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ICYMI: Last week, we kicked off our February focus on switching by revisiting one of our favorite ways to attack a perimeter mismatch: Drive the Big Pitches. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Attacking the Switch - Right Corner Ghost Screens​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Matt Majkrzak {Northern Michigan}

🥇 Best of the Week: Late-Clock SLOB & Get Actions​

📚 Interesting Reads: What's Going on With this Human?

🤝 New SG Partner Announcement

Proud to partner with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) as an official Slappin’ Glass sponsor.

Building on their legacy of serving and educating coaches, we’re excited to collaborate on forward-thinking content and experiences that help coaches continue to learn, adapt, and grow as the game evolves.

Develop as a coach and grow as a leader at the 2026 NABC Convention!

Join coaches from all levels of the sport April 2-6 in Indianapolis for the industry’s premier professional development and networking event. The NABC Convention features five days of X&O clinics, educational sessions, award ceremonies, division-specific meetings, networking receptions and more – all alongside college basketball’s championship stage in Indianapolis!

If you’re a basketball coach, you belong at the NABC Convention! Learn more and register now at nabc.com/convention.

Right Corner Ghosts

There are few true consistencies in basketball, but if there is one you can point to in the later stages of the season, it is the rise in switching. With the home stretch in sight, games begin to look different than they did in the opening months. Player tendencies are well known. There is ample film for advanced scouting. In many cases, you are facing an opponent for the second or third time.

As teams adjust back and forth to counter one another, the simplest and most reliable coverage solution often becomes the switch. Preparing to attack those switches is paramount for late game and late season execution.

This week, as we continue our February focus on switching, we remain on the offensive side of the ball and examine the first of two favorite concepts from head coach Pedro Martinez and Valencia: the right corner ghost.

What You’ll Learn

• How to eliminate hesitation vs. the switch.
• Why predictable structure can still create randomness.
• How to manufacture gaps for the drive and the pop by pairing burn timing with downhill ghost angles.

By pairing a familiar action, the ghost screen, with a consistent spacing trigger out of the right corner, Valencia creates clarity in punishing perimeter mismatches. This type of structure allows them to attack perimeter mismatches decisively while eliminating the indecision that can bog down an offense when the defense changes coverage.

Getting Organized

Switching defense can disrupt an offense’s flow, not only by eliminating the initial action, but by forcing a reset as players pause to assess the new matchup. In those moments, hesitation creeps in:

What matchup should we attack?
When should I attack?
How should I attack?

Without clarity, possessions can stall.

Valencia removes that hesitation by establishing a clear, repeatable plan for when the switch occurs. Outside of empty-side ballscreens, the offense will naturally have both corners filled at the moment of the screen, along with a third player creating a full side, spacing to the 45, or flattening the defense to the dunker spot, depending on their spacing structure.

Familiarity breeds adaptability. With the floor aligned in one of their two primary ballscreen spacings Valencia is primed to seamlessly flow into its switch attack the moment the coverage changes.

Burn And Ghost

Upon receiving the switch, two movements occur simultaneously to punish the coverage. First, the right corner is triggered to sprint into the ghost screen. At the same time, if the 45 is occupied, a burn cut takes place behind the screen to clear space on the perimeter and allow the screener to slip cleanly out of the ghost action.

Zooming In: It's important for that burn cutter to get through the lane quickly so they don't allow their defender to help if there is a drive, but often it will be the ghost screener that's open.

The Offense Is Always Right

Valencia runs the screen out of the right corner every time. That consistency provides absolute clarity for the players on the floor, and with clarity comes pace and speed of execution. From the moment the switch occurs to the execution of the action, only seconds pass. That speed is only possible because the structure is predetermined. Too many moving parts would slow the organization and invite hesitation.
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Triggering the screen from the right corner allows the ballhandler to attack to their dominant hand. That downhill threat demands a defensive response and often draws an aggressive overplay, making the burn cut critical in freeing the pop.

Zooming In: With the burn cut emptying to clear the full side, the only help available on the pop must now come from the opposite corner. That is a long, difficult stunt, and one that leaves the defense vulnerable to the extra pass three.

Maintaining Randomness

Offenses never want to be predictable, and you may be thinking that always running the ghost from the right corner creates predictability. In this case, however, the randomness does not come from the action itself, but from the variability of the player occupying that corner.

Once the switch occurs, Valencia organizes into its spacing immediately, filling the necessary spots. That means the player in the corner can be anyone from the one through the four.

