With all the successful basketball coaches who have come through the Springfield area, Lanphier boys basketball coach Blake Turner was stunned when Jim Jumper told him there hadn’t been a basketball coaching clinic here before.
“I couldn’t believe it and when Mr. Jumper contacted me, my first response was, ‘Wow,’” Turner said.
Then, Jumper asked Turner if the new Lober-Nika Gymnasium would like to host the first one.
“My second response was, ‘Sure, I’d love to do it. Tell me where we start,’” Turner said. “I followed his guidance, and he’s got a lot of basketball knowledge and wisdom and he’s been around the block a few times. It was a great experience just sitting back and listening to him and going off his expertise.”
The plans have culminated in the Capital City Basketball Coaches Clinic on Saturday at Lanphier from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is open to all basketball coaches from grade school through high school. The cost is $30 per person or $20 if a group from the same school signs up for the seven-speaker event.
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“I thought, ‘Let’s have it in Springfield, let’s give coaches — or anyone interested — a chance to get more information about how to coach basketball, and why not bring in the best people you can,” Jumper said.
Jumper and Turner both said it was important to get a broad range of topics and speakers. The day begins with Chatham Glenwood girls basketball coach Alyssa Riley, who led the Titans to the Class 3A runner-up title earlier this year. The day ends with former University of Illinois star and NBA player Dee Brown, who is in his third year coaching at the NCAA Division II Roosevelt University.
Also speaking will be Tim Allen, who guided Sacred Heart-Griffin to its first state boys basketball championship in 2022. Riley will speak about building a program, Allen’s topic will cover basketball culture and practice planning while Brown will talk about transition offense and defense.
“I always felt if I could pick up one or two ideas, it was a great clinic,” said Jumper, who coached for 37 years, including the final seven leading the Mount Pulaski boys program until 2009. “We’ve got people who can speak on just about every facet of the game of basketball.”
Also speaking will be former Lanphier and Illinois player Rich McBride, who is currently an assistant at Eastern Illinois; Altamont’s John Niebrugge, University of Illinois Springfield men’s coach Matt Brock and Turner.
“Rich McBride was a great offensive player, so what should we have Richard talk about? Offense and special plays,” Jumper said. “John was my assistant at Mount Pulaski for years and he’s from (Teutopolis), which is a hotbed of basketball … and John’s had great success down at Altamont (a 264-95 record in 12 seasons). He is as good of a defensive man-to-man coach as you’ll find anywhere in the state.
“I wanted full-court stuff, so I said, ‘Blake, why don’t you speak about (defensive) presses.’ Trapping, pressing defenses is one of the things that he’s known for. Matt Brock, whose teams have done very well in his stay out at UIS, we’ve got him talking about how to build an offense.
“And then we’ve got Dee Brown and Dee Brown is known for fast-break type of basketball, so we’ve got him talking about transition offense and defense, and how to get from one end of the floor to the other end of the floor (quickly) without turning it over, but then he’ll also be talking about how to defend that.”
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Jumper added that clinics have lost some attention over the years as the internet has made it easier to quickly find topics of interest, but Jumper says the right clinic, with a variety of topics, can still have importance.
“I’ve wanted to do it for a long time,” Jumper said. “When I was coaching, I would go to clinics every year; I was a student of the game. A lot of guys did, and then along came a thing called Google … plus, you can watch clinics online.
“So, clinics started going by the wayside, or they started doing other things: there are roundtables now … where a few coaches get together and they talk about stuff. I wanted to bring back (clinics).”
Already, Turner has his eyes on doing it again next year.
“I feel like we put together a good lineup and we’ve got a good field set,” Turner said. “I feel like we put together a good group of people, we’ve got some great topics, we’ve got some speakers people know around here, and people are going to be excited about it.
“We’re committed to doing it and making it better. However it turns out for us this weekend, we’ll just try to make it better next year.”
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
