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 examined how hedging guard to guard ghost screens allows defenses to protect matchups, remove ambiguity, and wall off penetration. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Drive the Big Pitches - Attacking the Switch​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Phillip Humm {Storytelling & Communication}

🥇 Best of the Week: Ram Screens & Single Flip​

📚 Interesting Reads

🤝 New SG Partner Announcement

We’re excited to welcome the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) as an official Slappin’ Glass sponsor.

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.

"Switch"ebruary

Switching. Love it, hate it, dread it? Either way, this time of year it becomes a priority. With teams deep into the back half of league or conference play and the postseason approaching, it’s inevitable.

Whether it’s finding alternatives to “hero” ball that keeps the offense fluid and exposes mismatches created by the switch, or sharpening execution and technique to stagnate offenses and protect those same mismatches defensively, switching takes center stage, not just in determining late game success, but late season success as well.

So here at SG, we’re dedicating the entire month of February to switching. Over the course of the month we’ll highlight some of the best offensive and defensive tactics we’ve seen over the past few seasons, and shine a light on a few concepts that have really caught our eye this season.

To kick off the month, we revisit an offensive concept that has gained traction over the past few seasons and remains highly effective at attacking bigs in perimeter mismatches:

Drive the Big Pitches

What You'll Learn

• How to punish switches without drifting into isolation.
• Why spacing and timing matter more than any set.
• The technical difference between a true pitch and a DHO — and how attacking angles decide whether the defense can switch it cleanly.

A Quick Refresher: After securing the switch, the ballhandler gets off the ball by passing to a teammate lifting behind the screen. That teammate then drives directly at the big on the perimeter before pitching the ball back to the original ballhandler to re-attack the advantage with a shot, drive, or secondary action. Here’s an example…

Zooming In: In our initial breakdown of the concept, one focus was on how Barcelona, at the time, deliberately spaced the floor and prepared the dribble pitch through the use of their “Zipper Step Up” screen. By intentionally placing a shooter into the screening action, they invited the switch, then flowed directly into a dribble pitch, allowing the shooter to run off the exchange for a catch-and-shoot opportunity.

By taking advantage of a bigs’ natural tendency to sink off the ball, along with their relative unfamiliarity defending off ball, perimeter oriented actions, Barcelona consistently generated high quality three point attempts while staying firmly within the strengths of their personnel.

As we've progressed through the seasons, it's been intriguing to observe how teams are now adopting this tactic more organically by organizing their spacing after the switch, regardless of the set or entry they use. So long as the big rolls to the rim and creates 4-out spacing, the only requirement is for the ballhandler to get off the ball, either to the lift man behind the screen or to the release pass.

On Ball Dribble Pitches

Now you may be thinking, “We don’t run ballscreens with our shooters.” Don’t fret, there's a solution for that too.

When a primary ballhandler receives the perimeter mismatch, the dribble pitch still applies. Rather than exploiting the big off the ball on the perimeter, the objective becomes challenging the big to defend multiple actions: first a ballscreen, second a drive, and finally a dribble pitch.

Zooming In: The same concept holds true when attacking the gap integrity of off ball defenders. Once the defense recognizes the perimeter mismatch, perimeter defenders naturally contract to wall off driving lanes for the ballhandler. In doing so, they often compromise their ability to recover, opening up dribble pitches for the nearest shooter as their defender is frequently too flat to chase and contest over the pitch.

Technique: Pitch vs DHO

Isolating the pitch action places the responsibility squarely on the penetrator to create the advantage. The drive must be taken at an attacking angle, not only to elicit help from the gap defender, but also to force the on ball defender to sink in and honor the drive, removing their ability to easily switch. For that reason, the penetrator must generate sufficient depth on the drive to ensure the on ball defender fully commits before being forced into a difficult two way closeout.

Zooming In: As demonstrated above, all it takes is one hard dribble downhill to drop the defender and leave them late to switch out.

A useful rule of thumb is for the penetrator to prioritize a more north-south pitchback to the shooter, rather than drifting into an east-west dribble handoff. Flatter attacking angles, or dribbling directly at the shooter, make the switch cleaner and easier for the defense to execute.

As switching continues to define late game and late season basketball, the margins increasingly come down to execution, spacing, and intent. Concepts like Drive the Big Pitches offer a simple but scalable way to punish mismatches, force defensive commitment, and keep the offense flowing without drifting into isolation or “hero” ball.

