Play of the Day - Mar 14, 2015

Coach Wooden preached ball movement from side-to-side, making the defense move frequently and never letting the ball settle. With lots of quick passes in 10 to 15 foot gaps, Wooden was a master at designing plays that forced his teams to share the ball. As a counter, many defenses would start to jump passing lanes or make perimeter passing more difficult. When that would occur, Wooden would run “Indiana”, a backdoor set that played through the high post.

This play is a great pressure release against teams that are going to shoot passing lanes on the perimeter. If you can get your team to complete the first round of passes to 4 on the wing, everything else opens up: the UCLA pop-back, the shuffle cut opens the high post and 2 will be open on the backdoor. You can see how Coach Wooden packs tons of quick passes into a short amount of time to get a great result. Player movement and ball movement are what get high-quality shots.