Because the personnel changes, the reads change. A shooter popping creates one problem. A driver slipping out creates another. The structure remains constant, but the solutions vary based on who is involved.

Zooming In: In this instance the four is in the corner. Instead of ghosting the screen, he sets a solid screen, recognizing that the guard still holds a clear advantage and can drive the switch.

The alignment is predictable. The advantage is not. And that is the larger takeaway.

By pairing clear spacing rules with a defined strategic response to the switch, Valencia maintains pace and rhythm against the switch. There is no pause, no uncertainty, and no need to improvise on the fly.

For a full film breakdown of the right corner ghost, including the burn cut, angle adjustments, and personnel variability, SG+ Members can check out the video now on SGTV!

And we’re not done.

Next week, we’ll stay with Valencia and examine their second switch attack, one that builds off similar spacing principles but presents a very different problem for the defense.

"Switching Month" continues.

Additional Study Material:

• ​Drive the Slot Spacing {🔒}
• ​Late Clock Retriggers - Ghost Flare {🔒}
• ​Short Roll to Post - Preventing the Triple Switch {🔒}

Together with Hudl

Turn Film into Better Decisions

By connecting Sportscode, Hudl Instat, and Fastmodel tools like FastDraw, FastScout, and FastRecruit, Hudl brings video, scouting, recruiting, and game planning into one seamless workflow. Less time managing tools. More clarity in preparation, teaching, and evaluation, built for how college and professional programs actually operate.

​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.

🎙 Matt Majkrzak on Scripting Offensive Play Calls, Fixing Bad Starts, and Tenants of the "Lock-Left" Defense {Northern Michigan}

Northern Michigan Head Coach Matt Majkrzak joins us for a deep dive into how structure can actually create freedom.

Coach Majkrzak walks through Northern Michigan’s unique approach to scripting games in four-minute segments, pairing substitution patterns with offensive play calls to give players clarity, confidence, and rhythm. Rather than scripting to control players, the goal is to simplify decisions early, allowing creativity, reads, and flow to emerge naturally as possessions unfold.

The conversation explores how layered offense evolves from simple foundations—like cross-screen/down-screen—into modern blends of Princeton concepts, ball screens, staggers, and motion, all while ending in familiar spacing that helps players play fast and free.

Majkrzak also shares insights on fixing flat starts, teaching lock-left defense, crashing the offensive glass with five, and why celebrating “play busts” accelerates player growth more than perfect execution ever could.

A practical, thought-provoking episode on teaching players how to think, not just where to stand.

What You’ll Learn

• How to script games in four-minute segments that align lineups, substitutions, and play calls
• Why scripting can reduce pressure on players while increasing confidence and decision-making
• How layered offense evolves from simple actions into flow, reads, and freedom
• Practical ways to fix flat starts without panic or over-adjusting
• Why celebrating “play busts” can accelerate offensive growth

Listen to the entire episode below...

Tactical

📺 SLOB - Line of Scrimmage​

"We love the added layer of deception and unpredictability created by the line of scrimmage motion starts."

✚ Pair With: Here are a few other late-clock SLOB favorites we’ve leaned on over the years.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown of late-game alignments and screening solutions to secure the inbound.

📺 Slip Out Gets​

"A well-timed slip out screen into a "Get" handoff, utilizing the threat of a Ghost Screen or RIP Screen to free the shooter's sprint into the ball."

✚ Pair With: Bilbao’s use of the ghost screen to run the shooter into a Get action with the center stepping up out of the corner.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our technical breakdown of the value of the Inside Hand Push Dribble in creating better separation for shooters off handoffs.

Interesting Reads

📚 What's Going on Here With This Human?​

Another framework I use specifically in the context of hiring for a well-functioning team is former Bain consultant Patrick Lencioni’s idea of “humble, hungry and smart” as the core virtues of the “ideal team player.” Lencioni defines “smart” as “smart about people,” and he notes that if you sacrifice any of these essential three virtues, you are introducing friction into your team. I find his framework quite useful for understanding trade-offs around team dynamics.

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📚 The Lines of Life​

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📚 Having Kids​

What I didn't notice, because they tend to be much quieter, were all the great moments parents had with kids. People don't talk about these much — the magic is hard to put into words, and all other parents know about them anyway — but one of the great things about having kids is that there are so many times when you feel there is nowhere else you'd rather be, and nothing else you'd rather be doing. You don't have to be doing anything special. You could just be going somewhere together, or putting them to bed, or pushing them on the swings at the park. But you wouldn't trade these moments for anything.

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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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