This is just the starting point for Switching Month at SG. Throughout February, we’ll continue to explore how the best teams in the world are attacking, defending, and living with the switch, highlighting both foundational principles and subtle evolutions that are showing up right now.

To learn more on Drive the Big Pitches SG+ Members can view the complete video breakdown now on SGTV!

Additional Study Material:

• ​Drive the Wake {🔒}
• ​Stampede the Big {🔒}
• ​Attacking the Switch Anthology {🔒}

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.

🎙 Phillip Humm on Storytelling Frameworks, Player Resistance, and Behavior Change

In this episode of Slappin' Glass, we’re joined by storytelling and communication expert Philip Humm for a deep, practical conversation on how coaches can communicate more clearly, persuasively, and memorably—especially under pressure.

Philip breaks down why how you communicate often matters more than what you say, and why stories—when used intentionally—can cut through resistance, build trust, and create lasting behavioral change. He introduces his simple but powerful P.A.S.T. framework (Place, Action, Speech, Thoughts), giving coaches a repeatable structure for telling stories that actually stick rather than drifting into vague summaries or over-contextualized explanations.

The conversation explores when storytelling is the right tool (and when it isn’t), how elite leaders stay concise without losing emotional impact, and why vulnerability—not polish—is the engine of connection. Philip also shares why great communicators think in frameworks, limit takeaways to one clear action, and start with structure rather than circling toward a point.

We then put theory into practice with live improv exercises, showing how improvisation builds communication confidence and clarity in time-compressed moments like timeouts and huddles. The episode closes with a thoughtful Start–Sub–Sit on locker-room culture tools (quotes, visuals, and physical objects), plus Philip’s best investment in his own career—and why movement, presence, and emotional regulation matter for leaders navigating constant pressure.

This is a must-listen for coaches looking to sharpen their communication edge, strengthen buy-in, and lead with greater clarity and intention beyond the Xs and Os.

What You’ll Learn

• How to use the P.A.S.T. storytelling framework to make messages vivid, emotional, and memorable
• When storytelling creates more impact than direct instruction—and when it doesn’t
• Why elite communicators lead with structure, simplicity, and one clear takeaway
• How vulnerability and emotional honesty increase trust and retention
• Practical improv techniques to improve clarity and confidence under pressure
• The role of physical objects, visuals, and stories in reinforcing culture (and why quotes often fall flat)

Listen to the entire episode below...

Tactical

📺 Bilbao Basket - Ram • Baseline Twirl​

"A baseline stagger twirl action used to free the Ram screener to the corner."

✚ Pair With: A similar variation on the action, twirl screening the big off the Ram screen to free the shooter to the corner.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on the value of the inside hand push dribble when shooters are chased hard over screens or hand-offs.

📺 Single Flip - Flare • Gut Screen​

"Single Flip entry into a flare, seamlessly followed by a gut screen for the shooter."

✚ Pair With: RIP action to screen the "flip-back" player into a stack screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Coach Jaume Ponsarnau and Bilbao's Switch to ICE defense against guard to guard hand-offs or "flip" actions.

Interesting Reads

📚 How to be Effective and Calm​

Research shows that suppressing negative emotions doesn’t make them disappear, but actually makes them stronger. Wanting unpleasant emotions to go away is human. Trying to fight them, however, tends to amplify them.

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📚 Find Your Specific Knowledge Through Action​

So this is life lived in the arena. You are not going to know your own specific knowledge until you act and until you act in a variety of difficult situations. And then you’ll either realize, “Oh, I managed to navigate these things that other people would’ve had a hard time with,” or someone else will point out to you. They’ll say, “Hey, your superpower seems to be X.”

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📚 You Can Only Truly Master One Thing, According to Epictetus​

Modern cognitive scientists call this faculty “executive function.” It consists of high-level cognitive processes that act as the brain’s air traffic control system, allowing individuals to plan, solve problems, manage complex tasks, and control their behavior and emotions. Executive functions are typically broken down into three interconnected components:

1. The ability to resist impulses and stop or override a dominant or automatic response in favor of a more appropriate one
2. The capacity to hold and manipulate multiple pieces of information in the mind over a short period to complete a task
3. The ability to shift attention and adjust behavior or thinking to changing demands, rules, or priorities

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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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