Seton Hall Full-Court Pressure Nearly Beats West Virginia

From the only game on the Saturday college basketball schedule, I was able to catch the whole game start to finish between Seton Hall and West Virginia in their Big East conference play opener, and a great game it was. I'm a big West Virginia fan, but Seton Hall definitely exposed some of WVU's weaknesses on this night.

We know that Bobby Gonzalez is a big fan of full court pressure, and so it was no surprise to see Seton Hall play with the intensity they did. But what I wanted to show in these couple of clips late in the game and in OT was how quick Seton Hall gets into their press. They waste no time celebrating, as soon as they get a score, they are setup in the box press,



Definitely something you need to drill and practice, because the natural instinct for players after they score is to pump their fist, backpedal, etc... For a pressure team, it's a mindset, you score, you get into position for the press, there isn't any time to spare.


Also notice that by simply hastening into position for the press, WVU started to rush as well. It's almost a natural instinct when you see the other team scrambling, to scramble yourself. After the score here, the inbounds is to the player closest with 3 defenders closing in. If WVU had been more patient, they could've gotten a better inbounds,

The flip side is true, you need to drill your players to relax, and play under control when the other team wants to create chaos and play extremely fast. That is what WVU failed to do in that final minute (and they missed a bunch of FTs as well).

Finally, I showed the first clip there because I thought it was important to see how to recover after the press is broken. It's important for you players to play under control and not foul or give up easy points. You have to pressure the ball hard, but you also have to play under control and recover when you are beaten.

I've been watching Seton Hall and their press for a while now and I'm always impressed by the energy they play with. If you want to know more about their full court pressure system, check out Bobby Gonzalez's 3-pack DVD on Full Court Defense which includes his 1-2-2 Containment Press, white/black full-court matchup press, and 9 Competitive Practice Drills. Definitely worth getting if you like how Seton Hall plays.