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

Happy Sunday! Welcome to all the newest subscribers from around the world!

ICYMI: Last week, we highlighted how blur drag screens help offenses stay in attack mode when a clean early drag angle is hard to find. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Outer Third Ice Solutions - Wide Reject & Screening Automatics​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: SG Deep Dive: College Basketball’s NIL Economy & Its Impact on the Global Game with Kevin Sweeney​

🔒 The Practice Lab: Ballhandling​

🥇 Best of the Week: BLOB Stagger Screening​

But first...

SG+ Pricing Update Coming July 1st

For coaches considering SG+, a quick heads up: for the first time since launching Slappin’ Glass five years ago, SG+ membership pricing will be updated beginning July 1.

SG+ gives coaches access to our full teaching library, Practice Lab, Deep Dive articles, Coaches Corner community, and SG SoCal Summit live event + replays.

Current SG+ pricing remains available through June 30. Beginning July 1, membership pricing will move to:

Half-Year Membership: $199​
​Full-Year Membership: $299

ICE Solution

Tactical trends can come and go quickly in basketball, but one coverage solution that continues to hold up is the outer third ICE: forcing the ball down the sideline while the big drops to take away straight-line attacks to the rim.

For teams that rely on side-to-side ball movement out of outer third ballscreens, ICE can be a real disruptor. Its widespread use has likely played a role in the decline of certain continuity ballscreen offenses, especially those built around repeated actions near the sideline.

Finding solutions to ICE has been an ongoing study for us at Slappin’ Glass. One of our favorite counters is the "wide reject": using the ballhandler to dribble down into the coverage, hold the big in the ballscreen action, and trigger secondary screening actions away from the ball.

We first looked at this idea through Coach Moncho Fernández and Obradoiro, where the solution was more structured within their ballscreen continuity offense. A few years later, we’re revisiting the concept with Moncho again, who now serves as the Head Coach in Girona, where the strategy has evolved.

Rather than needing a specific slot alignment, an empty corner, or a 4-man positioned in a predetermined spot, Girona can now trigger the action almost anytime the ball reaches the outer third. The result is a more flexible, pace-friendly solution that allows the weakside screening to become more random, layered, and difficult to anticipate.

What You’ll Learn

• How the wide reject can be used to attack ICE by dragging the big deeper into coverage and opening secondary screening actions away from the ball.
• Why the reject can become a collective trigger, allowing the offense to self-organize into pins, staggers, and step-up actions based on the current spacing.
• How this concept can evolve beyond a pure ICE counter, turning the wide reject into a broader offensive cue that creates rhythm, randomness, and layered screening regardless of the coverage.

Let’s dive in.

Creating Unsupported Pins

At its core, this ICE attack is about taking the space the coverage is willing to give and then punishing the defense elsewhere.

The ballhandler does not fight the ICE. They accept the sideline, drive the ball wide, and force the big to stay engaged in coverage. This one detail is what allows the rest of the action to come alive behind the play.

Once the big has been dragged deeper into the paint, the original screener is free to flow into secondary action away from the ball. Now the weakside defenders are forced to navigate off-ball screens without the normal protection from the screen defender.

This is where the concept becomes especially valuable. The reject is not just an individual counter. It becomes a collective trigger.

Everyone on the floor is connected to the cue.

Building Randomness

As Coach Fernández’s teams have continued to evolve this concept, the strategy has moved away from needing a traditional ballscreen continuity alignment to function. By prioritizing pace and spacing over fixed positions, Girona can flow quicker into drag actions or outer third ballscreens. As a result, the weakside alignment is not always scripted or predetermined.

But rather than treating that as a problem, the offense uses it to build in randomness.

Once the reject trigger is hit, players can self-organize into the screening actions that best fit the current alignment and put their most dangerous scorers in position to attack.

This is what makes the strategy difficult to guard. It is not only the big, or original ballscreener, who is responsible for creating the solution. Everyone on the floor is connected to the trigger.

The reject tells the offense to move.

