[UCCBball] Ladder situation/training

[Chas Stan-Bishop]

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008, tommo at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au wrote:

> Quoting Alwyn Lloyd <zarquin at ucc.asn.au>:
>
>>> I could bring our little whiteboard. ;)
>>
>> I hope you have an appropriate style matching tracksuite to go with it....
>
> Do you really have a little whiteboard Alwyn? All kidding around
> aside, that'd actually be really handy.

No, it'd be _me_ that said I had a whiteboard, and yes, I really do. ;)
Actually, I brought it to the last game to show Chris in case he was 
there, but he wasn't. I was planning on bringing it this week, since the 
ascii diagrams I'm about to draw will probably be confusing. ;P

I've been trying to come up with minor modifications we can make to our 
standard offensive pattern that will be helpful in stretching the defence, 
and I've got a couple of possibilities, plus a slightly different offence 
that we might want to consider.

Note that at this stage I don't think we can be trying to fix basic 
deficiencies (for this game, that is), so I'm trying to work around them 
instead. I don't think anything that relies on guards having the 
confidence and experience to cut to the right places is going to help 
very much, for example.

Okay, first up, an option to get the ball into the corner while dealing 
with that pesky 1-2-2 defence (something we are very bad at, and 
something I think Claremont White are quite likely to run).

Set up:

----------------------------------

            4          5
              X       X

     2  X                 X  3
                 X
                 1*


Precise location of forwards may vary. X's are defenders (obviously), * is 
the ball.

Hopefully that makes some sense. Our standard option here is: 1 passes to 
3 who gets double-teamed on the sideline and trapped and turns the ball 
over. :P

The alternative: 1 passes to 3 (or 2) and then cuts under 3's defender 
into the corner, and recieves the ball again from 3. Meanwhile, 2 replaces 
1 at the top:
e.g.
----------------------------------

                      X5     1*
                 X
                     4
             X             X 3
                 X
                 2



The forwards do their thing, hopefully resulting in an open shot from high 
post, or a 1-1 low post. After making the pass to 4 or 5, or the swing 
back to 3, 1 cuts through to the other side of the court for the 
continuity, possibly picking up a dish from the forwards on the way 
through, and is thus inside to help on boards.

It's pretty much what we already run, except with the PG cutting to the 
corner after passing, thus avoiding the easy trap.

Should work even better against a 2-3 zone, since it will really stretch 
the defence in the corners, something else we don't really do atm. The cut 
through from 1 becomes more important in this case, due to the three low 
defenders.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Second option, also a slight variation on something we kinda already do 
(Tommo moving out to the 3-point line in the corner), but this requires 
more inside game from the wings, so I supect this will only work when the 
ball goes to the more forward-like guards (Alwyn/Dave/Kieron).

Same setup as before. In this case, rather than the PG cutting through, 
the ball-side forward cuts out to the corner.

----------------------------------

            4                5


     2                       3*

                 1

(No defence shown)

3 now passes to 5, and 3 cuts diagonally down inside and makes a nuisance 
of himself. Meanwhile, 4 cuts high and ball-side. 1 and 2 rotate around the 3 
point line, filling in the vacancy left by 3.


----------------------------------

                             5*
                       3

                      4      1

                 2


If the ball goes back to 1, 3 cuts back out to the weak-side wing, 5 cuts 
to high post and 4 cuts towards the basket before cutting out to the 
weakside wing for the continuity.

----------------------------------

     4


     3        5               1

                 2*

Note that 3 does all the inside cuts on the part of the "guards", while 1 
and 2 are always outside players.

The main reason for this play is it gives Tommo open outside shots while 
not destroying our inside game or our spacing for the swing. This would 
preferably be a "sometimes" play, although that does require 3 to be 
switched on.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Finally, something a bit different. I saw this a while ago, and it's 
something we might want to think about, particularly when we only have one 
forward on court. It's the 41 corners offence. It's very simple, 
applicable versus any zone, and doesn't require any skills we don't have.


----------------------------------

             5         5
             |         |
     4       \         /      3
              5-------5

             2         1


The 4 perimeter plays simply pass the ball around, and the inside player 
simply follows the ball (path shown). I would expect that 3 and 4 would 
probably cut as soon as 5 recieves the ball. I'm not sure what you do 
about options for the kick back out if nothing happens inside. Possibly 3 
and 4 continue thier cuts through to the opposite sides. Or maybe the 
ballside guard cuts down to the corner while the other stays high for 
safety?

Anyway. This should handle 3-out defences really well. It should still 
work against a 2-3, either by drawing one of the low players out to the 
corners (giving 2 on 2 down low, assuming the weak side corner cuts in, 
and assuming the ball-side corner can pass/drive around his defender) or 
by getting the ball into 5 on the free throw line (although this will need 
cuts inside from the perimeter players).

Actually, playing this might even cause a switch to three out, unless the 
defence decides to not follow the swing at all. Which still works in our 
favour, since slowing down the play is exactly what we want.

It'd also be really good to use as the game goes on, since it can run the 
defence ragged without much movement from the offence, asuming we can be 
patient for a change. ;)

So yeah, I think it's worth considering.

Any thoughts?
Apologies for any lack of clarity. ASCII kinda sucks for basketball 
diagrams. I will bring the clipboard on Saturday.

Chas