Inside the Program: 2018 Norcross Blue Devils

By: Kris Watkins  Follow @KrisWatkinsPSB

Over the last nearly 20 years Norcross has established itself as one of the Elite programs Nationally having won 5 State Championships since 2001.  Coach Jesse McMillan took over the program following the 2008 Season replacing a legendary coach in Eddie Martin and the program did not lose a beat. Having known Coach McMillan for a long time I was excited to finally get the chance to pick his brain for this Inside the Program piece about his team’s off season training program and much more!  Read below to learn more about the Norcross program in our interview with Coach McMillan.

I think you were one of the first coaches in the state to truly shift to an ongoing yearly skill development model (including in June when many teams had gone to as many team camps as possible). Also what is the focus for your program this preseason (weight room, conditioning, skill development etc)

We moved to a year long development model after the 2012 season. The summer of 2011 we attended four different team camps and my summer roster changed nightly due to player conflicts with football camps, travel, and summer school. Each day in June we were practicing team concepts with guys that weren’t even playing in the team camps. Most of our guys played some level of AAU that July and then in August and September we played a full fall league schedule. By the time the high school season rolled around, it was obvious the guys weren’t excited for the high school practices and were borderline burned out. We finished a tad over .500 that year and I just never felt like we played with the passion and energy of some previous teams. So that summer we decided to scrap that format and change to a year round developmental model. We haven’t played a team camp or fall league game since that summer of 2011 – and I honestly believe it’s one of the best things we’ve ever done for our program. I am definitely not claiming ownership of this idea, plenty of teams do something similar, but I do think we were one of the very first to completely scrap all “team” concept teaching in June. It has been seven years now since we taught a “Norcross” set play, defense, or concept in the summer. Our June program is very structured and follows a station format. You can view this video for a full outline of the philosophy. With that said, here is how the rest of our year looks:

August 13th – October 12th
Weight training during the school day: Players have weight training during their PE period. The weight program is tailored by our strength and conditioning coaches and includes an emphasis on traditional and body weight strength exercises, core work, flexibility, and speed and conditioning.

Individual workouts: Per GHSA rules, we are allowed to work with four players at a time. Within these four man groups we focus mainly on ball-handling, shooting, passing, and off ball movement. We are a 5-Out offensive system so everyone on the floor needs to be versatile. I don’t expect everyone to be a superior ball-handler but we do expect everyone to feel comfortable with the ball. We incorporate The Gun shooting machine into almost every 4 man workout and everything is designed to have each player touch the ball approximately every 15 seconds, this is important – constant movement.

Organized Pickup: We work around the volleyball schedule and organize gym time for play. Since there are more than 4 players involved the HS coach cannot be in the gym. Therefore, it has to be structured and player led. The guys play each game to 7 points (by 2s and 3s). The player that scores the winning basket has to validate the win by hitting a freethrow. If he misses the freethrow then the winning basket is taken off and the opposing team gets the ball. The short games keep things moving and don’t allow for lopsided 10-2 games that will normally turn into trash ball. To elevate accountability and competition we have a “Master Win List” – a poster board with each player’s name. After each day, the individual players record their “wins”. That way there is a visual reminder of who is winning and losing. If a player goes 0-3 one day, they will be more motivated the next time out. We got this idea from Mike Botkin, a coach in Florida and it’s awesome. We don’t do any type of track conditioning, instead we use the pickup for conditioning. The guys are working on implementing skill, chemistry, competition, and conditioning all at once.

October 22nd – March 9th
High School season: We dedicate around 45 minutes in each practice to individual improvement. This is obviously a lot of shooting, ball-handling, passing work, but also includes individual defensive movements like footwork, closeouts, and rotations. We do this in station format with small groups. This allows our team drills to focus more on the group than individuals because players are reinforcing fundamentals instead of learning them.

April – May
Individual workouts: We do as much 4 man work as possible but this is always tricky because of spring football, AAU, and other conflicts.
Again, we are not taking credit for this model but we are standing by it. I whole-heartedly believe in it and it think it benefits the players tremendously. From a coaching standpoint – ANY style of play or “system” is going to benefit from more players that are comfortable with ball.

