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As much as we emphasize the most common defensive principles like toughness, communication, hustle, coachability, etc., it always comes down to how we can teach it more efficiently. How can we help our players to be more coachable? How can we put them in a situation where they want to be the tougher team and want to play defense? 

Today, we are going to be learning how to make our players not just tougher and smarter on defense with UCONN’s Head Coach Dan Hurley. Coach Hurley has been known as one of the best defensive coaches in basketball for a few years now and is amazing to watch the toughness and ferocity his players like to play with.

Set Your Foundation First

Coach Hurley introduces core principles that he imprints in his players' minds from the get-go. It does not matter how good your X’s and O’s are, if your team does not have a defensive team culture.

He stresses the importance of teaching our players the right mindset and willingness to be coachable, therefore it is important that we set up a team culture that is focused on accountability and the ability to accept criticism. Watch Coach Hurley breaking down the foundation of his defensive strategy: 

Set Your Foundation First

Close-Out with Toughness Drill

One of the hardest things in basketball is closing out on a shooter with proper technique. When we cannot properly close-out, we cannot properly help and rotate and the whole defense is now falling apart.

Coach Hurley likes to start this drill at the beginning of the practice to teach proper closing-out technique. Notice, even though this is a close-out drill, coach Hurley puts emphasis on not letting the offense get any separation before the catch. Watch the Close-Out drill here:

Close-Out with Toughness Drill

Toughness Tester Drill

This is an amazing drill for syncing the guard and the post on defense, while also teaching the on-ball defender how to recover and get back to the ball. Show your hands, put your chest forward and try to get on the ball handler’s hip.

The big man then needs to read the situation and figure out how much he can help and how much he can stay. Watch Coach Hurley breaking down the Toughness Tester Drill below: 

Toughness Tester Drill

Hope you picked up an idea or two to toughen up your team. Thanks so much to NJBCA and Coach Hurley for sharing these clips from his clinic Team Defensive Principles. 

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