Self Scout: Tough questions to ask of yourself, your coaching staff and your process before heading into next season. If you are reading this at or near the date of publication, my hope is that the following questions do not have to be answered for a few more weeks! If your season is over and…
Inside The Attack: Louisville Zone Offense
Inside The Attack: A look at the Louisville Cardinals zone offense and how they used the ball screen to create 2v1s against the Syracuse zone. The Louisville Cardinals showed that the ball screen can be an effective zone offense tactic in their recent 76-72 overtime win over the Syracuse Orange. The inside ball screen was…
Ball Screen And Roll Shooting
Ball Screen and Roll Shooting – A teaching and shooting drill to introduce wing ball screen progressions. The wing ball screen is a common way to create an advantage for the ball handler, the roll man or a third player. Increasingly, teams are running the wing ball screen directly from transition offense with an empty…
Team France – Simple Horns Actions
A pair of simple “Horns” actions to create enlarged gap space from Team France in international play One of the staples of international offense is the “Horns” alignment. There are boundless Horns sets and entries into offenses of all varieties. Horns allows the offense to lift the defense and play through its “bigs.” Action can be initiated…
Team France – Motion Weak
Made iconic by the San Antonio Spurs, Team France also runs “Motion Weak” to perfection in international play. With Spurs vets such as Tony Parker and Boris Diaw at the helm, it is no surprise that the French National Team is adept at running the San Antonio Spurs “Motion Weak” action as an early offense…
Single Gap Spacing Issues
A look at single gaps and spacing issues that can arise in five-out alignments. Five-out alignments are common in all levels of basketball. While the five-out does open the lane and can be effective in pulling defenses away from the rim, it does have it’s drawbacks. The most notable drawback being the predominance of single…
Offensive Concepts – Find, Use, Create
Team Spain demonstrates the offensive concepts of FIND, USE and CREATE versus Croatia in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games Find – Find the Big Advantage (the open player) Use – If you have an advantage, use it Create – If neither you nor the offense has an advantage, create one (use an action – penetration,…
The Perils Of Confirmation Bias In Coaching
Coaches can be blind to opportunities to advance their teams and programs by falling victim to Confirmation Bias. Like Survivorship Bias, Confirmation Bias is an example of a cognitive bias which leads coaches to make irrational decisions. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to listen only to information that confirms one’s beliefs or preconceptions. It is…
Offensive Concepts – Enlarge the Defense
Conceptual-based offensive basketball is anchored by principles. The first of which is “enlarging the defense.” The beginnings of coaching and playing basketball conceptually lie with spacing. Spacing entails not only selecting an alignment (i.e. four-out) but allowing the basketball room to breathe within the possession. Tactics for enlarging the defense and creating space are vital…
Corner Help Reads
Three simple reads to combat corner help – or lack thereof – when attacking the rim with dribble penetration. The simple and most obvious way to disorganize the defense and create a small advantage is via dribble penetration. Putting pressure on the rim causes defensive help and rotation to come from somewhere and reading that…