A Jab Fake I Like...

Most of you that read this blog know that I'm not a big fan of triple threat. I don't look down on people who use it, or teach it, but it's not for me.  I think it's slow, cumbersome, kills your team's offensive flow, and leads to a lot of this...

With that said, I did like how Kelly Olynyk used it against the Timberwolves last night. What I liked about it wasn't that it made the Big KAT get weak in the knees, it is that Olynyk used it IMMEDIATELY. He saw that KAT was out of position already and used the jab with a purpose - to further get him out of position. I like this and it's a LOT different from what Anthony is doing above. It's fast and keeps the cadence of the offense going.  Now, looking at it through the lens of a high school coach, I'm probably teaching a hard drive on this - unless it's an exceptional shooter. 

Spurs Secondary Action

Everyone knows, and loves, the Spurs secondary break package. It's always very effective at moving players and disorganizing the defense. Last night against the Wizards I noticed a wrinkle that I hadn't seen yet.

The point initiates the secondary by bringing the ball up and swinging it to the trailer (4).  The trailer swings it to the backside wing. As the ball is being reversed, the point cuts hard across the lane and comes out on the ball side corner/low wing. The wing swings it to the point guard.
(Note: In the clip both wings start on the same side, opposite the point guard. I think that was a mistake and the 2 cleared out to balance the floor.)

        

This is the part that I love. After making the pass, the wing cuts through and it looks like he purposely runs into the post player's defender. This effectively makes the ball screen naked. It also knocks the post defender out of position and you could get a post up here. The point then attacks off the ball screen. As the screen is being set the trailer is drifting to the backside block/short corner. 

(Note: It looked like the trailer was looking to screen for the 2, that's a viable option.)

          

Here is a video clip of what I saw. In this situation, the Wizards "Ice" the ball screen and you get the throw back to Aldridge for the jump shot. 

Phil Jackson's Bullseye Test

I am currently reading Phil Jackson's book, Eleven Rings. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm currently into a player centered, philosophical approach to coaching, so it's right up my alley. One gem I've pulled out in the first 100 pages is the "Bullseye Test" he uses with his players.

The Bullseye Test is simple, yet insightful. Give each player a three ring bullseye. Have them write where they feel that they are in terms of their connection to the rest of their teammates. Don't give them anymore than that.

You then look at their bullseyes and see how connected each person feels to our group. It also gives you a handle on how connected the team feels as a group. If they are very connected they are in the middle, if they feel kind of connected their name will be in the second ring, and if they don't feel connected they write their name on the last ring or outside the rings. A lot of times it comes down to playing time - the more they play the closer to the middle they write their name. So you have to account for that a little bit when looking at them.

Once you've done the exercise, you can use them to have individual talks with your players. Ask lots of questions about why they feel that way, and if they are outside the middle how can we move them closer (without adjusting playing time of course). It will also help you determine if how to proceed with team bonding activities during the season. It's something we will definitely use this season.

NCAA's Greatest Games to Practice Situations

This was a topic I THOUGHT I blogged about before, but when I looked back I hadn't.  So here it is.

As coaches we want our players to understand late game situations. It's a must in good coaching. But how do we do it? There are a lot of ways, but one way I like is having a "Greatest NCAA Tournament Games Day" to teach late game situations, and basketball history.

This is a really simple concept. On a bunch of notecards, write down situations from great NCAA games or great NCAA comebacks. One team picks a card (they are the team that is behind). They play out the last 30s-3 min of the game. The length of time depends on the game that you are playing out. The players go on the floor and play the game as the two teams. After they play it out, you show them the video clip (if available), or tell them really happened. Below is an example of one we've used.

UNC vs. Georgetown 1982

• Gerogetown Up 62-61
• Georgetown playing a packed in 1-3-1
• 35 seconds left.

Have the players play the game out. Then after they are done, show them what really happened. Then use it to address some specific late game situations.

