Don't let the lack of clips from the Euroleague fool you, I like watching Euro basketball and I have been watching just haven't been uploading. I read this interesting article on NBA.com about the differences between European and American basketball that was posted on the Yahoo! forum. I agree with Coach Terry Stotts' observations for the most part especially about the differences in passing versus the 1-on-1 play we see so much of here in America.
One thing I think Stotts didn't write about but others have which I strongly agree with is that European players shoot the ball much better than Americans. With the trapezoid key, I think it's even more important that players shoot the ball well. You cannot rely on a Dwight Howard to camp on the low block, catch and throw it down anymore. Athleticism becomes less important, skill much more important. This point cannot be under-emphasized, European teams have leveled the playing field with the US because of their shooting. As I've said in the past, shooting is the great talent equalizer. It doesn't take raw talent to be a good shooter, it just takes practice.
Back to the action, this is just a great example of the simplicity of team basketball. It's probably one of the oldest plays ever, the UCLA upscreen. It's remarkable how so many decades later, it still works so well. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,
If you only have 1 play in your playbook, I would probably choose one that involved a UCLA screen. It's so fundamental, so simple, and so effective. I understand that the Manorca player missed the layup, but that doesn't take away from how great a play this is.
UCLA Upscreen to Backdoor:
I'm diagramming it out of a 1-4 high set, even though in the video it doesn't really appear to be 1-4, this will give you more structure to teach it. 
O1 passes to O3. Simultaneously O2 goes down to the low block then sets the UCLA upscreen on O4's defender. O4 curls around the screen and comes around underneath for the backdoor play.
Summary:
Team basketball is my theme for tonight and I will post later another great team basketball sequence, but good screens and good passes lead to good shots. I think we as coaches can learn a lot from European basketball, especially in terms of player development. All European players can defend, rebound, shoot, pass and dribble. It's why we see more and more international and specifically European players in the NBA.
The 1-4 high set is a great set to run out of. Lute Olson has been using it and his high-post motion for years. For more great offense from the high-post and 1-4, check out Lute Olson's DVD on the 1-4. As always, head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk about hoops and more.
European Basketball and Menorca Backdoor Play
Posted by bruchu Labels: *Euro, Half-Court Set OffenseStill a little in holiday mode so I caught only the first half of the game between the Indiana Pacers the the Atlanta Hawks. I purposely wanted to watch what the Pacers were doing on defense. New head coach Jim O'Brien was brought in and turned up the tempo on offense, the Pacers push at every opportunity, as they say, shoot first ask questions later. But I was really much more intrigued by their defense. Harter and O'Brien go way back in their old days with the Pacers, Knicks, Celtics and 76ers, you can read all about it here. Harter was part of those Detroit "bad boy" days with Lambier and Rodman, under Riley with the Knicks, then under O'Brien with the Celtics and 76ers. He is known for being a defensive guru and I wanted to find out more.
What really piqued my interest was the fact that the Pacers are 3rd in the league at opponent FG% at 43.9%, yet they allow a shocking 104.1 ppg, good for 5th worst in the league. They are also the worst team in the league in opponent FTs attempted with 31.8. Clearly, the Pacers are still a work in progress defensively, especially compared to the strides they've made offensively, but I was able to take some clips that show some of what the new defense looks like. In many ways, it is very much a packline type defense, they protect the paint at all costs, rebound everything, and only allow post players to take perimeter shots. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,
One of the things about playing a packline type defense is that against aggressive teams you will foul more often and you will also give up open perimeter shots. The Pacers are one of the worst teams in both opponent FTs attempted and opponent 3-point percentage. But as they get more used to the system, they will improve by taking charges and knowing which shooters they need to closeout. Part of what has made the system so successful in the past was having a great weak-side shot blocker, like Tony Battie in Boston and Samuel Dalembert in Philly. Jermaine O'Neal could be that player for the Pacers, but he likes to stay out of foul trouble for his offensive output.
5-on-4 Shell Drill:
Shell drills are extremely important because they allow you to replicate what your defense will look and act like in the half-court. You will design your shell based on what kind of half-court defense you are running. Here, the emphasis will be on M2M packline style. So help-side principles with the high and low-side 'I'. 5-on-4 is good because it really emphasizes the help-side concept being 1 man short.
Ball at the top, there should be pressure on the ball, with defenders on the wing. There should a low-side defender ready to help on penetration from the top.
Ball passed to the wing, emphasize jumping to the ball while in the air, not on the catch but in the air, very much like zone defense principles. Pressure on the ball, don't forget to form the 'I'.
Again, jump to the ball on the skip pass to the corner. Everyone shifts together from one side to the other side on the skip. X4 must sprint and closeout properly, make sure they do this properly.
Lastly, on penetration from the wing, everyone must collapse and help. Have the offense shoot the ball and make sure all defenders rebound.
