Basketball rookie team

Question
QUESTION: hi
me and 7 of my friends have been invited last week to a friendly match against some other "rookie" players.
we don't practise basket and we haven't touched a ball in 2 years but we thought we might have some fun against others "rookies". but they laughed at us. there was a whole team waiting for us, with a coach and training and costume, and we had nothing. we were clueless all over the court.
we lost 30-69.
now we have a rematch in 2 weeks...
we have been training on a single basket in our town. we have no coach nor a costume... how should we approch our next match? we don't want to win (we can't), we just want to   loose with dignity...
we have some individual skills but team work is NULL.
10x

ANSWER: Dear friend,

I guess the biggest problem is the defensive function. You don't know how to play defense as a team. You know, on offense, everyone has the chance to score and can use it's own personal skills. But defence is team work alone.

When defending, you should follow these 9 golden rules.

1) Bend your knees so that you are in balance. Try drills that will challenge your ability to change directions quickly. Legs explosiveness is very important.

2) You should always lead the offender to the sidelines. Never let him drive through the center.

3) You should always force the offender to dribble with his weak hand. Close the path to his strong leg and dribble.

4)Providing the offender is right handed let's say, you will have your left hand always "checking" that is constant touching and other times harassing the offender trying to steal the ball at times. The right hand will be on constant moving trying to block any pass. That's its role.

5) If the offender attempts to cross you, make a step backward and explode in the direction that he goes, trying to get your leg close his way.

6) If the offender is going to release a shot, have your right hand if he's right handed in his face in consatnt moving. Try to hinder his sight to the basket and make some noise.

7) If the offender releases the shot, always block and box him out. It's your first priority to turn and see where he is and block his way to the rebound. Don't just sit, look at the rim and wait for the ball to hit there. Also, foresee where the ball is going to hit and take a good position as soon as it hits the rim.

8) It's important to defend when your offender moves off the ball. "Deny" the ball by playing the known overplay defence. Always have your outside hand trying to block a potential feed.

9) To end, when the offender receives the ball from a split out and you were on a help (because basketball is a team sport, don't forget that) take big qick steps on the start to get closer and in the last feet approach with "rock" steps with your hands dening the shot, always giving him a path to the base or sideline. That's really important and is called "close out"

These things make you a top defender. And here in Greece, we work seriously on that, and we have some Euroleague titles from clubs like Panathinaikos and Olympiacos to show that. In national level, we are the European champions and the silver World champions.
I had also the honour to work with Dimitris Diamantidis who is regarded as the best point guard in Europe and by far the best defensive player.

That's for every defender individually, especially the guards.

Now, you should know that half-court defense should always be tight. Everyone has to get a position between his player and the ball, depending on how far is a possible pass. Weak side players should always have one leg near the paint. The strong side players play overplay defense and deny an easy pass. Always give "help" to your teamates.

If you want more specific advice, mainly in offence, you have to ask me a follow up and tell me how tall your players and their players are and their offensive and defensive style, in order to adapt your game to theirs and take advantage of their weaknesses.

I think that with a little hard work, you could win.

I'm waiting to hear from you again.

Sincerely Yours,
Coach B.Anagnostou
Olympiacos Pireaus Coaching staff
(Euroleague, HEBA)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much for your amazing reply... I was not expecting that! Every member of the team have a copy of that.
Tomorrow is the big day. We had a very busy week. we have been training very hard. we worked on a 1-3-1 defensive formation, hope it will work well tomorrow. we haven't set a specific offensive formation, we'll improvise lol. no really if we focused we might get a chance. if we play like we did in practice i'm not worried.
the bad news is that a 195 cm player might be joining our rivals (he was injured the 1st match), yeah this is a disaster since our tallest player is no more than 183 cm, but the good news is that our talented point guard will  be joining us (hopefully).
we have a long taining day tomorrow.
i'll tell you about the score!
thanks

ANSWER: Dear friend,

Regarding the 195cm player. If he playes and does a lot of damage in the first minutes, you should consider playing a 2-1-2 zone defense. The one that is at the center should always play the tall guy from in front and deny the pass. The one behind him should always be in alert for a potential lob pass. This defense is team defense alone and needs a lot of communication. Talk together because in tens of a second you have to make decisions like who is going to get to the wing player that just got the pass etc. It requires a lot of running. Remember unless they are super, long-range shooters prefer to stay tight and deny a pass to the post or a drive and easy lay-up.

I'm waiting to hear from you again.

Sincerely Yours,
Coach B.Anagnostou
Olympiacos Pireaus Coaching staff
(Euroleague, HEBA)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: The game never took place. The other team fofeited the match which makes us worthy winners(No?).
Nobody knows for sure why they cancelled in the last minute! (despite our talented point guard didn't show up).
perhaps they knew about our intensive training and didn't want to lose on their own ground!
Anyways your instructions Coach will be very useful for us in forcoming challenges. i thank you very much
keep up the good work
take care

Answer
Dear friend,

The fact that they forfeited the game is a very good sign. However, you didn'y actually beat them on the court and that's what you got to put as a goal. Remember this was a big step towards the win. But, you haven't reached it yet. Keep on the hard work and never stay at what you have achieved so far. Practice might have made you good, but continuing practicing will make you better than good.

I'm waiting to hear from you again before the next match up.

Sincerely Yours,
Coach B.Anagnostou
Olympiacos Pireaus Coaching staff
(Euroleague, HEBA)