Downloaded some great notes the other day which cover Bobby Knight's DVD on Practice Planning and Drills (notes created by coaches at Springs Valley Blackhawks). One interesting tidbit that I thought I would share is Coach Knight's philosophy on the dribble, against zones, and against man. He says that the dribble is the most effective against the zone, and against man he is straight motion. An extract:

Four Possessions
- Inside man should be the screener
- Do not throw the ball to the corner
- Talk about balance to your players…get the ball off the baseline…don’t crowd baseline!
- Players have a tendency to resort to the dribble vs. man, but Coach Knight actually encourages the
dribble against a zone
o Dribble against a zone every time that you catch the ball on the perimeter
o Attack a seam
- Causes the top defenders to react and move
- Dribble does more to change a zone than anything…it forces it to become something that it does not want to be

Man Offense: Eliminate the Dribble (No Dribble Drill)
- This drill develops cutting and spacing as well as encouraging good passes
- Players should only dribble to change position or to get to the basket
- Teams develop confidence that they can score without putting the ball on the floor
- Man/Man D…three-point line is the last line of defense for picking up the ball
o Half-court is the farthest
o Point of pick-up is dictated by how quick you are and how quick the offense is
- Post players need to hold their posts…don’t come off the block
o Other players do not come into areas where a post man is holding a post
- Don’t just run around…SEE AND REACT
- Offensive players need to get off the baseline
- No cross court passes against man-to-man defense

Traditionally, the idea against the zone is that you move the zone with the pass, by quick reversals and skip passes. But I've used the dribble in the past to great effectiveness against a zone as well, so I think there is a lot of merit to this idea. As for against man defense, I can see Coach Knight's point about over-dribbling, but the dribble penetration is still the hardest thing to stop for the defense.

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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.

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The start of college basketball is upon us and it was great to take in a bunch of games. On friday night, I was able to watch a bunch of games and I took in the Baylor game against Norfolk State. It wasn't a particularly great game but I did catch this inbounds play that Baylor ran against the 2-3 zone.

I've been seeing this a lot recently, teams using a 2-3 zone on the inbounds. Generally, it does a good job in the paint as you don't have to worry about switching or how to deal with screens. But every zone has its drawbacks, and here, you see Baylor run a nice give and go play to the most dangerous player on the inbounds, the inbounder, for a nice 3-pointer:



In this screenshot, you can see Norfolk State in that zone. The forward who receives the pass and hands back to the inbounder is basically screening the low defender in the 2-3 zone. The high defender on the 2-3 is in no man's land, and basically watches the 3-pointer go in, because in the 2-3, the high defender is taught not to go below the free-throw line extended,


Here is the breakdown of the inbounds play again. Really, they just get the ball into the forward in the middle,

O1, the inbounder bolts for the corner, O4 hands back the ball and screens the low defender on the 2-3, and its an open 3-pointer,


For more simple ways against zone defenses, take a look at Jerry Petitgoue's new DVD on Attacking Zone Defenses. I like Petitgoue's approach because he doesn't complicate the problem, he simplifies things and makes it easy to understand what he's trying to accomplish.

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One of the reasons why I don't like playing a straight zone as a base and especially at the end of games is because it allows the offense to dictate the numbers advantage. In the stunning upset earlier in the week when Division II Le Moyne stunned Syracuse at the Carrier Dome, Le Moyne was able to get off a 3-pointer with time left on the clock to over-take the Orange.

Check out the video first from the ESPN highlight:


If you look closely, you'll see exactly what happened. Le Moyne had 4 players above the free-throw line extended. Syracuse is in their 2-3 extended zone, but the 3 low defenders are below the free-throw line extended,

So, essentially, Le Moyne was playing 4-on-2 above the free-throw line extended. Le Moyne's best shooter, O2, Chris Johnson who had already nailed 5 x 3-pointers, shuffled to the open spot on the arc and launched the game winning shot,


Now, I think it's easy to say, play zone regular, and switch to M2M at the end of close games. But the problem with that philosophy is, players who get used to played straight zone, have trouble re-adjusting to playing M2M. That is the reason why I personally, prefer to use a M2M defense as your base. In those crucial situations when you really need everyone matched up, you can be sure your players will be in the right spots. If the other team hits a 3-pointer with a defender right in their face, then so be it. But at least you can be sure that your players defended the play as best they could.

For more buzzer beating strategies, take a look at Homer Drew's DVD on Late Game Situations. Coach Drew is the head coach of the Valparaiso University.