Beyond ICE

And as Girona has grown more comfortable solving the spacing around this concept, the strategy has expanded beyond simply being an ICE counter.

What began as a way to punish the big for being held in coverage has evolved into a broader offensive trigger. Now, the offense does not always need the defense to ICE the ballscreen for the action to begin. The wide reject itself can become the cue.

Once the ballhandler rejects wide into the outer third, the rest of the offense can organize around the same principles: the screener flows into secondary action, the weakside players read the current alignment, and the offense builds layered screening actions away from the ball.

The reject is no longer just a counter to ICE. It is the trigger that tells the offense to move.

🔐 For more on Coach Moncho Fernández’s use of the Wide Reject Trigger, SG+ Members can now enjoy this week’s latest Deep Dive on SGTV.

Ballhandling

As we continue to roll out The Practice Lab {🔒}, we’ll highlight different pieces from the library and the filters coaches can use to explore them on SGTV.

The goal is to make the library easier to navigate, but also to show the thinking behind the design. The filters are not just labels. They are a way for coaches to search by the type of environment they want to create: the focus of the session, the group size, the amount of variability, and the density of decisions players are being asked to make.

This week, we’re looking at Ballhandling {🔒}, found under the Focus filter.

What is it?

Ballhandling is often viewed through a narrow lens. Coaches frequently associate it with flashy moves or advanced combinations, but effective ballhandling is really about expanding a player's functional capacity to solve problems with possession of the ball. The ball is simply a tool that allows players to navigate the game. The more ways a player can control, manipulate, and transport the ball under varying conditions, the more solutions they have available when pressure arrives.

Gas, Brakes, and Rhythm

One category of ballhandling focuses on force and control. Think of this as the ability to manage the gas and brakes. Players learn to pound the ball with force, stop on command, change direction, absorb contact, and maintain possession in crowded spaces. These environments build the physical relationship with the ball needed to withstand pressure and create separation.

A second category centers around flow and rhythm. Here, the emphasis shifts from controlling the ball to moving efficiently through space with it. Players learn how to connect their footwork and dribble, vary speed, navigate gaps, and transition smoothly between actions. Rather than treating dribbling as a collection of moves, players begin to develop a feel for timing, tempo, and movement through the environment.

A third category focuses on adaptability and decision-making. The game is constantly changing. Defenders shift, gaps open and close, and passing windows appear and disappear. In these environments, ballhandling becomes less about executing a move and more about selecting the right solution. Coaches can layer in defenders, visual cues, changing targets, or escape passes that force players to perceive, decide, and act. The best ballhandlers aren't necessarily the players with the biggest bag (shout out the Van Gundy rant), they're often the players who can adapt to whatever problem the game presents.

The Goal

As players progress, ballhandling should become increasingly connected to information. Players are rarely dribbling for the sake of dribbling. They are searching for space, responding to pressure, recognizing help defenders, and identifying opportunities to attack or escape. A coach raising a hand to signal a passing target, an outlet player available under pressure, or a defender applying varying levels of resistance can all transform a simple ballhandling exercise into a perception-action challenge.

Early on, I tried to create these elaborate drills with endless variations and counters. But, the goal is not to build the perfect ballhandling drill. The goal is to create environments that help players develop control, rhythm, and adaptability with the ball. Each serves a different purpose, and together they build players who can maintain possession, create advantages, escape pressure, and solve problems when the game becomes unpredictable.

Explore Ballhandling inside the Practice Lab now!

Together with the NABC

If you’re a basketball coach, you belong in the NABC community!

The NABC is the leading professional development and advocacy organization for coaches, serving over 5,000 members across all levels of basketball.

Why join? Members gain access to the NABC Convention and regional clinics, exclusive awards and mentoring opportunities, valuable discounts, and a voice in shaping the future of basketball.

If you're serious about growing as a coach and staying connected to the game’s biggest conversations, this is where you belong.

Become a member today and make your impact as a Guardian of the Game. Learn more HERE.

🎙SG Deep Dive: College Basketball’s NIL Economy & Its Impact on the Global Game with Kevin Sweeney

College basketball’s NIL era has quickly become one of the most disruptive forces in the global basketball market.

