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

Happy New Year! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, we looked back at 2025 by highlighting our most viewed SGTV offensive breakdowns. See what coaches consistently returned to HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Full Court Pistol - Made Free Throw Pressure​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: John Andrzejek {Campbell}

📣 Hudl Instat

🥇 Best of the Week: Twirl Screens & Argentina Break​

📚 Interesting Reads: Growth without Goals

But first...

Full Court Pistol

One of our favorite ongoing conversations within the Slappin’ Glass community is the idea of Total Basketball, playing without pause. It is a style rooted in winning the conversions of the game, the moments where possession, spacing, and advantage are either seized or surrendered as teams shift from defense to offense and back again. At its core is the intent to weaponize or defend the entire court.

This often shows up through the strategy of tagging up, but it can take several other forms too, including hedging ballscreens in the backcourt, sending advantageous traps, or delivering timely "hits" 🔒(double teams) on the ball to disrupt flow and create pressure.

🎧 Listen to our conversations with Robyn Fralick of Michigan State and Francesco Tabellini of Paris Basketball, both of whom use this model as a foundation for defining how their teams play.

Through this lens, our study takes us back to Valencia Basket and Coach Pedro Martinez, who are one of the best at executing this style of play at the moment. What particularly catches our eyes is their commitment to punishing pressure after opponent free throws. By viewing the press break and subsequent inbounds as an opportunity to trigger action, Valencia eliminates dead time, generates early downhill pressure, and forces the defense to guard all 94 feet before it can fully organize.

The action perhaps best suited for this, and one that consistently wreaks havoc on opponents, is "Pistol."

Preparing For Pressure

As offenses continue to become more lethal, defenses are trending toward greater aggressiveness. While full court presses are still not in vogue across most leagues worldwide, man pressure designed to slow the opposing point guard and eat into the shot clock has become a fixture at nearly every level.

This is especially noticeable after free throws, where defenses have the opportunity to organize, extend pressure, and impede the offense’s ability to flow seamlessly into the next possession.

Where the subtle beauty of Valencia’s attack lies is not in its ability to organize a set piece after a made free throw, but in its refusal to segment the possession. Rather than breaking the press and then entering the half court, Valencia views pressure as an opportunity to push pace, using the inbound itself to trigger immediate action.

Full Court Pistol

Defenses that apply full court pressure are often intent on taking away the middle of the floor and steering the inbounds pass toward the sideline. For that reason, the Pistol action becomes a savvy trigger, as the pace up the sideline that is commonly conceded by pressure defenses can be weaponized by the offense.

Whether inbounding directly to a guard curling toward the sideline or flowing into an immediate give and go with the inbounder, the offense looks to create early pace up the sideline.

Zooming In: Note how the wings sprint the floor and begin deep in the corners after the free throw. Starting deep in the corner and then raising into the action, either to set the ballscreen or present for an advance pass, creates space for the initial big-to-small cross screen on the inbounds. This spacing ensures the ball can be safely inbounded, as there is simply too much space for the defense to take away everything, and allows either the guard or the inbounder to generate early pace off the catch.

Generating Pace

Naturally, the first look is the guard coming off the cross screen to receive the inbounds and advance the ball up the floor. The more pace that can be created before half court the better, as the initial guard-to-guard pistol action is hard to defend when the ballhandler is coming in at high speed. Many teams will try to get the ballhandler's defender through the pistol action without switching, but getting through and recovering is no easy task when the ballhandler is at full speed.

If that entry is taken away, the next best option is a quick inbound to the screener followed by the inbounder sprinting into a hand off. As is often the case, X5 will be reluctant to extend full court pressure, making the release pass to the big consistently available. With the inbounder sprinting into the handoff, pace is generated off either entry option.

The full court pistol is built on speed and should not be compromised by attempting to loop a guard backward toward the baseline just to secure a catch.

Beauty in Simplicity

As with everything in today’s topic, the goal is pace, pace, pace. As Tiago Splitter {🎧} shared on the podcast, pace is created through simplicity of action.

Rather than giving players a menu of options after a free throw, Valencia provides one clear solution. That clarity allows players to organize quickly and move with speed. Once pace is consistently established, execution can be scaled and reads layered in.

Do not sacrifice pace for execution. That balance is what makes the Pistol action so difficult to defend and exactly what is highlighted in today’s video.