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If you are looking for a good continuity zone offense, probably the best one that I've come across is Bo Ryan's "X" zone offense. The only drawback is that if you run Bo Ryan's Swing continuity offense against man defense like Wisconsin does, you'll need to make quite a few adjustments to teach the "X" zone offense from the Swing.

The X Zone Offense:

Bo Ryan calls his zone offense, the X zone offense. Like any good zone offense, it takes advantage of some core principles of going underneath, using the high post, ball reversal, screening the zone, and attacking the gaps. The X zone even works against matchup 2-3 zones because the posts cause problems by the "X'ing" action. The keys to the offense are to use vertical and horizontal speed, and to play off the "big on big" screens. The baseline rover, O3, needs to follow 3 basic rules:

- ball location, how is the rover being defended?
- ability to flash into another gap
- flash into the paint from screen by big

Ideally, you want to run the same lanes as you would in your man offense so that getting into the X zone offense is the same. The offense starts with O1 dribbling up the right side of the floor at O3 in the right corner. O5 steps out to the perimeter while O4 cuts into the low post. O2 is flattening out on the back side to stretch the zone defense horizontally, this is very important and Coach Ryan stresses this point continuously,


If neither the post nor the corner player receive the ball, O1 reverses it to O5 up top. O4 steps in the middle of the lane and tries to post for a "2" count while O3 runs the baseline looking to step into the short corner. When O4 posts in the
middle, O3 should have an open seam underneath in the short corner because O4 is occupying X5, the post defender. If O5 is unable to locate O3 or O4 with a pass, the ball is swung to O2 on the left wing,


Because the action in the beginning by O1 and O5, both perimeter defenders should be guarding O1 and O5 so when the ball is reversed to O2, X4, the low defender, has to come out and close out on O2. This situation leaves O3 open in the short corner running along the baseline,


After the ball reversal, O4 steps out of the lane and cuts to the
top of the key. O5 cuts down to the ball side low block. Just as O2 did in the beginning, this time O1 flattens out on the back side to stretch the zone defense,


O2 can pass to O3 in the corner at anytime for the corner 3-pointer. O3 can also go inside for a post entry if the defender is playing on the high side. If O5 gets the ball in the post, O4 can dive to the basket or hold while O5 turns and looks to score or kick it out opposite to O4 or O1,


No matter how which way the X zone offense is initiated, the ball is continually reversed, O5 steps in the lane and posts for a "2" count while O3 runs the baseline looking to sneak in behind the low zone defenders at any open area,

The offense is now in the original alignment. Emphasis with good spacing, with all players able to "touch" the post as they call it (pass or look inside to the post), while stretching the zone with O2 on the back side of the floor. They will continue to run this movement from side to side.

Interior Screening Option:

At anytime O5, the post man on the perimeter, can back screen the back side defenders. There are 2 options: screen the top guard defender or the low defender on the zone. O1 would look to skip the pass to O2 while O3 runs the baseline looking to receive a pass if O2 does not have a shot,


High Ball Screening Option:

Another screening action can occur when the two post players screen for
each other on the perimeter. This screen can come from any direction at
any time. It will be an option read as to when and where the other post player will
come from when the screening action takes place. The post should be naked coming off the ball screen, forcing the low side zone defender to choose between dribble penetration or the corner 3-pointer,


I got my X Zone video from Amazon but I believe they are no longer available there. If you are looking for more zone offense video info though, then check out Mike Krzyzewski's Attacking the Zone DVD. Coach Krzyzewski is head coach of Duke University and of Team USA in the upcoming 2010 Olympics in London.

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Notwithstanding another costly inbounds turnover late in the game, I thought the Nuggets played well in Game 3. The big difference was the emergence of Chris "the birdman" Andersen off the bench. Jeff Van Gundy did a good analysis of how the Nuggets were sending cutters to beat the Lakers' overload (or matchup) defense. Take a look (audio is a little wonky in the beginning),



The Lakers are essentially using the same overload (or matchup) defense they've used all season and specifically against the Nuggets in last year's playoffs. They bring one of the defenders, usually a 4 or 5 (Gasol or Bynum) to the ball-side to take away Melo driving to the basket. This leaves the 4 or 5 on the Nuggets essentially unguarded. Since that player (K-Mart or Andersen) isn't usually a good shooter, the best thing to do is have them do a simple basket cut,

If this looks similar to what you would do against a typical 2-3 zone, you would be correct. Send a cutter to the middle of the floor, the soft spot in the zone. Where the cutter can either finish if left unguarded or pass off to the short corner if the middle or side defenders come up to defend.

