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Ask the Coach - Q and A part III

July 17, 2008

This is a response to 3 great questions asked by Coach Jim on 7/11/2008:

1.  What drills can I do in practice to encourage players to move without the ball when we don’t call a set play?, and

2.  what can I do to help my point guard get the ball to the wings to get our offense started when the wings are well covered?


1. Drilling Ball movement:

One great way to get better ball movement is to run scrimmages where dribbling is not allowed.   This is one of my favorite scrimmage/drills to run with any continuity offense.  We simply allow each team three possessions…instead of counting baskets; we award one point for each pass that we complete.  The basic rules are:  Each completed pass counts for 1 point.  Possession is lost whenever the ball hits the ground.   Possession is lost if the ball is caught outside of a designated spot in the offense.  For example, if a player has to come out 35 feet from the basket against pressure to catch the ball, possession is lost even if the ball does not hit the ground.  By taking away the dribble, the offense is forced to use screens and cuts to get open.  This is a great tool for facilitating movement away from the ball.  I discuss the topic some more later in this page.


2.  Helping the point guard get the ball to the wings against pressure:

There are several answers to this question, each of which can be divided into one of two categories:  Team tactics or Individual Fundamentals.   I’ll briefly cover one of several  team tactics to help get the ball to the wing. and address one ‘fundamentals’ area for the point guard to focus on (with a link to some other ideas)

1. (Team tactic) If you’re really having a tough time passing the ball to the wing, you can run a shallow cut.  A shallow cut is a very simple play:  The point guard dribbles the ball to the wing.  The wing replaces the point guard at the top of the key with a ‘shallow cut’ by cutting below the ballside elbow and popping out.

2.   (Fundamentals) The point guard can significantly decrease the odds of committing a turnover by consistently picking a side to start the offense.  Stated another way, the point guard should never make the entry pass from the middle of the floor.  By taking a dribble or two in the direction of the wing she intends to pass to, the point guard creates a much better passing angle for the entry pass.

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Side note: I rarely see what I’m about to say written in coaching books, but I think it’s an important teaching point for your team if you are struggling with turnovers on the entry pass.  As coaches we tend to blame the point guard (or more generally, the passer) when a steal occurs on the entry pass, but we rarely consider what the player receiving the pass could have done differently.   To me, a critical component to beating great pressure defense is toughness. How does toughness relate to this situation?  Just because the defender gets into the passing lane, that doesn’t mean that the receiver has to accept the outcome.    If you’re defender steps into the passing lane for the steal, GO THROUGH THE DENIAL if you have to and GET THE BALL.   I’m not saying to cause a collision…just react aggressively, close the gap and go get the ball.   Don’t get me wrong…in a situation like this, this passer still shares most of the blame…the point I’m trying to make is that the bad pass is not the only teaching opportunity at hand.

The original question is really part of a broader question of how to handle tough defensive pressure.  As such, I’ve added a  post I made on handling half court pressure in a great yahoo group for basketball coaches a couple of years ago.  The post is sort of a ‘brain  dump’ on the topic: it covers several components on dealing with halfcourt pressure that you might find useful:

The REAL answer to handling pressure consistently, I think, is to work hard in practice to develop good habits for beating pressure in practice.  Work every day on ballhandling, if only for 5 intense minutes.  Especially for the PG - also, I don’t let them reverse dribble when bringing the ball up 5 on 5 because they turn their back on their teammates who are getting open, and they often make themselves easy pickings for run and jump schemes.  They have to be able to run the offense without their back turned.

Work hard on V-cuts.  Make sure a player that is trying to get open closes the gap and pushes off HARD from his man…change of speed and direction are important…walk to the defender, then EXPLODE back to the open spot.  If they still can’t get open on v cuts, have them plant their inside foot between the defender’s legs, reverse-pivot to put the defender on their back, then explode back to the open spot…just like a v-cut with a reverse pivot added.  When they pop out have them show their outside hand and make the passers throw it to that hand EVERY time.

Focus on facing up when they catch passes.  Give out ten pushups or call a turnover every time a receiver: A.  Catches and puts the ball above his head, B.  Catches and dribbles with no purpose, or C:  Turns away and hunches over the ball.  Also, have your defense BELLY UP every time a player puts the ball over their head…make them pay…when they put it up like that, they can’t dribble, so why play them like they can?  If they bring the ball down then the defender can give a cushion.

Work on aggressive pivots when a player catches on the perimeter followed by a jab-step. It has to be aggressive and quick.  They should pivot hard on their inside foot after the catch.  If they get too crowded on a front pivot, work with them on using a reverse pivot off their outside foot instead.  It takes them a step further from the hoop, but it provides a little breathing room.

Work on every kid developing a simple jab step series.  If the defender backs off on the jab step, shoot.  If they still crowd you, go by them.  If you do, any scoring move from the perimeter should be done in one dribble (2 in some cases, but never 3).  Work on driving hard off the defender’s shoulder, because if you leave a gap, the defender has more space to recover.  All of this can be done playing one on one from the wing with the coach as a passer.  The coach passes to a player after the V-cut on the wing and the player has 2 dribbles to score.  If he has a bad look or uses the dribble he can pass back to the coach and get open again.  It ends on a made shot, a rebound, or a steal.

