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Transition Defense – Are You Tom Izzo or Dick Bennett?

Issue 1: Transition Defense, Intro, Scouting Hoops, & Memphis Dribble Drive

If you ask most coaches to describe what the game ofbasketball is when you simplify it to its basic principles theywill give you offense and defense. While this is true, BobbyKnight believes that transition is a critical component ofsound basketball. In a worse cast scenario, if your playersaren’t crashing the glass for the offensive rebound and theyaren’t back in transition, then where the heck are they? Wearen’t back in transition, then where the heck are they? Weare going to examine where they should be in regards totwo different philosophies on what a team should do aftera missed shot.

Offensive Rebounding or Limiting Transition OpportunitiesAs a coach you basically have to choose between twooptions in regards to basketball transition defense.Remember that you can’t be good at everything or you aregoing to be good at nothing. For example, if you try to crashthe offensive glass, but you expect the other team not toscore any lay-ups in transition then you are setting yourbasketball team up for failure. CHOOSE and EMPHASIZEyour basketball philosophy based on the talent of yourteam. Also remember that the philosophy a coach choosesshould mirror their offensive basketball philosophy. I wouldlike to present the two basic philosophies that mostcoaches adopt in regards to basketball transition defense.

"Most of my learningand philosophyregarding coachingbasketball wasdeveloped after greatfrustration." -- CoachDick Bennett

"As coaches we talkabout two things: offenseand defense. There is athird phase we neglect,which is more important.It's conversion fromoffense to defense anddefense to offense." --Coach Bobby Knight

The Philosophy to Offensive ReboundTom Izzo, the great coach at Michigan State, has built his program on the belief that mostteams aren’t good at the defensive box out. His teams are among the nation’s leaders inrebounding margin (+11.7) since he took over the Spartan program. He spends at least 15minutes each practice on teaching his players the habits to crash the offensive boards. Theyfight and compete to tip the ball, keep it alive, and own the offensive glass. A byproduct ofthis hard work is that his teams are fantastic at defensive box outs because they are used togoing to “war” a rebounding drill he uses each day in practice. For more information, take alook at his DVD: Tom Izzo-Dominating Rebounding & Man to Man Defensive Drills.

Basic Offensive Rebounding Principles•Choose if you are more athletic than the best teams in your conference•Point guard to half court line and everyone else to the paint to rebound•Stress that 70% of all rebounds come opposite – overload that side on shots•Practice and chart – do your players get 4 to the paint and the PG to half court in yourdrills? Offense? Defense?•Teach them to tap the ball against the backboard if they can’t come down with it•Keep the ball alive – TIP it!•Celebrate offensive rebounding•Never accept it, but be prepared to see teams fast break more often

The Philosophy of Limiting Fast Break OpportunitiesOn the other hand, another great coach that believes coaches have control over transition,Dick Bennett formerly of Washington State, would send two and sometimes three playersback depending on the opponent in an effort to neutralize fast break opportunities. Histeams traditionally held opponents under 60 points per game. Coach Bennett’s philosophywas that his team was better than your team at half court execution on offense anddefense. His teams only pressed if behind in games late and they played strictly man to mandefense. In other words, his teams were simple to prepare for, but difficult to beat becauseof their execution.

Visit www.basketballcoachesclub.blogspot.com for more topics!

Scouting Hoops is a webpage designed by Jamie Angeli and it offers allthe best programs in America broken down into sets, press breaks, zoneoffenses, under outs, side outs, etc. Test Drive it today!

Basic Principles of Limiting Transition Opportunities•Choose if you are less athletic than the best teams in your conference•Send the PG to the opposite FT line and the Off Guard to the half court line•Another option is to also send the shooter back immediately against superior teamsalong with the two guards•Stress that we are not giving up ANY transition lay-ups•Work on defending scramble situations in the full court every day•Teach how you want to match-up and remember that open shots NOT match-ups beatyou•Practice and chart – do your players have defensive balance in your drills? Offense?Defense?•Choose offensive sets that allow for defensive balance; For example: stay away from1-4 low sets or the Flex. Instead use 2-3 high sets or 4 out 1 in motion offense

Prepare them the best you can so that your team can achieve to the best of theirpotential because you put them in the best situation to succeed. Transition defense isoften overlooked and the main thing a coach needs to do is decide from Day 1 whattheir team is going to do in regards to defensive transition. Teach that all year long andemphasize it in practices and games. I hope this article has helped you to betterunderstand the two basic philosophies of transition defense.