Summary:

The Nuggets really did this well in Game 3. Question for the Lakers is whether to keep overloading and try their best to zone up against the Andersen's and K-Mart's. Or go back to 1v1 coverage, but risk Melo going off for 40 points. I think the cost-benefit is still in favor of the overload, so the Lakers will continue to run it, but they'll try to clean up their weakside coverage to limit points from cutters, forcing them to pass back out.

For more zone offense info, take a look at Bob Huggins's DVD on his Dive/Fill Zone Offense. Coach Huggins is the head coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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What an impressive performance by Michigan State last night in beating number one overall Louisville. As a coach, you can look at that win and think to yourself, wow, they really executed their gameplan to a T. Now, on the other hand, I thought that Louisville stayed in their half-court zone defense too long. I know, that is their character, Pitino likes zones and matchup zones, and it would be out of character for them to go straight M2M for a large part of the game. However, I felt the zone defense played right into MSU's strategy, to play the 35 seconds out, wear out the defense, and dictate the tempo.

As for MSU's zone offense, just a tremendous job of doing all the things that you need to do to be successful against a 2-3 zone. They shot the ball well, they rebounded, took advantage of the soft spots. Goran Suton was the difference maker at that high post spot. He made shots, and really dominated, passed the ball over the top of that zone from the high post spot. Take a look,



Stretch the Defense, Make them Work:

MSU's strategy really was to stretch the defense out, use the clock, and make Louisville spend energy on defense so that they would be impatient to score on offense. And it worked. As you saw in the video clip, all defenders were scrambling going back and forth as MSU reversed the ball, over and over and over. That more than anything was the most important factor, it simply wore them out. You can't scramble that much with no reward, and come back on offense and not want to answer right away with quick shots (which Louisville did and missed),

By contrast, MSU had all the energy. It doesn't take much energy to pass the ball around from side to side. The defense is doing all the work. The offensive rebounding by MSU tells the story. After 35 seconds of the offense playing keep away, I don't think any zone defense would have the energy left to find-hit-get?

Summary:

To be honest, I wasn't too surprised that MSU beat Louisville. I think even if Louisville went to a M2M, they probably would have lost, but maybe the score would have been closer. MSU, really nullified Louisville's press. I was very impressed with UNC yesterday. They've been criticized for having inconsistent half-court defense during the regular season (and rightfully so), but I think throughout the first few rounds of the tournament, they have addressed that problem. If they can maintain that consistency on defense in the final four, they're winning it all.

I can tell MSU's zone offense is all of sudden really popular with the number of people looking for Tom Izzo notes. If you want more info though, check out Tom Izzo's DVD on the 1-3-1 Zone Offense. As always, head over to the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk with other coaches about your favorite basketball topics.

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The weekend was just a cornucopia of frenzy, intense excitment, excruciating moments of anticipation, disappointment, and euphoria -- that is the opening rounds of March Madness. I caught most of the Pitt versus Oklahoma State game. It was a pretty close game throughout due to OSU playing their matchup zone for most of the game while Pitt going through their patient offense.

I highlighted these clips because I like how Pitt use a lot of bunch/stack/mesh combined with screens and misdirection to create open shot opportunities against OSU's matchup zone. Take a look,



Stack:
Pitt's zone offense was pretty straight forward. They reversed the ball from side to side, and ran cutters through the lane constantly. All the time waiting for OSU's matchup zone to breakdown due to bad communication, usually due to a late switch, or no switch at all. Here, they run a cutter inside, as the 2 offensive players stack up, the guard explodes out of the stack and gets a downscreen, ends up with an open 3-pointer,


Stagger:

Here, it is just a standard stagger screen with the cutter going thru and fading into the corner. The defender gets caught chasing, then trying to go over the top. The switch comes but is way too late,


Mesh:

The cross route plays on mis-direction. This really messes up the matchup zone, because the criss-cross action really tests the communication ability and quick decision-making of the defense. The one foward down low sets 3 screens, in different directions,


Summary:

I really like Pitt and the way they've played all season. They're not the kind of team that can blow you out because they're patient on offense and they like to go deep into the clock. But they are one heckuva hard team to beat. I have them going to the final four and going on to play UConn in the championship game. Who knows if that is going to happen, but I do like Pitt's methodical approach, they are very resilient.

