When you try to stop everything, you stop nothing.
The number one goal of our defense is to allow a low defensive field goal percentage.
Control the dribbler. Determined to keep him out of lane.
Keep the ball out of the lane by gapping (that keeps us from having to rotate and miss block outs).
Gapping is more important than gambling for steals.
Be a high energy defensive team every night and outlast the opponent every possession
Make them shoot contested shots 18’ and out, then block out, pursue the ball, and chin the rebound.
Defense involves continually performing one responsibility after another, until we have the ball.
Players who do not play defense as hard as possible do not play.
Any player with desire and determination can learn to be an adequate defensive player.
Playing hard will make up for a lot of defense mistakes.
We use both our defense and our offense to control the tempo of the game and the number of possessions.
Individual concentration, awareness, anticipation, recovery, and communication are vital.
Defense is successful when each player concentrates each possession on recognizing, anticipating, and executing.
A defensive attitude is essential. The players need to feel that they are difficult to score against and must take pride in the defensive aspect of the game.
Great defensive teams cover up mistakes.
You recover as soon the ball is picked up. Help as far outside the lane as possible. Same on screens.
Teams don't get beat the help they get beat on better recovery—so we must practice and stress recovery.
Ball is more important—talk the switch—no penetration.
STANCE knees bent—feet wide) Tail down, Weight on balls of feet. Heels slightly up.
POSITION Do not go for a steal and take yourself out of a play. That is false hustle and it hurts our team.
VISION AND AWARENESS (see the ball and man—sink to see). Be ready to help on the ball.
Trace the ball with other hand. Hands off. Don’t foul the game away or put yourself on the bench with foul trouble.
Know the man’s strengths and play the appropriate gap. Our scouting report will make what that exactly is clear to the players.
FORCE OUTSIDE. When the man with the ball spins, or turns his back we trap him.
When the dribble is picked up, we apply pressure—“Up” is our call so everyone knows the ball is up. Make the ball uncomfortable.
Forward pivots, hands above shoulders on block outs.
You can only do two of the three from: deny, help, recover. We choose to not deny and place our defenders in the help gap to begin with.
Foul only for profit. Switch for profit.
Great defensive teams take charges and don’t reach or swing.
Take the charge in front of the basket, in the lane, and on the baseline. It is impossible to get a charge call in the middle of the floor.
Help across and down—never from basket out.
Guard two places at once by using defensive fakes.
Give quick help with early recovery. Helper sees own man.
When we recover, we recover to the ball or to a gap, not to a man (unless he has the ball or is in the post).
Don’t deny past the level of the ball.
Philosophy
Defensive Adjustments for a team or an Individual?
Scouting or System?
Do we want to have any "junk" in our system?
Conversion Defense
How many players are we going to send to the offensive glass?
Do we need to add any rules that will improve our conversion?
Do we like the drills we have to teach conversion defense?
Man Defense
What hurt us most last year defensively?
How do we defend dribble penetration better?
What screening actions created problems for us?
Where do we want to pick up the dribbler?
How do we want to defend the post?
How do we want to defend ball screens?
Zone Defense
How much zone do we want to play?
Would it help us to have an even front and odd front zone so we can attack them both offensively during basketball practice?
Do we want to be able to trap out of our zone defenses?
How do we best teach rebounding out of our zone?
1/2 Court Trap
How much do we want to play it?
How big are our trappers?
How do we want to rotate out of the trap?
Do we want to stay in the trap or go "one and done"?
When do we want to look to play it - dead balls, FT's, end of half...
Do we have a better trapping line-up than others?
Presses
How much do we want to use the press?
When do we want to press?
How aggressive do we want to be with our press?
Do we have a better pressing line-up than others? Who are our best trappers?
Do we deny the point guard back once they pass out of the trap?
Inbound Defense
Do we want to play strictly man?
Do we want to trap the inbound pass?
How do we want our inbound defender to play UOOB and
SOOB?
Special Situations
Who would be our best denial defender?
Does any team on our schedule potentially warrant a special
defensive tactic?
DEFENSIVE GOALS
Defensive and offensive systems and styles must be complimentary. Defense begins with offensive shot selection and taking care of the basketball. Two of the toughest things to guard are bad shots that no one is ready to defend, or turnovers that lead to fast break opportunities with numbers advantages to the offense.
The following is one system that can be used to organize, teach, and evaluate a system and then every defensive possession.
The halfback is the player who retreats to the top of the key in the offensive rebounding positions when the ball is shot and the fullback is the player who retreats to the jump circle when the ball is shot.
For each possession
Halfback slows the ball in conversion, fullback becomes goalie all others--sprint inside our defensive three point arc, communicate, and match up.
Establish and maintain gappers, goalie, and post.
Pressure the ball with no penetration, no fouling.
Keep the ball out of the paint and post. If there is penetration---we trap the ball with the goal of having it passed out to the perimeter. We sprint out of our traps.!
Contest every shot.
Dive on every loose ball or block out on missed shots, pursue the ball and chin the rebound.
What are the strengths of our players and how can we best utilize those strengths while hiding their weaknesses?
What is the optimal number of possessions per game for this group?
Can we defend for that number of possessions at that pace?
How is our ability compared to the best teams in our region of the state tournament? our conference? our area?
How do we need to play to advance as far as possible in the state tournament?
What is our depth like?
How does our depth affect our style and pace of play?
What will our substitution pattern be?
Make sure that you have a plan and that you practice converting to defense in each of these situations:
5 on 5
When you are outnumbered such as in a 3 on 2 or 2 on 1 situation, emphasize that you want to force as many passes as possible in order to allow the rest of your team to catch up and even up your odds. Here is a short video segment of Chris Lowery of Southern Illinois teaching how they defend 2 on 1 situaitions. It is from a page on Championship Productions web site. You need to scroll to the bottom of the page to view the drill.
By clicking on either the text below, or the cover of the DVD, you will go to the Championship Productions site for a segement of the DVD and some reviews of the clinic. Scroll to the bottom to watch the short segment.
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