• Opponent is playing zone - what shots and how to attack it to get a shot. 
• How to handle the other team scoring to go ahead late. 
• How to handle us scoring a basket to go up late. 

Last year when I did this it was the BEST thing we did all year. The players loved it and BEGGED to do it again. It was well worth the half of practice we invested. This year I might do one every day over a few weeks, to keep the excitement. Either way I hope you can use it to add value and excitement to your practices.

Modern Pressure Defense

Photo courtesy of splitsecondbasketball.com

This blog post is inspired by a post I made on the X's and O's of Basketball message board. It also may inspire me to write a more in depth booklet on the subject of modern pressure man defense. As most people know I LOVE offense. Unfortunately I also know that defense is what defines every single high school and college program that is successful long term. So I do spend a lot of time studying successful defensive teams.

With that said, there is no one defense that's the magic bullet. Teams win with everything from aggressive full court systems to passive half court ones. Coaches win with man, zone, SWARM, etc. So there isn't a magic defense - you just need to be committed to it and really good at teaching your system to your team. Each type of defense has it's strengths and weaknesses. In this blog I'm going to address the common criticism of pressure man defense - not having elite athletes.

Whenever I talk to coaches about pressure man, a common refrain is that "you'd better have athletes". While I do agree 100% that having great athletes is helpful (I've benefitted from that the last 3 years now), I believe that ANY team can pressure, if it's done right. You'll always be more successful at pressure man with better athletes, but I don't think there's a defensive system out there that you can't say that for. But how do you pressure with lesser athletes and still be disruptive to your opponent? Below are 9 things that I think will help any team "modernize" their pressure defense philosophy.

1. Guard Your Tunnel is Priority #1

• If you can contain the dribble you eliminate the need for help and allow teammates to pressure. 
• "Guard your tunnel" is an expression I got talking to Coach LaPlante from Rochester Community College (MN). The idea is that players are responsible for their area. 
• Players are responsible for the area 3ft or so to the right and left of them. 
• We don't help outside of the tunnel - there is no need to!

2. Use the bounce and reach step. 

• The bounce means that as the offense goes to drive your first move is straight back a few inches. 
• This is followed by what Brian McCormick calls a kick or reach step. Instead of stepping and sliding you push off hard with your back foot and lunge into position in front of the ball. 
• The key is to beat the offense to the next spot, force them to go around you again and repeat until you've "bounced" them away from the basket. 
• If you do this, you don't need help.

3. Understand How Much to Pressure the Ball

• This varies for each player and for each match up they have. 
• Must give enough space so you don't get beat in a straight line. 
• You can use stunts to pressure from a little farther away. 
• Must know your limitations. 
• Allows your wings to deny harder because they don't have help responsibility.

4. Square Your Stance

• I'm not against pushing middle or baseline per se. The advantage is that the entire team knows where the drive should go. But there are two problems. Problem one the offense doesn't care about your plan and the ball will be dribbled the wrong way at times. Problem two is that I found many times it allows too many straight line drives. 
• Squaring your stance allows you to better anticipate the offense (because you are ready for whatever). 
• Squaring up allows you to better guard your tunnel. 

5. Let Pressure Come from Denial

• If you have an athletic team, turn the heat up on the ball. But if not, simply contain the ball and let your one pass away defenders do the work by denying the passes. 
• Use jabs and stunts to fake pressure. 
• Containing the ball let's your one pass away defenders really deny hard without worrying about help. 

6. Don't Help One Pass Away - Help from the Middle

• Helping one pass away leads to open jump shots. BBall Breakdown points it out on a regular basis. Also, it's a reason dribble drive works. Drive, force the help, kick to a shooter. No more. Leave the help to the help defenders, one pass away defenders should stick with denial. 
• Coach Wayne Walters, who developed the SWARM defense has always said you can't deny, help, and recover effectively. Coach Dick Bennett did too, which is why he went to the PACK. I agree with them, so we take help and recover responsibility away from the one pass away and give it to the players 2+ passes away. 

