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

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

ICYMI: Last week, we looked at how Coach Pedro Martinez deploys the Clyde Cut against the ballscreen switch to punish a perimeter mismatch. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Post Mismatch - Front & High Post Deny​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Andrea Trinchieri​

🥇 Best of the Week: Shallow Cuts & Cross Screens​

📚 Interesting Reads: How to Avoid Choking

🤝 New SG Partner Announcement

Denying the High Post

One of the challenges for coaches working across different levels of the sport is that there are not always consistencies in actions, rules, or patterns between the youth, college, and professional game. There are exceptions, however, and one of the most iron-clad rules of thumb at nearly every level of basketball revolves around combating a post front:

If the defense is fronting the post, the offense can punish the front with a weakside flash to the high post.

Whether the goal is the high-low pass that can lead to something close to an automatic layup, or simply to move the low defender supporting the front, decades of basketball strategy have distilled this into an optimal response against a post front.

As Switching Month comes to a close, we’ll look at how teams can bolster their ballscreen switch by protecting a post mismatch with a front and an aggressive denial of the high post.

What You’ll Learn

• How defenses can protect a post mismatch by fronting the post and plugging the high post flash.
• The weakside rotations and automatic switches that deny the offense’s high-low solution against the front.
• How to handle the next layer, flares and long skips, once the high post option has been taken away.

Plugging The High Post

More often than not, when switching ballscreens the defense concedes two mismatches: one on the perimeter and one in the post. As we’ve highlighted throughout this past month, offenses are becoming increasingly savvy at finding ways to punish these matchups. In response, the best defenses understand that switching the ballscreen is only the first step. They must not only neutralize the point of attack, but also protect the mismatches that emerge after the switch.

Once a guard is switched onto a big, one strategy to prevent a direct post entry is to front the post. When opting to front, the defense must work backward to anticipate the offense’s most likely and most dangerous counter. In this case, the most damaging threat is a clean catch at the high post.

Therefore, the moment the ball is swung to the outer third of the court, the weakside defenders shift into their help shape around the front. Based on the spacing, any defenders positioned above the free throw line immediately sink to plug the high post, while the weakside corner defender drops into the paint to discourage the lob and be ready to double if the pass is completed.

Zooming In: These defensive decisions reflect a clear understanding of risk assessment. With the front taking away the direct post entry, there is one pass on the floor that, if completed, nearly guarantees a basket: the high post flash. A clean catch at the high post can compromise the defense more quickly than anything else. By shrinking the floor and removing the quick two-pass solution, the defense can then adjust to whatever comes next and live to fight another day.

Switching The Flash

As soon as the defense settles into its fronting coverage after the switch, the low defender releases all responsibility from their original matchup. Any flash toward the high post triggers an automatic switch with the defenders plugged at the high post, while the low defender remains fully committed to supporting the front.

One of the challenges of this switch is that the flash comes from behind the defense. By sinking early into the high post, the very space the cutter is aiming for, the defense can absorb the flash without needing to track it. With arms extended, there is also a chance to physically feel the cutter, allowing the defender to fully connect once contact is made. Meanwhile, the low defender should recognize the flash first, as it occurs directly in their line of sight, and communicate it early to the top defender.

Zooming In: By not tracking the flash at all, the low defender remains anchored at the rim and in optimal position to either deter the lob over the top or sprint into a double team if the post catch is pushed toward the baseline.

Handling Flares

Okay, so the defense has done its job, plugging the high post and taking away the beautiful high-low your opponent spent all week preparing. Now what?

Savvy players and coaches will recognize that the high post is no longer available. The natural adjustment is to send that same opposite corner toward the high post, but instead of flashing to receive the pass, they flare the top guard.

In this instance, switch it away. The low defender assumes responsibility for the shooter, ideally recognizing the action early enough to avoid being caught too deep and adjusting their position to make the closeout.

Zooming In: The flare is most often utilized with only two players on the weakside. This alignment creates the space needed for the flare action to occur and puts pressure on the rim defender.

But no defense can take away everything. With this strategy, the defense is betting that the low defender can track the long skip pass in time to provide a sufficient closeout.

Some teams will still attempt the flare even with three players on the weakside, though it becomes easier to guard. The spacing forces the flare to occur lower on the floor, often in an attempt to screen the outermost defender, with the shooter ultimately relocating to the corner. That creates an even longer skip pass, and the defense trusts that the extra airtime will allow them to close out under control on the catch.

Whether it’s a long skip on the flare, a lob over the front, or the high post flash, excellent ball pressure can be the best defense in eliminating the offense’s ability to attack the coverage.

