Ernie Kent's 1-4 Offensive Sets

Although I'm mostly a University of Washington Huskies fan, over the past decade or so, I've enjoyed watching plenty of Oregon basketball games, especially living here in the Pacific Northwest. I used to drive down and watch Luke Ridnour, then later to watch Aaron Brooks. Offensively, the Ducks have always been an uptempo team, and in the halfcourt, they run a lot of 1-4 high or 1-4 low sets. So much so, that I'm told that a lot of varsity coaches began running 1-4 sets. I put together some notes from a Nike Clinic and a FIBA assist article showing a couple of plays out of the 1-4, one high, and one low.

Some general principles from Ernie Kent:

- you always have multiple reads and at least 2 cuts on every screen
- on screens, the cutter must close the gap and cut off the pick with his shoulder on screener's hip

1-4 High

Ernie Kent calls this play 'Eagle'. They use it as one of their primary half-court offensive plays because it provides both inside and outside scoring opportunities. The 1-4 high difficult play to defend because the alignment forces the weak side defenders to make decisions about whether to guard the post or to concentrate
on covering shooters coming off double downscreens.

The setup is one point guard, two wings, and two big men at the corner of the freethrow lane.

O1 dribbles the ball to the right side of the court. As he does, the ball side post, O5, slides down the lane to the low post position and the ball side wing 2 slides to the corner. O4 pops to the top of the key as O1 reaches the wing area,


As O1 reverses it to O4, O2 makes a flex cut off of the screen by O5. While doing this, he is looking to bump O5's defender to clear some space for O5 to repost deeper in the lane. O2 continues through the lane to the weak side block area. O3 slides in toward the lane,


As O1 gets the ball back from O4, he immediately looks to dump the ball inside to the post if he is open. Otherwise, O1 looks back toward O2 coming off the double downscreen set by O4 and O3.


The tail of the play has O3 going out to the ball side baseline after he sets the double for the shooter, O2. If O5 cannot receive the ball in the low post, he turns and screens in for O3, who goes in the opposite corner, and O1 passes the ball to O3,


1-4 Low

Ernie Kent calls this play '3' because it is designed to get an open 3-pointer for your team's best shooter. The flex action is meant to disguise the movement with both a double downscreen and a screen the screener action to free up shooters.

The initial alignment is 1-4 low across the baseline, with the best shooter being O2 who is always in the right corner.

O1 dribbles to O2’s side, staying even with the lane line. O4 flashes up the lane to receive the ball from O1. O3 takes one step off the lane and sets a back screen for O2. Using O3’s screen, O2 makes a flex cut across the lane to the low block,


As O2 cuts off O3’s back screen, O1 should set a downscreen for O3 (his man should be helping defensively in the lane). O1 then clears to the corner. O4 hits O3 with a pass. If O3 is open, he can take the 3-pointer. O5 should slide out of the corner to get a better screening angle,


O5 and O4 set a double screen for O2 for the open 3-point shot,


If you want to learn more about Oregon's 1-4 continuity offense, then check out Ernie Kent's DVD on Motion Offense and Quick Hitters.