Here is a great set by the UConn Huskies called Box Punch.
This set was used during their run to the 2023 Men’s NCAA Tournament Championship.
In this set, Coach Dan Hurley creates a nice high-low look for an easy basket.
This clip is just one of over 200 clips of great sets used by the Huskies during their championship season.
To learn more or gain access to the resource click the following link: UCONN Huskies Basketball Video Playbook
This play was submitted by John Kimble.
Coach Kimble is a retired Basketball Coach who coached High School teams in Illinois and Florida, as well as Central Florida Community College.
He is the author of five published books and over 25 DVD/Videos by Coaches Choice and Healthy Learning.
John has written over 100 articles from several different basketball magazines.
He has been a regular contributor of articles on many topics to The Coaching Toolbox.
Frame 1
3 pops out of (5-3) ‘Pin-Down Screen’ & then immediately ‘Iverson Cuts’ over the top of 5 to the opposite wing. 1 makes the ‘Wing Pass’ to 3 and then Flare-Cuts off of the (5-1) ‘Flare-Screen.’ At the same time, 2 makes a tight curl through the lane around 4 and ‘stacks up’ on top of 4. With 2 now stacked above 4, 3 has more room to make a ‘Lob Pass’ or ‘Inside Pass’ to 4 or also to 2 now at the ‘Mid-Post’ area. If not, 3 can reverse the ball to 5, who has also stretched his ‘big defender’ out to the top of the key.
Frame 2
If 3 reverses the ball out to 5, 2 immediately makes an ‘Inverted Duck-In Cut’ into the ‘Dotted Circle’ area, while 4 steps to the rim for a possible ‘Lob Pass’ from 5. If 2 does not receive the ‘Inside Pass’ from 5, he continues across the lane to post up on the other side. If 4 does not receive the ‘Lob Pass,’ he returns to post up on the same side of the lane. All five players have now moved their defenders and are in the ‘3-Out/2-In Spot-Ups” to continue to the next phase of the offensive attack.
This play was submitted by John Kimble.
Coach Kimble is a retired Basketball Coach who coached High School teams in Illinois and Florida, as well as Central Florida Community College.
He is the author of five published books and over 25 DVD/Videos by Coaches Choice and Healthy Learning.
John has written over 100 articles from several different basketball magazines.
He has been a regular contributor of articles on many topics to The Coaching Toolbox.
Frame 1
3 pops out of (5-3) ‘Pin-Down Screen” & then immediately ‘Iverson Cuts’ over the top of 5 to the opposite wing. 1 makes ‘Wing Pass’ to 3 then Flare-Cuts off of the 95-1) ‘Flare-Screen’ 4 and 2 remained ‘stacked up.’
Frame 2
After 3 receives the ball, 2 makes a ‘Pipe-Cue’ up to the new ‘Ballside Slot.’ With 1 at the ‘Weakside Wing,’ horizontally stretching the defense and 5 at the ‘Weakside Slot’ outside of the arc, stretching the biggest or second biggest defender vertically; 4 is able to isolate his defender on the ‘Ballside Block.’ If nothing is available inside, 3 reverses the ball to 2, now located outside of the arc.
Frame 3
After 2 receives 3’s pass, 5 steps over to set a ‘Big-on-Small Ball Screem’ for 2 to dribble across to the opposite side of the floor. As 2 ‘dribble-scrapes’ off of 5’s top shoulder, 4 chases the ball by cutting across the lane. As 2 breaks contact with 5, 5 ‘Rim-Runs’ to the now vacant weakside of the lane. 2 can make Inside Passes to either 4 or, a ‘Wing Pass,’ to 1 or a ‘Throwback Reverse Pass’ to 3. All five offensive players have repositioned themselves into “3-Out/2-In Spot Ups” to seamlessly continue the offensive action.
Basketball is a global game. Coaches who follow international basketball were not that surprised that the USA Basketball team lost to Nigeria and Australia. The style of play of Euroleague teams is becoming more prevalent in USA basketball.
Coach Kostas Kalogeropoulos is an Assistant Coach for Olympiacos BC development team (division 2), under-18 boys team assistant coach, under-15 boys team head coach. Coach Kalogeropoulos has 17 years of coaching experience, and has spent many years studying international offenses.
Coach Kalferopoulos studied last season’s Euroleague teams and pulled out his favorite actions that he believes could help teams win and created this:
The euroleague best set plays of 2021-2021
His course consists of: transition offense, half-court sets, SLOB, BLOB, ATO & Special Sets.
Transition offense is a great time to attack. The defense is sprinting back and may not be in position to defend the basket. Fenerbahce runs a couple wrinkles out of Double Drag.
This wrinkle of Double Drag is designed to allow 2 open looks for shooters.
Fenerbahce — Double Drag Turnout
(Click image to play Video)
In the half-court, Horns is one of the most predominant alignments in basketball in USA basketball at every level. Alba Berlin’s spacing and timing of their Horns actions is a beauty to watch.
