Here are the 5 defensive “MUSTS” that current Florida State’s Head Coach, Leonard Hamilton, preaches to his team:

1. Must Prevent Easy Transition Baskets

a. Take care of the basketball

b. Sprint back & get into “attack stance & mentality”

c. Communicate, find & stop ball

d. Establish position in relation to ball

2. Must Keep Ball Out of the Red Zone

a. Stop dribble penetration

• Guard ball
• Shrink the gaps (up line principles)
• Early help and recover
• Execute closeouts

b. Take away the post pass

• Pressure ball
• Front post: take away flashers and cutters
• Swarm to help on lob

3. Must Contest Every Shot

a. Defeat screens

• Communicate
• Man guarding screener responsible for stopping ball
• “Fight Like Hell” when screened
• Eliminate penetrate and pitch
• Contain dribbler

b. Shrink gaps (help and recover)

c. Execute closeouts & pressure the ball

4. Must Allow Only One Shot Opportunity

a. Block out at every position

b. Eliminate penetration into “Red Zone” which weaken your block out schemes

5. Must Create Offense with Defense

a. Ball pressure

b. Develop a “Swarm to Help” mentality

As mentioned here in an earlier post, the use of advanced analytics is becoming more and more popular as teams are constantly looking for effective competitive advantages.

Kirk Goldsberry and Eric Weiss of Harvard University recently presented a paper at the Sports Analytics Conference that summarizes two case studies that they used to measure interior (post) defense in the NBA.

The studies essentially track and measured two things: 1) How many shots were taken when a specific defender was within 5 feet and 2) What were the shooting percentages of those shots.

The results suggest that Dwight Howard of the Lakers is the biggest deterrent in the NBA – opponents just don’t shoot the ball very often when he is in anywhere close to them.

However, Larry Sanders of the Bucks appears to be the best interior defender as opponents only make 34.9% of their shots whenever he is within 5 feet of them.

On the other end of the spectrum, offensive players shoot 54.2% when Anderson Varejao is “protecting” the basket.

While this information may not apply directly to your own team, it does give us another way to evaluate post defense -are our post players good defenders, bad defenders, or deterrents?

To see the entire Goldsberry and Weiss paper and to dive into more basketball studies similar to this one visit Sloan Sports Conference.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about NCAA coaches using advanced analytics to improve the performances of their teams.

In the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine, the University of Florida’s Bill Donovan talks at length about the importance of measuring and emphasizing his team’s DER (defensive efficiency rating) which reflects points per possession.

Donovan firmly believes (and has the stats to back it up) that his team cannot count on advancing in the NCAA Tournament unless the Gators have a DER below 0.9.

To emphasize this number in practice, Coach Donovan puts a group on defense for six straight possessions with the stipulation that they can’t allow a total of six points, which would translate to a DER of under 1.0.

If they allow only five points or fewer the defense gers to move to offense and a new defense steps onto the court.

If they allow six points or more, the defense has to run and then get back on defense for another six possessions.

“It’s about trying to get our guys to understand the mentality of moving from one play to the next,’”says Donovan.

“Let’s say you’ve given up three points in five possessions – that’s okay.

But now you can’t allow a three on that last one. All of a sudden you’re simulating a real endgame situation.”

While most of us may not have the rsources to use all the advanced analytics that the major NCAA programs have, we can certainly measure our DER and use it to strengthen our defensive presence.

Years ago when legendary coach Dick Bennett accepted the head coaching job at Washington State University he said something at the press conference that had many peole shaking their heads.

Coach Bennett said that he had his work cut out for him and needed to recruit guys that he could lose with before they would start winning.

What he meant by that was that there was going to be some rough spots ahead no matter who was in his first recruiting class.

Knowing that, he needed guys who were going to keep working hard, who were going to remain loyal and who would never abandon ship when things got tough.

In the next couple months many coaches are going to start rebuilding their programs for a variety of reasons.

They will have to decide on which incoming players to keep in the program and which to turn away.

If that happens to be you, consider keeping the ones you can lose with first.

(If you are a player reading this are you the type of person your coach can count on no matter what? If not, you might find yourself without a team!)

The third tip in Daniel Coyle’s “The Little Book of Talent” is “Steal Without Apology.

” What does that mean? It means that in your quest to become a better, more talented basketball player there is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel.

All the skills, talents, and information that you need can be found almost immediately if you are willing to look.

Of course, just looking isn’t enough – once you find what you need you must “steal” it and make it your own if you really want to improve your game.

Want Kobe’s competitiveness, Ray Allen’s jump shot or Chris Paul’s handles? Then steal them!

Break them down into tiny pieces and then relentlessly practice those pieces until the entire skill becomes yours. They won’t mind; truth be told they probably stole them from someone else years ago.

However, a couple words of warning are appropriate here. Steal only things that are valuable. (Stealing the Globetrotter’s half court hook shoot might win you a few bets but isn’t going to help you become a better player.)

Be as specific as possible. (Don’t necessarily worry about stealing Ray Allen’s entire jump shot but instead steal his follow through, his body balance, and his quick release.)

The HoopSkills website is full of articles, blog posts, videos, and training aids designed and made available to put you on the path to improvement. If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking then just ask and one of us will happily point you in the right direction!

Players of all ages and at all levels often aspire to make the All Star team. Some see it as a badge of honor and as being recognized for a job well done.

