Scramble Halfcourt Defense–Thumbs Down
Jim Larranaga, Men’s Basketball Coach Miami (Florida)
I received the notes from Coach Creighton Burns
a) Thumbs down – trap the receiver of the first pass in the front court (trap down).
B) Thumbs up – trap the dribbler on the first dribble over the center line.
There are two trappers, two interceptors and a goaltender.
Thumbs down:
X1 follows the pass to 2 and traps down with X2.
Weak side X3 rotates up top to take away ball reversal, is the reversal interceptor (RI).
Weak side
X5 moves up to the high-post area (the next most likely pass), becomes the high-post interceptor.
(HPI, often a big). X4 is the goaltender (GT), he fronts 4. Any post-to-post screen is an automatic switch.
Get "3 to the ball" on every trap, the two trappers must have their three teammates get ball side and in the action, working together. Positions are the same after trapping on the wing regardless of the attacking set.
On a reversal pass it’s one trap and out. If you leave your man to go trap, you must run out of the trap to find the open man, and run to where your help comes from.
X1 rotates out to find the open man. If X5 decides to take 3 because he is closer, then X1 would go where his help came from and take 5.
However, if the other team continues to attack with a pass to the corner, trap again. X2 leaves to trap (his man made the pass). X1 is RI, X3 is still HPI, and X5 is still GT.
Trailer Trap (Thumbs Down)
On a secondary break, teams are usually looking to reverse the ball, not make a wing-entry pass.
Trailer trap is normally called after a time-out. X4 becomes the first trapper.