At the end of the day, switching defenses are rarely solved by the first action alone. By fronting the post, plugging the high post, and switching away the flash or flare, the defense forces the offense to move deeper into the possession and search for a secondary solution. Pair that structure with strong ball pressure, and many of the offense’s preferred entries never even materialize.

To see how defenses execute these rotations and switches in real time, SG+ Members can watch the full breakdown now on SGTV!

Additional Study Material:

• ​Post Mismatch - Guard Defensive Techniques {🔒}
• ​Switch to Peel on Penetration {🔒}
• ​2-3 Triple Switching Zone {🔒}

Together with NABC

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.

🎙 Andrea Trinchieri Returns! On Defensive Toggles, Developing an In-Game Lens, and Thoughts on Offensive Rebounding

In this episode we welcome back one of Europe’s most thoughtful and dynamic coaching voices, Andrea Trinchieri. Coach Trinchieri returns for a wide-ranging conversation on defensive identity, in-game coaching, leadership evolution, and the modern coach–player relationship.

With most teams deep into the season, the discussion begins around identity — and whether it’s ever truly fixed. Coach Trinchieri frames the basketball season as evolution, requiring adaptability, clarity of core values, and defensive systems that can toggle aggression without overhauling structure. From simplifying coverage to managing player psychology, this episode dives into the balance between tactical precision and human connection.

At its core, this episode centers on a driving question:

For coaches seeking insight into defensive structure, in-game management, leadership philosophy, and sustainable team identity, this conversation delivers a masterclass in both strategy and humanity.

What You’ll Learn

• How to build a defensive identity that can toggle aggression without sacrificing clarity
• Why offensive involvement fuels defensive commitment
• A framework for balancing scouting preparation with non-negotiable core values
• How to address early-game energy issues without overreacting
• A layered approach to rebounding: one-on-one battles, neutral rebounds, and effort incentives
• When tagging principles are most effective — and when they are not
• How defining roles creates hierarchy, chemistry, and clarity
• Why long-term coaching success should be measured by player evolution, not public opinion

Listen to the entire episode below...

Together with Hudl

Built for coaches who want clarity, not complexity.

If you’re already using tools like Instat or Sportscode, you know how powerful they can be. Hudl Academy is designed to help coaches get more out of the technology they already have, and confidently add what they don’t.

The Hudl Analyst Academy walks coaches through Instat, Sportscode, and the broader Hudl ecosystem, with clear, practical instruction on film workflow, tagging, breakdowns, and analysis that actually translate to winning.

​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

📺 5 Out - Shallow Cut • Veer Screen​

"Shallow cutting the shooting in front of the ballscreen directly into the veer screen."

✚ Pair With: A few of our favorite uses of the shallow cut to distort ballscreen tags.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Coach Will Hardy's use of the top flare within a 5 Out alignment.

📺 Early Cross Screening - Loaded Elbows Spacing​

"Steal an early clock basket with this spacing alignment to force the defense to defend the cross screen 2v2 in space."

✚ Pair With: A zipper into a step up screen and pop to set up the cross screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our recently updated breakdown on the Argentina Break and its success in generating early cross screen finishes.

Got a coaching question? Ask us.

Our Monthly Mailbag on YouTube is your chance to bring real coaching questions directly into the Slappin’ Glass conversation.

Each month, we select and break down questions from coaches across the game—covering tactics, team concepts, leadership, podcast topics, and anything else you want us to dig into.

📩 Submit your Mailbag questions HERE, and keep an eye out for the next Mailbag episode dropping early February on YouTube.

Interesting Reads

📚 The Most Overlooked Leadership Skill: Subtraction​

Working with leaders who operate at full capacity has taught me that subtraction has to be intentional. It’s not something that happens by accident. It starts with taking the same critical eye you’d use to assess a budget or a project plan and applying it to your time and commitments.

📚 How to Avoid Choking​

She told me about the benefits of having a diversified identity. “I think we often think about professional athletes in terms of one self,” she said. “And we know that when people have multiple identities—they’re a mom self and a tennis player self—they can turn it on sometimes and they’re more relaxed other times, they often tend to be sort of psychologically buffered from failure.”

📚 Solitude and Leadership​

No, what makes him a thinker—and a leader—is precisely that he is able to think things through for himself. And because he can, he has the confidence, the courage, to argue for his ideas even when they aren’t popular. Even when they don’t please his superiors. Courage: there is physical courage, which you all possess in abundance, and then there is another kind of courage, moral courage, the courage to stand up for what you believe.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com