As we get ready for another season, I’d like to ask you some questions.
First, what is the difference between Bob Knight’s motion offense and the Princeton offense? Can you explain the difference in a paragraph? I’ll give you a hundred words, how about thousand words? Does that help?
Try this, sit down and explain the difference between a 1-3-1 zone and 2-3 attacking zone defense. Which most effective, and where do you place you players in it?
Can you tell the difference between the Dribble-Drive Offense, The Read and React Offense and an Open-Post Motion Offense?
I have spent thousands of hours watching teams practice and play, and my initial conclusion is that all offenses are motion offenses and the difference between zone and man-to-man defenses is highly overrated.
My contention is that the motion offense you run on your team, whether it’s flex, open-post or heavily weighted toward screening, is totally unique. The simple reason for this uniqueness is that your team is totally different from every other team on the planet. You are the only coach like you and your team responds to you differently than it would anybody else.
This really hit home when I saw Stanford’s (now LSU) Trent Johnson ride Chris Hernandez to an NCAA Tournament much like Tom Izzo did with Drew Nietzel at Michigan State. Izzo is a master of getting the best play out of teams that are not profoundly talented. His team’s run to the NCAA final in 2009 is a testament to what a great coach he is and how well his players respond to him and his direction.
You see…everything in coaching depends on what you coach, where you coach and most importantly, the skill of your players. Your best players need to have both individual and team skills to be successful at any level of play. You as a coach have to get better from year to year to deal with the variation in talent you have to develop. If you cannot recruit, you may have really good talent for two, maybe three years. What do you do when the cupboard is bare?
Mastering the Art of Coaching (my blog) is my way of sharing my observations over 20 years of observing and coaching players. I have only had two losing seasons in that span of time and I honestly believe I coached better those years than I did in others.
Former Princeton head coach Pete Carril once said, “The measure of any teacher, provided he’s not an egomaniac, is to see anybody that he taught do better than he did.” Sometimes, you have to want more from your players than they do for themselves. Your bottom-line success comes when that same player is self-motivated and leads others to excel.
So let’s break some things down so I can demonstrate what I mean. “Special Number 1” can be found on the Winning Hoops website at http://www.lesspub.com/cgi-bin/site.pl?332&ceNews_newsID=2933.
Let’s analyze the skill level required to run this play. First let’s look at Diagram 6.
- 1 must be strong with the ball to avoid being trapped and must not be prone to turn it over under pressure.
- 2 must let 1 initiate the movement and slide over after 1 enters the middle-wing area.
- 3 player must wait for the screen from 5 for 1, but must clear across before 1 uses the screen.
- When 5 rolls to the basket, 5 must post up and get open to 1 in a manner that allows the ball to be entered while having the advantage on his or her defender.
- As the pick-and-roll develops between 1 and 5, 3 player must decide to fade all the way into the deep corner or perhaps hide in the short corner. This, of course, depends on whether the defense sags to protect the basket or steps out to challenge the ball handler.
- Both 2 and 4 must occupy their defenders to lessen the defensive pressure on the pick-and-roll action.
Now let’s look at Diagram 7:
- The pick-and-roll action failed, the defense took away the post and the lane, so 1, after the turning the corner, pulls the ball out to the wing area. Again, your point guard must be able to protect the ball to allow this continuation to occur.
- 2 sets up the cut before using the backscreen from 5. As 2 dives baseline, 5 must decide to drop into the lane or go across the lane. The one thing 5 must not do is drop to the ball-side block, as that space now belongs to 2.
- 4 play-cuts up to the top of the key, then reverses direction to set a wing-down screen for 3. By this time, 1 is positioned to be able to take a shot or pass to 2, 3, or 5 for a shot. If they are not open, 1 drives all the way to the top of key and passes to 4 as he or she drifts down into the left wing or corner for a drive or a shot.
Please note, all this motion occurs in five to 10 seconds of play, depending on how your point guard is being guarded and when the five-count begins.
The reason I asked you earlier about the different offenses and defenses is to make you think. Do your really understand what kind of talent you need to run your offense and defense?
A coach in any team sport has three constraints:
- The individual talent of the players
- The team talent of the players
- How well they learn and then execute what they are taught.
I will spend time on each of these points in my next blog.
