The Basketball Podcast: EP216 with Nate Oats on How they Play and Practice

Nate Oats Coach Quotes:

“Every year we’re going to be probably top 10, if not top five in threes taken per game with the way we play.”

“Fans are part of this. We’re in the entertainment business. It’s an entertaining style we play, so let’s let them know why we’re playing the style that we’re playing.”

“Every offseason, we do a breakdown on what we were good at, bad at, and what we can get better at . . and so the thing we picked up a lot on last offseason was we weren’t getting enough assists at the rim . . The highest percentage [shot] is an assisted at the rim shot. So how do you get more assists at the rim?”

“We tell our guys, ‘Anytime you see an opening between you and the rim, you’ve got to drive it. We chart paint touches and our efficiency is much higher when the ball hits the paint than when it doesn’t.”

“We want our guys playing with ultimate freedom within the context of structure, we’re not just rolling the balls out and hooping. We want our guys to have the freedom to, at any point they make a read, they can drive.”

“Our offense is very good for guards. And it’s great for a point guard. But we tell the point guard recruits, if you’re planning to play in the NBA . . you’ve got to learn to play off the ball, on the ball, all types of different positions. And that’s what they’re going to do in our system.”

“We’ve talked about this [in the] offseason, we need to clean up our terminology. The longer you go, every few years, we just sit down [and ask], ‘Does it make sense to call this [action] this? Would it make more sense now that we’ve got this in . . to clean up our terminology?’”

“If you care about winning and playing time and everything else, you’re going to learn what we’re doing. If you’re constantly getting low scores on a quiz, you probably don’t care that much about what we’re doing. And it’s hard for me to play guys that don’t care because it’s hard to win with guys that don’t care.”

“We’re big on our guys putting in extra time outside of practice to study the game. We’ll send them edits . . every edit we show them as a group we’ll also send it to them so they can go back and review it on their own.”

“We’re letting everybody know when you come in next year, we’ve got video we’re going to show them, . . this is what we expect you to play like, this is how winning basketball is played. This is what we expect out of you on a nightly basis here in college basketball.”

“You can figure out a way to score just about every drill you run. So, we make it really competitive . . we want to come in and compete and we want to teach them to compete. Some guys are natural born competitors. Some guys are really skilled basketball players, but you’ve got to teach them to compete.“

“At the end of every practice, we do some type of end-of-game thing, whether it’s a six minute game, a game situation at 70-70 where the first team that gets 74 [wins] . . We always score those just as regular basketball scoring, just like it’s going to be scored in the game.”

“We’ve got the set that we’re going to run but [players] have got the freedom to break it off at any point, they see a breakdown in the defense to get a paint touch. If you break it off, you better get something we’re looking for . . we don’t need to run the set to score.”

“As a coach, we all have a little bit of an ego . . I want to run the most innovative sets we can . . but you know what, if that’s the most important thing, then it’s making it about me when what it should be about is about winning the game. And players win the games a lot more than coaches win the games.”

“So, you give your players the freedom to go break down a defense, if they see an opportunity to break it down and then go just make the play.”

“If all we’re doing is teaching guys to put a round ball through a ring, we’re wasting an awful lot of time. There’s a lot more things I could be doing to impact society than teaching kids how to throw a ball through a ring.”

“If we’re the most educated, hardest working coaches at coaching the game of basketball, I think you get some kids’ respect to help them really learn how to be better people . . better humans . . Let’s get them educated so they can make a difference in their families . . let’s use basketball as a tool to help these guys become better citizens and better young men. [A part of that] is selfless love, get out of yourself. Get into your team, get into your community, learn how to love each other.”

Nate Oats Breakdown:

1:00 – Dribble Drive
4:00 – Offensive Perspective
8:00 – Fan Base
12:00 – Driving the 45
15:00 – Player Development Principles
18:00 – Attacking the Rim
19:58 – 20:41 – DR. DISH ADS
23:00 – Quizzing
28:00 – Competitive Component
31:00 – Scoring System
36:00 – How To Game The Point System
39:04 – 39:43 – JUST PLAY ADS
41:00 – Accountable to the Practice
44:00 – Transition System
47:00 – Freedom with Sets
51:00 – Playing Fast
54:00 – Selfless Love Concept

Nate Oats Links from the Podcast:

Kira Lewis

Herbert Jones

Jordan Bruner

Joshua Primo

Jaden Shackleford

John Petty

Adam Bauman

Vance Walberg

Josh Baker

Damian Lillard