Building a Champion and the 2-3 Zone

with John Calipari,
University of Arkansas Head Coach;
University of Kentucky Head Men's Coach from 2009 to 2024;
.771 winning percentage at Kentucky;
2020-21 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Guardians of the Game Award for Inclusion;
2015 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee;
2015 AP College Coach of the Year;
2012 NCAA Men's Basketball National Championship;
2011 Telly Award for 'MVP Basketball with Derrick Rose' instructional video;
4x Final Four (2011, 2012, 2014, 2015);
3x Naismith College Coach of the Year ('96, '08, '15);
2015 AP College Coach of the Year;
3x NABC Coach of the Year ('96, '09, '15);
2x Basketball Times Coach of the Year ('96, '15);
2x Adolph Rupp Cup ('10, '15);
2009 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year;
2009 Sports Illustrated National Coach of the Year;
6x SEC Regular Season Champions;
6x SEC Tournament Champions;
4x SEC Coach of the Year ('10, '12, '15, '20);
Memphis Head Coach from 2000 to 2009;
3x C-USA Coach of the Year ('06, '08, '09);
4x C-USA Tournament Champions;
5x C-USA Regular Season Champions;
2008 Final Four;
2002 NIT Champions;
Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) Assistant Coach from 1999 to 2000;
New Jersey Nets Head Coach from 1996 to 1999;
UMass Head Coach from 1988 to 1996;
1996 Final Four;
3x A10 Coach of the Year ('93, '94, '96);5x A 10 Regular Season Champions;
5x A 10 Tournament Champions;
played college basketball for UNC Wilmington and Clarion

Develop your team by supporting your players and helping them grow to be the best athletes and people they can be. In this inside look into his program, John Calipari and his top three assistants take turns revealing the Kentucky Wildcat philosophy. Topics such as staff responsibilities, scouting methods, zone defense, practice design, motivating players, and more are covered.

You will get great insight into how you can take your program to the next level!

Creating a Championship Staff

As all coaches know, having a great staff will always make the head coach more efficient - and usually more successful. Assistant Coach John Robic mines his extensive coaching experience to share ideas about hiring the right staff, staff responsibilities during the game and working with players.

Coach Robic shares some insights into his particular area of expertise: scouting upcoming opponents. You will see how an elite basketball program prepares for an opponent and also how the Kentucky coaching staff shares this information with their players. It's important to strike a balance between preparing players and overloading them with non-essential details.

So many presentations cover how to work with players and how to be a better head coach, but few address the roles and responsibilities of assistant coaches. Assistant Coach Barry Rohrssen addresses the role of an assistant coach on Calipari's staff and also tackles what the main goal of any assistant coach must be. He'll make you analyze your own organizational practices regarding preparation for the day, the week, the month and the season that you must refine to have success within your program. You will also get ideas on how to motivate your players with goals, statistics, and even subliminal messages through the little details of your program.

2-3 Zone Defense

Special Assistant Tony Barbee will draw from his experience as the former head coach at Auburn University to teach you strategies for maximizing the 2-3 zone defense. He leads you through the most common offensive strategies that opponents use to attack the zone and how the University of Kentucky adjusts their zone defense to counter each tactic. You will learn how to match up when the ball is entered into the high post, trap the short corners, and handle both side and high ball screens. Coach Barbee also discusses UK's strategy for defensive rebounding from the zone alignment.

Q&A with Coach Calipari

In a special Q&A session, Coach Calipari talks about a number of concepts related to his coaching philosophy. One of Coach Cal's greatest traits is that he gets players, who will soon become NBA lottery picks, to put the team first. He is a master psychologist who can get his players to have a high level of happiness while making personal sacrifices.

You will get specific examples of how you can change your culture to be focused on caring for your players. Learn how to use efficiency statistics to motivate your players and develop roles within the team. Coach Cal also discusses how he tailors his coaching strategy in areas such as managing personalities and designing practice based on the specific needs of the group he is teaching. A number of other wide-ranging topics are shared in this segment, including discipline, ego management, scouting and strength & conditioning.

If you are struggling with ideas for changing your program, look no further than this look into the University of Kentucky basketball program. This opportunity to learn from the minds of Coach Cal and his staff program is a treasure trove of basketball knowledge that no coach should pass up!

73 minutes. 2016.