In scrimmages I also focus on QUICK, aggressive cutting. I try to work every day on “change of speed, change of direction“.  A good way to develop quick cutting is through scrimmaging with no dribbling allowed.  Since the O turns the ball over if it hits the ground  (with the exception of bounce passes), the D should be more aggressive.  The offense has to Work and execute better since they cant be bailed out with the dribble.  Its also valuable to call a turnover whenever you find your guards running the offense from too far out on the floor.  The wing player should be 19 feet from the basket on the catch, not 25 feet.

The team tactics are valuable in beating pressure, but they should never replace this type of fundamental development.  If the correct fundamentals aren’t developed, nothing will bail a team out in the end anyway.  There are  no easy bail-outs in my experience.




Written by Coach Stinson · Filed Under Ask The Coach, Coaching Philosophy, Continuity Offense, Defensive drills, Offense Articles, Offense drills, Pressure Offense, Scrimmage Drills, Tactics | Leave a Comment 

Zone Press Breaker

April 18, 2008

This post is in response to the following question posted by Coach Jeff on 4/18/2008,
Hey Coach,
Do you have a good play to break a zone press? This would be for a 6th grade team.
Thanks,

Jeff

  • Coach,

I’ve put together a quick run-down of a pretty simple and sound offensive attack against zone pressure. I hope you find it useful. As always…questions, feedback and dialogue are welcome! Coach Stinson.

To beat a zone press, I would aim for a simple approach that focuses mainly on spacing and ball fakes.

In any trap situation, we want the following 3 options available: 1. Reversal pass (pass backwards to 1). In my opinion, this is the most important piece. Always have a safety available behind the ball. 2. Gut pass - The pass to the middle (to 5) . This is the pass that breaks the press 9 times out of 10. 3. Forward pass - The pass directly up the floor. This formation of 3 players around the trap is called the ‘cup’ by most coaches.

askcoach3a1 Zone Press Breaker

grey line=direction of the offense
  • If we are trapped and we are set up in a cup formation the defense can’t cover all 3 passing options without leaving the basket area open. (3) - spacing is critical.

press breaker offense
  • Ball Fakes. More often than not, 2 defenders will be assigned to the 3 players in the cup. This illustrates why ball fakes are critical against zone pressure A good ball fake to 4 or 5 will cause X2 and X5 to react and shift, leaving 1 open for the reversal pass.

breaking a press
  • If you’re facing denial against the inbounds pass, you can start 2 and 3 on the elbows and pop them to the wings (or screen for each other and cross).
  • The wing that doesn’t receive the pass (3) floats downcourt to provide the deep pass option
  • When a wing catches, the weakside halfcourt player cuts to the ball. Some times a pass directly in to 5 will ‘gut’ the press before it even begins.
  • The most important points here are:
    • 2 must immediately catch and read - look up the floor and survey. Younger kids in particular might tend to shy away from a trap by turning away instead of catching and reading. This will kill you every time. Get into the habit of catching and quickly reading. In the best case scenario, 2 would catch the pass and immediately hit 5 on the cut from behind the press.
    • 1 must step inbounds quickly to provide a reversal option. If the defense traps the pass immediately., we want to have the reversal pass covered just as quickly. 1 should step; to the ball, as most defenses that trap the inbounds pass will look to steal this pass

getting open in the press breaker
  • The ball is reversed as 3 slides back up.
  • When the ball hits 3 on the side, the middle player (5) makes a diagonal cut to the sideline.
  • At the same time, the weakside midcourt player (4) cuts to the middle from behind the press.

ball reversal

  • 4 and 5’s roles are identical - When the ball is reversed back to 2, 4 makes the diagonal cut to the sideline and 5 cuts to the middle.
  • Note: The diagonal cut is very often open; however, the receiver also catches the pass at an awkward angle (if 2 passed to 4 here, 4 would be heading out of bounds). 4 has to catch and read before doing anything else - fundamentals!

floor balance
  • Any pass that breaks the defenses perimeter (up the middle or down the sideline) cues the team to follow simple fast break rules.
  • On a pass up the sideline, everybody dives toward the basket.
  • The middle player (4 here, 5 if the ball was on the other side of the floor). looks for the pass on the dive, then posts up on the low block - just like a secondary fast break.

transition offense
  • If the post pass isn’t there, we look for a quick reversal - just like a secondary break.

beating a press
  • On the gut pass, the sideline players break to the basket.
  • The receiver faces the basket and looks for the pass to the sideline cutters.

press break transition segment
  • If the player receiving the gut pass has guard skills, he should also look to push the ball just like a fast break.

Read more

Written by Coach Stinson · Filed Under Articles, Pressure Offense | Leave a Comment