Exploring basketball's best ideas, strategies, and coaches around the world

Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new subscribers from around the world! Today is the 197th straight Sunday of the newsletter!

ICYMI: Last week, we released Part 2 of our "Film Room" session with Converse University Head Coach, Nick Pasqua, and his Hybrid Ballscreen/Princeton Continuity offense. View the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: "4v4 Play-it-Down" - Drill Design & Constraints​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Josh Pastner​

🥇Best of the Week: Iverson Ricky & Stagger Touch​

We'll be back again at the Summer League hosting another great Coaches Social! As an SG Plus member you can get an invite! A fun look at last year's event HERE.​

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Let's dive in...

Competitive "4v4 Play-it-Down"

Last month on the podcast, Drew Dunlop (Pro Lane founder) sat down with us for a roundtable discussion titled "Practical Thoughts on Ecological Design, Representative Environments, and the CLA"🎙, in which we shared our experiences implementing some of these concepts with our own teams at the Pro and College levels. After that podcast we received a number of inquires about a specific drill we discussed during the conversation, a "4v4 Play-it-Down" series, in which the defense must get a certain number of successful stops to finish the drill while the offense attempts to keep them in, leading to a highly competitive, game-like battle between the two sides...

So, this week, to add both film and depth to that conversation, we went back and pulled some live practice footage from this past year to put together a "voice-over explainer video" of what this drill looks like in action at the college level.

To quickly recap, a “Play-it-Down” refers to one team receiving a certain amount of quick hitting reps, decreasing in the number of players after each rep, within one set. For instance, starting out 4v4 then moving to 3v3, 2v2 and finally 1v1 to end the set. The below drill was used as a way to give representative reps to both the offense and defense, and with the ease of changing certain constraints also a drill to help prepare for opponents later in the season (more on that below).

Drill Design

To begin, here are the parameters for the offense and defense in the drill...

Defensive Goals

• The Defense has two ways they can "finish" the drill and move to offense
  1. Get "four stops in a row", or
  2. Get "3 Sets" of stops, which means stopping the offense 3 out of the 4 reps in the PID series

Once the defense achieves one of these two goals, they are "off" of playing defense and another group moves in.

Offense Goals

• The offense is trying to score at least two out of the four reps to prohibit the defense from getting a "set"

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Drill Constraints

The endless variety of constraints a coach can use in this drill give it flexibility to work on both offensive and defensive styles of play. Here are the examples of constraints used in today's video...

Offense:

• Shot Clock - For the 4v4 rep, the shot clock started at 15 seconds, then moved to 10 seconds for the 3v3 and 2v2 reps, and finished at 5 seconds for the 1v1 rep.
  • Note: This Shot Clock constraint was great to force players to find quick solutions along with developing an understanding of how many types of actions could be run with certain time on the clock. This Shot Clock constraint is also where a coach can easily change the "goal" of the drill. For example, we could decrease the time on the shot clock for each "rep" to simulate and emphasize "Late Clock" offense and the types of actions and shot profiles we wanted to fight for.
• Actions - In today's video example, we gave the offense different "actions" within our offensive concepts to start with before attacking to score. This came in the way of Zooms, PNR's, Ghosts, DHO's, etc.
  • Note: This is where you can layer in offensive concepts specific to your style of play, or, as we discuss in the video today, have the offense run offensive actions that an upcoming opponent might specialize in to make this more of a "scout" specific drill.

Defense:

• Coverages - During the 4v4 and 3v3 reps of the drill, we would often give the defense specific PNR "coverages" we wanted to work on that day. Again, depending on the defensive emphasis we could also tell the defense they "can't switch", "always switch", "double to post", etc...
  • Note: Again, this is where the drill can be tweaked to prepare for an upcoming opponent, as the defense can be given specific coverages they must play in to simulate how an opponent prefers to play, forcing the offense to find natural solutions to those problems.

The first thing we have grown to appreciate about this drill is the level of pressure and competition it naturally brings out in the group. Each repetition has increasing value for both the offense and defense as they attempt to either avoid moving to defense or, getting a needed final stop on defense to finish the drill. With a certain level of intensity achieved, a game-like environment is created to teach through.

Personal and Group Toughness/Resilience

Something that may not come through on the film, but is well worth mentioning, is the mental toughness and resilience that a drill like this can help build. There are plenty of times where the 1v1 battle is the difference between the defense finishing the drill or needing to start all over if the offense scores. As a coach, this offers some great insight into players that can dig in to get a final stop when they're tired, as well as the natural leadership that comes out in certain players when a defensive group doesn't get stops and needs to pull together to move on.

The game is often chaotic, messy and random. This is one of a variety of similar drills we've enjoyed implementing because of its ability to provide competitive, and representative game-like reps at the collegiate level.

For much more, and to see live footage of this drill, SG Plus members can view the full breakdown now on SGTV...

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

We were joined on the podcast this week by former Memphis and Georgia Tech Head Coach, along with current college basketball analyst, Josh Pastner! We dive into the concepts of playing multiple defenses, unique zones, and discuss late-game timeout usage and marrying Princeton and Dribble Drive Motion concepts during the always interesting "Start, Sub, or Sit?!"

Listen to the entire conversation here...

Together with Hudl

We're proud to partner with one of the best tech companies in the world of sports, Hudl! Every play, every stat, every breakdown. On their own, they’re essential. But all together, they’re undeniable. Hudl recently introduced their newest product, Hudl Instat – a new advanced data platform that integrates with Sportscode and every Hudl product you rely on to create an all-in-one data powerhouse. Hudl Instat’s advanced tagging and next-level stat reports help you develop your team – and its global film library helps you find the missing piece to get the most out of every second of film. Visit ​hudl.com/slappinglass​ to learn more.

Tactical

📺 Chemnitz - Iverson Keep • Ricky​

"After the Iverson Cut, the point guard keeps the ball to run a ballscreen, with the shooter coming back behind off a "Ricky" screen."

✚ Pair With: Another well designed Iverson set from Barcelona to free a shooter of the baseline drive Ricky action.

🔒 SG Plus Content: For more cleverly designed plays for a shooter, view our breakdown on Tenerife's playbook.

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📺 AS Monaco - Stagger Touch • Horns Pin​

"Monaco's dynamic "Stagger Touch" action to create space and open up scoring opportunities of a pin down screen."

✚ Pair With: Monaco playing to Delay out of a 2-Guard front alignment.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on Off Ball Screen Stunts and "Next" Help.

Interesting Reads

📚 Useful and Overlooked Skills​

"Getting to the point. Everyone’s busy. Make your point using as few words as possible and get out of their way."

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📚 Brad Stevens Stressing Character While Approaching Celtics Deadline​

“One of the strengths of our team is guys like Derrick White, guys like Jrue Holiday, they just are so comfortable in who they are,” Stevens said Thursday. 'They don’t always use a ton of possessions but the ones they use are unbelievable, everyday they’re positive, everyday they lift the group. When you start talking about finding guys that complement all of our best players, it’s a small group. We just got to keep on the lookout for them.'”

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📚 JJ Redick’s Media Studies​

"Part of what made Mind the Game stand out was Redick’s embrace of the finer points of the X’s and O’s. When Redick put the definitions of plays on the screen at the beginning of the show, he was like a fantasy novelist listing off the characters and lands in a preface so readers wouldn’t get confused."

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

We're proud to partner with the leading Sports Travel company in the basketball world, Beyond Sports! Follow the link above to learn more about why more than 600 universities have trusted Beyond Sports for their team's foreign trips. Let them know Slappin' Glass sent you!

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