Scott Davenport: My Favorite Drills for Basketball Practice

with Scott Davenport,
Bellarmine University Head Men's Coach from 2005 to 2025;
2022 ASUN Tournament Champions;
2011 NCAA Division II National Champions;
2011 NABC National Coach of the Year;
2011 Division II Bulletin National Coach of the Year;
5x Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament titles;
6x Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season titles;
4x Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year;
Louisville Assistant Coach (with Denny Crum and Rick Pitino) from 1996 to 2005;
426 career wins

Coach Scott Davenport opens his playbook of drills in this video presentation and delivers everything you need to freshen up your practices and bring new levels of competitiveness to your program! Included in this video are drills for passing, shooting full & half-court offense and defense, rebounding and transition.

Passing, Shooting, & Pace Drills

Coach Davenport believes passing has become a lost art at all levels of play. With this belief in mind, he delivers multiple passing and catching drills that work on different aspects of game play. You will see drills to work on reversing the ball, passing in the full court against pressure while working on V-cuts, and making the all-important extra pass.

The Spacing Mid-Range shooting drill is great for developing the "extra pass" mindset while working on shots at different parts of the floor.

Davenport wants his teams to play fast and practice fast, explaining that it is easier to slow down than to try and get your team to speed up. 4-Man Break works on getting the ball up the floor, maintaining good spacing, and hitting different types of shots at full speed. Meanwhile, 4-Man Break with Actions builds on the 4-Man Break to add different actions in early offense to keep the defense guessing and to gain an easy bucket early in a possession.

Defense, Rebounding. & Competitive Team Drills

The Blackhawk Drill is a great defense drill to teach jumping to the ball, always seeing the ball, and fronting cutters. Everyone gets involved in this quick, hard-nosed defensive drill. Next, you'll get two 5-on-4 drills that teach how to play together when facing a disadvantage. Coach Davenport reiterates that "no one has a man," meaning everyone must play together, give help, see the ball, sprint, and rotate. The 4-on-4 War Rebounding to 5-on-4 drill works on tough rebounding skills and transition defense, making it a great drill to bring intensity and pace to your practices!

In the last segment of this video, you will see Davenport run his team through drills that are competitive and timed. The 3-on-2, 2-on-1 Continuous drill will bring instant energy to practice. The final two drills work on shooting under pressure from the clock. 14 in a Minute and 3 Line Shooting combine a goal of made shots and a time constraint. You will get your players plenty of shots while working under stress of fatigue, mentally and physically.

This video from Coach Davenport is chock-full of drills and is certain to give you multiple ideas that you can implement right away!

56 minutes. 2021.