Dartmouth's 4-out 1-in Motion Offense

Took some more clips from one of those college games that most people probably didn't pay attention to over the weekend, this one between Cal and Dartmouth in the Cal tournament. As predicted, Cal went on to win big mostly through their superior athleticism but I thought Dartmouth played hard and I liked the way they moved on offense.

Part of why I liked the Big Green's 4-out 1-in motion offense is just because they showed the flexibility of the set. In a 4-out set, you have a lot of things you can run, a little dribble drive, post-play, flare and shuffle action. Here are a few clips from the first half,




4-out 1-in Motion Offense:

Don't want to take up too much space, but just want to show the many options that are available out of the 4-out set. It's no wonder so many offenses are run out of the 4-out now. The dribble drive is primarily out of 4-out, Bo Ryan's Swing offense is out of the 4-out, the Buna offense is out of the 4-out. The primary reason why the 4-out set works so well is because of the great spacing. Because it opens up the paint area so that at maximum you should only have 2 defenders against a M2M defense that is up the line,


Summary:

As a base offense, the 4-out is great. Now, as for the Big Green, as is the case usually with these Ivy League teams, recruiting talent is always the biggest issue, they just don't have the athletes to compete at the highest level. Harvard appears to be the best of the Ivy League this year while Dartmouth is a middle to bottom team. Cal looked great, but of course they had better athletes and scored more easily off the break. When they start in the always tough PAC-10 conference play, we'll find out how good they really are.

For a new video on the 4-out 1-in motion offense, check out Matt Painters' DVD on his 4-out 1-in Motion Offense. Coach Painter is the head coach of Purdue University. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.