To all the coaches, players, ballers, it is vital to learn to use the pass fake. Against zone teams, double-team rotations (in this case), SWARM, etc, the pass fake is essential in creating space and exploiting defenses that jump to the ball while the pass is in the air. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.
I won't scheme this one up because it's pretty easy to see how this play develops just from the video. Vince Carter is doubled on the low block. The pass back up to Jason Kidd at the top creates the first rotation. Kidd passes to Antoine Wright causing the defense to rotate again, notice they rotate while the pass is in the air. Wright does a great pass fake to the corner causing his man to jump to the ball fake and the other rotating man to freeze which gives him a wide open lane to the basket.
If you are struggling against teams that use defensive rotations exclusively, the pass fake and to a lesser extent the shot fake are essential skills to teach your players.
Remember, the reason why this works is because these rotational defenses are designed to jump to the ball while in the air. If the other team doesn't bite on the ball-fake, they aren't running the defensive rotation properly and a simple quick ball reversal will beat it.
A great drill to run would be actually a defensive drill, the shell drill. You can use a 4-on-4 shell and emphasize the ball-fake against a defense that is trapping and rotating.
There is a pretty good new video, Paul Hewitt's DVD on Individual Player Instruction. In it, coach Hewitt talks especially about the ball reversal, middle and baseline drives. Coach Hewitt of course is the popular head coach of Georgia Tech where he runs a very sound 4-out 1-in motion offense. As usual, check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum for notes and downloads.
Staying on the theme of tryouts and pre-season practices, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite drills/scrimmages that will help you evaluate your players in their ability to play within a team environment. This is a drill I found from notes with Mike Dunlap. It's basically 3-on-3 full-court with no dribbling. This is how the basic rules work,
3-on-3 full court
A. The rules
1) no dribbles
2) games played to 2 points
3) defense calls fouls, 2 fouls = team loss
4) pick up 3/4 on defense
5) taking a charge = team win
6) the long outlet
7) no cherry picking, all players must cross half when ball crosses half
B. Structure
1) winner’s court/ loser’s court & rotation
2) running time
3) changing roles and emphasis
As coach Dunlap says, this is both a good conditioning drill as well as one that emphasizes movement without the ball. How to properly execute all the basic cuts, this drill forces the players to do it properly.
There is a really good Grassroots Basketball DVD with Ganon Baker on the Art of getting open. It goes through all the different techniques and drills to get your players to become better players without the ball. Again, these are fundamental skill especially if you are using any kind of a motion offense. I have the full notes to this drill so be sure to check them out at the X's and O's of Basketball Forum.
If you are going to run a fast-break style offense, you must drill your players to rip the ball out of the net and get the ball deep as quickly as possible. These are the kinds of plays that help you win games, strike quickly after a made basket. You'll see how the Spurs run this to get a quick 2 points, watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.
Last year, we ran some fast break stuff similar to this play where our 2 guard would leak after an opponent shot, make or miss. On a make, whichever forward/center was closest would rip the ball out of the net get to the baseline and baseball pass it to the 2 guard way down court. We drilled this almost every practice and it was definitely good for at least 2 to 8 points per game and more importantly acted as a great press breaker by keeping the other team honest.
I like any kind of strategy or play which forces the opposing team to react to you, and this is definitely the kind of play that will do that. The real key here is to make sure your forwards rip the ball out of the net before it touches the ground.
If you are looking for something truly unique, take a look at Dave Arsenault's Running to Win DVD. Coach Arseneault is of course the creator of the record-setting Run and Gun system that he uses at Grinnell College. Think of the Phoenix Suns on steriods.
I have some coach Arsenault notes so be check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum.
Now, many of you coaches especially at the lower levels are going through player tryouts right now. I posted earlier on some of the things to consider when running a tryout. I wanted to get you all to start thinking about when the time comes to make the cuts and make those hard choices, what are some possible scenarios to consider.
In a perfect world, we'd just keep all the kids or form another team. But most if not all of us don't live in that perfect world, we have to make cuts. So, I just wanted to throw in a hypothetical situation that will hopefully get the brain thinking some more about your team, your players, and what you hope to accomplish for the season.
Situation:
OK, say you're the head coach of a JV team (frosh and sophs) and you've had your tryouts and 12 or 13 spots have been decided by you and your coaching staff. That was the easy part. Now, there are 5 kids leftover and you have to choose just one (remember, this is a hypothetical, in a real world, we probably pick 2 or 3). The profile of the remaining kids are as follows in no particular order:
A. Kid A is a phenomenal athlete. Star running back for the football team and can run like the wind, football coaches say he has a great work ethic. Problem is that Kid A has never played organized basketball in his life. Couldn't tell you the difference between a box out and a close out.
B. Kid B is a really smart and nice kid. Top 5 student in his class. Kid B picks things up very quickly and has decent skills, but unfortunately he's only 5-foot-3. He maybe able to play point for you this year, but problem is that you already have too many guards on the team and Kid B may not play much.
C. Kid C is one of the best shooters on the team and a real basketball fan. Problem is Kid C is overweight and has trouble getting up and down the court. Kid C maybe able to contribute later in the season but at the beginning will need to focus on conditioning.
D. Kid D is probably the best basketball player of the 5 but is diagnosed with ADD and has problems concentrating in the classroom. Kid D has the height to possibly play varsity but you're not sure if his attention problems will affect his ability to learn.
E. Kid E is one of the tallest players on the team at 6-foot-4. Problem is that Kid E is on academic probation and won't be able to play until January. You have plenty of guards and could use an extra forward or 2, especially as playoffs approach.
Summary:
There really aren't any right answers here. The point here is that coaches have some real tough decisions to make when it comes to making cuts. It's a tough thing to tell a kid that they aren't good enough to make the team. I remember when I missed the cut for my Freshman team many many years ago, it was devastating to me.
