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

Welcome to all the new subscribers this week, it's great to have you as part of the community!

Those interested in getting access to every piece of content in this newsletter (plus thousands of hours more) can join coaches and staffs from the NBA to High School in almost 50 countries taking advantage of SG Plus HERE. ​

ICYMI: Last week we released our most watched video of the year after just one week, an All Access look into installing a "5 Out Offense." ​

Today at a Glance:

📺 SGTV: NW Missouri State - The Art of the Pick n Pop​

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Ben McCollum​

🥇 Best of the Week: Turnout Sets​

​📋 International Basketball and Mentorship Course​

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Let's dive in..

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Ben McCollum - Complicate the Simple

We had the pleasure of hosting NW Missouri St. Head Coach, Ben McCollum, on the podcast this week in what is certainly one of our favorite conversations of the year. During the podcast we spend a good amount of time discussing Coach McCollum's thoughts and philosophies about their dynamic PnR Flow Motion, which has been on of the most efficient offenses in the country, and decided to explore it further in this week's Deep Dive film breakdown. The focus was attempting to encapsulate how they master a few simple concepts within their Pick n' Pop screening action to create quick advantages and long rotations for the defense.

So, to better understand their prowess in the Pick n Pop let's start with the simple...

"Force the Over" & "Get Two on the Ball"

As Coach McCollum mentions on the podcast, "Forcing the Over" sounds simple in theory, but can be an entirely different beast in practice. But before getting to other elements of popping, the screener needs to clearly define a proper angle to force the defender over...

Zooming In: Screening at an angle allows the ballhandler to attack north/south while making it more difficult and dangerous to go under the screen because of the longer trajectory the defender must use to do so, especially on a shooter...

Zooming In 2.0: A teaching point on getting this over is for the screener to flip their angle toward the bottom foot of the defender (as shown above). There's exceptions and variations to everything, but for those first teaching a big to set better screens this is an easy marker for them to look for as they get more comfortable forcing the over.

The defensive coverage also plays a factor in determining the angle, with greater importance on getting the over as the coverage decreases in aggressiveness and shifts toward containment. You can see how flipping and flattening the screen toward the defender's bottom foot helps put two on the ball and opens the space to pop into...

Zooming In: As Coach McCollum discusses in the podcast, priority #1 in the PnR is to get "two on the ball", not scoring. Scoring will be the by-product screening at a proper angle to force the over and the ballhandler can achieve the necessary depth (depending on the coverage) with the dribble to draw the big to the ball.

Patience in Finding the Angle

Where Coach McCollum and NW Missouri State begin to separate themselves is in their patience and willingness to stay with the screening action until they have achieved the angle/advantage they want. Rather than aborting the action and moving on to another, the ballhandler and screener will continue to hunt out the angle they need to get the defender to open their stance and start attacking downhill at the defensive big knowing the screener will be popping back into the vacated space...

Zooming In: This patience arises from the fact that they rarely roll the screener. With this preference to pop, the screener does not have to stress about getting out of the screen quickly and behind the defense. What they do need, is the rim threat from the PG's attack (as well as potential cutting from the other three players), which requires the screener set a proper angled screen. With no pressure to roll quickly and Coach McCollum's willingness to stay in the screening action, the 2-man game between the screener and ballhandler is allotted the time to hunt out the proper angle and advantage.

After mastering these simple (but complicated) objectives of forcing overs and putting two on the ball, Coach McCollum can begin expanding the other cutting, spacing, and motion parts of the offense. To learn more on NW Missouri State's Pick n Pop, including:

• "Angle Over Contact"
• Leveraging the PG
• Angles against Different Coverages
• Pop Backs against Drops
• Slips Outs & Unders

view this week's newest video on SGTV below...

