I was just reading the latest Xavier Newsletter that the great staff of Sean Miller produces every other week. I've run similar passing/defense combined drills before, but this one looks awesome especially if you run any kind of 5-out or 4-out motion offense. Here is the lowdown:

USC - MAN DRILL

"Can you do conditioning with a ball in your hand instead of just running?" This drill evolved from this question.

Drill involves 10 players - 5 on offense vs. 5 on defense. It is executed for :45-:60 seconds in the NBA and :90 seconds in college.

Rules: No dribbling, no screening, no shooting. Emphasize passing! As one player has the ball the other four offensive players make 10-15 ft. cuts - no 3 ft. cuts are allowed. The drill is initiated by a coach or manager who is out of bounds. This initial pass does not count.

From this pass forward every time a pass is completed the receiver yells the # on the catch. A coach always encourages offensive movement. Anytime that you make a pass as a player you then cut. On any deflected pass or turnover pass a manager or coach who is out of bounds quickly passes the ball to an offensive player to keep the pace of the drill moving. This pass is not counted.

As a defender, your responsibility is to NOT allow your man to receive a pass. Deny everywhere. At the end of the allotted time you count the number of catches by the offense as a unit, or the number of catches by individual players. The drill flip flops with the offense going to defense and the defense going to offense. Use two rotations.

Great conditioner, very competitive, high accountability. Beware of "brother and law" deals happening. Make players guard different offensive players.

Learn to improve your offensive skills, the Sean Miller way. Sean Miller's DVD on Offensive Improvement has some great info on 1v1 play. How to use your feet, explosion series, very relevant video in the modern dribble drive era. As always, please check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk hoops and exchange notes and ideas.

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Nothing gets me going more than watching a team play great defense. In their win last night against the Detroit Shock, the Connecticut Sun played some great man-to-man defense against the Shock and was the main reason why they won the game, their first in over 10 tries.

There wasn't one thing specifically, but I put together a few plays which showed what a good M2M defensive team looks like. They got their hands into the passing lanes to deflect and steal lazy passes, they had great help-side defense to stop penetration, and finally I liked the way they played tough against the Shock by bumping Katie Smith and making her work for her points. Take a look,



Deny Defense, Deflections:

In good help and recover M2M, it's important for your guards to get into good deny position 1 pass away. Facing the check, 1 hand outward with thumbs pointing down. Here, the Shock just make a lazy pass from the inbounds and Lindsay Whelan is in great position to jump the pass and turn it into a fast break bucket,


Help-side, Stop Penetration:

Now, regardless of whether you advocate fighting through screens, or switching all screens, the ultimate goal is to stop penetration. In this clip, the Sun do a great job of forcing baseline, then the help-side switches and forces the penetration all the way to the baseline and forces the turnover over,


Bump the Cutter:

The Shock run some great plays for Katie Smith and Deanna Nolan, their best shooters. In fact, I'd say, they run a lot of stagger sets that resemble what the Pistons ran under both Flip and Larry for Rip. One of the ways to disrupt that kind of offense, is to teach your help-side defenders to bump the cutters. What you're teaching is impedance, and not to actually initiate contact which is a foul. In this play, Katie is bumped preventing her from receiving a pass to her on the block. So instead, she ends up going back the other way off some more stagger screens, and takes a much longer shot which she misses,


Summary:

I watched the Sun last week when they beat my Seattle Storm and was very impressed with their toughness. After watching them beat the Shock last night, I was even more impressed with their attention to the little things. They rebound extremely well, they shoot a good percentage, they're patient on offense, they close out well, they stop penetration, they stay down on defense, etc... They play the game the right way, and that's a direct reflection of their coach, Mike Thibault.

For a unique video on defensive philosophy, take a look at Larry Shyatt's DVD on 7 Ways to Develop a Defensive Mindset. Coach Shyatt is an assistant on Billy Donovan's coaching staff at University of Florida. Talk about your late game situations over at the X's and O's Basketball Forum with other great coaches from around the world.

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Throughout the season, I've started to see more and more teams use a zone to defend the under the basket inbounds (BLOB) play. On the one hand, I think the zone is good at protecting the basket, but at the same time, it leaves you extremely vulnerable if the other team knows you are running a zone and can take advantage of it.

I saw this play from a book that I read, it appears on the surface that it would work very well against the zone. Depending on how the zone is defending (either packed in or spread to defend), it is flexible to take advantage of either situation.

Zone BLOB:

The set formation is a 2-2, with O1 inbounding and your best shooters setup at each corner. Your forwards are setup at each elbow of the lane. Against, the packed in zone (diag 1), you should be able to get an open 3-pointer with a pass to O2 or O3 along the baseline. Against a team that wants to spread out and defend the extremes (diag 2), your forwards O4 and O5 do an X-cut, guaranteed to throw off the zone defense for a quick score under the basket.

