Old Dominion Ball Fakes to Break the Zone

Since I've had several zone offense posts the past few days, I'll try to keep this one short. I taped the first half of the Old Dominion game against James Madison and this was a nice clip with OD breaking down the JMU zone. Like yesterday with MSU, OD uses the high-post, but what I like here is the use of the pump fake. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,



O5 is a guy called Gerald Lee and he was a beast for OD tonight. He gets the ball in that sweet spot in the zone, the high post. This draws X5 to defend him, and he does a great pump fake to get X5 in the air, then steps by and drops the little tear-drop. Beautiful stuff,

Teach your players to use the pump fake, use the pass-fake when beating zones as the zone always jumps to the ball in the air.

For a great breakdown of zone offense, take a look at Coach Mike Krzyzewski's Zone Offense DVD, he does a great job explaining zone offense fundamentals in a way that can be applied to any team. Be sure to drop by the X's and O's Basketball Forum to discuss your favorite zone offense topics.