(No) Foul Play

Tommy Amaker’s words still resonate

No paint, no foul.

That was the answer Tommy Amaker gave me when I asked him, coach to coach, more than 25 years ago, for his best drill for improving on-ball defense.

The drill he went on to describe was a basic one, a halfcourt one-on-one drill in which the goal for the defender was simply to keep the offensive player from getting into the lane without fouling him.

This was when Amaker was the head coach at Seton Hall. The reason I asked him for advice - even though I am a North Carolina grad - was because I had fresh memories of Amaker being the best on-ball defender I had ever seen, back when he was the starting point guard for the early-to-mid 1980s Mike Krzyzewski Duke teams, the ones which ignited the the still rolling Blue Devil dynasty.

So it’s no surprise to me that Amaker is still hanging his hat on great defense, in his current role as the Harvard head basketball coach.

Amaker’s Harvard squad came into its game against Brown Friday night ranked second in the Ivy League in fewest points allowed and second in turnovers forced. But most interesting to me is how the Crimson do it without fouling. Harvard ranks 10th in the nation in fewest fouls per game.

And, fittingly, Harvard’s ability to play great defense without fouling, proved to be the difference in it’s 69-59 win over Brown, which, incidentally, came into the evening ranked first in scoring defense in the Ivy League.

Most of the key stats from this contest were remarkably even, with Brown grabbing one more total rebound and turning the ball over four times less than the Crimson, but losing the game at the free throw line, where Harvard made 27 of 29 free throws, while the Bears made but nine of 17.

I did not get a chance to continue my discourse with Amaker on this night, but there was no need. His team’s play and the words of Brown coach Mike Martin told me all I needed to know.

“Harvard did a good job of defending us without fouling,’’ said Martin. “We got outscored by 18 points from the foul line, that’s on us. We have to play with more discipline. We have got to defend without fouling. In the possessions we defended them without fouling, right, our defense was good. But you give them 27 points on 14 offensive possessions. You can’t do that. You just can’t do that. In the other 48 possessions we allowed 42 points. That’s good enough.”

It sounds easy enough - to play good defense without fouling - but, of course, it’s very hard, especially with how physical defenses need to be these days to deny athletic offensive players who are also great shooters, and who appear to get all the advantages with how the game is officiated, from getting to spots where they can do damage. So I asked Martin if he could elaborate on how it can be done. He gave me a great answer:

“If you are in position. If you are proactive and anticipate instead of react. If you provide early help before the ball gets too deep. If you jump second instead of kind of leaving your feet early. If you send them in a certain screening action where you want to send them, as opposed to allowing them to kind of go either way and force deep late help. Those are some things that allow you to defend without fouling.”

Wow. Absolute gold.

Nothing there about manipulating the refs. Nothing sneaky. No gimmicks. Just hard work, focus and proper execution.

I write these posts for coaches and about coaches, and for those basketball lovers who might be curious about the real work that coaches and players attempt to do every day in order to get better.

I hope you are paying attention, just as I did to a damn Dukie years ago.