This morning got a call from one of my former players that played for me in the mid 90's.
He said : coach was driving in my car with my family and heard on the radio that Stevie Wonder turned 70. today...and I thought of you coach" We ran that zone offense 1,000 times and when ever we ran that drill you would stop it at anytime and who ever had the ball you would put a blind folded around his eyes .. You would take out a black scarf and cover the eyes of the player who had the ball...you then would call him Stevie Wonder..who ever got he ball would know where everyone was on the floor after the 2nd or 3rd or 4th or 5th pass... if the post had the ball I knew where everyone was spaced out .. with my eyes closed. I can do that zone offense right now and be Stevie Wonder...I knew where the 2 gd was the 3 fd,the 1 pt gd and the 4 power fd...I knew no matter what zone they were playing where everybody was...you used to call it the Stevie Wonder drill ..
I thanked him and asked about how he is doing.. he is a correction guard at Rikers in NYC..
Later on in the day I also heard it was Stevie Wonders birthday on the radio..and thought back of that zone offense. Its Tom Davis;s zone offense when he was at Stanford,Boston College and Iowa...I had the video and just copied his movement of players passing ,spacing,cutting,screening etc nothing original on my part...except the execution.. no matter who had the ball after the 1st or 2nd pass we all knew where everyone should be .. I had a big 5 post player who got confused when the ball entered the post..and the zone collapsed on him...he knew when he got the ball he could post up and go the basket,pass the ball back to the 1 gd or 3 on the baseline turn around and look for the 4 on the opposite block or hit the wide open weak side 2 off gd . He would sometimes get confused esp when he was up against live defenses. so I blind folder him .. and he passed the ball blind folded to the other 4 players ..he had it memorized just like the other 4 position players.. I would sometimes have 4 defensive players jump him in the post and harass him.. he knew he had to protect the ball and he knew where to pass it no matter how confusing it was.. I used to say Stevie Wonder might not hit a shot for us but he would know where everybody was..
when I coached my daughters team in AAU she was the 5 post player since she is 6'2.. I asked her tonight could she remember how to run the zone offense ..she is 38 I think.. she said" hell yes" you used to call it the Stevie Wonder offense..
So today when it was announced it was Stevie;s 70 birthday it had another meaning for me
Wonder
He said : coach was driving in my car with my family and heard on the radio that Stevie Wonder turned 70. today...and I thought of you coach" We ran that zone offense 1,000 times and when ever we ran that drill you would stop it at anytime and who ever had the ball you would put a blind folded around his eyes .. You would take out a black scarf and cover the eyes of the player who had the ball...you then would call him Stevie Wonder..who ever got he ball would know where everyone was on the floor after the 2nd or 3rd or 4th or 5th pass... if the post had the ball I knew where everyone was spaced out .. with my eyes closed. I can do that zone offense right now and be Stevie Wonder...I knew where the 2 gd was the 3 fd,the 1 pt gd and the 4 power fd...I knew no matter what zone they were playing where everybody was...you used to call it the Stevie Wonder drill ..
I thanked him and asked about how he is doing.. he is a correction guard at Rikers in NYC..
Later on in the day I also heard it was Stevie Wonders birthday on the radio..and thought back of that zone offense. Its Tom Davis;s zone offense when he was at Stanford,Boston College and Iowa...I had the video and just copied his movement of players passing ,spacing,cutting,screening etc nothing original on my part...except the execution.. no matter who had the ball after the 1st or 2nd pass we all knew where everyone should be .. I had a big 5 post player who got confused when the ball entered the post..and the zone collapsed on him...he knew when he got the ball he could post up and go the basket,pass the ball back to the 1 gd or 3 on the baseline turn around and look for the 4 on the opposite block or hit the wide open weak side 2 off gd . He would sometimes get confused esp when he was up against live defenses. so I blind folder him .. and he passed the ball blind folded to the other 4 players ..he had it memorized just like the other 4 position players.. I would sometimes have 4 defensive players jump him in the post and harass him.. he knew he had to protect the ball and he knew where to pass it no matter how confusing it was.. I used to say Stevie Wonder might not hit a shot for us but he would know where everybody was..
when I coached my daughters team in AAU she was the 5 post player since she is 6'2.. I asked her tonight could she remember how to run the zone offense ..she is 38 I think.. she said" hell yes" you used to call it the Stevie Wonder offense..
So today when it was announced it was Stevie;s 70 birthday it had another meaning for me
Wonder