Explain how the impact of former players (currently playing collegiately/professionally) have on your program when they come back and work out with your guys

The value cannot be understated. High school guys always think they are working hard. It’s not until a guy like E.Victor Nickerson, Josiah Moore, Jodie Meeks, Gani Lawal, or Brandon Goodwin come back and jump in a workout that the HS guys see the truth. We are blessed to have a great alumni base – guys that are good people and have learned so much from their high school, collegiate, and professional experiences. Not every player will get paid to play the game, but EVERY player can learn the value of discipline, hard work, preparation, and focus. Those skills are developed in the gym and translate to life.

Having lost the last 2 years in the state championship game, are your guys motivated more than ever heading into this season?

High school guys are invincible, there is always “next time”, “next season” so I don’t think they really dwell on it the way adults do. There isn’t the same sense of finality that coaches have – we realize how incredibly difficult it is to win games. They just go hoop. I think it’s our job as coaches to identify what motivates each kid, to find what stokes their competitive fire, and to grow that winning mentality. I definitely find ways to keep myself sharp though, I focus on the paranoia that somebody else is doing it better – that keeps me going and squashes complacency. I have five championship rings won as an assistant and head coach. I’ve never worn a single one of them – not even for a day. I don’t want a reminder of a past accomplishment – I want the fear of never doing it again. If I can find that edge and communicate it appropriately, the kids will find that passion as well.

I know each year you make sure you work to have your team play the top competition/get the most exposure possible when setting up your schedule, what events/tournaments are you playing in this year?

I learned this working with Coach Eddie Martin. In 2005, we went into the state championship game 30-0 and lost the title game to Wheeler by 16 points. They had been tested with a challenging non-region schedule, we had not. It finally caught up with us. We decided to never let that happen again. So now we try to be as aggressive as possible, within reason. You have to know your team and their mentality. Scheduling is important and too much to early can be really tough for a young, inexperienced team. Even very talented kids can doubt themselves if things don’t go right early. As for this year, we’ve got experienced, mature kids that are ready for the challenge. Our region produced the AAAAAAA state champion last year (our cross-town rival Meadowcreek). Gwinnett is no joke and it’s the best basketball county in the state, probably top 5 in the Southeast. Players like Kyle Sturdivant and Brandon Boston have opened some doors for us and for our non-region games we will play in some top showcases this year. We will host the On The Radar Showcase, the Hawks-Naismith Classic, and the Peachtree Corners Invitational at Norcross. We will play in the Holiday Hoopsgiving, the Chick-Fil-A Classic in SC, the Cancer Research Classic in WV, and the Spalding HoopHall in Massachusetts. Three of our games will be on ESPN this season. I told the guys it will be a season they will never forget and the best part of memories is making them.

Former Players Currently Playing at Collegiate level/and where they are playing

Khalen Pinkett Savannah State University
William Gibbons Mid-American Christian University
AJ Farrar Alabama State
Ricky Madison High Point University
Octavious Gage Gordon State College
Tim Cameron High Point University
Chris Curlett Reinhardt University
Lance Thomas University of Memphis
Jordan Goldwire Duke University
Rayshaun Hammonds University of Georgia
Dalvin White University of South Carolina – Upstate
Joseph Toppin University of Georgia

Players to watch w/ recruitment

2019

Kyle Sturdivant (6’2 G, UGA, UF, USC, Clemson, GA Tech)
Issa Muhammad (6’9 F, Wake Forest, Maryland, Charleston, Tennessee Tech)
Isaac Martin (6’5 G, Wichita State, Princeton, Yale, UNC-Ashville, Mercer)

2020

Brandon Boston (6’6 G, Duke, UGA, Alabama, Ga Tech, FSU)
Caleb Murphy (6’4 G)
Kevon Eskridge (6’3 G) Izaiah Williams (6’3 G)