Fran Fraschilla's Tips on Defending the Post

It's one of the most common challenges when you talk X's and O's in the world of basketball. How and what do you do to defend that dominant All-everything 7-footer on the other team. Ultimately, to be successful, you need to do a number of things, and in the end, the big fella is gonna score, but just how many can determine whether or not your team gets the win or gets dominated.

In this ESPN segment, Fran Fraschilla breaks down his 5 essentials when game-planning against UNC's Tyler Hansbrough, nicknamed 'Terror T'. Watch the video and I'll add my comments below,



Keys to Stopping the Big Guy:

1. Make him defend. Probably the least impact of the four. But there is some validity in pushing the ball and making Hansbrough go baseline to baseline. Problem is, UNC is probably more athletic than any other team in the country.

2. Do your work early. You want to be physical and make Hansbrough catch the ball outside of the line of deployment. You'd be surprised how much difference that extra 2 feet will make.

3. Pressure the passer. This accomplishes 2 things. Obviously you want to make it difficult for the offense to make the post-entry. But secondly, once you trap the post, you want to deny that first pass, especially the easy pass back out that results in the 3-pointer.

4. Man and half defense. I really like to call this the 'pinch'. You want to front Hansbrough, and bring support underneath against the lob pass. Yes, you will probably be vulnerable to the skip pass, but you have to sacrifice a little if you truly want to stop a force like Hansbrough.

If you are looking for a good overall post development video, look no further than Mike Krzyzewski's DVD on Post Player Development. Coach K has helped develop some of the best big men in the league including one of my favorites, Carlos Boozer. Head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to get all of your hoops fill.