[UCCBball] This weekend's game - offensive setup

[tommo at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au]

Quoting "Andrew Bailey" <acolyte at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>:

> My biggest overall issue is that this lends itself to a 'quick' or  
> possibly rushed offense. I like us a bit better when we swing it  
> down both sides pretty quickley.

Swinging the ball around is good, and I definitely still want us to do  
it. I should clarify that I'm not suggesting this should be our  
offense in every instance - just something for the point to kickstart  
when they think it's appropriate by pushing the ball to either side.

The problem we encounter when we swing the ball down both sides is  
that we never swing it far enough down to create any passing angles  
that aren't already available to the point guard when they're at the  
top. 95% of the time the only passing option that comes from it is to  
pass it straight back up to the top again.

I'm don't really agree with your assessment that it'll lead to a  
rushed offense. Essentially, the setup I'm suggesting is really just a  
different kind of swing offense - one which pushes the ball deeper  
into the defensive area to create more of a scoring threat. When we  
just pass the ball back and forth across the top area (which is what  
our current swing tends to achieve), the only scoring threat we tend  
to have is the occasional three-pointer or pass to high post.

>> >> 3. When the point does this, the wing on the same side drifts down
>> >> towards the bassline, and the forward on the other-side post cuts up
>> >> to the high post.
>> >>a
>
> This is the bit I don't like as it ruins our spacing. we end up with  
> four players on one side and an awful lot of congestion. In fact  
> this a lot of what we do at the moment when our offense isn't  
> working. I don't think we should aspire to shis structure.  
> Especially as the week wing should really come accross to the top a  
> bit for an outlet pass.

You're right that we get four players on one side, but I disagree that  
it'll ruin our spacing. The four players will be well-spaced, with a  
sizable box formation from high-to-low and key-to-sideline.

I don't think we really do anything quite like this at the moment. Our  
offense doesn't really have much set structure, so it's possible that  
there's been times when we've simply gotten randomly crowded on one  
side, but this would be much more controlled and evenly spaced than  
that.

As I've said before, I think we need to push the ball further down  
towards the bassline on the wing to create more scoring options. If we  
do this, we *want* our offence to be somewhat "unbalanced" towards the  
side the ball is on. A wing or low post on the far side is of little  
use at the moment when the ball is at the low-wing. People can  
subsequently cut to those areas if the ball swings back up again, but  
they don't serve any purpose if they're there at that precise point.

>> From my experience as a off side forward ( unless I am  
>> misunderstanding what you mean by high post ) there realy is no  
>> room for me to cut too and I am probably better off doing a V cut  
>> at best as aswing outlet or something.

If you cut from the low-post on an arc-path up through the key to the  
free-throw area, there'll be space for you there. I cut to that area  
all the time, as do Olly and Kieron quite frequently. It creates a  
scoring threat which also draws the defense up off the bassline -  
something which will greatly benifit the low-wing should they decide  
to drive or pass to the low post.

I'm certianly open to suggestions for different ways to go about it,  
but we absolutely need to move the ball deeper into the low-wing area.  
We're squandering our low post opportunities and seriously limiting  
both our passing and scoring options.

Tom.

Tom.