Jamie Dixon Nuggets on Zone Offense

Flipping through some notes today and came across these zone offense nuggets from a Double Pump clinic with University of Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon. Interesting emphasis on the crashing of the boards. Your zone offense can be as simple as emphasizing that at least 3 players must crash the boards on every shot. Anyways, here you go,

Zone Offense

- Keep it simple and understand reads- repetition and patience.
- Key- Must Crash Boards vs. Zone- has to be universal philosophy when you see zone- must get after offensive glass.
- Do a lot of breakdown drills vs. zone.
- Must get inside touches and guard penetration.
- Hi-posts must look to be screeners
- bigs must be able to catch, pass, and make plays from high post or short corner. Big East sees plenty of zones! Must get up to speed on how to attack it.
- 1-3-1 zones becoming more prevalent.
- Take a good shot and go get it!
- Always have 3 guys going to boards.
- Skip & follow, X action, partner up, dribble penetration, and pass penetration.
- Vs. 1-3-1 zone- spacing, action, offensive boards
- Movement is key vs. zone- do not be easy to guard.
- Start with zone offense on 1st day of practice.

For more info on Pitt's zone offense, check out Jamie Dixon's DVD on his 3-out 2-in Zone Offense. The Pitt Panthers are currently ranked 23rd in the latest AP Poll.