Dayton's High-Low Offense

By far, the best game I saw today was between Dayton and Akron. I knew going in that Dayton was a good team, but was very surprised to see Akron take them to 2OT. I read that they won a lot of games going in, but against mostly weaker teams. Akron is a very good team, especially when their 3-pointers are dropping. As for the Dayton Flyers, they are playing as good as anyone I've seen so far this season. The A10 is going to be very interesting with Rhode Island, UMass, Xavier, Dayton and Duquesne all playing extremely well, I haven't seen RI but they all deserve to go the NCAAs in my opinion.

I posted earlier on a SLOB play from Dayton, but tonight I decided to break down a few of Dayton's half-court offensive sets. Dayton runs a lot of hi-lo so I chose 2 plays from the game that Dayton ran on more than a couple of occasions.



Stack High-Low:

Dayton occasionally will use the stack set to start. They use a double stack to begin. Once the PG dribbles to one side, the stack will break and the bottom guards will break to the corners. 1 forward will break to the top of the 3-point line and 1 forward will curl into the middle of the key for a post up.

The pass goes to the forward up top and since the defender is fronting, it's just a lob pass into the center who goes up for the easy deuce.

2-2 High-Low Option:

Dayton's favorite set is probably the 2 high and 2 low in the corners set. In fact, when other set plays like their 1-4 high or dribble weave motion break down, they will go to this 2-2 set and run hi-lo option.

So the formation is 2 forwards high facing each other about the lane width apart at the top of the key. 2 guards at each corner. The point guard starts in the middle of the floor, sometimes backs up for better effect. Then O1 drives hard to the middle, then comes off the pick from one of the forwards, O4 in this case. The screener will pop out to receive the pass from O1. O5 will drop down for a middle post-up.

Now I call it an option play because from here, O4 has a couple of options. The first is the hi-lo to O5. But as you can see, X3 is help-side and after a few lobs will start cheating to pick off the lob. So if the lob is not there, you need options, In this case, O4 just attacks the basket on dribble penetration.

Other options that Dayton ran include the dribble handoff to O1, and dribble weave handoff again with the corner guards coming up to receive the pass. Then Dayton would either look for a backdoor with one of the guards coming in underneath, or even shoot the 3-pointer if open.

Summary:

The hi-lo offense really is great if you have some great a couple of great passing forwards. You can get a lot of open looks right underneath the basket. With this hi-lo set, you can get a lot of dribble-handoff action which will allow your guards to get open shots or drive and pop looks. It's an efficient offense with it's primary aim to score down low.

Of course, if you're looking at implementing the hi-lo, Bill Self's new Hi-lo DVD is a must see. It's a newer version of his 1999 video with some more updated sets. And, it's only $34.99 so that's a bonus in itself after all those other expensive ones. Coach Self's DVD on the hi-lo is considered the best one out there. As always, head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk about hoops and more.