The Basketball Handbook - Lee Rose

The Basketball Handbook

by Lee Rose

NEW, 264 pages

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About The Basketball Handbook

Learn the essentials of winning basketball from a coach who did it at the high school, college, and professional levels. The Basketball Handbook presents a proven player- and team-development game plan founded on the five principles of success.

Coach Lee Rose teaches the essential techniques and tactics, with drills and tips on executing them when the game’s on the line. His performance rating system is a superb evaluation tool, effective in identifying players’ strengths and shoring up weaknesses in all facets. Rose’s 45 years of maximizing player and team potential shine through as he emphasizes key skills and shares the savvy for advancing through each competitive level of the game.

The Basketball Handbook will help you master each fundamental, then add new dimensions to individual and team performance on the offensive and defensive ends of the court as well as in special situations. Use it in-season and during the off-season for greater success on the court.

About Lee Rose

Lee Rose began his coaching career as a teacher-coach at Versailles (Kentucky) High School in 1958, and he's been involved in the game ever since. He joined the collegiate coaching ranks in 1959 at Transylvania College and held subsequent positions at the University of Cincinnati, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Purdue University, and the University of South Florida. He joined the NBA ranks in 1986 as an assistant coach with San Antonio Spurs and remained in the NBA for the rest of his career.

Rose's passion and intelligence for the game are well documented throughout his 45-year career. As a college head coach, Rose finished with a .705 winning percentage (388-162), including a 72-18 (.800) record in three seasons at UNC Charlotte. He was named the Sporting News National Coach of the Year in 1977 after leading UNC Charlotte to the NIT Finals in 1976 and the NCAA Final Four in 1977. Rose went on to lead Purdue to the NIT Finals in 1979 and the Final Four a year later. Rose has been named Coach of the Year in every conference he has coached in: Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC), Sun Belt, and Big Ten. He was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.

As an NBA consultant for National Basketball Developmental League coaches, Rose continues to benefit the sport with his superior teaching and talent-assessment skills. Lee and his wife, Eleanor, live in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Reviews

"From A to Z, Lee covers all the fundamentals with drills, diagrams, and descriptive stories. A remarkably successfully coach, he now shares why his teams and players were always fundamentally prepared and hard to beat. If you are about winning, you'll love this book."

Willis Reed
7-time all-star, MVP, and former head coach in the NBA

”Lee Rose is a basketball lifer. The Basketball Handbook presents his vast experience and knowledge of the game, and is a great tool for becoming a better player or coach, regardless of competition level.”

Mike D'Antoni
Head basketball coach
Phoenix Suns

From Lirbrary Journal September 15, 2004
James Miller, Springfield Coll. Lib., MA
". . . full of detailed and excellent coaching exercises. Rose lays out a huge range of drills and activities that develop not only the more familiar parts of the game like shooting, passing, defending, and rebounding but also subtle things like weak side defense and executing screens. He also has good tips on how to develop a team's agility, speed, strength, and timing . . . a wealth of valuable information. Recommended for all collections."

About Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules. Basketball is one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sport.

A regulation basketball hoop consists of a rim 18 inches (45.7 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.05 m) high mounted to a backboard. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the hoop during regular play. A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or closer to the hoop than the three-point line, and three points (a "3 pointer") if the player is "outside" the three-point line. The team with more points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the game ends with a tie. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling) or passing it to a teammate. It is a violation (traveling) to walk with the ball, carry it, or to double dribble (to hold the ball and then resume dribbling).

Various violations are generally called "fouls". Disruptive physical contact (a personal foul) is penalized, and a free throw is usually awarded to an offensive player if he is fouled while shooting the ball. A technical foul may also be issued when certain infractions occur, most commonly for unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of a player or coach. A technical foul gives the opposing team a free throw.

Basketball has evolved many commonly used techniques of shooting, passing, and dribbling, as well as specialized player positions and offensive and defensive structures (player positioning) and techniques. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play "center", "small forward", or "power forward" positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed play "point guard" or "shooting guard".

While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. Competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport played on carefully marked and maintained basketball courts, but less regulated variations are often played outdoors in both inner city and rural areas.

The strategies also evolve with the game. In the 1990s and early 2000s, teams played with more "isolation". Teams that had one superstar would let one player, usually the point guard or shooting guard, run most of the offense while the other four offensive players get out of his/her way. Nowadays, teams tend to play with more teamwork. The "Center" position has evolved to become more of a taller "Small Forward" position. Since teams play more teamwork, ball movement has evolved with the game, and more jump shots have been taken as a result.

There are two main defensive strategies: zone defense and man-to-man defense. In a zone defense, each player is assigned to guard a specific area of the court. In a man-to-man defense, each defensive player guards a specific opponent. Man-to-man defense is generally preferred at higher levels of competition, as it is intuitively easier to understand and avoids mismatches between players who play different positions. However, zone defenses are sometimes used in particular situations or simply to confuse the offense with an unexpected look.

Offensive plays are more varied, normally involving planned passes and movement by players without the ball. A quick movement by an offensive player without the ball to gain an advantageous position is a cut. A legal attempt by an offensive player to stop an opponent from guarding a teammate, by standing in the defender's way such that the teammate cuts next to him, is a screen or pick. The two plays are combined in the pick and roll, in which a player sets a pick and then "rolls" away from the pick towards the basket. Screens and cuts are very important in offensive plays; these allow the quick passes and teamwork which can lead to a successful basket. Teams almost always have several offensive plays planned to ensure their movement is not predictable. On court, the point guard is usually responsible for indicating which play will occur.

Defensive and offensive structures, and positions, are more emphasized in higher levels in basketball; it is these that a coach normally requests a time-out to discuss.

The Basketball Handbook