If you're interested in more zone offense from Coach Jamie Dixon, take a look at Jamie Dixon's DVD on the 3-out 2-in zone offense. Join the many coaches already talking about their favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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You can tell things are starting to get serious with March Madness only a few weeks away. One of the most hottest teams in all of college basketball, LSU against Florida tonight in SEC action. I thought LSU had a pretty decent group of athletes last year, and they really impressed me the way they finished the year with all the turmoil of Coach Brady leaving. So it's not entirely surprising to see them do so well this year, especially since the rest of the SEC took a step backwards this year.

Florida and Coach Billy Donovan really tried to throw a wrench into things tonight. They played a three-quarter run and jump press back into a 2-3 matchup zone. I really thought LSU did a good job breaking both, by being patient and relying on their skills. Here are few sequences from the first half of LSU's zone offense,






Some very basic things that LSU did in the game. First, they hit 3-pointers, 9-for-21 for the game. The other zone offensive tactics included heavy use of pass fakes, the high post, and the behind the defense. I was also impressed how remarkably patient they were, reversing the ball side to side with plenty of guys running the baseline and flashing to the high post.

Pass Fakes:

Every zone offense needs to use pass fakes, even against a matchup zone. It gives you that extra bit of time to shift the zone or defender with the pass fake then attack the gap. I like the mini pump fake here, I see a lot of guys who take the ball over their head when they pump fake. That wastes too much time. Give a little fake, then take a big lunge, which is exactly what the LSU guard does here,


Work Behind the Defense:

Next to offensive rebounding, the next most underrated tactic is working behind the defense. All zones including matchup zones are ball-oriented, meaning they watch the ball first. Therefore it's easy to lose a player that is running the baseline. Here, the LSU player (O4) seals his defender. Instead of a straight lob pass, O5 comes up to receive the pass and goes hi-low for the easy lay in,


Use the High Post:

Probably the most obvious zone offensive tactic is to use the high-post, where the zone is soft. Everyone knows this, but I still it's worth stating and restating because if you're not a great 3-point shooting team, you're going to have to rely heavily on the high-post for shots,


Summary:

I thought Florida really came out with a great gameplan tonight on the road, but LSU was up to the challenge. I've always like Trent Johnson and I enjoyed watching his Stanford teams the past few years after Mike Montgomery left. Definitely Coach Trent Johnson deserves a lot of credit for turning around LSU so quickly, but like I said, not entirely surprising given both Johnson's resume and the talent they retained. The SEC looks really weak this year, some are saying only 3 maybe less will get into the tournament. I guess we'll have to see on selection Sunday, but it's looking like LSU is going to get it's shot.

If you like Coach Trent Johnson and his LSU Tigers, then check out Trent Johnson's DVD on Half Court Quick Hitters. Be sure to head over to the X's and O's Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.

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What a day of upsets and close games. BC stunning UNC at Chapel Hill, Oregon State beating USC, Louisville and Kentucky going to the last shot. And Cal upsetting 17th ranked Arizona State. I've watched a few Cal games so far this year, the latest was in their own tournament against Dartmouth. Tonight, the Cal Bears really impressed me with their offense. One thing is for certain, Mike Montgomery is one heckuva coach and has the Cal Bears playing some great ball right now.

First off, they took advantage of some poor shot selection by the ASU Sun Devils to score in transition. In the half court, they ran a great zone offense against the ASU 3-2 matchup zone that got great looks inside and didn't settle for too many 3-pointers. A lot of baseline cuts, and screen and seals. Here are few sequences from throughout the game,




Baseline Zone Offense:

For the Cal Bears, their zone offense is all about the underneath. Because defenders in a zone offense are ball-oriented, running players behind and running screen and seal is a great way to get high percentage shots, as the defense simply cannot keep track of players underneath. All the Bears do is in a 4-out 1-in set, they reverse the ball and the 1-in on the ball side comes out to the corner, the weakside forward then sneaks in from the weakside corner to the weakside block,

They repeat from side to side, with one of the wings cutting baseline once in a while to switch up the positioning. In the video, you'll see the players constantly looking for that baseline cutter underneath.

Screen and Seal:

When the wing cuts through the baseline as the ball is reversed, the strong side forward sets a backscreen, then seals the defender. The ball can now go to the corner for the 3-pointer, or even better, to the forward who has just sealed the defender for the lob,

In the clip, you see that the defender actually gets caught between trying to cover both O3 and O5.

