Episode 133: Jeremy Ballard, A Pressing Fast Tempo Style of Play

Guest: Jeremy Ballard, Florida International Head Coach

In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, Florida International head coach Jeremy Ballard joins the Basketball Podcast to discuss a pressing fast tempo style of play. In two years, Ballard has established a new culture of winning while also starting to re-write the program’s record books.

During his first year on the sidelines at FIU, Ballard guided the Panthers to a 20-14 record and a 10-8 mark in Conference USA (C-USA) play. The teams 20 wins marked just the third time in school history that FIU logged 20-or-more victories and was tied for the second-most in a single season, while the 10 C-USA wins were the most since joining the conference. Ballard’s winning ways continued during the 2019-20 season when the Panthers went 19-13 before the remainder of the season was canceled to the COVID-19 outbreak

Ballard became an assistant coach with his alma mater, where he stayed from 2004 to 2007 before joining the staff at Tulsa from 2007 to 2012. Ballard moved on to be an assistant coach under Shaka Smart at VCU until 2015, before making stops at Illinois State and Pittsburgh for one season each. He returned to VCU as an assistant coach under Mike Rhoades in 2017, before accepting the head coaching position at Florida International on April 20, 2018

Breakdown

1:00 - Pressing Philosophy

4:00 - Introducing Press at the College Level

6:30 - Teaching Pressure

9:00 - Introduce Press Breaks

11:00 - Ball Screens

13:00 - Emphasizing Offense

15:00 - Automatics on Ball Screens

17:00 - Role of the Screener

19:00 - Things to Give Up on Pressing

22:00 - Running So Many Ball Screens

24:00 - Taking Over a Roster