Others use the potential possibility of being named an All Star as an extra boost of motivation to work hard and stay focused.

Whatever the reason, if you want to make the All Star team you must make sure that you DO NOT play like an All Star!

If you watched Sunday night’s NBA All Star game then you know exactly what I am talking about.

No close-outs, no ball pressure, centers with no range firing up 3 pointers, uncontested shot after uncontested shot, the lane opening up like the Red Sea on every drive to the basket, no one running hard in either direction, no fouls, no steals, very little passing, etc.

Entertaining – yes, at times. Real basketball – not even close! In fact, if you play that way  you’ll be lucky to make most middle school teams!

Is it too much to ask that the best players on the planet actually play hard and really compete against one another?

As a real fan I don’t want to watch a two hour dunk contest disguised as a game.

I want to watch great players getting after it, sharing the ball, playing some defense, and actually competing.

I want to be able to tell my sons that if they just play as hard as the All Stars then they’ll be all right when it comes to their own teams.

I’ve been thinking that maybe the NBA should take the same approach that Major Leage Baseball takes – the division (league) that wins the All Star game gets home court advantage during the finals.

Make the game worth something and maybe the players will play harder.

Until then, if you want to make the All Star team, don’t play like an All Star!

I have a couple of outstanding coaching books written by Bob Huggins and so I try to watch his teams play on TV every chance I get.

Earlier this week I was watching Texas and West Virginia play on ESPN’s Big Monday telecast.

In crunch time WVU went into a 1-3-1 zone, got eight straight defensive stops and pulled out the win.

What’s interesting is the story behind the story. John Belein taught the 1-3-1 to his WVU players before leaving to take over the program at Michigan.

In turn those players taught the principles and intricacies of the zone to current coach Bob Huggins.

Huggins, not caring where an idea comes from as long as it works, is now using the 1-3-1 as a defensive change of pace and now has won at least one extra game because of it.

Coaches, don’t let your ego get in the way. Sometimes players see things in the heat of battle that you can’t always see from the sidelines.

Just the fact that you are open to ideas and suggestions will encourage your players to become better students of the game and that’s a win-win situation for everyone.

Since there are literally hundreds of offenses and set plays that need to be defended, defensive players must depend more on principles than actual patterns to carry
out their assignments.

Teams have won championships with only a couple players carrying the scoring load but no team that I can recall has won a championship with only one or two of its members playing defense.

In the book Court Sense by John Giannini there are a few paragraphs describing defensive cohesion that could benefit players and coaches alike.  According to Coach Giannini there are four critical requirements for a defensive unit to be effective and cohesive.

1. Jump to the ball. When the ball moves by either pass or dribble every defensive player should move along with it and adjust their positioning. When the ball is passed good defenders take advantage of the ball’s “air time” and are in their new position by the time the ball is caught.

2. Always be ready to help. The reason to be in proper position is to provide defensive help on all dribble penetrations and post feeds. On ball defenders can apply more pressure if they know their teammates have their backs and are willing, able, and in position to help.

3. Rotate to help the helper. Like any trapping or double teaming situation, an offensive player is always going to be momentarily open when one defensive teammate helps another. (This is a hard concept for many younger players to grasp.) From a defensive standpoint that player should always be the one furthest away from the ball. When working completely in sync with each other, great defensive teams can make it seem like they have 6 defenders on the floor at once.

4. Recover quickly. Some times, when a team is primarily made up of defenders of the same size and quickness, only one player has to recover quickly so that every offensive player is guarded. Other situations require that certain offensive players are guarded by specific defenders. In those situations the speed and efficiency of a team’s recovery is going to largely determine the success or failure of that particular defensive possession.

Our last couple posts have featured the wisdom of the late Dick DeVenzio, who was the founder of Point Guard College. The information presented here was first published in an article in Winning Hoops magazine in May 2009 but is as relevant now as it was then.

Coach DeVenzio’s fourth rule for winning basketball s Never Give the Other Team an Easy Shot. This rule was based on five simple principles that could be applied to both man to man and to zone defenses. These principles included:

• Locate your man and get on him
• Don’t give him anything easy
• Never let a shooter shoot without a hand in his face
• Never let the ball be passed to someone near the basket
• Never let a player dribble in for a layup

If you think about it, every defensive technique ever taught has been designed to accomplish at least one of these objectives!

Coach DeVenzio didn’t want to hear any excuses either. He wrote, “But coach, that wasn’t my man is not a valid excuse. When someone scores, the defensive team allowed it to happen. When you preach the strength of the team, you cannot allow players to circumvent it by allowing them to place blame on others.”

If you’re like me, it seems like nearly everybody on your schedule is now running some sort of dribble drive motion offense where ball handlers are relentless in trying to get to the rim. If that’s the case here’s a competitive drill you can use to help stop dribble penetration:

1. This drill can be run 5 on 5 or 4 on 4
2. The defense must not let any offensive player with the ball get both feet in the lane
3. If the offense gets two feet in the lane, the defense loses that possession
4. If the offense scores by any means the defenses loses that possession
5. The defense must pressure the ball handler and cannot just sag back into the lane
6. Each possession only lasts 15-20 seconds depending on the age group of your players
7. The defensive goal is to get three consecutive stops

Variation: this drill can also be adapted to defend those offenses that try to jam the ball inside to a dominant post player