I've written about the Triangle and 2 defense before and since Kansas used it to great effect this past NCAA tournament, most notably in their win over North Carolina, I thought I would revisit it and add some thoughts to what I had written previously especially since I used it off and on during this past season.

As Rick Majerus says in his Triangle and 2 defense Clinic DVD, the triangle and 2 should not be used as a staple of your defensive system. I agree completely with that statement, and Majerus goes on to say that the most important aspect of running the defense is knowing when to go to it, and when to go out of it. The perfect example is the way Bill Self used it with his Kansas team against Purdue and North Carolina, late in the 2nd half when they needed to cool down a hot shooter, and to slow the relentless Carolina fast break. I also agree with Bill Self's decision not to use it against Kentucky, if the other team has 4 good players/shooters on the floor, the triangle and 2 is not the defense to be in.

The key to running a good triangle and 2 defense is finding a player to put on their 3rd best player. That defender will play the point at the top of the triangle in the zone, but is also responsible mostly for the 3rd best player on the floor. That is where your best overall defender should play, not against any of the 2 top scorers. In fact, you probably want to put 2 of your more mediocre defenders (but must be quick) on the 2 top scorers, they are in all out denial (butt to the ball, belly to the man), and they are forcing those 2 players to go backdoor.

Yes, I said that correctly, you want to force the 2 top scorers to go backdoor into triangle zone where they will be met by the 3 defenders. Dribble penetration is encouraged, again because they will most likely be dribbling right into the zone.

Back to the 3rd best scorer on the floor. Your point man in the triangle has the toughest job because he must help on any dribble penetration by the 2 top scorers, but also closeout on the 3rd best scorer. The 3rd best scorer must not be allowed to take a catch and shoot open 3-pointer, instead we want to force the 3rd best scorer to dribble into a shot.

The 2 post defenders must play good post defense. There are some differing opinions on whether to half-front, full-front, or play behind. Majerus likes the full-front, others like to play behind for better rebounding position. I think it depends on your scouting report, if the team has capable back to the basket post players, you probably want to play some form of front. The key for the post-players is that if they are forced to play anybody on the perimeter or in the corner, they do what is called a fake and fade. They stay square to the ball with high hands to entice a dribble drive with a hop forward, then an immediate hop back. In this way, they attempt to level off any dribble drive and force the dribbler to go around the defender where help will eventually be there.

Based on past experience, what hurts the triangle and 2 the most is when the offense uses screens (off-ball and on-ball) between the 2 scorers and the 3rd scorer. The 2 scorers can play a little 2 man game and screen for each other in a pick and roll to get open. It is therefore critical that you have a plan to deal with those screens, whether you plan to trap, hard show, go under, or switch. My experience has been switching has been most effective. Another offensive tatic that is particularly effective is to put the point defender on the triangle in conflict by:

- dribble drive at the point defender and kickout to the 3rd best scorer for a 3-point shot
- wide pin down screen for one of the 2 top scorers backside forcing the point defender to defend the curl
- slip screen the 3rd best scorer and force the 2 post defenders to rotate

Finally, in transition defense, the point defender cannot be an offensive rebounder. His job after a shot goes up is to immediately sprint back to the defend the basket. The 2 deny defenders find their checks immediately to deny, and the 2 post defenders get back as soon as they can.

Like all defenses, the triangle and 2 is a defense in which all players must constantly communicate. Everyone must know where the 3rd best scorer is, and be ready to help on any dribble drive or backdoor cuts.

This past season in the second round of a tournament against a top team, we used the triangle and 2 after getting slaughtered in the first half 30-10, we ended up losing the game 42-37. We came out of halftime and the other team was completely stymied, they went scoreless for 8 straight minutes, their players were heard going to the bench during a timeout saying "we don't know what they're running, it's like a zone but not a zone". The other team ended up hitting a 3 pointer late to give them the lead and we tried playing the fouling game but just couldn't overcome the deficit. The team ended up going on to win the tournament.

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Watched a few more videos the last day or so with coaches Bob Knight, Bo Ryan, and Sherri Coale. One of the things they said was the most important thing they look for in a scouting report was to identify the player on the opposing team that was the worst percentage outside shooter. That is the player that they want to cheat on for help defense.

Seems pretty obvious, but it's a crucial point. You don't want to spend a whole game trying to figure out which players are the ones that can hurt you from beyond the arc. Not to mention the fact that in High School, most teams will have 2, maybe 3, really good shooters. Find the worst shooter out of the starting lineup, and you will know where your help defense should be coming from.

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I think every coach has had the situation happen before where we use a lot of coachspeak and the players look at you with that puzzled look. And then you use a different word and then it instantly clicks.

For years, in teaching M2M defense, I've always used the term "hedge and recover". To me, it seems natural, I've been around coaching long enough and I always thought it was a universal term. But I can remember the many times that I've tried to teach it to players and some of them got it, but from others I would get the puzzled look. They problem is that they really don't understand what that means, what does it really mean to "hedge"??

