I've never truly realized the differences in basketball strategy needed at different levels of coaching until I agreed to coach a varsity team and a junior varsity team at the same time. How you organize your preseason practices can be very different.
My varsity players had, overall, decent basic skills and some idea of appropriate strategies to use in game situations. They definitely had more confidence and experience than the junior varsity, whereas my junior varsity team lacked the experience and the skills, but at the same time demonstrated an eagerness to learn and that fearlessness you get sometimes when you don't realize you are out of your depth. So I had something to work with with both teams.
So, here are three lessons I've learned - or, I suppose, 'relearned' - from this experience about appropriate basketball strategy to use in these situations, particularly during preseason practices:
1. If the basic skills are there, focus on basic strategies. If they can shoot, dribble, and pass to a reasonable degree, focus your development time in early preseason practice on game strategy. By game strategy, I don't mean team plays, presses and press breaks, etc. (teach these later in the preseason, but not at the beginning). Game strategy in this sense means the basic 'little' plays we use that make up all the bigger plays - pick n roll, give n go, flash cuts, picks on the ball and off. You can't introduce these until your players have decently developed in the more basic skills - ball handling, shooting, passing - but once they have, start working on perfecting these 'little' plays, because they will become the guts of any offense you run.
2. If the basic skills are not there, that is what you focus on. You have to run before you can walk. There isn't much point in teaching players how to use a pick n roll if they can't dribble or pass, and this applies to teams at any level. Pushing more advanced concepts at players who are not ready to work with them simply confuses them, instills bad habits, and doesn't prepare them for the game. Take a step back and work on the basics first - teach them how to shoot, how to dribble, how to pass properly. Teach them how to drive. As far as a team offense goes, focus your basketball strategy on teaching them fast break formation, and have them practice against a shell defense to learn when to shoot and how to drive and how to work the ball around. But don't get complicated yet.
3. Always work on defense, at every level. With more experienced players you can get more sophisticated, but every player at any level needs to develop solid basic defensive skills. Teach first the basic stance and movement, then how to deny the pass, then how to fight through a screen or switch off to your teammate, and how to help and recover. Even if your team is struggling offensively, good defense can save them in the game.
I would suggest you don't teach zone at lower skill levels because players cannot play a decent zone defense if they can't play proper man to man defense first. Focus on man to man principles, and the rest of the defensive game will come together.
In the end, what you focus on with your team depends on the stage your players are in in their development, and that's an individual thing - just because you are coaching varsity level, you can't assume you start off coaching advanced 'varsity-level' concepts. Whether you begin preseason practices with a focus on basic plays like pick n roll, or a focus on dribbling through a series of cones, depends on your players and what they are capable of at the time. And because they already have decent skill levels, doesn't mean we neglect their further skill development or refinement - while we may be able to teach more advance concepts like give n go, we still spend time on improving shooting, passing and dribbling.
Coaching basketball is a matter of constant evaluation and making decisions on your basketball strategy that are appropriate to your players' current development. Coaching two teams at very different levels of development at the same time is not the easiest thing to do, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you coach full time and can devote the time needed to each team. But it does refresh your memory of some very basic coaching concepts.
