Going inside Bibby’s Shadow Mtn. practice
There is one short break. No 5-on-5 scrimmaging. Intense footwork, cutting off lanes, details to defense.
If people believe Phoenix Shadow Mountain built its basketball dynasty because its most famous hoops alumnus is a magnet for out-of-state talent, they’re wrong.
Mike Bibby, who helped the University of Arizona to its only NCAA championship as an unflappable freshman point guard in the 1996-97 season and spent 14 years playing in the NBA, is laser focused for two hours.
“The reality is we never scrimmage,” said assistant coach Michael Warren, a former head coach at Tolleson High School and Glendale Community College. “We do timing and situation stuff. The rest of the stuff is individual work.
“He works at skill building. It is skill building ad nauseam. He works it. It’s every day. It’s not rolling the ball out. It’s not scrimmaging. It’s skill building. It’s basic basketball. It’s over and over and over again.”
Don’t try to interrupt Bibby for an interview, not in the middle of practice, even during a break. Bibby meets with assistants at a table, goes over the next part of practice, what they’re looking to accomplish, as players drink water.
The Matadors once again are loaded and ready to make their way to New York as the best team in Arizona. They’re getting ready to start their sixth season under Bibby, who is looking for his fourth consecutive state championship and fifth in six seasons.
They probably would be taking aim at their sixth consecutive state championship had point guard Michael Bibby -- Mike’s son -- not missed the tournament his junior year because of a knee injury in 2015. The state semifinal loss to Gilbert Christian was the last time Shadow Mountain lost to an Arizona team.
They’ve won 71 consecutive games against Arizona teams since then.
Senior guards Jaelen House and Jovan Blacksher Jr., who have picked up their leadership roles even more, have never lost to an Arizona team since they became starters as sophomores. Both were raised on Bibby basketball, starting out in his AAU program that disbanded after Mike’s son graduated from high school in 2016.
This is not a program feeding off of his club program. In the spring and summer, the Matadors go their separate ways, latching onto club teams, while Mike still plays, as a guard for the Ghost Ballers in the BIG3.
This year, Shadow Mountain lost Antonio Reese, who moved back to Chicago. But it is probably the deepest team Bibby has had with three out-ofstate move-ins, including 6-foot-10, 250-pound center Malik Lamin from Minnesota.
Lamin first enrolled at Phoenix South Pointe, a charter school that doesn’t play in the Arizona Interscholastic Association, before transferring to Shadow Mountain this school year. He will have to sit out the first half of the season because of the transfer rule.
But Shadow Mountain has always thrived under Bibby without a big man, and should get great help from brothers Davon (6-5, junior) and DeVontes (6-3, freshman) Cobbs, who moved in from Milwaukee.
“I think I bring a great element to the team, a physical big man, because they never had that,” Lamin said. “Now they have a big man to play other big men, and I think it will be good. Like when we go up against teams like Montverde (Academy from Florida), Oak Hill (Academy in Virginia). I’ve played against most of those guys in the EYBL circuit.”
Bibby probably demands more from House and Blacksher than anybody else. He wants them to be the most vocal, to yell at teammates to keep the pace going strong.
It’s for a good reason.
“We want to win a national championship,” House said.
Bibby’s drills are non-stop. It’s about filling lanes, getting back on defense, cutting off the baseline.
“It’s the beginning stages of defense,” Bibby said after a recent workout. “It’s stuff that they probably haven’t learned their whole lives.”
Bibby will sometimes put 40 minutes on the clock. He’ll take half the team with an assistant taking the other half with each taking ends of the court. They’ll go through 20 minutes of ballhandling, then 20 minutes of shooting.