LSU Press Break Against Tennessee's Pressure

It was an emotional day for LSU today. 1 day after head coach John Brady was fired, the team took the court hosting the SEC's top team, Tennessee. LSU came out and played with a lot of emotion as expected. For the most part they played well, a little out of control at times, but they played hard and they shared the ball. They lost the game by 2 but they competed hard and that's about all you can ask for from your players.

When you play against Tennessee, one of the keys to success of course is playing against their vaunted full-court press. Though the Tigers would give up 22 total turnovers, I thought that when they broke the press, they converted the baskets into points on the board which was important in a very low scoring game. Here are just a couple of sequences in the first half of LSU breaking the press, and going the other way for scores,



This isn't the first time, I've written about LSU's press break, I wrote a pre-season post on a press break that they use on occasion using 2 inbounders.

Run the Baseline:

After a made basket, you need to remind your players that they can run the baseline. Use it to your advantage in your press break.

Once you can run side to side along the baseline, the pass can go over the top to O3 on the sideline. This sucks in X5 the safety (remember, Tennessee's press is very aggresive), which leaves O5 to run the break and O3 can immediately pass the ball downcourt for the easy dunk.

Summary:

I like both press breaks from the clip. The first one is good because it's just a simple ball reversal. I see players all the time try to dribble through the press or make an impossible cross-court pass. Make the easy ball reversal, then you can attack. The second clip is what was diagrammed, what really makes it work is the movement along the baseline, this allows the inbounder to gain position for a good pass downcourt.

For more great press breakers, check out John Brady's DVD on his press break. Head over to the X's and O's Basketball forum to discuss this and many more of your favorite basketball topics.