In this Slappin’ Glass Deep Dive, Eric Fawcett sits down with Kevin Sweeney, college basketball and NBA Draft writer for Sports Illustrated, to unpack what NIL money really looks like inside the modern college game, how schools are building rosters, and why the American college system is now pulling players from Europe and other international markets at a level that is reshaping the sport.

Sweeney breaks down the current NIL spending ranges across college basketball, from Final Four contenders operating with payrolls that can reach $20 million-plus, to mid-major programs using targeted spending to compete for league titles and NCAA Tournament bids. He also explains why international recruiting has become such a major part of roster building, how college programs are evaluating European talent, and where the process still has major blind spots.

The conversation also gets into the uncertainty around NCAA eligibility rules for international players, the sustainability of NIL spending, and why roster evaluation now requires a deeper understanding of translatable skills, role fit, personality, learning style, and reliable intel.

For coaches, scouts, executives, and anyone trying to understand where the basketball talent market is headed, this episode offers a clear look inside one of the most important shifts happening in the game today.

What You’ll Learn

• What NIL spending looks like across different levels of college basketball, from Final Four contenders to mid-major programs.
• Why European and international players have become such a major target for NCAA programs.
• How NIL has changed the global basketball market and put college basketball in direct competition with professional leagues.
• Why international recruiting still has major evaluation gaps, especially around player intel, role fit, and translatable skills.
• What the NCAA’s recent eligibility guidance could mean for older international players entering college basketball.
• Why the best roster builders are looking beyond scoring and placing more value on players who can defend, connect, cut, space, and impact winning without needing the ball.

Listen to the full conversation with Kevin Sweeney now on Slappin’ Glass.

Together with Hudl

Hudl helps basketball staffs 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.

For a deeper look at how these tools can support a program’s workflow, we broke down how we used the Hudl suite to connect film, analytics, player playlists, and FastModel data around one season-long point of emphasis: improving assist rate. You can watch the full breakdown HERE.

​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.

Tactical

📺 BLOB - Gut Stagger Screen​

"Tenerife and Coach Txus Vidorreta remain among the best in the game at designing sets that generate clean scoring opportunities for shooters."

✚ Pair With: Running the inbounder off a stagger screen after the entry pass.

🔒 Pair With: Demonstrating the value of a hard rim cut off the RIP screen and the advantages and actions the offense can derive as a result.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our Playbook Deep Dive into Tenerife’s creative set design for generating clean scoring opportunities for shooters.

Interesting Reads

📚 Escape Competition Through Authenticity​

A thousand people will teach the same material. The one who teaches it in a voice no one else has, from a life no one else has lived, doesn’t have competitors. They have imitators, which is a compliment, and which they’ll always be one step ahead of.

📚 Optimization​

Our obsession with metrics, says journalist Derek Thompson, is akin to a modern religion that’s making us miserable. “Modern life is awash in statistics,” Thompson wrote in March. “Often, the quantification of modern life makes us play the games we can easily measure rather than the games we deeply value.” When we do this, we’re succumbing to “value capture,” according to University of Utah philosophy professor C. Thi Nguyen. “Value capture occurs when an agent’s values are rich and subtle,” Nguyen wrote in 2024. “They enter a social environment that presents simplified — typically quantified — versions of those values; and those simplified articulations come to dominate their practical reasoning.”

📚 AI Isn’t Coming for Your Job. It’s Coming for Your Mind​

A complementary study in npj Artificial Intelligence offered a crucial distinction. AI gives you results, but those results only become a real understanding when you actively interpret and judge them. Participants who treated AI as a starting point for their own thinking retained and even improved their cognitive performance over time. Those who accepted AI outputs passively showed a measurable decline. The difference was not in how much AI people used, but in how they used it. Skip the effortful step of making sense of what the AI gives you, and the brain’s capacity to learn weakens. Engage actively, and it can be sustained or even enhanced.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, Eric, and Drew

info@slappinglass.com