The team preparation facet of coaching boiled down for me to trying to figure out two seemingly simple and obvious things:Number one, how to stop somebody -- different things you could do on defense: switches we could make and switches we couldn't -- all kinds of specially tailored tactics you could use to try to take away things that the team you were preparing for liked to do and did well.
The second thing to think about in getting ready for every game was, of course, offense - how could we scored on that opponent?
That's what coaching is all about. There are some fundamentals that have to be adhered to and mastered in any business. Some people grasp those fundamentals, and teach them or learn them, and others don't. And those who don't are never as successful as those who do.
In coaching, it's a matter of having a sound fundamental base, both offensive and defensively.
On offense, your players don't take bad shots. They don't throw the ball away. They move without the ball. They help each other get open.
On defense you teams don't give up easy points on conversion, on fast breaks. They don't commit bad fouls -- unnecessary or dumb fouls that keep the other team on the free throw line. Your guys never foul a guy who is in the act of taking a bod shot or a three-point shot. And they have to control the lane, and know where the ball is at all times. A good defensive player can never lose sight of the basketball, because it is the ball that has to be stropped, not a particular player.
When a shot goes up, they have to be consistently good at blocking out, because that one thing eliminates a lot of problems. There's nothing more demoralizing to a defense than playing well and forcing the opponent to take a shot he misses, then giving up a point-blank basket because a guy who wasn't blocked out sneaked in and got the rebound. The first thing you have to do defensively as a coach is eliminate cheap points and nothing is cheaper than that.
From: "Knight - My Story" by Bob Knight with Bob Hammel