7. Don't Overhelp 

• I believe players today help too much. You need to be taught when and where to help. Help creates closeouts and opportunities to get beat. You need to minimize it in pressure man. 
• Only help when there is a clear danger of the ball being scored at the rim. If the ball is being dribbled east-west don't help. If the ball is being dribbled north south from top to baseline (outside the paint), don't help. There is no need. 

8. Lightly Deny Downward Passes

• Bob Huggins said it once "I finally realized - why am I denying the passes that I WANT to happen?". I agree with Coach Huggins on this. We WANT the ball to get to a side so don't make it too hard for the offense to make that happen. 
• Also, pressure teams get beat back door when the cut happens from a wing. When that happens we can deliver a pass without help. If the back door comes from the top we should have help defenders to steal that pass or at least clog the lane.
• Still look to take one against a poor ball handler. 

9. Hard Deny any Pick UP

• When the ball gets picked up, every defender one pass away should lock in and deny hard. The on ball is now chest to chest pressure. 

As you can see, these all kind of fit together. If you can guard your tunnel, helping one pass away isn't needed. Using a square stance with the bounce and reach step, while applying the right amount of on ball pressure will allow you to do this. Also if you deny the wings hard you don't need as much on ball pressure (if you can't pressure well). And if you do need help, the denial players can't get there anyway, so it's going to come from the middle. Having the ball more contained will allow you to have your one pass away defenders focus more on pressure. Also having them back off a little on the guard to wing pass will help them not get beat for back door cuts. Modern pressure defense needs to be more focused on pressuring the passes than it is the ball - this will disrupt the offense greatly - especially against pattern and set teams. This is because you can do it (pressure off the ball) with the lesser athletes. You can still disrupt an offense while not getting gashed for layups on the drive if your pressure comes more from denial than on the ball. Of course if you have the athletes then you go wild and pressure the ball and the pass!

And let's be clear, none of these ideas are my own (as usual on this blog). They are great ideas I've pirated from others and put together. They are also not new ideas, but ideas that I believe need to be rediscovered to be successful at pressure man defense. These are the ideas that will lead to more successful pressure defense for teams across the board - regardless of the type of athletes they have.






Footnote:
Thanks to Ttowntiger of the Xs and Os board for putting me onto Jim Huber. I just ordered his DVD and am looking forward to watching it.

Great Nuggets from the 2015 MBCA Clinic

Last weekend was our annual coaches association clinic. It's always a fun time to see the other coaches across the state, refresh some relationships, and make some new ones. We had a solid group of presenters this year and I picked up some really good stuff. As with most clinics I'm not going to get a new offense or defense, I know my philosophy and believe in it. I'm really looking for two things. The first is "non basketball" stuff: strategies for motivation, teaching the game, team building, and teaching more than the game. The second thing I am looking for is nuggets for my system - how can I teach the Xs and Os better or add a wrinkle or two to what we do? I definitely got both of them out of this clinic. Below are some of the highlights I pulled out. 

Richard Pitino - University of Minnesota - Pressure Defense

The one thing I got from Richard Pitino was his use of tennis balls on defense. I've always struggled with finding the line between being aggressive and fouling too much. What he will do is force his defenders to hold tennis balls so they can't reach. I'm adopting that practice this year.

Tom Critchley - MBCA Executive Secretary - BLOBs and SLOBs

Coach Critchley did a great job going over some of his favorite inbounds sets. This was my favorite one.

"L"
L starts with the players in a line. Your 5 is your inbounder. The 3 is the first player in line, followed by your point guard, shooter, and 4 man. The set starts with the first player stepping out and cutting in. The point guard stepping in, cutting out, and getting it on the wing. The 4 steps out and gets the reversal from the point guard. As the 4 catches the shooter pins down for the inbounder. The 3 fills corner as the inbounder curls.