Dribble Penetration

Dribble penetration works great against the zone if you have quick enough guards. Beat the first defender, penetrate the gaps, then look for the forward underneath,


Summary:

Arizona State is a tremendously talented team. But watching them tonight, I thought their offense was too one-dimensional, too much 1v1 play and one and done shots. I was also surprised that ASU went zone the entire game since Cal was doing so well breaking it. I haven't watched that many ASU games so maybe it was just one game. As for Cal, I watched Mike Montgomery when he was at Stanford and loved the way his teams played. When he signed on to be the head coach at Cal earlier last year, not many people noticed, but it looks like he has Cal moving in the right direction. I would not be surprised to see them ranked by the end of the year.

If you like Coach Montgomery like I do, then check out Mike Montgomery's DVD on his 5 Man Motion and Stack Offense. Be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.

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From Friday night, I caught the college basketball game between the Texas and Stetson. With Stetson being the smaller, less athletic team, I expected them to come out playing zone and they did. I thought Coach Rick Barnes did a good job tactically and the players executed their zone offense perfectly. They really looked prepared and ready to go, a sign of a well coached team.

The zone defense that Stetson used was a 3-2 zone. Texas countered with a 1-3-1 zone offense exploiting the middle of the floor to get open shots. As a result, the Longhorns got plenty of open shots and all of their players were making shots on this night. Take a look at a couple of sequences from the first half,




Against the 3-2, Use the Ball Screen:

Against the 3-2 zone, you can really use ball screens to free up open perimeter shots. Because the defense is in a zone, when you screen the defender on the ball, there is no switch so you basically will end up with an open shot every single time,

Also notice how the defender goes underneath which allows for the wide open jumper.

Against the 3-2, Use the High Post:

The general weakness of the 3-2 on the floor is the open space in the middle. Both posts are on the low block which means the high-post is open. The Longhorns move the ball from side to side a few times, go into the high post, then out. Finally, they get it into the high post area. X4 comes up to defend but is late on the closeout,


The other option is the high-low action. Once the ball goes into the high post, you can lob it into the low post player to go 1v1.

Summary:

Simplicity works the best. Position your players in the gaps, find open shots and take them. You have to take what the defense gives you, the zone prevents the offense from driving into the lane, or post-up isolation. You will need to make outside shots, but that's why your team does all that shooting during practice, right? Making sure your team is versatile is key against any team you will face this season.

Rick Barnes doesn't make instructional videos but for more great zone offense principles from another great Big 12 head coach, take a look at Bill Self's DVD on 3-out 2-in Zone Offense. Coach Self is the head coach of the national championship Kansas Jayhawks. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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From last night, I watched most of the Michigan game against a feisty Northeastern team at the Coaches for Cancer pre-season tournament. With a lot of pundits saying the Big10 will be in a slump this year, Michigan is poised to be one of the teams that could break through and get to the NCAA tournament.

In Coach John Beilein's second full season with the Wolverines, I think a lot of people have higher expectations. We know they run the 1-3-1 zone defense, and I profiled it last season when they played UCLA tough. What I noticed in this game against Northeastern wasn't necessarily how well it worked (and it did) but how Northeastern was playing right into the traps, by dribbling into the problem areas. The ESPN announcer (not sure who) kept saying Northeastern needs to penetrate the gap, the only problem is, that only works if you have a penetrating guard. Take a look,




Penetrating the Gap:

Penetrating the gaps in a zone is one way to beat it. But as you can see, Northeastern's guards do not have the foot speed to be able to do that effectively. Michigan can close up and trap the penetrating guard easily to force the turnover,



Gapping the zone:

In my opinion, if you can't penetrate the gaps in the zone, then you need to position players in the gaps. Against the 1-3-1, I think the best way to do that is with a double high post like the 1-4 high. When the ball goes into one of the high posts, the other post can dive and you can either shoot, drive or go hi-lo, the other option is the 3-pointer in the corners,



Or you can go with an overload. Say you setup in a 1-3-1 roughly with your shooter in the middle. Your 2 posts setup a stack screen down on the low block. O3 cuts around the stack to the corner. O1 takes 1 or 2 dribbles to draw the defenders in then passes to the corner for the open 3-pointer,

X4 will probably chase O3. Regardless if O3 is open or not, O5 and O4 split. O5 heads to high post, O4 cuts to the basket. One of them should be open. The pass can come from O1 or O3 if that first pass is made,

Finally, when the ball goes to the high post, O5 can shoot, drive, or pass to O4 on the high low, O2 who has shuffled to the opposite corner, O3 still in the corner, or back out to O1 and reset,


Summary:

Remember, there are always more than one way to skin a cat. Penetrating the gaps is a good zone offense principle, but your guards have to be faster then the defense can close in. If not, you'll need to use another strategy. The good thing about gapping, is that it will work regardless of your personnel.

