Washington's Stagger Stack Inbounds Play

I was watching the Washington vs Utah game the other night and this inbounds play was one that stuck out in my mind. It's a pretty neat play because it's almost like a peekabo play, which door will they choose. It's good because it's a really safe play and has a few counters which should give you some options to score off of. As I've posted before, I would rather have an inbounds that is extremely safe even if it doesn't score as much as another play.

Setup:

Since Washington doesn't really number their guards, basically either of the guards can inbounds the ball. The three forwards are lined up along the side of the key facing the sideline ball-side.

Now, since the defense will be playing inside the key, to protect the basket, your forwards will basically pivot away then meet each other foot-to-foot. The timing is important because they must wait for O1 to come through before screening. O5 does a fake like he will also screen then cuts to the basket and seals the defender looking for the quick hitter. If X1 cheats and goes low, O2 should lob it over X1's head to O1.

Counter:

There are many counters you can run, but this is a basic counter that I saw Washington run. What happens is you have O5 and O4 set the screen low side instead. So O1 fakes high, then goes low.

O3 will fake to screen and cut to the basket looking for the quick hitter. On either the initial or counter play, the O1 guard was open usually for a jumper if he chose to take it, in this case Justin Dentmon or Venoy Overton.

For more information, there is a Winning Hoops DVD with over 70 baseline inbounds plays. There are tons of inbounds stuff uploaded at the X's and O's Basketball Forum so be sure to take a look and see what is there.