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Happy Sunday and welcome to all the new members from around the world! We're excited to have you as part of the community 🙏

ICYMI: Last Sunday we released our debut installment of our "Modern Game Truths" collaboration with The Pro Lane, highlighting a frequently occurring in-game skill and how to simulate said skill's development in training. View our breakdown on Off Ball Shooting HERE.

Today at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: "Hit" Defense - Switch PNRs & Perimeter Isolations

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Brian Morehouse {Hope WBB}

🥇Best of the Week: Delay Zoom Ram Flare & Iverson Ricky

Let's dive in...

"Hit" the Switch

Last year on the podcast, now Georgia Tech Assistant Coach, Nate Babcock, discussed with us the defensive strategy of "Hitting" (sending a double at the perimeter ballhandler), along with the analytics and overall philosophy behind it. To say the least, that conversation left us thinking, a lot, about the strategy and how/when teams might start to use it across the board to gain extra possessions and a strategic advantage...

In our discussion, Coach Babcock championed the merits of "Hitting" during end-of-quarter/halftime possessions as a strategy to take the offense out of their late-clock ISO/PNR concepts and bait them into taking a quick shot. The overall objective of "hitting" is to secure the last possession instead of passively allowing the opponent to take the final shot.

🤓 Analytical Nerdy Side Note: This strategy has analytical roots. By conceding the last shot, on a Points Per Possession (PPP) basis, the defense automatically concedes some probability of points. Therefore, it is to a defenses' advantage to do what is in their power to gain an extra possession and win back the PPP disadvantage.

So, by "hitting", the defense can force the offense into taking a quicker/disorganized shot (say with 8-10 seconds still remaining in the quarter/half) and then still have plenty of time to transition up the floor to take the last shot themselves.

Perhaps not a strategy for everyone or every situation; however, we have observed teams employing the "Hit" tactic more frequently in situations outside of end of quarter/half scenarios. This has mostly come in the concept of "hitting the switch", where the defense aims to neutralize unfavorable perimeter matchups and stymie dominant isolation players.

The two most common occurrences, and highlighted in today's video, are after a switch, when the perimeter player begins to isolate the big...

or in late game/clock scenarios when an opponent will isolate a dominant 1v1 player.

Why "Hit"?

Outside of finding ways to gain extra possessions and tilt the stats in your favor, "Hitting" can be effective for teams that frequently switch, as it helps in resolving mismatches and returning the defense to a neutral state.

Zooming In: Teams often switch to neutralize an opponent's PNR offense and limit three-point attempts. However, a byproduct of this strategy is that the defense, in many cases, ends up presenting the offense with two mismatches. What we have noticed in our breakdown is that by "Hitting" the ballhandler after the switch, the defense can effectively resolve both these mismatches. A more capable defender stays after the trap on the ball, while the big drops back to the rim to bounce the guard out of the post mismatch.

This "controlled" or "pre-determined" rotation by the defense during the "Hit" also disrupts the offense's switch strategy, forcing the offense to become reactive to the defense. This often results in rushed possessions with poor offensive spacing.

Zooming In: What we began to notice is that if the "Hit" is executed properly (more details to come), the defense is prepared to defend the pass out. If the ballhandler becomes impatient and attempts to beat the trap, they often over-dribble to navigate through it. This leads to the ballhandler dribbling out so wide that they sacrifice court balance. As shown above, this situation resulted in successive drives back into the heart of the defense, making it easier for defenders to execute peel switches, and leaving one defender capable of guarding two.

Another merit of the "Hit" tactic is its compatibility with the "Anyone but..." approach during late-game possessions. When facing opponents with a dominant 1v1 player, whose possessions are routinely orchestrated through them, the advantageous solution is to get the ball out of their hands and force someone else to make a play.

How to "Hit"?

Most of today's breakdown focuses on the details of how to execute the double and the subsequent rotations. Two key elements stand out, both involving the angles:

1. The angle of the defender coming over to trap, and

2. The angle of the closeout from the second help defender. While the defense encourages the pass out, of vital importance is rotating with the proper angle to prevent any straight line passes to the corner and channel any potential drives back into the middle.

For much more on the angles and rotations behind this "hitting" strategy, along with tons of different film examples, please enjoy this week's Deep Dive breakdown on SGTV! Not a member? Join Here.

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

"It is impossibly to be anxious, and have gratitude at the same time. It is impossible. So we are going to try to live our lives when we start to go what we call our good brain versus our bad brain. Somebody told me the other day we got 66,000 thoughts on average in our brain every day. 85% of them are negative. That's a lot to undo. So how do we attack our bad brain winning? And that's where you get to the failure recovery piece. That's when you get to, how do we talk to ourselves? How do we live a life of gratitude that will undermine all that negativity and that anxiety?" - Brian Morehouse

It's always a pleasure to have a guest on who has won some National Championships, so we were thrilled this week to be joined by Hope WBB Head Coach, Brian Morehouse. In this highly insightful conversation we discuss:

Becoming a more offensive minded coach: Coach Morehouse discusses his transition over the years of becoming a more offensive minded head coach, rather than a "grind it out" defensive coach, along with the benefits of doing so. We dive into the ways that has happened and how Hope tries to be disrupted on both the offensive and defensive sides of the basketball.
Failure Recovery and "Real Life Career Decisions": During "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" we dive into how Coach Morehouse teaches "failure recovery" and some of the "real life" decisions coaches have to think about when navigating a path in their careers. A great "SSS" segment.

Please enjoy the entire great conversation with Coach Popovic here...

Listen Now!

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

📺 5 Out Delay - Zoom DHO • Ram • Flare

"Maccabbi transitions from the Zoom DHO into an angled flare the ram screener for either a shot off the flare or a cleared nail for the PNR."

✚ Pair With: Another combination of the Ram Screen and Flare Screen, with the ram screener transitioning into a flare screen to create an open shot opportunity for the popping big.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Will Hardy's 5 Out Top Flare offense.

📺 Single Iverson - Short Corner Drive • Ricky

"A well designed Iverson set to free a shooter of the baseline drive Ricky action."

✚ Pair With: Memphis's Iverson Snap set.

🔒SG Plus Content: Creative sets tailored to shooters from from Tenerife and Unicaja Malaga.

Interesting Reads

For those who love to dive into the numbers, below are three of our favorite resources (mostly for NCAA bball) to check out when it comes to breaking down data. All of these have some great free content as well as deeper insights at the subscription level...

📈 🏀 Evanmiya

Team rating, players ratings, keys to victory, game predictions... lots of interesting stuff with helpful graphs often included.

📈 🏀 CBB Analytics

Shot charts, team and player scatter graphs, some interesting blog posts.

📈 🏀 Kenpom

The OG of NCAA analytics and predictions. Always worth a browse.

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Quote of the Week

"In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind, there are few." -- Shunryu Suzukirio

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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Slappin' Glass

🏀 "Hit" the Switch