, Geno Auriemma utilizes the unique four-player weave. With the objective of going down and back once in 10 seconds, the four players execute a weave-type action and try to finish on both ends with lay-ups. This challenging drill requires players to catch and pass cleanly and finish lay-ups to make it in time.

John Calipari introduces a drill designed to develop the two-man fast break and build up speed during the warm-up. In his drill, two players pass back and forth and finish with a lay-up.

Drill Passing

Northwestern's Chris Collins introduces Peripheral Passing, a drill designed to work on rapid-fire passing and communication. Six players get into a semi-circle along the 3-point line and face in to a seventh player. The target for the passes is always the seventh player standing underneath the basket or the seventh player passing out to one of the players on the perimeter.

In developing the backdoor cut out of the 1-4 high set, Bill Self has his team work on passes into the high post and the wing cutting backdoor focusing on the separation necessary to get the pass from the big man.

For the Princeton Offense, Chris Mooney utilizes the Star Passing Drill. With an emphasis of passing and catching the basketball with two hands, this drill is designed to get players to make accurate passes while on the move.

Team Passing

To prepare his teams to face a zone defense, Bryce Drew introduces Zone Passing. To make the drill more competitive, Coach Drew puts 35 seconds on the clock and the offense tries to make as many passes as possible out of their zone offense in that time.

In preparation for full-court pressure, Jay Wright shows a drill designed to work on making sound passes, executing V-cuts, and making proper pivots. Wright also demonstrates a drill designed to work on feeding the post.

131 minutes. 2017.