As the post (5) comes off the curl the point screens in for the shooter who set the screen. The 4 passes to the shooter. The point continues across the lane and sets a cross screen for the 5. The 4 then down screens for the 1 in a screen the screener action. 

A counter that coach threw out was to have the first player take a step out and the point take a step in. The point back screens the 3 to the basket and we run the same play.

John Tauer - St. Thomas University - Motivation

Coach Tauer did a great job talking about motivation, I really enjoyed listening to him.  I touched on the dangers of using only extrinsic motivation (Carrot and the stick/reward and punishment) and how players need to have intrinsic motivation. One of the many good things he touched on was what gives people intrinsic motivation. People are mostly motivated by three things:

1. Autonomy
• Choice in life. 
• Give players choices in what drills you do (within reason). 
• Even one or two choices per practice can be powerful. 
2.  Togetherness
• Players need to belong to something bigger than themselves and have a more powerful purpose. 
• Keep your finger on the pulse
• Team building
3. Competence
• Being good at things. 
• How can you put your players in positions to find success?

TJ Rosene - Emmanuel College/PGC - Building a Culture

Coach Rosene was my favorite presenter in the clinic. He was dynamic and his stuff was excellent. There is WAY to much to put here, so I'm going to hit the highlights!

Greatest Teammate Exercise
   -Have players close their eyes and imagine the greatest teammate they ever had.
   -Call on players to share the characteristics of that teammate.
   -Make a team list of the traits of great teammates.
   -Turn it around on them - why can't EVERYONE on this team be a
     great teammate?
   -Make the list into a "commitment list" that everyone is going to
    commit to (coaches included) and everyone will be held accountable
    to for the year.

Rocking Chair Statement
   -As a coach, write a statement about what you want players to remember about
     you when you are old in a rocking chair on your front porch!

The Best At What They Know
   -Everyone is the best at what they know.
   -If you've got a problem player, they are likely exhibiting that behavior because
    that's what they know.

Communication Must Haves
   -Truth, Love, Transparency
   -N.I.T.E
       +Name, Information, Tone, Eye Contact
       +Simple but effective

Open Mic Monday
   -Do this as a team
   -Players can stand up and say ANYTHING that is on their mind, especially things
    they are frustrated with.
   -They can also ASK ANYTHING of teammates and coaches and will receive an
     honest answer.
   -You must speak it in love and not anger.
   *This is a GREAT WAY to make sure that issues stay in house and don't ever
      boil over.

Lion vs. Sparrow
  -Lion is content and confident. He doesn't worry about anything he can't control.
  -The sparrow is always frantic.
  -Lions play through bad calls, band bounces, etc without emotion.
  -Sparrows constantly wine and complain
  *Might change it to wolf and squirrel to fit Minnesota.

Scott Anderson - SPASH HS (WI) - Drills

Coach Anderson went over a lot of 2 on 0 motion drills and did a nice job of breaking it down. Below were some other things he did that I thought were great.

When the wing drives, the opposite guard can cut if open. This is an read action we're going to add this year.

3 on 4 Trap Ten Pass Drill
  -I've always done 2 on 2 ten pass, but this ramps it up
   a notch once we get 2 on 2 down.

Steve Brown - MN Timberwolves - Skills

Coach Brown runs the MN Timberwolves development academies and coaches an AAU team in the spring. He's one of the AAU guys who "does it right" and teaches skills - and his guys are SKILLED! He did a nice job showing a bunch of different development stuff. But what I really got out of it was how he used his footwork teaching as a dynamic warm up. I'm going to incorporate that into our dynamic warm up instead of the traditional stuff. We are going to use a lot more stops, starts, turns and learning how to plant, change direction, jump stop, pivot etc as our dynamic.

Mike Roysland - MN Crookston - 4 Out Motion

Being a 4 out fanatic I was excited to see Coach Roysland's presentation and I walked away with a few really good things.