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this newsletter is to introduce some populartopics in basketball today and to provide something of interestfor coaches at every level. If you have any ideas about how toimprove this newsletter, please email me atcoachdeforest@gmail. I hope you find this of use and we coverthe topics that interest you the most. We are going to discussthe current offensive trends such as the Memphis DribbleMotion and its hybrids as well as other trends in basketball.Please forward this to anyone that you think may want tosubscribe to future newsletters. Thank you again.Visit www.basketballcoachesclub.blogspot.com for info.

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Offense Memphis

The 4-1 drive and kick offense is something that we picked up from The University of Memphis, and have absolutly fallen in love with. It fits in to what we want to do, and the personel that we have. Make sure to read the literature page for more info on what we have found through research. Here is our alignment out of our primary transition. This is the only time that the 5 will be on the ballside block, as once penetration starts, 5 will bail backside to create a lane for the ball. Players 1) Pt guard: Attacks off the dribble well, good playmaking ability, and able to get to the rim out of transition. 2) Shooting guard: Decent shooter, but real good about getting to the rim off of penetration. Almost a slasher type of player, but can hit an occasional 3 on a kick out.

3) Off guard: Terminology is probably backwards but this needs to be your best shooter, as they get a lot of skips on penetration over the top. 4) Trail: Usually a decent post player who can handle the ball. Bigger person, but one you feel confident can take a defender off of the dribble. 5) Post: Doesnt have to be a great back to the basket player, just someone who is big, physical, and has a soft touch around the basket. Needs to be your best rebounder

In this sequence you can see that once the ball has started penetration inside the perimeter, the 5 will bail to the backside block. This will do two things. A) open a lane of penetration to the rim. Let the ball have a clear path B) Put the 5 defender in a bind help wise. Notice the spacing. Athletes need to be about 15-18 feet apart at all times

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Offense Rules for this offense: Guards: Penetration: 1) Any penetration to the basket, needs to be just that, penetration with the mindset that you are going to get to the rim. Players will want to try to go side to side with the dribble at first. The key to this is to get the guard in the mindset that they are getting to point A from B in a straight line. It is the person with the ball responsible for getting their teammate open. This is different from traditional methods when it is the cutters responsibility to get open. Here we want enough penetration to where we create a help situation

Guards Rules Ctd: Penetration Ctd. On penetration, penetrate until you are cut off by a help defender. The help defender needs to CUT you off, almost to where they are going to take a charge if you keep going. Reason being is that we are trying to put pressure on the defense by attacking the rim. The results should be the following, either a lay up, or get fouled shooting the layup. Notice how in this we show how much help is needed before a guard stops their dribble.

Guards Rules CTD: Penetration: On penetration, as soon as the help goes, the nearest guard will rotate over the top of the ball. We make sure to tell them to stay outside of the perimeter on this to create spacing, and a longer recovery on help. On the kick out we tell the 2 one of two things. If they are a shooter, who you feel confident shooting the ball, tell them to fire away. If they arent a great shooter, as soon as they catch the ball, tell them to rip, and drive right back over the top looking to get to the rim. The two players who are backside (4 and 3) are just to stand there to help tie down helpside

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Offense Guard Rules CTD Penetration: As soon as the 1 kicks the ball out, their job is to head to one of the corners. They can either head to the playside corner, (as shown here), or the weakside corner shown in the next sequence. Make sure they are sprinting out to the corner to help clear a lane, and that they are getting width on this. We are seeing a lot that the 2 on penetration has been able to kick back out to the 1. We dont mind this our 1 can shoot pretty well, and gives us another look. Notice here that the guard rules stay the same on penetration. 2 is attacking the rim, the 4 will rotate over the top of the 2, (a little exxageratted here) to make a longer recovery for the defender. What we are telling our 2 to do here,

is mainly keep your head up and your goal is to get to the rim, draw help from 5, and third option is kick back out to the 4.