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

It was a fantastic start to November on the podcast as we had the opportunity to sit down with 4x DII National Champion Head Coach of NW Missouri St,. Ben McCollum! Coach McCollum and his program have enjoyed an incredible run of success and their habits and philosophy of play as a program are well worth the study. We dove into a number of topics with Coach McCollum including:

• The Philosophy and Benefits of a Methodical Level of Pace: NW Missouri St. won last year's National Championship and were almost dead last in "pace." We really enjoyed diving in with Coach McCollum on why they choose to play so methodically, as well as the situations and actions when they will look to play quicker to create advantages. Great stuff from Coach McCollum throughout.
• The Art of PNR Screening Angles: Coach McCollum's offense has been one of the most efficient in NCAA DII in recent years, and a big reason is his teams' complete mastery in setting and changing screening angles to create advantages for the ballhandler. See above, as we spent this week's Deep Dive Breakdown fully dissecting some of the interesting teaching points of the offense.
• "Start, Sub, or Sit?!": We had a blast during SSS asking discussing Coach McCollum's thoughts on defensive simplicity, stats that really matter, and much more.

Listen to the entire conversation with Coach McCollum here...

Listen Now!

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Concepts & Methods of Spanish Basketball

Excited to announce a Coaching and Mentorship course on Spanish Basketball Methodology from Sport Coach. This comprehensive 6-Month course teaches the philosophy and tactics behind the success of Spanish Basketball. Included in the course are Monthly Webinars from some of the top Spanish Coaches in the game today, hosted by us at Slappin' Glass. Additionally, participants can upgrade their experience to receive intimate mentoring opportunities from Spanish Coaches with over 10+ years experience in the ACB League & European Leagues. All for under $100 a month!​
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Interested Coaches in the program will gain first hand knowledge on...
🏀Building an Offense
🏀Offensive & Defensive Concepts of the ACB League
🏀Player Development & Methodology
🏀Pick n Roll Offense
🏀Scouting & Preparing a Gameplan
🏀Plus! Monthly Webinars hosted by Slappin' Glass.

All for under $100 a month! Course starts December 5th.

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Tactical

📺 Turnout Punch - Backside Flare​

"Attacking the post entry baseline help out of the Turnout Entry"

✚ Pair With: Our Deep Dive into how European clubs are spacing and creating advantages around The Post. Stay tune next week for more on Post Offense!

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📺 Igor Milicic - Turnout "5" Pin In​

"Rolling the shooting big into the paint off the initial turnout ballscreen to bring him back out off a pin in screen from the PG."

✚ Pair With: Our podcast with current Polish NT HC Igor Milicic and our breakdown on his unique Matchup Zone.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Very Important But Hard to Teach​

A few favorites:

"How to recognize that your own views would be different if you were born in a different country or era.

How to recognize and appreciate luck.

How to manage the balance between confidence and ego, recognizing that you might be unique but you’re not special.

How to deal with a certain level of hassle and nonsense without losing your cool.

Recognizing how incentives affect your behavior, often for the worse.

How to accept things that are easy to ignore because it’s painful to admit they’re true."

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📚 Playing Point Guard for Kelvin Sampson​

Thanks to Coach Trey Scotti for the tip on this one...

"Coach Sampson has a unique relationship with his point guards. Don’t get me wrong: he will chew me out, but we talk about certain things afterward. Actually, we talk about a lot of things. Even during the offseason, we probably speak every day. Sometimes it will be, ‘how was this transition defense?’ Or he’ll send me a play to study or call me to his office to watch a little bit of film.

He’ll encourage me and pick me up, or he’ll tell me what I’m doing wrong or what I’m doing right. The best thing about Coach is that I know I can talk to him about anything. There are no boundaries."

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📚 Variability is the Key to Mastery​

"One way out of this trap is to practice with variable constraints that prevent using the dominant strategy. A rock climber who leans toward explosive, dynamic jumps might explore a new style by climbing with the constraint of pausing for a second before each new hold. A writer who relies on personal stories might make a rule to avoid them for a future essay."

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Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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We are proud partners with InStat Basket, their platform has been a tremendous aid in producing our weekly breakdowns and this newsletter. With InStat we get access to their complete catalog of NBA, Euroleague, NCAA, WNBA, and International film. Coaches at every level can use InStat to prepare for opponents, self-scout, and develop players for the next level. Visit InStat now to learn more and take your program to the next level.

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