Old School Coach K

I was watching an old school Mike Krzyzewski DVD on M2M defense (I converted it from VHS and isn't available anymore, but this Coach K DVD on Defense is basically an updated one) and in it he talks all the time about the "fake trap". After hearing that, I instantly thought to myself, that is what I need to use to better communicate it to my players. I'm watching the players move, and Coach K is there saying "fake trap" and they're really getting into it. The motion is exactly like going to set a trap, but backing out -- a fake trap.

There's all kinds of coaching jargon that gets in the way of getting your message across to players. Although we take for granted, the many terms we use, we have to assume the players don't know what the heck we're talking about the majority of the time, and we also have to assume that not all terminology is the same from team to team, school to school -- ie. there is no universal terminology. I'd be interested to hear if you all have others out there that might help all of us out.

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I saw some club teams play a game the other day and one of the big things that I'm seeing lately is really bad one-on-one defense. Now, I know that in these summer games, not a lot of players and teams play much defense anyways, but that's besides the point, I'm seeing the same phenomenon in high school games too.

I think one of the major problems is that when we teach players that we want to force the ball baseline or middle (depends on your personal defensive philosophy), players translate that by opening up their body either to the baseline or to the middle of the floor, and then their check just blows by them. It's easy when we coach to then blame the help defender getting late. That's baloney, the ball is your man, square up and make the ball go lateral.



I got the phrase from Bobby Knight's Man-to-Man Defense DVD, Coach Knight talks constantly about never opening up your gate. The picture above is from Kemba Walker's game winner in UConn's win over Villanova from last season. The defender opens up and Kemba just attacks his technique and gets right into the lane for the game winning floater.

It's not about the help, obviously we want the ball to go to help, but we want the dribbler going east-west to help, not north/south. Once you open up your gate, you're inviting the offensive player to get to the hoop, irregardless if you're forcing baseline or middle to help.

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The last couple of days I've been busy putting together a defensive manual for our football team in preparation for the upcoming season and one of the big areas I was researching was the idea of pattern reading. You see, in football most teams that use a zone defense have gone away from straight spot dropping and match receiver routes instead. So, they align in a set zone, say a Cover 2, but then they read the receivers and their movements are dependent on what the receivers do. Now, it sounds like it would impossible to come up with a set of rules to match what the receivers do, but the thing is that receiver movements are highly predictable, because most passing routes are patterned and packaged together into concepts. Therefore, instead of just dropping into your "zone" area and covering grass, defensive backs are instead given a set of rules for a given receiver may do, and the defender reacts to that movement within their "zone" area. Turns out, in basketball, we can apply similar concepts.

In doing my research I came across a chapter in the book by Don Casey called "Own the Zone". It's a pretty good book going through the history of zone defenses in basketball. In the chapter on matchup zones, it talks about legendary high school Indiana coach Bill Green and how he came up with his true matchup zone. He and an assistant were watching a Purdue/Notre Dame football game and thought about creating a zone defense for basketball based on similar rules based on simple offensive player movements.

I had forgotten alot of what I've written in the past couple of years, so I went back through my blog and realized I actually wrote a pretty detailed article on the Bill Green 1-3-1 matchup zone (although I didn't credit it to Bill Green at the time) and it got my brain into overdrive again thinking about the different possibilities of matchup zones.

The original Bill Green matchup zone is based on the principle of dividing the court in 2 halves using the hoopline. The defenders are then assigned:
- a #1 defender on the point,
- a #2 defender takes the first offensive player on the left,
- a #3 defender takes the first offensive player on the right,
- a #4 defender takes the second offensive player on the left or right (the rover)
- a #5 defender takes anyone in the paint or right man high or low



What I did not cover in my original post was the basic matching principle that Bill Green uses, which is based on what the offensive player can do. For you football coaches out there, this will sound very familiar to robber coverage or 2-read. Basically, an offensive player with the ball can only do 1 of 3 things:

1. Shoot. Get a hand up.
2. Dribble drive. Slide and sag.
3. Pass.

An offensive player without the ball can only do 1 of 3 things:

1. Move and replace teammate.
2. Pick.
3. Flash to the basket.

Those are the only 6 things a player can do with or without the ball. On the first 2 with the ball, the defender reactions are universal, they are exactly same for any defense man or zone. On any pass and pick in any matchup zone, you will switch automatically every single time. So really, the rules for defender matchup movements are restricted to 2 movements, replace a teammate, and flash to the basket. All the players have to remember are their original rules. Any movement to replace a teammate is an automatic switch. Any flash to the basket is covered by the same defender. The most complicated movement is any flash or movement through the lane. In this case, the defender passes off their man to the #4 rover and they switch checks. Here are the base formations against offenses that will attempt to align against the matchup zone:






Having this base knowledge, defending flashes to the basket are stated as I wrote in the original article.

The weakness of the 1-3-1 matchup, is obviously the corners. Teams can overload to one side of the floor and now the defense has to break its rules to cover the 4 players on one side.



In order to combat this problem, the #5 switches to take the corner man and #3 (or #2 if overload is on the left) takes the offensive player in the paint.



