I hate Duke basketball, but man do I respect Coach K. He is a phenomenal basketball coach who I've grown to appreciate more and more over the years. He truly gets those kids to play hard and buy into his system. While watching Duke the other day I noticed 3 subtle defensive strategies that were really making it tough on the offense and thought I would write about them today.

1. Deny the first pass: This isn't always possible but it does one thing that is very important. If an offense wants to get the ball to a wing player 20 feet away from the basket, then Coach K wants that player to get the ball 25-30 feet away from the basket. This now takes that player away from shooting the ball because it is out of reach. It's something simple but by simply denying the first pass it forces the offense further and further away from the hoop making it tougher to score.

2. Push the post out: When you watch good defensive teams play watch how they play post defense. The best teams on defense want to force the post player away from the basket. They really try to get the guy 2-4 feet away from his comfort zone around the hoop. This is done by not allowing the offensive man to set up shop near the basket. When he comes in to try and obtain position simply set up on defense 5 feet away to force him into something uncomfortable right away. It's a simple concept that can be taught and executed fairly easily and it makes all the difference. If the goal on offense is to get the best shot closest to the basket then pushing them out further and further only makes sense.

3. Ball Pressure: The single most important scheme taught in defense is ball pressure. Nobody likes to play against ball pressure consistently. By pressuring the ball you are making it so that nothing comes easy to the offense. No pass goes uncontested and you will truly wear out the offense.

Duke does these 3 things exceptionally well and it is a huge reason why they are such a solid team defensively. Some of the best teams in the country use these 3 simple rules to set them apart and if you can teach your young teams to start working on these things you'll really start to notice more wins.

- by Brian Schofield