This wrinkle of Horns they are looking to put the help defender in a pickle. If the helpside defender, the bottom man, stays to take away the lob then his man will be open for the 3. If the helpside defender takes away the 3 then it will allow the lob man to be open.
Alba Berlin — Horns Flip Slip
In a coaches playbook you want to make sure you have designed sets in certain situations. Most coaches have designed sets for: need a 2, need a 3, after timeout, SLOB & BLOB. Practicing ATO’s before you draw them up in the huddle will help make it easier.
The SLOB that Armani Milano runs is designed to get a quick 2 because they’re down by 1 with just over a second to go. Under one second, you want to make sure you have a play designed that will get you a quick open look or a tip in/lob at the basket.
Armani Milano — Special ATO SLOB
This playbook is filled with more than 100 set plays run by Euroleague teams during the 2020-21 season. All clips from game film video.
Purchase the Best Euroleague Set Plays of 2020-2021 here
If you enjoyed this playbook and want more Euroleague action click below:
Effective Euroleague Plays 2019-2020
International Basketball: Euroleague Best BLOB Plays
Euroleague Pick and Roll Plays
The average number of points a game for all 16 teams in the 2021 playoffs was an average of 113 PPG.
Here are three actions from those playoffs
#1) Phoenix Suns “Pin Flip Back Ball Screen”
The Phoenix Suns averaged 114.7 PPG in the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
In their half-court offense, the Suns looked to find ways to get shooters open. The Suns started using mis-direction sets to keep the defense on their heels.
The Pin Flip Back Ball Screen is a mis-direction set that gets the defense leaning one way and then the ball gets flipped back headed downhill in another direction.
This action puts a lot of pressure on the defense and is an easy way to get a guard downhill.
#2) Milwaukee Bucks Stagger Flip Back Corner
The Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo took home the MVP honors for the NBA Finals.
The exceptional play of Khris Middleton was another reason the Bucks won the Championship.
The Bucks found ways to get the ball in his hands anytime they needed a big shot.
The Stagger Curl Flip Back Corner is a wrinkle to another gaggle action that the Bucks ran in the series to get Middleton the basketball.
The play is designed to be a mis-direction set because it looks like the 4 man is going to reverse the ball then instead DHO’s to bring it right back to the same side.
During the DHO, Middleton is coming right off a pin-down looking for an open shot.
#3) Miami Heat Horns Stagger Back
Miami Heat is one of the best trend setters for
offense in the NBA because of their unique approach of trying new actions.
Erik Spoelstra is known as one of the NBA’s brightest offensive minds.
The Miami Heat have one of the best Horn’s series packages in the NBA.
The Horns Stagger Back action is a wrinkle to many actions you can do off a stagger screen.
One of the toughest screens to guard is a back screen. Usually teams just switch back screens; however, they happen very fast so it puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
One of the best things about a back screen is that the player coming off the screen isn’t the most open player in most circumstances.
The screener usually pops up for a wide open look because the defenders are communicating what they are doing on the screen. This allows the screener to be freed enough time for an open look.
All of these plays are taken from Coach Tim Bergstraser’s 2021 NBA Playbook
The playbook is filled with 750 actions in many different alignments & series that translate to every level of basketball.
To purchase the playbook click the link — 2021 NBA Playoffs Playbook
If you’re interested in learning more NBA Offense then you can find more playbooks below:
Golden State Warriors Quick Hitters Playbook
Coach Gillispie shows a quick hitter he has used to bet the ball to the block against a 2-3 zone. At the end of the 3 minute video, he briefly discusses how he uses a player’s defensive ability to determine what role they can play on offense. He uses this to motivate them to improve at the defensive end.
with Billy Gillispie,
Tarleton State University Head Men’s Coach;
former Head Coach at Ranger College, Texas Tech, Kentucky, Texas A&M and UTEP;
2008 SEC Co-Coach of the Year;
2x Big 12 Coach of the Year (2005, 2007);
over 250 wins at the collegiate level
Having taken three different schools to the NCAA Tournament, along with success at the junior college level, Billy Gillispie has developed winning programs everywhere he’s coached. One area where his teams excel is in their execution of set plays against zone defense. In this on-court presentation, Coach Gillispie demonstrates a variety of set plays and wrinkles that can be used to attack zone defenses.
We are providing this drill to give you ideas on how to enhance your current practice drills. The idea is not to implement it exactly as is, but rather to tweak it to make it fit your system.
There is sound with the video, so please make sure that your sound is on.
This is a YouTube video, so you will need to be on a network that does not block YouTube videos.
For more information about Coaching to Win + Set Plays vs. Zone Defense, click here: Coaching to Win + Set Plays vs. Zone Defense – Basketball — Championship Productions, Inc.
