Wake Forest Double Back-screen vs Amoeba

I watched most of the Wake Forest and Iowa game, and to be honest, it wasn't the prettiest of games to watch. Sometimes you watch a low scoring game and it's good to watch because the defense is really good. Unfortunately, this was mostly just bad offense by both teams. There was one nice play though that I caught where Iowa decided to use an Amoeba, point-zone, 1-1-3 or 1-3-1, can't really tell, but it's one of those. Wake Forest took advantage by using a double back-pick to get an easy basket underneath. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,



Setup:

Like I mentioned, not exactly sure if the defense is in a 1-1-3, 1-3-1, point zone, or Amoeba, but it was some sort of zone. Iowa only ran it once in the game, and Wake Forest scored an easy basket off of it.

So the setup is pretty straightforward. Ideally I think you want to be in a 1-4 low set,

O2 receives the pass in the corner from O1. I think it is an Amoeba because X2 comes to double the corner with X4. Anyways, O1 dribbles to the wing first, then passes to O2 in the corner. The double comes and O2 dribbles up top to get a better angle for the post-entry.

Double Back-Screen:

Both O4 and O5 will come and set picks on the 2 low defenders. O3 comes off the first screen and just stops dead in the key.

O2 finds O3 underneath wide open. It's important for O5 to bump up to the middle or top of the lane for spacing and to draw X5 up the lane. It's a pretty easy basket, with X3 fighting the screen to recover and defend.

Summary:

I think it's important to properly scout your opponents. I think Coach Dino Gaudio knew that Iowa would try to run this defense and designed and repped his players on it. In other words, I don't think it was a spontaneous motion-based play, it was a set play to run specifically to counter this kind of zone.

If you are looking for a good zone offense video, take a look at Coach Tom Izzo's DVD on a 1-3-1 zone offense that you can incorporate into your offense. Head over to the X's and O's Basketball forum to discuss this and other basketball ideas with other coaches.