Cutter on the Skip Rule
  -One of the things I was never sure about was what to do with the
    cutters on the skip pass.
  -He has the player who was skipped cut to the basket.
  -The one thing I would add is cut early or late. So you cut either
   while the ball is in the air or after the receiver has it for a 2
   count. I would add that rule because I don't want to clog up
   the drive with the cut.

Four Corners
  -He kept telling the players that the ball should "touch the four
    corners" and I loved that visual. It's one I will use.

Post as Facilitator
   -He did a lot more than I've normally seen with the post as
    the facilitator.
   -It's hard to guard when you put the ball
    inside and run purposeful cuts and screens.

Zach Goring - Apple Valley HS - Ball Screen Continuity and Program Building

It's easy to see why Zach Goring wins - outside of having more talent than he knows what to do with. He's organized, explains concepts very well, and runs a system where his players have freedom to be players. I'm not a huge ball screen guy, but I really enjoyed listening to his presentation. He gave a very detailed presentation on the ball screen continuity that Florida and Team USA run. That offense is well documented, so I won't put it in here, but I will put in some gems that he talked about with the organization of his program.

Eagle Update
   -This may have been the most important thing he talked about.
   -He writes a weekly newsletter in season that gets sent to players, parents,
     alumni, school staff, and friends of the program. 1800 people in all!
   -It was upcoming events, highlights the previous week, etc.
   -Great way to communicate with people and keep everyone feeling
    connected to the program.

Travel Teams
  -Each team gets a night to come in the locker room, get introduced, etc.
  -Each player adopts a team and must visit them 2x a year.
  -Eagle Hotshot Program




There you go! It was a great clinic and as always I am grateful to the MN Basketball Coaches Association for putting it on. I know a lot of work and effort goes into putting something like this on.


Lastly - it's almost that time of year! I know we start on Monday. I wanted to wish everyone that reads this (the brave few) good luck this season. Enjoy the ride because it goes fast. We've got a great opportunity to work with young people, let's not  waste it!

Gameify Your Open Gyms

Image Courtesy of iko.de

I was at an open gym recently and saw something different. I've been to a lot of open gyms. Many of them start with a good game or two of 5 on 5 and quickly dissolve into cherry picking and jogging up and down. After the first 30 minutes or so no one is getting much out of the experience. So why don't we do open gym differently? The open gym that I was at did it differently and I thought it came with outstanding results.                                                                                                               Instead of a typical 5 on 5 open gym, the players at the one I attended decided to play 3 on 2 with a chaser instead and I thought it went really well. It involved more players, kept the tempo up, and had kids playing hard. Everyone handled the ball, everyone got to take shots, etc. I found it far more effective than typical open gym. They did play some 5 on 5 after and that went well also.

This got me thinking - instead of 5 on 5 why not run open gyms with small sided games? Why not give your players a list of different 1 on 1 to 4 on 4 games and let them pick what games they want to play during that time. Players would get a lot more out of it and would really improve on their skills during the times you can't work with them. 

Seal Zone Offense

Introduction
This offense comes from Karl Salscheider, who was the former head coach of Bemidji State University. I got the notes from this video that Coach Salscheider did.  I've had the video in my collection for a while and hadn't watched it. Today I finally did and am glad that I did. It's a great offense that I think I'm going to run this year.

It's a simple, yet deadly, zone offense that is predicated on sealing the middle of the zone and trying to get the ball inside. It might be one of the better zone offenses I've seen, especially because of it's simplicity and the emphasis on inside play.


Basic Action
The offense is run from a basic 3 out 2 in look.

The point should attack and try to engage both the top defenders. The easiest way is to attack one and then attack the gap forcing the other one to commit to a pseudo trap. It will force the defensive wing to guard the first pass. The guard is looking to try and get to the rim here.

The point guard then fakes a pass and makes a pass out of the double. The guard can pass either way. If he's only being guarded by one of the top defenders, then he should go to the side that is guarding him.

As the ball is on the way to the wing, the ball side post steps in and seals the middle of the zone. The opposite post then comes across UNDER the sealing player and looks for the ball.