When looking for areas of the game to increase pace, full court actions following opponent free throws are an excellent place to start. These moments have long favored the defense, but with clarity, simplicity, and a commitment to tempo, the pressure can be turned into an advantage.

​SG+ Members can view the full breakdown of Valencia's Made Free Throw Pistol attack today on SGTV!

Together with Hudl

Hudl Powers Every Possession

If you’re already using tools like FastDraw, FastScout, or FastRecruit—you know how essential they are to your workflows. And now that they’re fully part of the Hudl ecosystem, they’re more powerful than ever. From film and play diagrams to scouting reports and custom recruiting boards, everything flows together. One system. Built for high-performance programs.

​Learn more about Hudl and their variety of products or subscribers to Slappin' Glass can also directly email Winston Jones of Hudl at winston.jones@hudl.com.

🎙 John Andrzejek on Scrambling vs. Anti-Scrambling Defensive Systems, Doubling the Post, and PNR Cutting Actions {Campbell}

In this episode of Slappin’ Glass, we’re joined by John Andrzejek, Head Coach at Campbell and former defensive coordinator for Florida’s national championship team, for a deep dive into the real trade-offs that shape elite defensive systems.

Coach Andrzejek walks us through how his defensive philosophy has evolved across stops at St. Mary’s, Columbia, Washington State, Florida, and now Campbell—highlighting the tension every staff must navigate between precision and pragmatism, technique and energy, and staying out of trouble versus thriving inside the scramble.

We explore the decision-making behind scrambling vs. anti-scrambling defenses, how and why he blends principles from St. Mary’s, Houston, and Iowa State, and what it truly takes to guard the modern, spacing-driven game. The conversation gets deep into the weeds on no-middle principles, switching high and low, tagging schemes in middle pick-and-roll, and organizing rotations when things inevitably break down.

Offensively, Coach Andrzejek shares how he teaches cutting around the pick-and-roll through a mix of rules and reads, why simplicity drives better decision-making, and how repetition of core situations builds true situational awareness. We also tackle post-doubling philosophies, personnel adjustments, practice design, and the balance between scouting detail and playing fast.

As always, we close with a Start, Sub, or Sit that dives into cutting around the pick-and-roll and post-doubling strategies, plus Coach Andrzejek’s thoughts on the best investment he’s made in his coaching career.

This is a clinic-level conversation on defensive problem-solving, offensive clarity, and building systems that hold up against elite talent.

What You’ll Learn

• The strategic trade-offs between scrambling vs. anti-scrambling defensive systems
• How elite programs blend no-middle principles with modern spacing realities
• Why playing really hard often matters more than perfect technique
• How to organize rotations and tags when the ball gets to the middle
• Switching high and low to keep the ball out of the paint
• Teaching cutting around the pick-and-roll using rules that unlock reads
• Why offensive simplicity leads to better decision-making
• Different philosophies for doubling the post and protecting the rim
• How practice design, film, and repetition build defensive awareness
• The long-term value of film study and coaching mentorship

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Tactical

📺 Ucam Murcia - Ram Twirl Screen​

"Twirling the big into a corner exit screen for the ram screener."

✚ Pair With: Exiting the ram screener directly into a Zoom DHO with the rolling big screening out the rim protection.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Txus Vidorreta and Tenerife's clever screening actions for their shooters.

📺 Argentina Break - Stagger Screen • Spain PNR​

"Rather than cross screening the 5-Man to the ballside, cut the shooter into a stagger screen in the Argentina Break."

✚ Pair With: Using weakside screens in transition to attack defenses loaded up at the nail.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Stay tuned as next week we’ll revisit the Argentina Break with an all new update video breakdown consisting of additional variations and counters!

Interesting Reads

📚 101 Additional Advices

• When you are right, you are learning nothing.

• Very small things accumulate until they define your larger life. Carefully choose your everyday things.

• It is impossible to be curious and furious at the same time, so avoid furious.

• Weird but true: If you continually give, you will continually have.

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📚 Growth Without Goals​

Most of the things we do and believe result from stories that we tell ourselves. The modern secular world looks down on religious traditions for their faith in unempirical stories, but we tell ourselves stories in the same way. “Most millionaires sincerely believe in the existence of money and limited liability companies.[iii]” To be fair, many of these stories have indeed led to human security and luxury—a better world. Some stories, though, are silly and destructive.

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📚 You Don't Need More Time​

Deciding is difficult, because decisions bring responsibility. It's better to not decide, the lizard brain says.

Quote of the Week

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Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com

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