In fact, you can and should run the X-cut anyways, against any zone that hasn't prepared for it, should be a guaranteed bucket.

Your safety in this situation is O2. If O2 is being completely overplayed, O2 should be able to cut to towards the inbounder to receive the pass before a 5-second count.

Summary:

I'd venture to guess that most teams that zone up the inbounds are probably packed in zones, looking to protect the basket. So the O2 and O3 3-pointers are probably the most likely plays out of this set. The X-cut is a nice surprise option for teams that haven't scouted you.

For more great video infor from a truly great basketball mind, take a look at Hubie Brown's DVD Part I + II on Special Situations. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and other basketball topics.

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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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Now that the season is over, I'll have a chance to take a look at a few more interesting sets and ponder what ifs, etc... Basically random stuff that may or may not interest some of the casual reader, but hopefully will be insightful to you coaches out there that are preparing for Oct (can't believe that it's only 3.5 months away).

Today, we'll take a look at something that I came by a few months ago but haven't been able to post until now. This is the Double Motion Offense from Bill Kuchar who is a high school coach in New Jersey. In my opinion, it's kind of a hybrid between a flex motion and a blocker-mover motion. There is a lot of screen, re-screen, and cross cutting action that may confuse some teams, so therefore I'd recommend you use it if you're already running some form of flex or blocker-mover. Here is what Coach Kuchar says about the offense:

I designed this offense [...]. that would give our star scorer better-percentage shots, which would translate into higher scoring [...]. the offense is predicated on the success of the point guard, shooting guard, and small forward - those are generally known to be the 3 best shooters on the court.

Setup / Initial Motion:

The initial setup is a 1-2-2, but the wings go wider out from the elbows and the corners start inside the 3-point line.

Diag 1
1. O1 is your PG, and starts the offense by passing to O4.
2. At the same time, O2 sets a downscreen for O3.
3. O1 sets a stagger for O3 who curls around the screen and does a basket cut.
4. O4 has 3 options in this initial set, pass to O3 for the 3, O3 for the basket cut, or O3 who comes off a baseline screen by O5 for a corner 3-pointer

Diag 2
5. If none of those options are available, O1 is already going to set a downscreen for O2, who curls around looking for the free-throw line midrange shot from O4. O1 rolls to the basket and seals his defender for a quick look-in from O4.
6. O5 re-screens along the baseline for O3 who comes over the top this time and does a basket cut looking for the pass from O4, then L cuts back up to the opposite elbow.



Final Option to Reset:

Diag 3 and 4
7. If none of these options are available, O4 passes to O2 who drifts to the top of the key. O1 clears out to avoid the 3-second in the lane call.
8. O2 passes to O3 who pivots and faces the basket, if the drive is possible, then O3 can drive to the basket, preferably in no more than 1 dribble.
9. O5 sets an UCLA upscreen for O4 and if open O3 passes to O4 on the basket cut.
10. If still no open looks, O3 passes back to O2 and the motion resets to the 1-2-2- set.



Summary:

Hopefully you see now what I mean by combo of the flex and blocker-mover. O4 and O5 are basically your blockers and O1, O2 and O3 are your movers. It uses the downscreen and baseline screens exclusively, just like a flex. It's good because in your traditional blocker-mover motion, it's very much random screening and cutting and guys are bumping into each other a lot. This double motion offense has a little more structure, but not so much structure that it becomes too predictable.

I don't know any specific teams that run this offense, but the flex teams out there in men's div1 are Boston College, Gonzaga and Maryland. The Blocker/Mover teams are Texas Tech and Washington St. If you've seen a team run this, I'd definitely like to hear your comments about it in live action.

There is no specific video for the double motion offense, but you can combine concepts in Dick Bennett's DVD on the Blocker/Mover Offense and Gary Williams Mastering the Flex to teach this basic offense. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.

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First off, what a fantastic game last night between the Minnesota Lynx and the Detroit Shock. Just when it looked like the Lynx were going to walk away with the win in the 4th quarter, Deanna Nolan went crazy with the 3-pointers sending the game to OT where the Shock went on to beat the Lynx.

This is a really short clip. But the more I think about it, the more I don't like the idea of jamming the outlet or trapping the rebounder after a missed shot. Anytime you make an aggressive play like that, it's a risk/reward type deal. In my opinion, the risk of giving up an easy basket as a result of the jam/trap is not worth the reward which is the occasional chance to slow the other team's fast break. I know, it probably appears like I'm selectively picking a sequence just to prove my point, but I've seen this sequence play out more often than what the jam/trap was intended to do. Take a look,



Fast Break off Jam the Rebound:

In theory, if executed properly, the trap on the rebounder should force a TO, either a bad pass, travel or 5 second call. The problem here, specifically, is that Candice Wiggins of the Lynx is too quick of a ball handler to trap. Especially when she hasn't started her dribble yet. She gets around her defenders and it's basically a 5-on-3 break,

Even if they didn't double-team her, I still think the trap on the rebounder wouldn't be very effective. Wiggins would continue beating her defender off the dribble and it would be a 5-on-4 break.