If you are having a problem with the overload with a player in the corner, Bill Green has a 1-1-3 matchup which is stronger towards the baseline. Instead of using the hoopline as the divider, now there are 2 above the FT line and 3 below. If one of the 3 low players goes above the FT line, the #4 rover carries him above the divider.



I think the problem that most people who play a zone defense is that they just play the spots, they don't even attempt to matchup players. It's the same analogy as football defense, you can't just cover grass, you gotta cover receivers. Same in basketball, you gotta cover players.

For a good video that has a similarly type matchup zone system, check out Flip Saunders' DVD on the 1-2-2 Matchup Zone. Coach Saunders is currently the head coach with the Washington Wizards.

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With so much going on with teaching and coaching at the moment, I haven't nearly had the time to watch as much college basketball as I used to. I was able to catch some games and highlights the other day and this ESPN segment with Doug Gottlieb breaking down Purdue's win over Penn State on a last second BLOB play.


Usually I don't disagree with most of what ESPN puts out there, because they usually have ex-coaches doing the breakdowns. But I think Gottlieb has it wrong here. With Penn State up by only 1-point, I'd rather have one defender down low crowning the basket, protecting the easy layup, rather than having him "up the line" as Gottlieb says to help on the switch who can then help on the shot. Even if Battle had gotten up to the FT-line where Gottlieb is pointing to below, he wouldn't have been in a position to defend the switch or challenge the shot anyways, and would've allowed the inbounder to get great position on the offensive boards,


To me, it was just a missed assignment. What the Penn State defender who got screened should have done was simply switched hard. That should have allowed the screened defender to jump out to challenge the shot or at worst, to force the player to put the ball on the ground and dribble into the help where Battle was in position to defend. Bottom line for me as a coach, if the offense elects to shoot a contested 20-footer, rather than a contested 2-footer, I'm OK with that, I'll take the numbers on that one anytime.

If you're looking for more great ideas for your SLOBs, BLOBs, jumpball stuff, check out Tom Izzo's new DVD on Dead Ball Situations. Coach Izzo is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Michigan State University.

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We all know one of the keys of great Man-to-Man defenses is teamwork and help defense. This is where your players' basketball IQ will be tested defensively, being in the right position defensively for help but not losing sight of their man. Went through some notes from the NIKE clinic this past spring and Bob Huggins has a couple of good teaching points on help defense that might help reinforce the concept.


Tape a “help” line on the court every day
o From rim to rim, middle of the court
o Guys need to straddle the help line
o If they’re not at the help line, they go to treadmill

2v2 Sprint to Help Drill
o Coach up top
o Player at each wing (offense & defense)
o Pass to one wing, other wing must sprint to help line
o We do this every day during practice
o If they don’t sprint and straddle the help line, they go to treadmill

I'd like to experiment with treadmills in practice someday. I always hate it when we do sprints and suicides and there is always someone who is loafing. You can't cheat the treadmill. For more great practice ideas for M2M defense, check out the Bob Huggins 2-pack DVD which includes his M2M defensive philosophy and intense practice drills. Coach Huggins is the head coach of the men's basketball team at West Virginia University.

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You hear often times that your are what you emphasize. I think intuitively when we teach good defense to close out hard with high hands to challenge the shot and not foul. When in the lane, we definitely want to go chest-to-chest. I came across these set of notes the other day from Dick Bennett which talks about "Walling Up On Defense". Basically what we already teach our players, but framed in a way in which you can emphasize with your players easily during practices and games, here ya go:

Of all the techniques we teach on defense, "Walling Up" is probably the single best thing we do as a program. It is drilled every day in some shape form or fashion, it is emphasized in every live ball situation, and it's something you hear at least one player or coach from the bench yell when the situation arises in a game.

We believe by Walling Up we save outselves 3 to 5% points of defense and 3 to 5 fouls per games on our players. That keeps our posts out of foul trouble, it helps our rebounding, it keeps our opponents off the free throw line (where we can't defend), and provides a mind set that builds the rest of our defense. Walling Up most often occurs in the paint (lane) when an opponent is trying to score. Statistically speaking even the very best players in the game don't make a very high percentage of contested shots. We Wall Up in the post to force players to score over the top of us rather than around us (You put both hands straight up in the air when you wall up and put your body on the offensive player. You don't even have to jump.) We Wall Up on the perimeter to take away vision of a shot or pass you do not put your body on them in this situation.)

The basic technique is to keep your boyd "straight up" without bringing your hands/arms down. In practice we force players to over exaggerate our angles knowing that in a game situation it's a natural tendency to reach a little.

*Teaching Point: The hardest thing to teach is to keep your feet moving and lower body moving to take up opponents space before they have terminated their dribble of pivot.

*The Best Way to teach this technique: Give the ball to an offensive player with his back to the basket on the block on the right side of the rim. Tell the offensive player to take one dribble to the middle of the floor and turn around and shoot a jump shot over the Walled Up Defender. The defender will need to body up to the offensive player and keep both hands up high.

*This technique will win five games a season for you. DS (I don't have any research on this, but I do believe it.) Plus it is fun to teach and emphasize!