The definitive guide to packline defensive principles is Dick Bennett's DVD on the packline defense. As always, be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.
It's been a couple of days now and I've had a chance to absorb the news and read various reactions to the news. As a coach, obviously you have to feel for someone that has to go through a situation as abrupt as being fired. And while some point to the fact that Skiles will be given a big payout which will soften the blow, money doesn't buy your pride and dignity, money can't fix a broken soul. Lets face it, you always feel awful when you alone are being singled out to take the blame for a collective effort. It isn't always fair, but life isn't fair, especially in the world we live in these days. Someone has to take the blame, Skiles was the first to go, but may not be the last.
There is a coach locally that was let go mid-season as well. He was the head coach at a local JUCO, Trinity Western, near Vancouver. The official reason released by the administration was "We are moving in a new direction with a change of leadership and are committed to bringing the men's basketball program into the realm of being a perennial contender. Today's announcement signals that intent." The team was 4-8 at the time and was without several key players due to injury. The move happened a couple of weeks ago. Again, a difficult scenario especially coming just before the holidays but one that coaches invariably have to be accustomed to. Coaching isn't for the faint of heart, you have to be tough enough to withstand the highs and the many lows.
There is no doubt that Scott Skiles will end up coaching somewhere, he's too young and too smart not to end up somewhere. Coaches get hired, then fired, then hired again, life will go on.
I watched parts of all three of the Christmas games today and thought that for the most part they were all good to watch. I took a clip here of Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat demonstrating the step through technique when 2 defenders are attempting to trap you. He actually did it a bunch of times but I only managed to capture the on clip. I think that if executed well, the step through technique is probably the ideal way to attack the double-team or trap for a couple of reasons. Firstly, most teams don't trap properly anyways, the defenders don't lock their legs making it extremely easy to just go right through it and dribble. Secondly, the step through immediately creates a numbers advantage, after the step through you should find yourself playing 5-on-3 with the 2 defenders going the opposite way. Anyways, watch the video and read my thoughts below,
Various Drills to Attack Traps:
These are a few different drills you can use with your guards to practice attacking traps and double-teams. The first one is the technique shown by Dwyane, splitting the double-team. To make sure the traps are set, you tell your dribbler to not pivot until hearing the whistle. So the inbound pass is made, the dribble stays with back to the play. X1 and X2 trap, coach whistles, then O1 pivots and executes the step-through technique. Coaching points are to teach the dribbler to step through with 1 aggressive step first, then lunge forward protecting the ball like a running-back would. Once through, push dribble ahead.
In this next drill, it's the same thing as above, except now we're going through the crab dribble technique. If you watch Steve Nash, you'll know that he's the master at this. He sees the double-team, then does a quick retreat step or 2, then goes full speed and attacks sometimes doing a cross-over. The change of speed is devastating and usually leaves the defenders way behind. For this drill, you don't have to use a whistle.
Finally, the last technique you can use is the reverse spin dribble. It's a trickier play, but still can be very effective if you have a shorter but very quick guard. So they way it should work for a right-handed guard is one hard dribble with the right hand towards the defense, then a quick reverse spin (clockwise) making sure to push the ball out in front after the spin. You don't need to use a whistle for this one either.
I usually don't emphasize too much the use of these techniques to break traps and double-teams. I think the ball-reversal is a much safer and more effective way to move the ball. But if you have some great ball-handling guards, these are individual skills which they should learn anyways to become better players.
For great video info, I would highly recommend the Better Basketball video on breaking traps. Also you should take a look at Lorenzo Romar's DVD on 10 game relevant ball handling drills. Coach Romar is the head coach at the University of Washington and has helped produced NBA guards such as Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy. As always, be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.
This was taken on Saturday during the busy weekend back from exam week in college basketball. Loyola Chicago was playing hard M2M defense against Dayton and Dayton had this really neat 4 stagger stack SLOB play. There is plenty of motion and mis-direction that it should throw off a lot of your opponents that haven't scouted the play before. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,
Curl and Backdoor:
Against teams that are really pressuring you M2M, denying everything and stepping in front of passes, you have to have the threat of the backdoor play. You will either score, or relieve the pressure by forcing the defense to fall back towards the basket and defend the paint.
This play is great in that it accomplishes those 2 things against aggressive pressure M2M. To go through it, O3 is the first to break from the stagger going wide side all the way around O5 then cutting towards the basket. O1 breaks next and will look for the pass from O2 at the same time as O5 is curling around. O4 will break to the wide side after O3 passes him. O5 is the final safety and will cut towards the inbounder. O5 should be your tallest player in the case where the defense has taken everything away, O2 should be able to lob it to O5 to at least get the ball inbounded.
The only thing you have to watch out for on this SLOB play is that it is a little slow developing. So you need to make sure that O3 hustles to get out quickly or you could get called on the 5-second violation.