The wing can pass to the sealer, the cutter, or skip to the backside if X4 were to come across to take the cutting 5.

If there is no play there, The 1 steps out and gets the ball, the posts separate out. The ball is reversed to 1 who attacks the opposite way.

The ball gets swung to the backside wing. The action repeats.

If the wing drives, the ball side still seals and the backside seals on the backside.

Counter
This is a GREAT counter to the offense, called "Twist". The offense starts the same way. The guard attacks the top and forces the double. He then pitches to the wing. The ball side player runs at the middle hard like he's going to seal, but he runs by. He then runs and seals the opposite wing. As this happens the backside post cuts up to the mid-post and gets the ball. He can score or dump it in.

The ONLY Two Things That Matter

Photo courtesy of trem.org

I've been thinking a lot lately about what "coaching" is really about. When you Google the definition of "Coach" all the definitions are about modes of transportation. And for me that's what coaching is - getting a group of people from one place to another place. It might not be from one physical place to another but more from one place to another as a group of people working together.

Along with that, I've been thinking a lot about "great coaches" and the common threads that bind them. Honestly when you look at great basketball coaches at any level, and coaches at any sport, there are two consistent threads. These two common threads are relationships and high expectations, in that order. If you don't have relationships with your players, especially today's players, you are going to struggle to do what needs to be done.

Great coaches come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and philosophies. There are great coaches who were great players, terrible players and everything in between. There are great coaches who are player centered and coach centered. There are great coaches who are stern disciplinarians and some who are loosey-goosey. Some great coaches love defense and some love offense. Some play fast and some play slow.

All the different coaching philosophies listed above, to me, are not important. You could be a disciplinarian who plays fast or a "players coach" who plays slow. You could be a defensive minded coach who was a former NBA player or an offensive genius who got cut from the JV team in high school. What's truly important is what I mentioned above. Do your players know you care about them and have you built a culture of high standards? If you do those two things, that's where the magic is.

The Importance of Shooting

Image courtesy of
breakthroughbasketball.com

We all know shooting is important, but do we really mean it? Lately, shooting in practice has been a reoccurring theme. I had an amazing opportunity to drive down to Iowa with fellow basketball coach and junkie Mike Holmquist. We drove around and visited three of the best coaches in the state. And every single one of them talked about the importance of working on shooting during the year. Then later we had a round table with a very successful small college coach who's an unbelievable teacher of the game. During his presentation he talked about the importance of shooting during practice. We then had a round table with a very successful NBA assistant coach who said the cornerstone of their development process was shooting.

With all that said, it's hard to shoot in our current situation. We usually have 10-12 players and two baskets. So that makes it really hard. But because I keep hearing it as a theme I am going to start working 15-30 minutes of daily shooting into our practices. I just think that it needs to happen!

Adjust vs. Change

Photo courtesy of aragec.com

Last week I was having lunch with Coach Kyle Kurz (@kylekurz14) of Christian Life School in Farmington, MN. We were talking about shooting and he brought up how you talk to kids about changing their shot. He said he uses the word "adjust" instead of "change". He mentioned how when you say "change" it has a negative connotation for players - and it sounds like it's going to be really hard to do. When you say "adjust" the connotation is that they are already doing things right and we are only going to slightly change it. Using the word adjust makes them feel more positive about the changes. I'm going to try changing "change" to "adjust" this season and am going to look at how players respond.

Communicated vs. Revealed Knowledge

Image courtesy of southsouth.info

At our round table last Monday we were lucky enough to have Doug Novak of Bethel College (MN) speak. Coach Novak did an outstanding job of sharing his basketball philosophy. I came away very impressed with his approach to teaching the game - and got a lot of notes in the process. Among many things that he talked about was the concept of communicated vs. revealed knowledge. 

Communicated knowledge is the knowledge we get by reading it or hearing it from others. Revealed knowledge on the other hand comes from real world experience that you have applied. Revealed knowledge is far more valuable than communicated knowledge in the long run.