Northeastern actually did OK, keeping the first half score within 10. One thing to keep in mind against zone teams like Michigan who play zone mostly only after dead ball is, if you play good defense and get stops, that means you'll play Michigan M2M (Beilein feels it is difficult to transition into their 1-3-1 on live ball). Michigan's M2M defense is not nearly as good as their zone, that is usually the case for zone teams in general. That is how Northeastern kept the game close, by getting stops on defense, and scoring on Michigan's M2M.

For more specifics to counteract the 1-3-1 zone defense, check out Darrin Horn's DVD on Zone Offense Quick Hitters. Coach Horn is the new head coach at South Carolina and formerly of Western Kentucky. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum to talk hoops with other coaches.

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If there was ever a time to scheme plays or design something specific on offense, it would definitely be on zone offense. There are a lot of continuity or motion offenses that you can run against a zone, but I think in certain situations, you want to be able to have 2 or 3 designed and practiced plays that you can go to for a quick 2 or 3 points in a critical time in the game.

I went through some notes from a Larry Brown coaches clinic and found this neat zone offensive play. It's from USC head coach Tim Floyd and it's a misdirection play. So the basic idea is to move the ball quickly from sideline to sideline getting the zone defense to shift and react to the ball, then overload. Here is how it breaks down,

Misdirection:

3-out 2-in alignment. O1 passes to O2. Then O2 quickly reverses the ball back to O1 and O1 reverses to O3,


On the catch by O3, O4 goes to the other block and seals that zone defender. O5 flashes up to the middle, around the high-post. O2 shuffles to the opposite corner,


O3 first looks for O4 on the seal in the post. If O4 is unable to seal the zone defender there, then O3 looks for the skip to O2 who should be open in the corner,


Of course, you need to make sure your players can make good skip passes and long post-entry passes. If you're coaching at the lower levels, JV or lower, that pass is probably too difficult to make.

Summary:

There are of course many ways you can attack a zone, but this play demonstrates a couple of good things. First is moving the ball sideline to sideline. I really believe one of the best ways against a zone defense is to make the defense work. When you move the ball side to side, the defense eventually gets tired, they take shortcuts or get lazy, then they don't move as well, that is when you can exploit those weaknesses.

If you're interested in more overload or zone offense techniques, then you'll enjoy Tom Izzo's DVD on the 1-3-1 Zone Offense. As always, head over to the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk with other coaches about your favorite basketball topics.

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Two terrific games at the Olympics today in Beijing. First, Spain with the gutsy win over Lithuania in the early game. Then Team USA beating a resilient Argentinian team that almost took it to the Americans without Manu Ginobili who went down in the first quarter with an ankle injury.

A lot of people will point to the apparent phantom foul call by the referee on the 3-point shot by Carmelo Anthony to close out the half as the play that changed the game. Certainly from a momentum standpoint, that halted the ferocious 2nd quarter surge by the Argentinians. But I felt that Team USA came out of halftime with a different mentality on attacking the zone that frustrated them so much in that 2nd quarter. Credit to Coach K for making the necessary adjustments during halftime. Really, the Americans didn't do anything special scheme wise. I saw 1 or 2 nice BLOB plays they used against the zone inbounds, but other than that Team USA just kept to basics to beat the zone.

Early Postup:

Just because it is a zone defense doesn't mean you can't fast break or run an early offense. In fact, one of the best ways to beat the zone is for your forwards to go key to key and gain an early postup advantage. That is exactly what Dwight Howard does here getting very deep postup position in the lane,


Skip Passes:

Probably the most significant change Team USA made coming out of halftime was moving the ball side to side. It's that old hoosiers line "3 passes before you shoot". Nothing fancy here, Team USA is spread in a 4-out 1-in, and they just move the ball from side to side and Dwight Howard is going from block to block. Eventually, there is a breakdown in the zone defense with all the side to side action and allows Howard inside position for the dunk,


Use Pump Fakes:

