One of the most common concerns of coaches interested in or starting off with extreme fast break basketball is giving opponents too many easy layups. In the Run and Gun Yahoo Group Doug Porter, Head Women's Coach at Olivet Nazarene University, discussed the issue of giving up too many layups in the press. Here's some of what Doug had to say:
Two points:Thanks to Coach Porter for his insight on this issue...certainly, if you would like to continue or add to this discussion, post a comment.
1) The stat you need to focus on, first of all, is forced turnovers. If you aren't meeting that goal regularly, then you are probably not being aggressive enough in your press. Remember you are playing an extreme system here, and must create some TO's to counter the high FG% of your opponent. BUT also remember that your own offensive production will be higher as a result of this aggressive defense, which creates more open court shots and ORB's for you (and, surprisingly, a lower offensive TO% when you get good at it). You're comment was exactly on target: you must "give to get!" But you must learn to give INTELLIGENTLY.
Maybe you or your players are too afraid of going all out? In any case, the dirty little secret is I don't like giving up layups either, but the WRONG way to address that problem in the system is to pull back and play a safer press.
2) The right way to address the "problem" of layups (at least this has been the path we've taken) is to work on the following aspects of your press:
a) Play different presses (all aggressive!) to limit the breakaway 3/2 and 2/1 opportunities by your opponent. Examples: Faceguard the throw-in and stay on the ball (i.e. use a SUPER-aggressive press); OR Faceguard the throw-in and move "Off" the inbounder to help on denial and get a quicker trap; OR Faceguard and move "Back" behind the front line with your on ball defender to put an extra body in position to contain breakaways and/or help the safety; OR Totally allow the throwin vs 3-up or 4-up to prevent the quick backdoor pass behind your defenders; OR Delay the trap until 3/4 court or � court (what Coach Smith at Redlands calls "Stay"). Which one to use? Whichever one that works at the time vs. that particular opponent's press attack.
b) Drill on "chasing" opponents after they get by the front line of your press. You'll be surprised at how much players can help you out if they just bust their tails to get back to "back-tap" the dribbler and/or help out your out-numbered safety.
c) Drill on 2/1 and 3/2 situations (especially 2/1) until those safeties can react and read better. The instinct for when to come up for a steal or fall back to protect the rim is not easy to develop, but it's critical. So is the skill of knowing when to try and draw the charge vs. going for the block vs. getting out of the way! Our safeties were terrible early in the year at this (thus, our 6-10 record pre-Christmas) but by our conference tourney finals they were excellent, drawing 5 charges.
2 comments:
Doug
Great post. It was only a slight concern for us early on because we were putting so much pressure on the ball and it was difficult for teams to "find" those open deep guys. We did a good job at taking charges, especially on the pass-off during a 2 on 1, and getting the ball out quickly and attacking at the other end.
To piggy back Coach Holmes comments, one thing you really need to drill on is not fouling at the end of the press. I really feel like this is something that Grinnell and Redlands do(did) so very well. If it is clear they had no opportunity for a charge or a steal on the 3-2 or 2-1 on situations, they do not *slow* the pace by fouling on layup attempts.
Early on, we had some struggles with too much fouling at the back of the press...and the fouls we were taking weren't good ones...they were of the slapping, reaching variety. Once we sorted that out, we really had an easier time of maintaining our desired pace.
Tom McCanna
Marina Boy's Basketball
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