Here are a few pictures of NBA players I found that help to illustrate this basic defensive concept around the basket,




Here is a picture of walling up a player a little further away from the basket to prevent an easy pass,


For more info on M2M defensive concepts and guidelines for running the packline defense, check out Dick Bennett's DVD on pressure defense. Coach Bennett is retired formerly of the head coach of Wisconsin and Washington State.

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I'll have to admit that I haven't had much time to watch Texas lately since I've mostly followed Kansas, Duke and Kentucky so far this year. So, when I sat down yesterday and caught the later part of the second half in their game against Texas A&M, I was able to see for myself why they are the No. 1 team in the country. They play relentless half-court defense. They pressure everything on the perimeter, and they play terrific team defense. I took a few clips from the OT session between the two teams which illustrate the point:



In many ways, their defense resembles the kind of half-court pressure defense that Duke plays. But Texas is better at it, because they have better athletes. Their perimeter defenders are a threat to get their hands on the ball every single defensive possession.

Deny

It all starts with the perimeter deny. The Longhorns deny everything on the perimeter. In these 2 shots, you can see that they deny everything, even near the half-court line,



In this sequence, the Longhorn defender gets his hand on the attempted bounce pass handoff. They don't get the turnover, but it shows great defensive fundamentals by the defender to get that arm outstretched to get the deflection,


Recover

The biggest issue with this kind of aggressive half-court defense is that it leaves you vulnerable to the biggest offensive counter, the backdoor pass. Texas A&M attempts to go backdoor, but the perimeter players are so well prepared, and athletically gifted, that they can deny hard, and recover at the same time,


Help

Finally, it is almost impossible to have a solid defense individually. Your team has to work together as a unit to stop the ball, especially when players get beaten individually. Now, several times in the OT, when A&M got blocked, it was more a result of bad spacing by A&M on offense, but still, the Longhorns did a great job of weakside support,


Well, hopefully everyone else is having a great weekend. Still waiting for Rick Barnes to come out with a video, but in the meantime if you need some ideas for halfcourt denial defense, take a look at Tubby Smith's new DVD on Ball-Line Defense. Coach Smith is the head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

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Another great weekend of college basketball games. Some interesting finishes like the Xavier vs Butler game. Today, I was able to watch some recorded video of the Illinois and Georgia game and in watching the game it was evident why they were able to win the game despite being the inferior team talent and skill-wise. Their team defense was able to overcome what they lacked in their individual defensive matchups. They were able to force the Illini to settle for jumpers and they rebounded extremely well.

Specifically in one area, I thought the Bulldogs did an outstanding job all night, and that was in how they handled ball screens. Late in the game, these are 2 examples of where they rotated well on the backside, and also forced the Illini into tough shots,



Whenever you hedge hard or trap the ball screen, it is essential that the rest of your team rotates to protect the basket first and foremost. Your weakside defenders must drop down into the lane, and the weakside wing should split the 2 outside players,



In the second sequence, with the game on the line, the Bulldogs hedge hard on the ball screen again, preventing the PG from turning the corner. As the seconds tick down, the McCamey of the Illini decides to take his defender 1v1, good choice because he is quicker, but without the ball screen, the play is essentially 1v5 with the help defense in great position to force McCamey to force up a mid-lane floater that ricochets off the rim,


Team defense is hard to implement because it requires all 5 players to communicate and execute properly. But when you have buy in and players work at it, it can work tremendously to your advantage especially if you are lacking in really good individual defenders.

For more ideas on defending ball screens in a M2M defense, check out Mark Fox's DVD on Building a M2M Defense. Mark Fox is in his first year as head coach at Georgia and was previously head coach at Nevada for several years.

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I was able to catch this great game last night between Virginia Tech and Penn State. The game came down to the final few possessions with missed free throws playing a big factor in the eventual VT win. But what I wanted to look at was the importance of transition defense, and in particular the importance of having a safety and that safety being in position as the ball transitions from offense to defense. Take a look at Penn State's first transition defensive sequence and contrast it with the second one,



In the first sequence, a couple of shots are taken after offensive rebounds, but what's key is that you can see that the safety breaks into a back pedal and is in perfect position to defend either wing,

Because the safety is in position, splitting the 2 wings, it allows for the second transition defender to sprint back and get into position. Also, the ball-handler has to pull up a little bit as he attempts to get the safety transition defender to commit to either the ball or the opposite wing,

As you can see from the video, the result of the play is that the ball-handler forces up a contested layup 2-on-2, and the safety is the one that ends up with the ball. Penn State goes back the other way and scores to go ahead by 1 in the game.

Contrast the previous sequence with this one here. The safety gets caught biting on the offensive rebound and takes 2 steps forward. Virginia Tech secures the rebound and you can see them already in transition into offense. All it took was 2 steps the wrong way for the whole play to go awry,

The safety makes another mistake by attempting to intercept the pass to the outlet instead of sprinting back. The far side defender attempts to sprint back to contest the ball-handler who is ahead of him,

The defender attempts a hard foul to prevent the easy layup but ends up with the intentional foul. Virginia Tech gets both free-throws and scores on the ensuing possession, which essentially seals the win for VT.