Coach Novak shared a story to outline his point. He talked about how early in his career he studied Dean Smith and ran the Carolina Break with his 4 man always taking it out. He did it because Coach Smith was successful at it. This was an example of using communicated knowledge. He then ran into a pressing team that forced the ball back to his inbounder (his 4 man) and then forced the four to bring the ball up. This didn't go well for his team. Because of his experience he started having his 2 man take the ball out so there was another ball handler in the back court. His knowledge went from communicated to revealed.

Another example he used to illustrate the point was how player's stop. Everyone has always taught the jump stop - as did he. But Coach Novak found that players had a hard time balancing when they stopped with a traditional jump stop. When he watched tape of NBA players he saw them using the "stride stop" method. Because of the film study (revealed knowledge) he started teaching the stride stop method instead of the jump stop.

I think it's important to examine what you teach - is it communicated or revealed knowledge? If it's communicated - then you'd better spend some time critically evaluating it so it becomes revealed knowledge. Ask yourself how you can tweak what you teach to make it better or fit your players better - that's how you turn it into revealed knowledge.

Jump Switching the Dribble at Back Cut?

Photo courtesy of eylean.com

As you can see by the last blog post, I've spent some time recently breaking down some of Greece's U19 offensive actions. As I did the breakdown, something that Serbia's team did defensively caught my eye. Greece runs some dribble at, back door cut actions within their offense. In this game they burned Serbia a few times early for layups. Serbia then did something that at first I couldn't believe, but it was clearly there on film. They were jump switching the back cut. Now I only saw it once so far - but am going to go back and look at this game and others to see if I can catch it again. Below is some video of them using the jump switch to defend the dribble at and back cut.

When you really think about it, it shouldn't work, right? I mean you are running away from the ball AND the cutter. That just smells like a disaster, doesn't it? Well at least in this situation it worked, I think because the guy on the ball took the passing angle away and the player running at the ball may have caused him to hesitate long enough for everyone to get into position. Either way it definitely has my wheels turning about how to defend this action.

Greece U19 Offense

Image courtesy of FIBA.com

I've been watching a lot of U19 FIBA recently and one of my favorite Xs and Os teams so far has been Greece. They run a lot of really good set stuff, which I am going to share. Much of the offense comes out of Horns. One of the interesting parts of the horns sets that Greece ran was that a few involved a post/post cross screen. That in itself isn't weird, but they put a perimeter on the  block and screened for him to get open. That's a new wrinkle that I like.


Horns Sets
Horns Flair to Back Door
In this horns set, the posts screen across, one pops out, and gets the ball. The point guard comes back and gets a dribble handoff. The post who set the cross screen comes back and sets a flair for the player who just made the handoff.

The point skips the ball to the player coming off the flair screen. He dribbles at the wing then who back cuts for a layup.

Horns Iverson

Not entirely sure if they ran it out of Horns, but they could have so I'm putting it in! It's a very simple take on the classic "Iverson" set. The wings circle - one over the top and one under. In this set the post who's on the back side of the player going over the top steps out and catches the ball. As he does the player going over the top wraps his cut to the basket. 

If the player who wraps doesn't get the pass for a layup, the post on his side down screens for him and he pops out for the shot. 

Basic Horns Action

This was a basic horns action that they ran consistently. The elbow players would be one post and on guard. The post would cross screen for the guard who pops out and gets the ball. The point cuts and the post trails into a ball screen. The point comes back and back screens the screener on the ball screen. The point also could pop out, get the ball, and look inside to the big posting up off the screen.

Point Guard Corner

This set is pretty similar to the one above. The post cross screens the guard who flashes out and catches it. The point cuts to the corner, the wing moves up. The post who set the cross screen follows and ball screens. The guard dribbles across the top, the other wing rises and then back cuts. 

 If the back cut isn't there, the post re-screens and they come off the ball screen hard to the middle. It would be a great entry for a Euro Ball Screen team.