If I had to pick only 1 player, I would probably go with Kid E and possibly Kid A as those kids probably have the best chance of making an impact at the Varsity level and you want to pick up players that potentially will help the Varsity team down the road. But you can easily make a justification really for picking any of the 5.
If you or your son/daughter happen to be one of those players that did not make their respective team this year, there are some great videos to look at that will help you become a better player and hopefully make the team next year. Take a look at 5Star's DVD on the Individual Improvement plan. As I've said before, let's not forget the famous case of Michael Jordan, who was cut from his Varsity team his sophomore year but made it as a Junior and led them to the state title. If MJ can do it, so can you.
If you're looking for tryout stuff, I have plenty of notes so be sure to check them out at the X's and O's of Basketball Forum.
The Bill Self hi-lo motion offense is probably one of the more popular but complex offenses used at the high school levels. We use portions of it ourselves the past 2 years and it has served us very well. It is also a very patient offense similar to something like the Bo Ryan's Swing Offense. Bill Self has ran it at Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas where he coaches now. Though Self claims he installed it in 4 days while at Tulsa, my own experience has been that it takes time and repetition to learn the hi-lo properly. This is just one iteration of the many continuities in his offense, the weak-side cut continuity. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.
Setup:
This is a 3-out 2-in motion offense. To run it, you want to ideally have at least 4 good forward/center types in your rotation. This offense will allow you to get the ball deep in the paint where your posts can bang one-on-one against the defense. 
Self has a couple of rules for his posts,
- if the ball is entered into the ball-side post, the weak-side post should dive to the basket (for a dump off or offensive put-back). Perimeter players straddle 3-point line
- if the ball is passed into the low post on the weak-side, strong-side post sets stagger screen for corner player
These are just rules for the low posts. There are more rules for the weak-side action on the reversal which I will need to go over in another post.
Hi-lo:
At the heart of the offense is one post coming up to the high post to receive the pass from the wing. O5 in this case the high man, looks for O4 coming across the lane.
I haven't shown in the diagrams, but depending on how X4 plays O4, O5 will either look for the quick dump, lob or side-entry. As the defense adjusts, you must teach your players to adjust. So if they front, you must lob. If they double, you must adjust.
Ball Reversal:
When the ball is reversed, here you'll see the cross block screen. O4 sets the cross block for O5 who ducks underneath looking for the quick hitter.
If not there, the ball is passed up top to the high post O4 who has popped up after the screen. O4 will look again for the hi-lo. And the motion will continue from there.
Summary:
If you're confused, don't worry, I was too when I was first learning this offense. And this is just 1 iteration, the weak-side cut continuity. There is a strong-side cut continuity as well as several set plays and quick hitters.
But if you master the offense, it can be very efficient. It works for both M2M and zone defenses and if you have good perimeter shooters, this offense is almost perfect. Our team has had some great posts so we've based our offense on the hi-lo and it's been very good to us.
If there was one drawback with the hi-lo, I would say it is that because your posts are occupying 2 of the 4 spots around the key, there isn't much space for penetration by the perimeter players. That can frustrate some guards, but again, you just have to be patient.
Of course, if you're looking at implementing the hi-lo, Bill Self's new Hi-lo DVD is a must see. It's a newer version of his 1999 video with some more updated sets. And, it's only $34.99 so that's a bonus in itself after all those other expensive ones. Coach Self's DVD on the hi-lo is considered the best one out there.
Also, be sure to check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum for the plethora of notes that I have including Bill Self hi-lo stuff.
Watching the Pistons beat the Heat tonight, I captured this video from the highlights that features Pistons' guard Tayshaun Prince finishing it with a nice jumper. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.
You can't actually see the formation at the beginning, but my guess is that it's a box set to start. 
So O2 is Tayshaun, O1 is Chauncey Billups, O4 is Rasheed Wallace, O5 is Maxille I think. O3 is the inbounder but I'm not sure who it is.
Tayshaun comes off of a curl screen set by Rasheed who is facing towards the sideline. Now depending on how the defense plays, in this case Tayshaun's man is following/trailing so it's a catch and shoot. If the defender is cheating underneath, Tayshaun can pop out to the 3-point line instead and pop the 3.
For more information, there is a Winning Hoops DVD with over 70 baseline inbounds plays. I also have lots of inbounds stuff so head over to the X's and O's Basketball Forum to take a look and see what I have.
I was watching clips yesterday and this interview with Billy Donovan really stood out to me. Coach Donovan is coming off back-to-back NCAA national championships and all 5 of his starters from the previous year have moved on. In talking about this coming year, he talks about the importance of adjusting the offense to take advantage of the talent he has this year. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.
I think this is an important concept, sometimes it's easy to reuse the same offense/defense year in and year out. I'm not accusing coaches of being lazy, I understand that as a coach, it's often times better to coach a system that you know really well, rather than to try and teach a new system that you are only vaguely familiar with. But recognizing the talent that you have and making adjustments is something that I feel is important.
I was coaching football at another school and we ran the spread offense one year. It was good because we had some tall receivers and we didn't have a power back that could run between the tackles. The next year, the head coach decides we will continue running the spread. Not only did we not have a quarterback that could throw more than 50 yards, but we had average speed at best at the split ends. We did however have a dominating full-back type player who we played as a tight-end instead. You can probably guess how well we did that season.
Enough of the preachy stuff, if you're looking for a nice video, check out Billy Donovan's DVD on Individual Skill Development within Your Offense. In it Donovan goes over teaching your players those specific skills that will make them a successful player during the season. It's a good pre-season video to look at. I have notes from the DVD, come by the X's and O's Basketball Forum to check them out.
