I mandate to our travel basketball coaches at the Chicago Bulls Training Academy to focus on the fundamentals of basketball in their practices here. We also have the same focus in our private lessons, holiday, specialty and summer camps as well. Basketball players must be able to pass, dribble, shoot and use the proper footwork on every level. Lewis University, a division II college in Romeoville, Illinois, practiced at the Chicago Bulls Training Academy on Thursday and Friday of last week. Lewis University is always competitive in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. They also played Bradley, De Paul, Illinois and UIC prior to their conference schedule.

I observed Lewis's Thursday practice here at the Academy. Scott Trost, the head men's basketball coach at Lewis University, had his players executing many of the drills that we use here at the Academy. Chris Mc Clellan, former Wheeling High School and Chicago Bulls Training Academy player, is a the freshman point guard for the Lewis Flyers. They were doing ball handling, shooting, defensive footwork drills, then transitioned in to more advanced work as the practice progressed. It reinforced my stance on making sure that players receive at least 30-45 minutes of fundamental skill work in our hour and a half practices. I spoke with Coach Trost after practice in regard to the drill work he had his players executing. Coach Trost said, "a grade school, high school or college basketball player has to work to improve his or her fundamentals. At the college level, players have to remember to execute the fundamentals and at the younger levels they have to learn to master them."

There is no substitute for players learning the game the correct way. There are a lot of club and travel basketball teams and many of the coaches are doing a great job teaching the game. There is still a good percentage of these teams that focusing on winning and not teaching. A youth basketball player will not remember how many games he or she won in the 4th-8th grade. They will remember when they learned how to make a left or right handed lay up or when they mastered the concept of help defense, how to back door cut, etc.

The coaching staff at the Chicago Bulls Training Academy basketball players are dedicated and will continue to teach the game correctly. It is vital for players to learn the game correctly in order to survive in a competitive basketball world!

Have a great weekend!