Pat Skerry: Competition, Effort & Energy - Passing, Closeouts, Transition D, Shell Defense, Zone Offense & More!

with Pat Skerry,
Towson University Head Men's Coach;
2023 Skip Prosser Man of the Year;
2022 CAA Regular Season Champions;
Has won at least 18 games per year in 7 of the last 10 years;
2013 CAA Coach of the Year;
Owns the largest single-season turnaround in NCAA Division I men's basketball history (2011-2012 season at Towson)

Coach Pat Skerry opens the doors to two practices where you’ll see the nuts and bolts of what has fueled Coach Skerry-coached teams with consistent success.

Practices flow from segment to segment at a fast pace with purposeful intensity. Throughout these practices you will get:

• Fundamental skills drills
• 1 on 1 and 3 on 3 drills
• Transition offense and defense
• Half-court defense
• Half-court sets

From Towson’s flow offense to half-court sets and back with transition defense and half-court rotations and coverages, you will get everything you need, end line to end line!

Practice One
Each session, and throughout each practice, Coach Skerry provides a whiteboard breakdown of the drills his team are about to run. Moving to the court, players perform the Argentine Passing Drill which conditions and teaches clear and loud communication.

Moving from there, at each basket players go through four different finishing moves. The Miami 1 v 1 drill then allows players to work on those finishing moves with a live defender. A continuous 1 on 1 drill that quickly involves everyone while putting restrictions on how many dribbles can be used after the first made bucket.

Moving to defense, players go through a closeout drill then quickly to transition defense. The Dry Run to Transition Defense will teach your players to change quickly from a score to defense and become a complete unit to stop offensive transition and quick outlets. Two disadvantage style drills for transition defense are then taught and performed.

The last segment of practice deals with competitive live play drills. The 53 All drill is great for practicing special situations in an unscripted manner. In a post-practice setting, Coach Skerry then teaches three set plays.

Practice Two
During pre-practice players go through two zone plays against a 2-3 zone that they will run later on in competitive play drills.

From there, practice begins. It starts with a passing drill similar to Practice One moving to Combo Work where players go 5 on 0 working on their flow game offense.

Closeouts and shell drill follow as they work on ball screen positioning, pin downs, and flare screens.

Familiar transition offense and defense drills from Practice One are repeated plus the Pitt Transition Defense which incorporates a scoring system and a focus on rebounding to go on transition.

At the conclusion, players go through their sets from the beginning of practice as well as from the day before.

One of the best ways to spice up your practices is to get new ideas, nuggets and ‘takes’ on drills through observing other successful programs. In this excellent Open Practice video, you will definitely get something that you can use immediately with your team!

143 minutes. 2024.