For more information, there is a Winning Hoops DVD with over 70 baseline inbounds plays. It has a lot of great drills you can use to help develop those slashing skills that these offenses require. To discuss this and other basketball coaching topics, head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum.
I watched the first half of the Detroit game against Houston earlier today in between football games. Detroit was doing it's usual best to free up the deadly Rip Hamilton, 1-on-1 post up iso's with Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups. Another Pistons staple is their tough defense. I took this nice overhead clip from the FSN slow-mo that shows Antonio McDyess' great post defense on Houston's Yao Ming. One of those little things that make a big difference, force the post player to catch the ball 1, 2 feet further from the low block. It may not sound like much 1-2 feet, but it makes a huge difference for a big man trying to make a move and get into position to shoot. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.
The Pistons used a variety of defenders on Yao and limited him to 4-13 shooting, for 12 points total. Again, not a dominant defensive shutdown, but effective nonetheless. Don't let the post-player catch the ball any closer to the basket than they need, try to force at least 1-2 feet further out.
Post Defense Drill:
One of the things we work on in our 4-out 1-in offense is post entry. At the same time, we want our post-players to be good post defenders. This drill works on both. You can run it with just the 3 perimeter or with 4 perimeter players. 
The idea is to pass the ball around the perimeter looking for a good post-entry while the post-player fights the post-defender for position going from block to middle to block and reverse. A lot of times, young players post up once, then they give up. Also, perimeter players usually look into the post once, then try to do their own thing. This drill helps to reinforce the idea of constantly fighting for position and being patient on offense looking for good post-entry opportunities. While on the defensive side, it helps reinforce the idea of battling the post-player to gain that extra 1-2 feet we talked about above.
You can add a competitive aspect like if the offensive player scores, he stays on while the defender must do a set of lines. When the defender deflects the ball, the passer does a set of lines. If the defender stops successfully, the defender becomes the post-player and the offensive post-player has to do a set of lines.
For some more great info on post=play, take a look at Coach Mike Krzyzewski's DVD on post-player development. Coach K and his assistant Steve Wojciechowski go through fundamentals both on post-offense and post-defense. Coack K has developed some of the best big men in the game such as Carlos Boozer. Happy holidays and don't forget to check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk hoops and exchange notes.
I tried to watch as many college basketball games as possible on this busy Saturday before Christmas. Of course, there was a couple of bowl games on as well so there was a lot of flipping going on. Anyways, I watched most of the Michigan and UCLA game, mostly because I'm a big fan of both Ben Howland and John Beilein. Coach Howland may have got the win, but coach Beilein won a lot of believers in his first chance on national network TV. Michigan had been blown out by some ranked teams, Duke, Georgetown, Southern Illinois and a lot of people were starting to wonder whether coach Beilein was the right man at UM, I think his players helped answer that question today. The Wolverines used their 1-3-1 half-court trap to confuse the heck out of UCLA and got them totally out of whack. Watch the video and read my thoughts below,
Trap Middle:
Coach Beilein uses a variety of traps and sets. The most common one is the middle trap. On all 1-3-1 sets, the sideline players, X2 and X3, must come up and put pressure up top. Then the zone shifts, and they get ready to trap. You usually think of the 4 corners as places to trap, but in the 1-3-1, one of the most ideal places to trap is the elbow where middle X4 is, all 3 defenders can converge on that point easily and force a turnover, as seen in the video.
Again, the key is for X2 or X3, depending on what side the ball is on, to put pressure and force the ball to be passed either to the other sideline or to the wing. 
Like the packline, you encourage penetration, especially right into the elbow area, where all 3 defenders can collapse easily and trap and force the turnover.
1-3-1 into 2-3:
One of the most effective transitions that Michigan used in the game was to fall back into basically a 2-1-2 or 2-3 zone once the ball was entered below the free-throw line extended.
Same idea as above, you must force the dribbler up top to either pass sideline to sideline or down to the wing using X2 and X3 putting pressure up top. Once the pass is made and the offense attempts to penetrate you must stop/trap them and force the pass out, in this case UCLA lobs it to the wing-corner.
Once the ball is entered below the free-throw line extended, Michigan would flatten into basically a 2-3 zone look. In the video sequence, UCLA would shoot the 3-pointer and miss. It confused the heck out of UCLA, they seemed disoriented throughout most of the game, until around the 10 minute mark of the second half when UCLA started to break the game open.
Summary:
The pattern that coach Beilein used looked to be 1-3-1 zone defense after all makes and inbounds. Off of rebounds and turnovers, they were in M2M. The constant switching and various traps and schemes seemed to really throw off UCLA, who isn't known for their offense.
As posted previously, coach Beilein doesn't have a DVD with his 1-3-1, but you can get Seth Greenberg's DVD who outlines his 1-3-1 zone defense. Happy holidays, and be sure to head over to the X's and O's Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.
