George Washington's 1-2-2 Full Court Press

This is from Thursday night, George Washington against St. Bonaventure. It was a decent game but the difference really was GW who really turned up the screws defensively and the Bonnies really couldn't handle the pressure all night. GW coach Karl Hobbs used a 1-2-2 full court press that set aggressive traps but didn't look like it expended a lot of energy. Which is important because then they could run it the whole game without being too tired. I captured a few sequences from the first half,






1-2-2 Full Court Press:

GW really uses it as a soft press. They don't trap on the inbounds and they rely on their players getting their hands on the ball in passing lanes and forcing bad passes. They force the ball the sideline and they take away the middle,


Once the ball gets across half, they will usually set a soft trap in the corner. They take away the first pass and leave O1, the least dangerous player on the floor open. If O2 is able to pass up the sideline to O4, they set an aggressive secondary trap,


Summary:

I like full court presses that you can use all game to dictate tempo but that are soft in that they don't require your players to expend all their energy on defense. The really aggressive full court presses I think are good to use in short spurts, like right after a timeout to surprise the other team, or at the beginning of the game to gain momentum.

If you like Coach Hobbs or George Washington, then check out Karl Hobb's DVD on Transition Offense. As always, be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.