[jnolte]

I told you is has been a couple years since I coached. I was thinking about this the other day and realized I usually started with the 5 out, then stay on the interior for 2 passes and had success with that against the 1-3-1. I usually had my players fill the nail first and then the flank and then back to the perimeter. Because of the amount of player and ball movement that created we got lots of nail to flanks, flank to nails, or sometimes direct passes to open cutters in the middle of the zone for a close range look.

I would recommend starting with that and then making necessary adjustments as needed.

[jnolte]

When the ball is on the wing a 1-3-1 lines up and looks like a 2-3 zone.

Getting the ball to the flank is a big help against the 1-3-1 as the nail diver is often open for easy baskets. Either that or a pin and skip with the flank to nail works well.

I would start with running in the 4 out spots, however forcing the zone to match up and playing out of the 5 out spots can also open up players at it causes a natural overload or leaves a shooter open in the corner.

Hope that helps! It has been a couple years since I have coached so if others have some advice it is welcome!

[jnolte]

I have a few perimeter players who really like to shoot the 3 and I have a post player who is very good inside. There were certain games where it started to feel like players were shooting because they didn’t think they would get the ball back that possession. This led to us having many possessions that were 3 passes and a poor shot. I am fine with open 3 pointers, however our 3 pt shooting percentage was really down this year. I am trying to figure out how to get the players to be a bit more selective when attempting to get a quality shot.

[jnolte]

Dear Coach Bob,

I would say it depends on your personnel, however going 5 out and cutting through the zone with some ball movement has been effective for us. On a quick reversal we can often get the ball down to the flank. Baby pinning the wings up and then rolling with the screener has given us some easy lay-ups. If your zone offense is not working just running a 5 out pass and cut has been affect for us as well. Hope that helps!

[jnolte]

As a coach using the read and react offense this is a question I tend to get from players and their parents who are good shooters. These players are usually a little smaller and want some extra space to get their shot off. What kinds of actions, or combinations of actions can we use to set screens for these players to give them space to get their shot off?

[jnolte]

So what I am hearing is that you really don’t have an outlet to pass to, it is more of a pass ahead to someone running the sideline. I think that sounds great if you have a rebounder who can dribble. My concern is, what if you have a rebounder who cannot handle the ball in the open floor. How do you safely get the ball out of their hands and continue to get an advantage.

Apart of my question comes from the fact that many of our opponents double the rebounder to try to slow down the break, which is great for us if the rebounder can dribble not so great because it really slows down our outlet if they can’t.

[jnolte]

So are you saying that the 2 runners to the baseline are your initial outlet for your rebounder or is your rebounder advancing the ball with a dribble? I am trying to understand what you mean by outlet the ball to the one side or the 2 side.

[jnolte]

Thanks! I love the cards idea

[jnolte]

So do you just have the closest to these spots fill them? I am thinking wide outlet, 2 sidelines and a rim runner

[jnolte]

The pass and cut action can be extended all the way to the full court and if you really look at any pressbreaker it is essentially a pass and cut anyway. You will need to work on getting your players to extend the 5 spots out and eventually flow into their 5 out motion.

As far as the trap teach your players to fill these spots as soon as they recognize someone being trapped: middle first, horizontal (side to side pass we call it lag), sideline, and someone long diagonal.

Hope that helps!

[jnolte]

High school girls. 9th-12th grade.

I am also curious about other coaches 2nd year experiences. We had a very talented senior group of girls this year and in hindsight I wish I would have taken more time to put in the foundation. I quickly went through it but left out many details that came back to hurt us late in the season. I also found that the girls would get bored/burned out after doing reaction drills for too much. I was thinking that for next year I would try to move around the spots a little more to try and keep it fresh (i.e. move the posts to high post or short corner, change the spots of the floor we are playing on). I did find that fusion helped to alleviate that issue a bit and I started using the fusion method after our reaction drills to help the girls fold in their understanding of the offense. We also got better at attacking and finishing at the rim during this (which was a bit of a struggle when just doing reaction drills like post slides and circle moves). I am also curious what people have for a transition offense plan using this system.

Overall I love the fact that the read and react allows the players to make in game decisions that play to their strengths and provides a vocabulary to communicate what we are after. We found that a lot of teams went to a very physical approach and really tried to bump/hold our cutters or they would try to sag off of a perimeter player who wasn’t great from the outside.

[jnolte]

My experience with against the box and 1 is to not change a thing. You will need to have another player or 2 on the floor who can score (that always helps :). If not simply moving the ball and cutting will create scoring opportunities if the defense has to work for a bit. When they go box and 1 they want you to change what you are doing because it works, the challenge is getting your best player to understand that they don’t always need the ball in their hands and they may need to rear cut a bit more. This is no different then what they would normally do, but to them it feels like they are getting the ball less. Therefore they press much harder just to get the ball in their hands instead of playing the regular unselfish basketball they always have. Convincing your star player that the defense is trying to create the feeling that they need to get the ball more is just as important as any adjustment you can make against this defense. We tell our star player that she should look to set some backscreens and shape up or set some pin screens to get open. Especially on backscreens, if it is a good screen and the defense doesn’t help we get a layup, if the defense does help she gets the ball.

One thing I haven’t tried that I have thought about is having a player on the weakside post to set a pin screen after the star player cuts. We know the defender is going to be close to the cutter so it should be an easier screen and if it is a physical screener it may loosen up the defense some. I would have the star player look at this pin more like a down screen and allow them to curl, or pop, or fade off the screen.

Another interesting option I haven’t tried but could work is to use a power dribble. If they fight over the top of the handoff pull the ball and have the star player curl.