John Beilein's Michigan 5-out Offense

I caught some highlights of the Michigan win over Brown on ESPN and found a couple of clips that show how John Beilein's new 5-out motion offense should do well for the Wolverines this coming season. With the right personnel, the 5-out offense has the potential to be very good. Though, anytime you become a perimeter oriented team, you run the risk of having an 'off shooting night'. But it will beat a pack-line and a 2-3 zone. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.



Skip, Kick-out, Shoot

Much like the dribble drive motion offense, you use the dribble to attack the gaps and force the help to collapse, then skip, then attack again, then kick-out and finally shoot the open 3-pointer.

What's great about the 5-out is that defenders that are stuck on the M2M fundamentals of weak-side I will really get burned here. By moving the ball side-to-side and on the skip pass, you force the defense to attempt to cover too much ground and therefore will allow open 3-pointers. If the defense plays too aggressive, backdoor layups will be there all day.

Reverse, Penetrate, Shoot:

The first one was a skip pass. This one is a traditional reverse. So, the ball gets pass from one side to the other.

I especially like the use of the dribble here to attack the defense, wait for the defense to react, then pass out of the double-team to the open wing for the 3-pointer.

What's even better is that you'll notice just before the player shoots the ball, there are 3 other Michigan players that are wide open. So, even if he didn't shoot the 3-pointer, he had 3 other wide open players to dump it off to underneath.

Summary:

If you have a bunch of 3-point shooters that maybe aren't as athletic like the all-state or McDonald's all-American players, this might be a good offense you want to look at. The full Beilein offense usually has a couple of stagger screens for a cutter going underneath, but the foundation of the offense is the 3-point shot.

If you are looking for video info on a Princeton-based offense similar to this one that coach John Beilein uses, check out Joe Scott's DVD on the Fundamental building Blocks of the Princeton Offense. Coach Scott is the current head coach at Denver and used to be the head coach at Air Force and Princeton, both 5-out teams. I have a ton of Princeton stuff and Beilein stuff so if your a big Beilein groupie like me, be sure to check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to download them or discuss.