Summary:

I think that in some very specific cases, jamming the rebounding may be effective. Maybe against a team that had a prolific outlet passer like Kevin Love, it may work to jam him so that he can't make that long baseball pass. But otherwise, I think traditional, run back to your own key is a better way for transition defense.

On the flip side, if I'm on offense and the other team is jamming my rebounders, I'm telling them to break to the middle of the floor and take advantage of numbers. Turn the other team's aggressiveness against them by getting out in transition. If you're a transition team, jamming the outlet really shouldn't prevent you from still running, and in fact will probably work to your advantage if you are quicker than the other team.

For more on transition defense, you should check out Chris Lowery's new DVD on Transition Defense and Halfcourt M2M. Coach Lowery is the brains behind the Southern Illinois tenacious defense. 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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I've finally had some downtime the past couple of days and I took that time to reorganize my inventory of coaching notes that I've downloaded the past few months. I updated the Downloads Page with the newest updates and I will try to upload some notes everyday. The new stuff (well some of it is probably old by now) is listed below,

Anyways, coaches, thanks for your support and happy reading...


Clinic Notes

Central Iowa 2007 2nd annual Clinic Notes
Billy Donovan UF Coaching Clinic
Bruce Weber Thoughts
Double Pump Clinic Notes
John Wooden Coaching Tips
Lisa Stone Clinic
Okshkosh Spartan Girls Basketball Manual
Percy Carr - San Jose City College Coaching Clinic
Todd Barry - Briar Cliff University

Defense

Matchup Zone Rules by CarlCarl2
Ernie Woods - Disruptive Pressure Philosophy
Jeff Lebo - Double the post
Creighton Burns - Point Zone
Tusculum Pressure Pack Line Defense
SIU Rush Drill, by coach Sixteenhorsepower
St. John's - Storming the Boards
Todd Voss - Concordia Defensive Philosophy
Vivian Stringer - 55 Full Court press

Offense

Beatrice, Omaha, Attacking Zones
Michael Pfeuffer Blocker Mover Offense
Coach LSU -Zone Quick Hitter Against 3-2
Dick Bennett, Blocker Mover Offense
Haefner - Winning Plays
Heath Millar, Frankston Basketball, 5-out Offense
Houston Rockets series
Iowa Press Break
Jim Seward - Offensive philosophy
John Carrier - Open Post Motion Notes4
Minnesota Timberwolves 1997 play book
Oregon's Open and Early offense
Perkins County - Oklahoma 1-4 Offense
Phoenix Suns Offensive sets
Rick Torbett - read and react offence
Stinson - 3out Zone Offense
Will Rey - Universal System for Attacking Presses

Drills

Australia Basketball Dribbling
Billy Gillispie In Your Face Pressure Defensive Drills
Brian Goorjian - bommers indiv def tech
Duke Drills for Defense
Duke Drive and Kick Drill
Frankston & District Drills 1.1
Gregg Popovich Spurs Drill
Haefner - Winning Drills
Herb Livsey Teaching Shooting
Johnston, South Dakota Women's - Offensive drills
KU Women's 1v1 Drills
Northeastern State - Individual workout drills
Purdue Intensity Drills
Sample Varsity Lifting Schedule
Sean Miller Offensive Improvement drills
shooting and conditioning drill
SMU 20 Shooting 20 Drills
Syracuse Running Program
Wake Forest - Competitive Rebounding Drills Diagram

Program Building

Basketball Team Dysfunctions
Bessen, St. Marys HS Girls Coaches Manual
Developing Your Coaching Philosophy
Errol Gauff - Team Building

Dribble Drive, Walberg Stuff

Memphis Off 24 pages
Memphis Blood Drills
Vance Walberg Scouting the Memphis DDM

FIBA

FIBA Amadou Gallo Fall Basketball for Life
FIBA Matteo Boniciolli Side Screen Readings
FIBA Mike McHugh Defensive Transition
FIBA Joan Plaza Zone Offense, Fundamentals
FIBA Don Casey 3-2 and 2-3 Zone Presses
FIBA Ryan Krueger Coaching Terminology
FIBA Mario Blasone Neglected Fundamentals
FIBA Pete Newell How to go to the Rebound
FIBA Oktay Mahmuti The Secondary Fastbreak
FIBA Flip Saunders Pistons 50 Defense
FIBA Ernie Woods Statistics to Evaluate Defensive Performance

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