With more and more teams adopting run and gun, UNC style fast break, Phoenix Suns SSOL offense, transition defense has never been more important than ever in my opinion. For me, transition defense starts with your offense. Everything you do on offense should take into account the need to have the safety, and every player on the floor must know their responsibility as the safety at all times.

For more video info on transition defense, take a look at Kelvin Sampson's DVD on defensive transition drills. Coach Sampson is an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks.

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I haven't had the opportunity to watch as many college basketball games as I've wanted to this year because of teaching, coaching, etc.. but I did catch the second half of this great matchup between Wisconsin and Duke earlier. I knew the game would be close, because of the patient ball-control swing offense Wisconsin uses. I caught these 2 great defensive sequences late in the game which show the importance of 1v1 defense, and specifically the importance of footwork. The Badgers got 2 huge stops late to seal the upset win, take a look:



In this first sequence, the Wisconsin player (in white) uses his feet and body to force the ball handler to turn back towards the middle. The defender uses great lateral quickness to again beat his check to the spot, hands straight up in the air, and the offense takes a contested shot,


In this second sequence, just a magnificent display of defensive slide technique and 1v1 defense, as good as I've ever seen,



The best part of both sequences is the fact that they happened at the end of the game when you normally expect guys to be breathing hard, hands on their knees, etc... But as all of us coaches know, this is exact moment (end of games) when we need our players to be player their best defense.

I think sometimes there is a tendency to over-emphasize help defense. I think help defense is important, crucial even, but more fundamental is the need for each of your players to be accountable individually on defense. To be extremely serious in being good 1v1 defenders, and to dedicate the necessary time and to take pride in not letting your teammates down when it counts the most.

For more info on creating great M2M defenders, take a look at Bobby Knight's 2-pack DVD on the Complete Guide to M2M Defense. The legendary Coach Knight is currently an analyst for ESPN Sports.

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I think my brain is on the verge of short-circuiting after a weekend of football watching, basketball practice, college basketball watching, and preparing lessons for next week. I haven't gone through recorded stuff on the DVR, but I did get a chance to browse through some notes earlier today. I found some really great tips from Ralph Willard, former head coach of Holy Cross. I've talked about having an identity before, your team can't be everything at the same time, it needs to have a particular focus. For Coach Willard, he calls his team focus, the "Circle of Opportunity."

If we do execute these 8 things, we will 95% of our games and have a chance to win the other 5%:

1. Deflections: our goal is 40 a game. 40+ deflections a game = .900 winning percentage.
2. Blockouts: we go back through tape and chart everyone on this.
3. Shot Contest: Every shot the opponent takes need to be contested on the ballside of their shot. If it is a righty shooting, we are flying directly at his right shoulder with 2 hands up as you can. There is a 4-5% difference between contesting on the player’s shooting side to his non-shooting side.
4. Offensive Rebounding: If you have an opportunity to go to the glass, you better get there. From the corner, Willard teaches his players to go baseline-out (meaning a player runs along the baseline to underneath the rim before jumping back into play). After the shooter shoots the defender runs along the baseline before jumping in front of the basket to get a hand on the missed shot. Teaches bigs to do the same.
5. Charges: Chart the number of times your guys step up to take a charge when they have an opportunity. This is a sign of sacrifice—giving yourself up for the team.
6. Bull Pursuit: Loose balls are OURS. All great rebounders/ rebounding teams do 2 things: They get great position and they pursue the ball. Use the stat “Out of Area Rebounds” and really emphasize it to your team.
7. Confidence & Emotion: Players must be confident going into every game that they can win.
8. Transition Defense: Take away easy baskets.

There’s nothing in this circle of 8 that we can’t do. We’re not asking you to do anything which you’re not capable of doing. It comes down to execution and effort.

Being the underdog most of the time at Holy Cross, it is not surprising that Willard would adopt a philosophy based on half-court defense, centered around hustle and physicality. If you want to learn more, check out Ralph Willard's DVD on Man Defense to equalize talent. Coach Willard is currently an assistant under Rick Pitino at Louisville.

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One of the teams that is just a joy for me to watch are the Pitt Panthers, coached by Jamie Dixon. Like UCLA (no coincidence that Coach Dixon was a former assistant under UCLA head coach Ben Howland), the Panthers play a tough physical M2M half-court defense.

In this clip between Pitt and Eastern Kentucky, I like how Pitt was keeping it physical, especially on defense. You can say there are a couple of fouls here, but if the refs are allowing contact, it behooves you to use that to your advantage. Definitely bump cutters, don't let them get an open cut to the basket:



In this first screenshot, the forward is making a basket cut after a pass and cut away. The weakside defender slides down and sets his feet, the offensive forward runs into him, and thus his momentum is disrupted,


In this second screenshot, the guard passes into the post with the intention of getting a handoff with the post screening right after. However, the wing defender bumps the wing trying to cut to receive the handoff, resulting in a botched handoff and the turnover,


You have to see how the game is being reffed. I've been in some games where refs called all the tic-tac stuff, and others when it would be 3-2 in team fouls after a half. If the refs are holding their whistles, definitely use that to your advantage. But keeping in mind that your players need to know the line between an obvious foul and just hard physical contact.