Double Down Screen

This might be my favorite set. The set starts with the high post down screening down for the wing. The point dribbles over to the wing on the screen's side. The wing cuts up to the top of the key. The point passes to the cutting wing. The opposite post steps out and the wing reverses the ball to him. As he catches the pass, the wing who made the pass now re-screens for the post who first screened for him. 

The post pops, catches, and does a dribble handoff with the point guard. The post on the other side of the floor follows his pass into a pick and roll out of the double handoff. 

One wrinkle they added, that I like, is to have their big read the screen and curl it if possible. 

Zone Offense

Basics

They ran a standard looking 1-3-1 with some tweaks. First, they would bring their guard to a lane line and they would pop their high post as a reversal man. He would reverse the ball and then either ball screen or cut into the open space. Below are a few clips of the offense at work. 

Zone Post Across

Another piece of the zone offense was having their post step across and post up the middle of the zone. They'd enter the ball and get action out of that. 

Inbounds Sets

Off Set Box

This set starts in a look that's an off set box. One post is on the ball side block and a perimeter is in the opposite corner. The other post is on the free throw line and the point guard starts on the ball side wing. The ball side block up screens for the point who cuts the the rim. The post pops and gets the ball. 

As he does, the post at the free throw line down screens the point who cuts up and gets the ball. The post who set the down screen trails and sets the ball screen.  

Box Set

In this box set one post starts on the back side block and the other on the ball side elbow. The player on the back side elbow cuts off the player on the ball side elbow. The ball side block sets a back screen for the screener at the elbow. The back side block then back screens the screener for either a flair or a curl to the basket. 

Odds and Ends from the Dominican Republic's U19 Team

Photo Courtesy of FIBA.com

The following blog is the odds and ends that I got from watching the Dominican Republic's U19 team play. They are a fun team to watch, have some good players, defend well, and if they can become a little less sloppy they could make some noise in FIBA down the road. Below are some of the Xs and Os they ran that I liked.

Down Screen into Pick and Roll
In the last post I talked about how Serbia ran actions into pick and roll - which I think is the way to go. The Dominican Republic ran this set a lot, and it's an action that I'm seeing quite a bit in FIBA right now.

The set starts by getting the ball to a wing - there are a lot of ways to do this but the Dominican Republic keeps it simple here in transition. The slasher is on the block. The screener is on the opposite block. The trail sets a down screen for the slasher who cuts up the lane line and gets the ball. As the catch is being made the backside post rises and sets the ball screen. The other wing in the corner (3) cuts through to really open up the driving lane. I would love to see the 3 stop under the rim or on the backside block and look for the ball if his defender turns his head.

SLOB Set
Sideline inbounds sets are hard to come by and most look pretty similar. This one did a nice job of getting the Dominican Republic's drivers going toward the rim. The set starts with an inbounder, three across the top of the key and one down by the rim. A shooter is by the rim and your point guard is the third player in line - farthest from the ball.

The point guard cuts toward the ball across the two other players in the line. As he does, the player under the rim comes through the elevator screen to get the ball.

When the pass is made to the player coming through the elevator, the inbounder runs an Iverson cut across the top with the two players screening for him.

I would have LOVED to see the point guard curl a little and catch the ball going toward an unguarded basket. I also think it would have been more effective if the players lined up along the free throw line so the player coming through the elevator would have a three point shot.

After Time Out Lob Set

After a time out in a close game they uncorked this set. It starts with the point bringing the ball down one side and them getting into a 5 out look. The point takes it to a wing and the player you want to get the back screen fills the top.

The ball gets passed to the top and dribbled at the opposite wing who shallow cuts to the point. The corner back cuts right after the shallow cut. The ball is reversed the the shallow cutting player. As the ball is reversed to the top, the corner who back cut steps up and sets the back screen for the lob. 

This one almost looks like it was part of the read and react offense,but I didn't see them running much read and react in the half court.