Guard Rules CTD: Penetration: Here you see what happens if the 1 had cycled out to the weakside. In this case to keep spacing integrity, the 4, and 3 would replace each other, and the 1 would sprint to replace the 3. We dont get this a lot due to the fact that it isnt real natural for a kid

Guard Rules CTD: Reversals: BLUR SCREEN We get this a lot during our secondary where we have a slot to slot pass. We will also do this most times in our offense once we get into it. This screen is very effective just becuase of the misdirection that it causes.

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Offense Guard Rules CTD: Reversals: BLUR SCREEN After the ball has been reversed to the 4, the 1 will dive to the middle of the free throw line. Timing is the key element to this, as the 4 must time this out to where they are rubbing off of the 1's butt as they attack the rim off of the dribble. As soon as the 4 clears the 1 with the dribble, the 1 will flare out to the backside slot. The 4 is rounding the corner heading downhill trying to get to the rim or draw help. Notice we are still following our rules here as the 2 is coming over the top of the 4, because they are the nearest guard

FOR MORE GUARD INFO SEE BREAKDOWN DRILLS, AND INFO SHEET. THESE ARE OUR BASIC RULES THOUGH

POST RULES: What to do on penetration. 1) Penetration over the top: It is very important for your 5 to understand two things. First where the penetration is coming from, is it over the top, or is it baseline penetration. And second would I be better to stay put, or should I follow circle shooting rules that you will see in the next few sequences.

POST RULES CTD: PENETRATION OVER THE TOP On penetration over the top, the rule of the 5 is simple, circle under the basket to the opposite block. We are still following our basic concepts of make the defense have a longer recovery, and also give the ball a lane to the rim. Where the 5 has to read this is that if their defender leaves early, they may be better suited to just sit and stay, and recieve the dump off from the 1.

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Offense POST RULES CTD PENETRATION In this sequence you can see that we are having a baseline penetration. Normally I hate this move offensively, we either get trapped or kick the ball out of bounds. However, with this offense I am starting to allow my guards to do this because of the rules of the 5. In the case of baseline penetration, the rule of the 5 is to circle over the top, and get to the bottom of the dots, hands ready for any quick pass. We try to make this pass quick, and high so the post can go get it and score. I know Calipari said a lot of times that was a lob for a dunk. Well I coach girls so we just tell them catch it high and keep it high. In the case of the guards here, the 1 would be the nearest guard so they would rotate over the top of the 2, and the two would get out to the perimeter on any

pass. It could be either playside or weakside, but more than likely weakside.

POST RULES CTD: WHEN TO POST UP. There are two times that the 5 should post up on the ball side block. The first as we stated early is in primary transition, only to bail as soon as we start penetration. This is simply to clear a lane for the ball to get to the rim. The second time is on any quick skip from side to side when the post was already backside as you see in this sequence. We will tell the 5 on a skip duck in and pin. We will try to get you the ball, but if we don't, as soon as penetration inside the perimeter happens get to the backside block quickly.

Those are the basic rules to the offense. We try to make sure of the following things. 1) Get to the rim, either get the lay up or get fouled. This will put pressure on the defense constantly 2) If you are a shooter on the kickout, then shoot. We dont mind it, we have plenty of people for backside rebounding purposes. 3) If you are not shooting attack on the kickout, dont hesitate, drive the helper over the top

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Offense Memphis trouble shooting

Many times we will run into problems as we did last spring, and here are somethings we have done to correct those problems. IF you have any questions feel free to pm call or email me at any time.

Too much pressure and we can't get around them! • This came up a few times last spring and we would work a few things.

Either allow the ball screen, or dribble hand off. • In the dribble handoff, let the reciever catch the pass off of the bounce.

Dont jump stop to hand off. Try not to work on this early, as your kids will want to do this all of the time.

• If the defenders jump the handoff, we will back cut to the rim. We have an open lane to the basket, so we will be ok.

My kids are too quick to pitch out! • Drill, Drill, Drill them on attacking the rim on 1 on 1 work. We

emphasize this so much, my kids probably think these are the only words that I can speak.

• Work a lot of 1-0 situations to where they are attacking the rim, and you are watching their footwork.

• Have a pad during 1-0 work where you bump them when they get into the lane. Make them take the layup while getting fouled.

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Offense

We seem to be in too big of a rush. • Work with them during 2 on 2 to work out timing and spacing issues.

Make them understand that they have to keep spacing to make this effectice. • Dont worry too much, being in a big rush is better than being too slow. • Make them keep their heads up to see the help and where it is coming

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