If you're thinking of upping the intensity of your practices, then take a look at, Jamie Dixon's DVD on Drills for Competitive Practices.

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Watching the first half of the UNC game tonight because you figured it would get away from NC Central and indeed the score is 72-30 right now with 8:00 left in the second half.

I just like this sequence from UNC because I think that if you play a half-court M2M pressure, much like the way Duke plays their M2M, the assumption is that you will give up backdoor layups. Yes, the chances are higher, but that doesn't mean you can't teach and drill your players to counter those tendencies. With good footwork and active hands, a good defender can still put a ton of pressure on the wing pass AND still recover against the backdoor as shown in the following video clip:



In the picture, you can clearly see that Justin Watts has both hands in the air, not on his hips. With great lateral foot movement, he's able to adjust to the backdoor cut.


Also notice that he doesn't attempt to turn and face the ball, instead he just focuses on getting back on his man with his arms up and hands in the passing lane, and getting the steal. I see a lot of young players in that situation pivot towards the ball, back facing their check, then try to make the play when their check is already at the rim.

And the Tar Heels finish it in typical fashion, on the fast break.

For more info on the Carolina M2M defensive system, check out Roy Williams' DVD on The Carolina Defensive Numbering System & Drills. With so many new faces, its hard to imagine the Tar Heels repeating as champions, but if Coach Roy Williams is able to groom the younguns he has on this team, they could do some real damage in 1 or 2 years.

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Going through more notes today and this one caught my eye. From a coaches notebook of University of Florida assistant Larry Shyatt, defensively, the Gators track hustle stats for players during practice. Obviously, as a high school coach, you won't have the number of assistant coaches to do this, but you can definitely adapt it to your situation.

I think this is a great idea to do for 2 reasons. Firstly, I like the idea of rewarding hard work in practice. Sometimes as coaches, we fall in love with the talent, and we don't recognize nor reward effort nearly as much as we should. Also, one of the hardest things to do is to get players motivated for practice. Too many players come in to practice to loaf, because they're only motivated by games. So anything to get players really going hard in practices in my opinion is definitely worth looking into.

Coaches Focus at Practice:
Affected shots/passes – Assistant 1
Blockouts – Assistant 2
Going to the glass – Assistant 3
Hustle Stats – Assistant 4

Keeping Stats: (Compilation Daily)
Unaffected shots/passes – Assistant 5
No blockout – Assistant 6
Not going to off. glass – Assistant 7
Hustle Stats/other negative (not ready, etc.) – Assistant 8
Assists/Turnovers, no floor balance – Assistant 9

• Any unaffected shot/pass, no blockout attempt, no attempt to go to the
offensive glass or no floor balance, results in a minus.
• Any hustle play: deflection, loose ball, forced turnover, steal, offensive rebound,
charge taken, charge attempted, blocked shot, or 1st to the floor results in a plus.
• Coaches Wildcard: Player can receive a plus or a minus at the coaches’
discretion (ex: negative – poor closeout, dive by, poor communication; ex:
positive – great step-up, great communication).

Assist/Turnover Ratio:
• PG’s must be at least 2 to 1
• G’s / F’s must be better than 1 to 1
• C’s must be at least 1 to 1
• If your ratio is achieved, you receive a +2 for the day to be added to your
score.
• If your ratio is not achieved, you receive a -2 to be added to your score.
• Players must be in the positive at the end of practice. If they are in the negative they have sprints (10’s/Suicides/etc.) to run based on whatever negative number they finish with.
• Sprints will be completed the day after practice/game.
• Every 7-10 days, we will have the “Hustle Award” winner for that week(s). The
guard & interior player with the best score will receive an “F” on their shorts.

Here is a screenshot of a sample hustle stats sheet:


For more great practice ideas, take a look at Larry Shyatt's 2-Pack DVD with 1 DVD for Defense and 1 DVD for Offense. Coach Shyatt is an assistant on Billy Donovan's coaching staff at University of Florida.

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For some reason I was thinking a lot about defense this weekend. Having a great defensive team can help you create a psychological advantage with your team. Similar to the way that teams who have a fast-breaking mindset, a great lockdown defense has the ability to boost the confidence of each individual player and also of the team as a whole. I went through some notes and came across this great set of handwritten notes with Mike Krzyzewski talking M2M halfcourt defense at a Nike Clinic. Thanks so much to the original author (email me if you want credit) and hopefully these will help you as much as they did for me:

Components of Good Defense

1. Conditioning. Never rest on the defensive end.
2. Courage. Don't be afraid to dive for loose balls, or to take a charge.
3. Intelligence. Understand the defense in game situations.
4. Habits. Constant reps. Do defensive drills daily all year long.
5. Attitude. Have a positive defensive attitude. Don't fear failure. Players must have confidence in themselves and their teammates.

