Open Practice with Pat Skerry

After taking over a program that had amassed 15 straight losing seasons - and at one point a 41 game losing streak - Pat Skerry lead Towson to an 18-13 record in the 2012-13 season; the biggest turn around in NCAA basketball history.

In this All Access look at a Towson practice, Coach Skerry allows you to see the fundamental skills and drills that he teaches, as well as many of his offensive sets and defensive concepts that have helped turn his program around.

The practice begins with skill development and position-specific breakdown drills. Ball handling and passing drills are emphasized early in the practice session, which gives your players a chance to get loose through multiple touches with the ball. Coach breaks the Posts from the Guards and does some specific work with each.

• The posts spend time on sweeps that lead into attacks of the rim. They also work on catching the ball as they trail and finishing strong at the rim.
• The guards work on penetrating the lane, pivoting and making accurate passes to their teammates. Another important area covered with the guards is attacking the hedge off the ball screen. This skill is extremely important to be able to run a successful ball screen offense.

Coach then runs his players through defensive breakdown drills for the post and perimeter players. The "Wall Drill" teaches the bigs to play solid post defense while not committing fouls. The Guards run a 2-on-2 drill where the emphasis is working the gaps and dealing with cross and down screens. Using these breakdown drills to teach defensive principles allows your players to focus on the important details you wish to emphasize.

In the second series, Coach Skerry runs his players through multiple offensive sets. This is a great look into their Shuffle Offense, which features backscreens and ball screen action. Running different actions into ball screens will prevent a defense from being able to anticipate. With the Option Offense players learn to curl off of screens to get shots, and use the flex cut to get easy looks at the basket. With these different offensive sets you can generate ideas to give your best players shots where they like to shoot from.

In Series Three, the team runs through great drills that focus on transition and defense. In the "Scrabble Drill" one team starts with three players on defense while the offense has four. The players are forced to play great position defense and scramble to the ball. As the possession changes the defense transitions to offense and adds two players while the offense now is at a disadvantage playing with one fewer players. These overloaded drills emphasize important defensive help concepts. In the "Cycle Drill" the offense runs through a set zone offense 5-on-0 and then transitions to offense for two possessions vs. a live defense.

The practice ends with a "6 possessions and 6 Points" competition. The offense gets six possessions to score six points while the defense must stop them from getting those points. This drill really emphasizes the importance of being efficient with each possession.

100 minutes. 2014.