This is probably just lack of preparation and scouting by Argentina who from what I understand don't like running the zone defense. Here, Scola goes back to play the ball after the pass out from the post to the wing. Kidd receives the ball and gives a head fake, Scola bites on the fake and jumps at him (bad mistake as we all know Kidd can't shoot well), Kidd dumps off a nice bounce pass to Chris Bosh who nails the shot from the short corner,


Offensive Rebounding:

Last but not least, you can almost single handily beat a zone defense if you have great offensive rebounding. Because the defense is playing the ball, it is elementary for your forwards to get underneath the defense and grab the rebounds. In fact Team USA outrebounded Argentina 16-9 on the offensive glass and 43 to 32 overall. Off the 3-pointer miss, Dwyane Wade flies into the open lane and skies to tap the ball back to his teammates,


Summary:

Zone defenses can work extremely when used by a less athletic team trying to nullify the athletic advantage. Zone defenses can become a killer to beat offensively if your team is undisciplined and makes bad decisions no matter how athletic you are. In the first half, when Argentina reluctantly switched to the zone, that is exactly what happened. Team USA settled for 3-pointers, didn't share the ball and just didn't play smart overall. In the second half, they started to pass the ball, get offensive rebounds, and make smart decisions, and it worked.

Tomorrow, Team USA faces Spain in a rematch of their round robin game. The difference I felt in that game was the toughness factor. Team USA bullied the Spanish players around for 40 minutes and they didn't know quite how to respond. We'll see if Team Spain is up for the challenge. They seemed able to toughen it out against a solid Lithuanian team so who knows.

More info for you coaches on zone offense, this is Ronnie Arrow's DVD on his Inside/Outside Zone Offense. Coach Arrow is the head coach of the University of South Alabama. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk about this and your favorite basketball topics.

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When you have shooters, all your troubles just melt away. Watching the U18 FIBA Championships yesterday in a match between Team Greece and Team Croatia. Greece won by 30 or more, but the score was not indicative of the talent. I would say, that both have about equal talent, but Greece did a much better job of breaking down the zone defense by Croatia with the outside shot.

There really was nothing complicated with Greece's zone offense. They run it out of a 4-out 1-in set, and overload, then reverse the ball. They got a ton of offensive rebounds (which is expected against the zone), and just shot the lights out. So simple, take a look at some clips from the second half,



Team Greece demonstrates all the fundamental you need to do to beat zones. They show that you don't necessarily need a great zone offense but as long as your players have great fundamentals, you can beat the zones with easily by:

1. Ball reversals and skip passes forcing the zone to shift and morph
2. Penetrating the gaps to force the defense to collapse
3. Running a player or 2 underneath the zone into the blind spots

Pick and Pop:

There is a misconception out there that you can't screen a zone. In fact, a lot of great plays like pick and roll or pick and pop work great against the zone. Here they use the pick and pop. Because the zone defense reacts to the ball, it's easy for the screener to move to an open spot,


Ball Reversals:

Against the zone, what I really like is to make the defense work, which in turn helps you on defense because it tires the defense out. People underestimate the conditioning aspect of a zone, but if you reverse the ball over and over, it has quite the effect for the defense which has to constantly react to the movement of the ball. Here, Greece is basically playing keep away until they get a skip pass to their dead-eye shooter Pappas who catches and shoots,


Summary:

Now, if you don't have good shooters, you'll have to design your zone offense probably through the high-post. But shooters make things so much easier. I remember coaching girls one year, and we had this dead-eye shooter, nobody could zone us, we'd just kill them with the outside shot.

For more zone offense video info, check out Jim Boeheim's DVD on his Simple Zone Offense. Coach Boeheim stresses ball movement and player movement in his zone offense system. You can watch Syracuse Coach Boeheim this month as an assistant with Team USA in Beijing. Discuss your favorite zone offenses at the X's and O's Basketball Forum with other coaches from around the world.

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It's been over a week since the last Phoenix Mercury game I watched and it seems they are still resigned to running their matchup zone defense. They played the Los Angeles Sparks tonight in LA, and they Sparks absolutely picked apart the Mercury's defense. The Mercury made a few late 3-pointers in the 4th quarter to prevent the blowout, but essentially, they didn't make any required adjustments.

If the Sparks are set at any positions, it definitely is at the foward/center positions. Instead of having Candace Parker (CP3) run the point, I like the high-low zone offense here with Lisa Leslie the passer at the top of the key and CP3 finishing down low. Take a look at these 3 sequences,



High-Low Zone Offense:

There really isn't much X's and O's in the play. They position CP3 from block to block, and the Sparks reverse the ball from side to side. Once CP3 seals her defender, Leslie looks for the high-low entry.