Principles of Defense

1. Vision. See the ball at all times
2. Move as the ball moves. Make gradual adjustments if at all possible
3. Communication. The glue that holds all 5 players together. Players must talk and concentrate on what's happening on the floor at all times.
4. Aggressiveness. But don't foul
5. Force to the Outside.

Try to keep the ball outside.


6. Stop ball reversal. The more you force the offense to move, the more chance of them making a mistake.

After O1 passes to O2 on the wing, X1 gets in the passing lane to force O1 away to receive a return pass for a ball reversal,


Priorities and Rules

1. Pressure the ball. Requires an effective stance, wide and on balance.

On dead ball, all out pressure,


2. Stop the penetrating pass. Ball-you-man position. Good stance and balance. Arm extended in the passing lane. Eyes primarily on the ball.

Make the offense catch the wing pass going AWAY from the basket,


3. Stop the penetrating move. Be ready to help on the drive
4. Jump inside to help. If ball goes to low post, post defense gets behind the offense. Wing to point defense helps inside on the post. Keep your back to the basket.
5. Stop ball reversal.

If you've finished reading this post, you might be wondering why all defenses don't look like this? Where are its weaknessess? In the 2008 NCAA Tournament, Belmont nearly backdoored their way to a major first round upset with Duke escaping with a 71-70 win. So yes, this aggressive up-the-line-on-the-line M2M halfcourt is extremely susceptible to teams running a lot of backdoor. But I think that is where your coaching ability to adjust comes in to play. You should have a gameplan for each game which assesses:

- your team's ability compared to your opponent
- how much pressure you want on the ball as a result
- where the point of pickup will be
- whether to trap or not

Anyways, if you are a big Duke fan or know one and you're already thinking of what to get for that coach you know for Christmas, check out Mike Krzyzewski's new All Access Duke Basketball Practice 4-pack DVD which includes 438 minutes of practice and Q&A with Coach K.

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It's August and no doubt many coaches out there are starting to think about next year. One of the big picture stuff to figure out is what kind of defensive team you will be. Depending on your personnel, you'll have to decide between either a pressing/attacking defensive style, or a "bend but don't break" defensive style. If you're aiming for the BBDB, then some defensive ideas based on Gregg Marshall's 50 Gap Defense (current head coach at Wichita State) below may apply to you:

Defensive field-goal percentage is the best indicator of how good a team's defense is. Our "containment" defensive philosophy is based on making our opponents beat us with a tough shot and eliminating easy baskets.

• Two Players Back: When our team takes a shot, we send our 1 and 2 players back on defense. Our guards are typically our least effective rebounders. Sending them back hasn't hurt us that much. Our rule is that when a shot is taken, 3, 4 and 5 go to the boards every time, and 1 and 2 are back. If 1 or 2 takes the shot, we still have at least one player back. Our goal is to make our opponents attack us 5-on-5 and take a tougher shot.

• Influence The Ball: We teach our players that once they get the break stopped, they should try to "influence" the ball toward the sideline and baseline. This is in contrast to "forcing" or overplaying the ball to these areas. We think it's more important to flatten or contain the ball than to get it to a particular spot on the floor. We want our players to stay wide and try to stop a direct drive to the basket.

• Ball Pressure: When the player with the ball has it above his or her waist, we want to put lots of pressure on and prevent him or her from making an easy pass or taking an easy shot. Once the ball handler drops the ball below his or her waist, we step back and create some space. We stress active feet. Our objective is to bother the pass or shot but contain the drive.

• Help Side. We want to give lots of help away from the ball. We don't deny any pass outside the 3-point line. For example, both of our defenders on the wings can be dropped in to plug up a drive from the point. We want to encourage a pass to the wing and discourage a drive to the basket. By giving this much help on the ball, we give added confidence to the on-ball defender to really pressure the opponent.

• Protect The Paint. We want to be physical with cutters flashing to the ball and coming off screens. We want to dictate where they cut, especially when they're headed to the basket area. For example, if the cutter curls toward the basket off a downscreen, we ask that the defender guarding the screener "pop" the cutter and make the offensive player change the path of the cut. When a weak-side defender makes a straight cut to the ball through the lane, we ask that his or her man make contact and slow him down. Again, we want to stop direct cuts to the basket.

• Get A Hand Up. Closing out on the basketball is a skill we work on almost daily. We never want the shooter to get an open look at the rim. We don't try to block the shot, although this does happen. We mainly try to get the shooter to alter his or her shot.

• Post Play. Our normal way of playing the post is to stay behind or to side-front. We would rather make someone hit a tough turnaround jumper on the block than to pin or lob us while we're fronting. There aren't that many players who can stick this shot. When we do run up against one, we look at alternate methods of coverage, such as fronting or doubling down.

If you are looking for more M2M ideas, Bobby Knight's brand new 2-Pack Man Defense DVD is now available.

