IBCA E-Newsletter

Click here for the IBCA Spring Clinic registration form.

New items such as a Coaches’ Roundtable, an Issues & Answers Forum plus a book-signing by legendary coach Don Meyer highlight the agenda for the 2011 Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Spring Clinic.

Of course, outstanding speakers – this year Meyer as well as Iowa men’s coach Fran McCaffery, Wright State men’s coach Billy Donlon and Georgia Tech women’s coach MaChelle Joseph are the headliners – remain a staple for the two-day gathering that is set for April 29-30 at Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis.

Sessions begins at 11:45 a.m. Friday, April 29 and run through 10:20 p.m. that evening. Sessions resume at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 30 and conclude at 12:30 p.m. Cost to attend the clinic is $40 for current IBCA members and $75 for non-members.

The Coaches’ Roundtable tips off the Clinic agenda and will feature Hall of Fame inductees Jim East of Merrillville, George Griffith of Richmond and Jim Jones of Terre Haute North on a panel moderated by Indiana SportsTalk host Bob Lovell. Questions from coaches in attendance will be encouraged.

The three coaches will discuss steps that they took to make their programs successful for the long run. East is retiring this spring after compiling a 522-206 record in 31 seasons at Merrillville and a 653-337 mark in 43 seasons overall. Griffith compiled a 366-138 record and won a state title in 20 seasons at South Bend LaSalle and Richmond before become executive director of the IBCA. Jones coached at Springs Valley, Princeton and Terre Haute North, amassing a 680-382 record in a career spanning 45 seasons. (More on these three coaches can be found elsewhere in this E-newsletter.)

Featured speakers

Fran McCaffery, the first-year Iowa coach, is a featured guest speaker. The 51-year-old coach compiled a 251-177 record in stops at Lehigh, UNC-Greensboro and Siena – guiding all three to at least one NCAA Tournament appearance -- before moving to Iowa City in the spring of 2010.

A Philadelphia native, McCaffery played one season at Wake Forest and three more at Penn, helping that program to two NCAA berths. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Penn, then became an assistant at Lehigh before being promoted to the school’s head coach for three years (49-40). He moved to Notre Dame to serve as an assistant for 11 seasons, then became a head coach again at UNC-Greensboro (six seasons, 90-87) and Siena (five seasons, 112-51) before joining the Hawkeyes.

Billy Donlon, 34, is in his first season as head coach at Wright State after serving as an assistant coach for 11 seasons at American University, St. Peter’s, UNC-Wilmington and Wright State. The Chicago native was a star player at UNC-Wilmington who went on to play professionally in Germany and for the Irish National Team. He joined Brad Brownell’s staff at his alma mater inn 2001, then moved with Brownell to Wright State in 2006. He succeeded Brownell as Raiders' head coach in April 2010.

MaChelle Joseph, 41, the Georgia Tech women’s coach, is a proven winner as a player and on the sidelines. A 1998 Indiana All-Star from DeKalb High School, Joseph became a three-time first-team all-Big Ten selection and a 1992 Kokak All-American at Purdue where she set the all-time scoring record with 2,405 points. She was inducted into Purdue’s Athletic Hall of Fame in September 2010.

Joseph began her coaching career as an assistant at Illinois for one season, then returned to Purdue as an assistant for three years. She then was an assistant for five seasons at Auburn before moving to Georgia Tech as an assistant for two years. Joseph was appointed the Yellow Jackets' head coach in May 2003, guiding the program to a 129-86 record and four NCAA Tournament appearances entering 2010-11.

Don Meyer is the winningest NCAA men’s coach at any level, compiling a 923-324 record in 39 seasons, the last 12 at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. Meyer, who was seriously injured in a 2008 car crash and has been diagnosed with cancer, retired following the 2009-10 season. He is the subject of a book called “How Lucky Can You Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer” that was released in November 2010. The book will be available for purchase at the clinic, and Meyer will be available to sign books.

A native of Wayne, Neb., Meyer was a college division All-American at Northern Colorado as a player before becoming a coach. He first was an assistant at Western State (Colo.) and the University of Utah before becoming a head coach in 1972 at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. Meyer’s teams went 37-41 in three years at the NCAA Division III school. He then moved to Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., where the Bison were 665-179 in 24 years, winning the NAIA national tournament in 1986 and qualifying for 12 other national tournaments. At Northern State, his teams went 221-104 and five times earned spots in the NCAA Division II Tournament.

The Issues & Answers Forum will feature IBCA president Tom Beach, IBCA executive director Steve Witty and IBCA associate executive director Marty Johnson. They will give IBCA members the most current information on issues facing high school basketball coaches in Indiana. Again, questions from coaches in attendance will be encouraged.

Other speakers at the Clinic include John Carter, chief executive officer of Noah Basketball, and the 12 IBCA District Coaches of the Year.

John Carter has been instrumental in the development of the Noah Select Shooting System that is now being used by top high school, college and NBA teams to improve their shooting. He has worked with thousands of players at all levels of the game and has become an authority on how to improve shooting percentages. He speaks at numerous coaching clinics each year, sharing with coaches significant unknown facts about shooting. He also served as an AAU basketball coach for many years, his teams winning more than 80 percent of their games.

The IBCA District Coaches of the Year (profiled elsewhere in this E-newsletter), will speak on a variety of topics such as program organization, teaching multiple defenses, man-to-man defense, the run-and-jump defense, ball-screen motion offense and the dribble-drive offense.

The Spring Clinic schedule is below.

IBCA Clinic Schedule

Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, 2011