Ball reversal, CP3 goes block to block looking to seal,


Back up top, CP3 seals the smaller Diana Taurasi,


The lob pass, easier with a tall Leslie to the tall CP3,


Summary:

So, the Mercury are at 8-9 now on the season. I don't think anyone can deny now, other teams have caught on to what they do offensively, and defensively, their matchup zone is too predictable to be effective. With 3 weeks left before they head to Beijing for the Olympics, I think it's time the coaching staff think about some adjustments, especially on defense.

As for the Sparks, I think they played the way they should, half-court, use their size. I know Coach Michael Cooper blew up the other day about their lack of backcourt skill, but I think that was counter-productive. They're not going to get any significant upgrade at this point, so instead of ripping his guards down, he should be looking for ways to make them useful. A slow-down half-court game plays to their advantage.

For more zone offense video info, check out Ronnie Arrow's new DVD on High Efficiency Zone Offense. Coach Arrow stresses post touches for each possession in his zone offense system. Coach Arrow is the head coach at the University of South Alabama. Discuss your favorite zone offenses at the X's and O's Basketball Forum with other coaches from around the world.

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It was my first game of the year watching the defending champion Phoenix Mercury so far, and like their 4-7 record indicated, their play was sub-par. They still lead the league in points scored at 87 ppg, but the problem is they're allowing 90 ppga. On Sunday, the New York Liberty blew them out by 30.

I think what's happened is that teams are more accustomed to the way the Mercury play, which is basically similar to the Phoenix Suns, 7 seconds or less. Teams are getting back into transition defense quicker and forcing them to use up more clock.

I didn't watch them much last year, but in the game on Sunday, I noticed that the Mercury played a lot of zone, especially in the first half. The Liberty did a great job breaking the zone and in the process, blowing the game out wide open,



1-3-1 Zone Offense:

The basic formation of the Liberty's zone offense is the 1-3-1 against the Mercury's 3-2 matchup zone. The emphasis is on moving the ball side-to-side and using ball-fakes to move the defense. The ball also enters the high post area to draw the defenders in. The last part is teaching your O5 to play the weak side offensive rebound. The skip pass to 3-pointer is the scoring play here,


In this second clip, the Liberty penetrate the gap, then the kick out and reverse to the shooting guard who shuffles to the corner. When there is a big gap, like here between the top and wing defenders, you must penetrate and make the defense suck inward, then kick out,


Summary:

I'm a huge Diana Taurasi fan, ever since her days at UConn. Her and Sue Bird keep a pretty lively blog called the Buddy Blog, you should check it out if you can. I love the way she plays, she's like a bulldog, relentless, aggressive and hungry. I also like her emotion, she's not afraid to show her feelings. She still leads the league in ppg, but clearly, the defense has been a problem. I think the zone was introduced because they thought it might slow some other teams down, but I think it's working against them. I think they should go back to M2M and break their players down some on the fundamentals. The zone, IMO, is a band aid solution, and not a good one at that.

For more zone offense info, Ben Braun has a new DVD on Principles of Zone Offense. Coach Braun is the head coach at Rice University. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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From last night's WNBA game between the Washington Mystics and the Chicago Sky. For most of the game, both teams played tough M2M defense, deny 1 pass away, good help side and recover. It forced both teams to shoot a poor percentage, particularly from beyond the 3-point line.

As the game wound down to the final 2 minutes, both teams switched their defenses (which I do favor tactically), the Mystics went to a 2-3 zone and the Sky to a packline M2M. Both teams offense reacted accordingly and made their first 3-pointers, take a look,



Penetrate and Kick vs Zone Defense:

The Sky did a good job out of the Timeout to move the ball side-to-side then penetrate the zone and find the open 3-pointer in the corner,


Inside to Outside vs Zone/Pack Defense:

Against the matchup zone that the Sky were using, the Mystics got the ball inside into their post, waited for the defense to collapse, then found the wide open shooter on the wing (with the shot clock winding down no less),


Summary:

I like the idea of switching defenses at the end of games to get the other team out of their offensive execution. But I think the zone is an invitation for the other team to shoot open shots. If you change defenses, I think the general philosophy would be to take a risk, either a trap, or a double, or a switch of matchups, the zone gives up the open shot.

For more tips on zone offense, take a look at Mike Krzyzewski's DVD on Attacking the Zone. For more great basketball discussions, be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball forum.

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