Three Great Passing Drills From a Basketball Coaching Legend

• By Grant Young

The ability to pass effectively in basketball is an extremely underrated asset for any player to have. While point guards are expected to be elite passers, few are blessed with the anticipation and court vision that it takes to find open teammates and produce easy baskets on a game-by-game basis.

And what about other players? It can’t just be the point guard that’s passing the ball. Every other person on the court must remain capable and accountable enough to deliver the ball to their teammates. 

But, like anything else, basketball passing drills are something that must be done repetitively if a coach can expect their players to execute during the game. And few coaches know this better than the legendary Kermit Davis. 

Kermit Davis spent five seasons at the helm of Ole Miss Basketball. A nine-time conference coach of the year, Davis left the Rebels 29th among active Division I head coaches with 477 career wins over 25 seasons, including stints at Middle Tennessee, Idaho, and Texas A&M. In 28 seasons as a college basketball head coach, he amassed 543 wins.

While defensive aptitude was at the core of Coach Davis’ coaching strategy, he also made passing a priority in his practices; which helped contribute to his teams’ sterling assist to turnover rate in each season at Ole Miss. 

Coach Davis’ ‘5 Great Passing Drills’ course pools together all of his favorite passing practice drills throughout his nearly three decades running Division 1 college basketball programs. We have pulled three of those drills and explained them at length, giving you a glimpse into the ways you can vastly improve your own team’s passing prowess. 

Left Hand Right Hand Passing

While world-class professional point guards like Steph Curry and Caitlin Clark can make passing seem like a complex, exquisite art, the truth is that most basketball players can be good enough passers with good vision and the ability to deliver accurate passes with both hands.

This is why one of Coach Davis’ favorite drills is also one of his most simple. It’s called ‘left hand right-hand passing’. 

Here’s how the half-court drill will work. A few players will line up at each of these three positions: the left corner, the right corner, and the top of the key.

The ball will start with the player in the left corner. They will begin by driving to the basket before passing the ball to the player in the other corner with their left hand along the baseline. That player will receive the ball, drive to the basket, and then pass it with their left hand to the player at the top of the key (or perhaps the free throw line). Then that player makes the same drive then passes it with their left hand to another player who is standing at the left corner, and the drill continues that way.

Then the same drill can be run in reverse with the other half of the team on the other side of the court, but with the right hand rather than the left hand.

This drill is excellent because it forces players to make passes that they’ll need to make in games, and gets them comfortable with doing so on the move with their offhand. 

Partner Passing & Footwork

Footwork is an underrated part of being a good passer. And Coach Davis addressed that with his next drill, which is called ‘partner passing & footwork’.

This is a full court drill, and as the name suggests, will be done in partners. It will start with both partners on the baseline, at either side of the paint. The partner without the ball will run out to the elbow and receive a pass from the player on the baseline. Once they receive the pass they’ll do a shot fake and begin to dribble forward. 

All the while, the player who made the initial pass will be running out to around the three-point arc, will receive a pass from their partner, do a shot fake, and then repeat the same process.

The two partners will continue doing this until they reach the perimeter of the other side of the court. At that point, they’ll conduct one more pass before the player who receives it will drive for a layup. 

The second pair behind this initial one should start as soon as the second pass is made by the first pair, which will allow multiple partners to do this drill at once.

This is a great drill because it forces players to be making passes while on the move. It also serves as good conditioning. 

Pocket Passing

The third of Coach Davis’ passing drills we’ll discuss is his ‘pocket passing’ drill. 

The pocket pass takes more skill than most other passes on a court. Because it requires throwing the ball from the hip in a way that’s similar to dropping the ball for a teammate to pick up, it's often used in situations like pick-and-roll plays.

Which is why this drill simulates a pick and roll. The drill will start with a point guard at the top of the key and a defender on them. A big will come up, set a screen, and then roll toward the basket. After freeing up some space, the ball handler will then deliver a pocket pass to their big as they’re driving toward the hoop. 

This drill can also be run at different places on the court, with variations such as the big man pump faking and then delivering a pocket pass back to the guard, who would be driving toward the basket. Or the guard can use the screen set to drive and then send a pocket pass to a player in the corner. 

Feel free to get creative with these drills, because creativity is a key component to succeeding as a passer in basketball.