Utah Women's Press Break

Press breakers are much more important I believe in women's basketball than in men's basketball. Primarily because in men's basketball you can rely on athleticism and size to beat a good press, not necessarily in women's basketball. In this clip, the Utah Utes Women show some of the fundamental principles in a good press offense. You want to reverse the ball and attack middle. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.



Reverse and Attack Middle:

In any 2-2-1 or 1-2-2 full court press, the defense will try to trap you on the sidelines. In order to beat the press, you need to reverse the ball and attack from the middle.

In this case, the 1-2-2 press does a good job with the initial trap, but Utah is able to reverse the ball, the defenders shift to re-trap and the original player flashes to the middle for the pass back and can easily attack from there.

I usually don't scheme a press-break for our teams but instead tell my players to face up to the pressure and attack it. The only rules I have are to always have a safety, and keep 1 player in the middle.

For more great press break ideas, check out Bill Self's DVD on the 1-3-1 press break. One of the members on the X's and O's Basketball forum has details on Bill Self's press break so be sure to post a message if you have a question about it..