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Went through some coaching videos the past couple of days and went over Dick Bennett's Packline DVD again. It is amazing how well packline teams have fared in points per game throughout the many teams who have used it, including Tony Bennett's Wazzu teams and now moving to Virginia. The defense is not without its flaws, but I've always wondered why average or below-average teams have not flocked to it, as it does appear to be a talent or athletic equalizer by forcing teams to beat you over the top or with well-executed, patient, offense. Well, I've featured a few teams that have used it in game action, but my intention here is to break it down a little based on the video and other clinic notes I've obtained over the past few years.


Transition Defense:

According to Coach Bennett, 'convert' or transition defense, is the first and most important principle of the packline defense. One of his top basketball rules for his players is, "Always take a guy out if he loafs during the game." It sounds obvious, of course, the packline won't work if the other team beats you down the floor, but still, this is something that must be emphasized ad nauseum, "be in two places at once if you want to be successful." The following points of emphasis are used in teaching transition defense:

- recognition, anticipation, reaction, communication, rotation, stance, and vision

Ball Pressure:

Most people think of the packline defense as a soft zone. But in reality, the most important principle in the halfcourt is to pressure the ball. This is accomplished when players learn to closeout properly. The following are keys to teaching closeouts packline style:

- short choppy steps
- high hands and then settle into your stance
- must not allow shots in rhythm
- level off the dribbler by getting him going east-west
- take away the north-south direct drive
- bother the shooter (hands in face, etc...)

Help Defense:

In the packline, the idea is of course to stop the ball by all means necessary. Help-side defense is therefore vital to making the packline work. According to Coach Bennett, you can never help too early, only too late. The following keys are used to teach help defense in the packline:

- all players must be able to see the ball and be in position to pressure it.
- your positioning is your help
- on the line up the line, ie. ball-you-man
- help comes from guards, not from bigs

Defending the Post:

Post defense is flexible in the packline, with the primary purpose of course to discourage all forms of post-entry (from top, lob, etc..), its all about timing according to Bennett. Generally, though, Bennett does prefer to full front the post when the ball gets lower than the free-throw line extended. The other coaching point is to not to gamble for steals but rather deflections on post-entry attempts.

On Screens:

Coach Bennett is a big believer in chasing all screens, "if you touch the guy at all times, you will not get screened." Defenders of the screener should be help position (in the direction of the cutter) but must stay attached to their defender at all times. Bennett doesn't like switching because he feels that the more you allow switching, it helps your opponents early in the season but will handicap your team late in the season. Switching only works for teams that are experienced and have roughly equally talented players.

How to lose games:

- Reaching fouls
- Lack of communication
- Hands on hips
- Over-helping from bigs
- Lack of recovery, help and stand
- Late traps
- Lack of floor burns

Drills for the Packline:

For help, nothing works better than your standard run of the mill shell drill. You can 3-on-3 or 4-on-4,


This next drill is a fit-and-freeze 3-on-3 closeout drill. The 3 defenders start clustered facing the coach with the ball on the baseline. The coach chooses who to throw the ball to. The 3 defenders must then get into defensive position, 1 closeouts on ball, the other 2 in help position. You yell freeze to see if they are in the right position,


This last one is to practice post defense. As mentioned earlier, it can be flexible, so you basically want to make sure your forwards are defending it properly depending on where the ball is positioned,


If you want to check out the video yourself, go ahead and check out the definitive guide to the packline defense in Dick Bennett's DVD on the packline defense.

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Via a recent edition of the weekly Xavier newsletter (which hopefully will continue under new head coach Chris Mack), the following is from Charlotte Bobcats head coach Larry Brown on their defensive rotations on ballscreens and traps:

Question to Coach Brown: What do you mean by saying 'I use the same rotations?'

Answer: Don’t rotate Big to Big. The positions 1-5 of the defensive players involved are irrelevant. We form 2 interceptors and a goal tender through the rotation. An example of a full rotation because of a ballscreen is shown. The teaching of this is consistent and the same from day one. Because of this, the players are interchangeable and accountable. The nearest defender rotates when a trap happens. When 'downing' a ballscreen, the nearest defender would rotate to the screener after the screen is set. Our defense treats all rotations the same. The closest man rotates.

The offense has a ballscreen scenario taking place. The defense is "downing" it. 2 dribbles away from the ballscreen because of X2's positioning.


X2 and X4 corner and contain 2. 2 passes to the ballscreener, 4. On the pass out to 4, X3 is the closest defender. He begins his rotation.


As 4 catches the pass, X3 closes out to 4, X1 rotates to 3, and X4 rotates out to the weakside. X5 stays at home in the post when possible.


Thinking philosophically about defense, I'm not sure if equal rotations regardless of position is always the best way. If you have a team of similarly skilled/talented players, this probably will work. But if you have a traditional team of tall slower forwards with smaller quicker guards, the mismatches could cause major problems. I'm not sure I agree with the accountability argument either. When you have same rotations, its easier for players to cop out of a rotation by claiming confusion. If you have set rotations (big on big), its easier to make players accountable, ie. you are a big, you must rotate to the other big.Either way, it's good to flush these things out on paper and experiment on what may or may not work before implementing in practice.

If you are a Bobcats fan or Coach Brown fan, take a look at Larry Brown's DVD on Secondary Break and Pick and Roll Offense. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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