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Happy Sunday and hello to all the SG Plus subscribers from over 75 countries! Glad to have you part of the community 🙏

ICYMI: Last Sunday Iona HC, Tobin Anderson, joined us for our latest "Crunch Time" film room session breaking down FDU's historic upset over Purdue in the NCAA Tournament.

Today at a Glance:

📺 SGTV: Manresa's Arrive Offense - Hunting Stampedes 🔒

🎤 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Juli Fulks {Transylvania}

🥇Best of the Week: More Stampedes! & RIPs to Stagger Back ​

Let's dive in...

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Hunting Stampedes

A few summers back we explored a very simple but highly effective concept of playing through the "Extra Pass 🔒" in the pick-and-roll (PNR). In that concept, instead of attacking directly through the on-ball, teams utilize the PNR as a way to draw out the help defense to then exploit the coverage with two quick passes to the corner. Here's an example...

Recently, we added to that theme of playing the ball ahead by looking into the benefits derived from spacing a player opposite the ball in the High Slot and the opportunities it creates to play downhill on that throw ahead pass (see Marquette 🔒& Penn St. 🔒).

By combining these two concepts and injecting them with great pace, the Spanish club, Manresa, unleashes a simple yet brutally efficient attack within their secondary, or "Arrive" Offense, focusing the possession on hunting stampede attacks through the high slot or exploiting opportunities with the extra pass to the corner.

Pace and Space

Before getting to the Stampedes and Extra Passes, the first notable aspect when observing Manresa is their ability to generate pace in their made-shot break through the speed and distance of the first outlet pass. They combine the depth and speed of this outlet pass with lane runners sprinting to the deep corners and slots, setting up a situation where they arrive in the front court with both spacing and pacing advantages as the defense scrambles to get to neutral.

Zooming In: At times, Manresa's PG receives the outlet pass around half court. If Manresa does manage to advance the ball up the floor efficiently through the outlet rather than excessive dribbling, the defense is often caught off guard and unable to set up properly. This allows Manresa to launch their attack with fluid ball movement and penetration.

If the initial transition thrust is handled by the defense, Manresa can then use a "dummy" (decoy) drag screen to set up their stampede attacks. Instead of spending time trying to play through the PNR, Manresa will throw the ball immediately ahead off the screen to attack from the high slot.

Zooming In: Above is a great example of this strategy as the player positioned in the high slot purposefully hangs back, creating a longer "runway" for himself to accelerate into the catch.

An important teaching point in this action is what the Offensive Big does after that "dummy" drag/screen is set. With the primary objective of the ballscreen being to draw the opposing big out of the paint, creating space at the rim and prompting the defense to collapse into their help coverage, it's important for the on-ball screener to pause and roll/cut behind the stampede penetration rather than a long roll to the rim at the same time as the drive.

This "pause and read" roll does a few important things in the action:

1. Keeps the lane less congested as the guards attack off the throw ahead pass.
2. Allows the Big to read the path of his cut on the drive, as the space they'll fill will be different depending on if the attack comes from the High Slot or the Extra Pass to the Corner.
3. Puts the Big in great offensive rebounding position as they're often rolling to the rim free of contact if their defender pulls in to contest shots at the rim (shown above).

Hunting Stampedes

As you'll see examples of in today's video breakdown, if the player in the high slot is unable to drive downhill on the first throw ahead pass, Manresa quickly swings the ball to the corner with the intention of seeking another stampede attack. Now, if the player in the corner can't beat their defender off the dribble (or is more of a shooter than driver), the ball is immediately elevated out of the corner back to the slot, where the big again sprints back up into a rim clearing "ballscreen", and the "stampede-machine" restarts going the other way...

Zooming In: It is worth noting that Manresa will not always use the pick-and-roll (PNR) as a decoy. The high slot spacing and the threat of the stampede attack often removes the help defense from the nail (as shown above), which makes "Nexting" or helping on a Short Roll from that "High I" defender much more challenging for the defense. Manresa's spacing in the High Slot is often so good that they can still play to that throw ahead even if the defender is removed from the nail and closer to the three point line. So, if a team is really committed to extending out higher to take away the throw ahead pass then Manresa can actually playing through the traditional PNR with the advantage of an open nail.

To view and learn more about this concept and the pace with which Manresa maintains throughout the possession, including how they retrigger the attack and much more, view the full breakdown now on SGTV!

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Together with Hudl

We're happy to proudly 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.

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Slappin' Glass Podcast

It was one heck of a year for Transylvania WBB and Head Coach, Juli Fulks, as the completed one of the best seasons in all of basketball on their way to an undefeated 2023 DIII National Championship. We were fortunate to have Coach Fulks on the podcast this week to give us a peek under the hood about some of the core concepts she's used to build her program including:

• The Neuroscience of Trust and Communication: In the first part of the episode we detail much of what goes into Coach Fulks' scientific approach to culture-building. We discuss how science and data help her form her team's building blocks of trust, communication, tone, leadership, and much more. An excellent segment with a ton of practical coaching nuggets.
• Analytics that Matter: During "Start, Sub, or Sit?!" we hear Coach Fulks' thoughts on the key stats that matter when it comes to winning games. You'll hear ideas on offensive rebounding (sending all five players!), shot selection, turnover percentage, fouling, and more.
• From "Man" to "Zone": Coach Fulks discusses on the podcast the why's and how's of her change from a "Man to Man" to "Zone" coach this past season. A really interesting conversation hear on coaching to strengths and backing it up with analytics.

Listen to this entire great conversation with Coach Fulks here...

Listen Now!

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Tactical

📺 Telekom Bonn - Iverson • Corner Stampede​

"Using the Iverson entry to play a high ball screen, punishing the low tag with a corner stampede drive."

✚ Pair With: Royce O'Neale's Stampedes with the Utah Jazz.

🔒SG Plus Content: Telekom Bonn's, Tuomas Iisalo's, Iverson Step Up Screen series.

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📺 Unicaja & Manresa - PG RIP • Stagger Back​

"Bringing the PG back to the ball after the RIP screen with a Stagger Screen. Creating opportunities for the 4-man to play 1v1 or using all the action to set up a down screen behind the PNR for a shooter."

✚ Pair With: Our podcast conversation with Unicaja HC, Ibon Navarro.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Tenerife's creative screening actions for a shooter.

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Interesting Reads

📚 Vicious Traps​

"Part of this is realizing the first rule of very successful people: Those who think in unique ways you admire are likely to also think in unique ways you don’t admire. A lot of people who are admired for thinking, “I wonder what would happen if we tried something different” are the same people who become despised for doing something different that doesn’t work, or loses money, or hurts other people."

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📚 Mikel Arteta: The Rejection and Determination That Made a Manager​

"Arteta, like Pep, was unselfish and played for others. His essence was to work for the team and help others to thrive. And this is what he does now with his players: he trains them so that their only priority is to collaborate with their team-mates. Arteta tries to create an environment where creativity can thrive."

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📚 Becoming Yourself is a Process of Reduction​

"When you do less, the things you do become better, because they contain a more potent concentration of you. When we put our full focus on something, we express ourselves through it without constraint, without thinking: should I really be doing x when I also have to do y, z, and q? When we try to budget our power across too many domains, we feel the constant weight of never doing well enough at any of them—of never really feeling like we are in our full power."

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Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan and Pat

info@slappinglass.com

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