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 a unique defensive technique in the ballscreen to increase deflections and generate turnovers. Read the newsletter HERE.

This Week at a Glance:

🔒 SG Plus Content: Attacking Top Lock - Screen the Screener​

🎧 Slappin' Glass Podcast: Dwaine Osborne {Youngstown}

📣 Hudl Instat & Dr. Dish

🥇 Best of the Week: Hammer Screens​

📚 Interesting Reads: Generating Good Ideas

But first...

Got a coaching question? Ask us!

We’re excited to launch our new Monthly Mailbag on YouTube, created to bring the Slappin' Glass community directly into the conversation and dive into the real coaching questions you're wrestling with.

Each month, we’ll feature and answer selected questions in a dedicated YouTube video, covering anything from tactics and team concepts to podcast guests, leadership, or broader coaching topics. Submit your question below, and keep an eye out for our first episode dropping right after the holidays!

Unlocking the Top Lock

Entering the season, we all carry a menu of gorgeous actions, meticulously designed sets meant to free up a shooter for a clean, wide open look. They’re perfect on paper… right up until the moment the ball tips and the opponent has a say in the matter.

This week, we’re looking at how to turn one of those moments of frustration into an opportunity, as we dive into actions that punish the top lock.

The top lock is a defensive strategy used against an off-ball screen, where the defender jumps between the shooter and the space they’re trying to reach, completely denying the use of the screen. In most pin down scenarios, that means the defender is sitting high, effectively “locking” the top.

With the top lock becoming a more common defensive counter, it’s essential to have built-in answers that not only neutralize it, but use the defense’s choice against them.

Taking What The Defense Gives You

In the battle for space, the defense, so intent on eliminating the pin down, ends up inviting the shooter to the rim. Accepting the top lock and cutting directly to the basket creates two distinct advantages for the offense, advantages the offense can build off of to continue playing effectively off the ball for a shooter.

First, the moment the shooter accepts the top lock and cuts to the rim, the defender will begin to recover back into a traditional stance, between their man and the rim. By the time the shooter is at the rim, the defender should be in a more natural defensive position behind the shooter instead of in front.

Second, as soon as the defender jumps to the high side in the top lock, the big will typically drop to protect against the back cut. That drop leaves the screener wide open for a clean pop-back pass.

These two advantages pair beautifully. The offense can automatically flow from a wide pin down into a rim pin down for the shooter by having the passer chase their pass to the big, then veer the big into the pin down immediately after the handback. This creates a clean, continuous action that leverages the defender’s recovery and prevents a second top lock.

The simplicity of this action allows it to be triggered anytime the shooter recognizes the top lock and chooses to rim cut. Even more interesting, the spacing around the pin down gives the offense room to iterate off this concept, adding additional layers of complexity for the defense to navigate.

Screen the Screener

Generally, the spacing around any wide pin screen lends itself well to the rejection of the top lock. Once the shooter is under the rim, it becomes a natural opportunity to add some randomness to your offense: the shooter can screen for either of the two weak side players, effectively turning the action into a screen the screener and forcing the defense to sort out multiple threats.

Zooming In: Slipping out of the cross screen and flowing straight into a second pin creates great pace, but having the shooter truly make contact on the screen will test the defense’s communication and challenge the defender's ability to stay connected.

To continue randomizing the action, the shooter doesn’t always need to flow into a cross screen with the teammate in the corner. If the bigger of the two players is spaced at the 45, it can be even more effective for the shooter to screen diagonally. Screening for the bigger player adds pressure to the rim and makes the defense far less willing to switch.

If the defense does switch, they may be better positioned to handle the second pin down, but not without conceding a mismatch in the post. Throwing it inside can still create a look for the shooter, but if you have a size advantage, it’s an ideal time to attack. With the defense scrambling from the initial action, they’re rarely in position to help or send a clean double to the post.

By committing to a top lock, the defense is conceding action toward the rim, an area that becomes highly threatening when the offense leverages it with purpose. Attacking the top lock through screen the screener concepts turns the defense’s own tactic against them, stacking multiple screens at pace to steadily build the advantage. And ultimately, it produces the very shot the defense was selling out to prevent: a clean, open look for your shooter.

To see the full breakdown of this top lock counter, SG+ Members can view the complete video now on SGTV!

Together with Dr. Dish

Imagine having your team’s entire development, training, and analytics in one place. That’s the Dr. Dish Training Management System — T-M-S — the ultimate coaching platform that transforms your shooting machine into a complete player-development engine. Track every rep, drill, and player. Assign custom workouts. View heat maps, leaderboards, and progress across your entire roster — all in one dashboard. Build accountability. Unlock smarter reps. And take full control of your team’s growth. Feed Your Fire at drdishbasketball.com.​

🎧 Dwaine Osborne on Elite Shot Selection, ATO Construction, and Grading the "Tagging Up" System {Youngstown State}

In this episode, we sit down with Youngstown State Associate Head Coach Dwaine Osborne, one of the most consistently efficient offensive coaches in college basketball. Osborne — an eight-time Coach of the Year with a track record of leading the nation in effective field-goal percentage and offensive efficiency — opens the doors to his philosophy on building highly disciplined, analytically driven teams.

Across a wide-ranging conversation, Coach Osborne unpacks how he teaches elite shot selection, builds paint efficiency, and uses clarity-based concepts to help players make decisive first-touch decisions. He details why “life is math,” how he leverages PPP values to communicate shot quality, and why playing off two feet may be the most under-taught skill in modern offense.

The episode digs deeply into layup packages, "Villanova footwork", decision-making progressions, and the balance between analytics and empowering confident, aggressive scorers. Coach Osborne also breaks down how he thinks about ATOs, why fewer plays lead to better execution, and how his program blends tagging-up rules, offensive rebounding, and transition defense into one integrated system.

Throughout, he brings humility, candor, and clear teaching language — making this an episode loaded with transferable concepts for coaches at every level.

What You’ll Learn

• How to Teach and Enforce Shot Selection​
  Practical ways Osborne uses analytics (PPP numbers, film pauses, peer accountability) to build a team-wide understanding of shot value.
• Why Efficient Offense Starts With Player Strengths​
  How defining each player’s “best value actions” leads to higher-percentage possessions and clearer roles.
• Developing First-Touch Decisions (FTDs)​
  Methods to help players make decisive reads on the catch — not predetermined, but anticipated through clarity and structure.
• Building Paint Efficiency​
  Why all layups are not created equal, how Osborne categorizes finishing packages, and how playing off two feet mirrors traditional post play.
• ATO Construction and Why Less Is More​
  The philosophy behind keeping the ATO menu small, emphasizing execution, and choosing between attacking defensive tendencies or preventing them.
• The Tagging-Up System: Four Simple Rules​
  A clear explanation of the “touch, top, no reckless crash, no advance” framework — and how it improves both offensive rebounding and transition defense.
• How to Balance Analytics With Player Confidence​
  His approach to ensuring players feel empowered, not restricted, while still understanding efficiency and role clarity.
• Culture, Trust, and Prioritizing People​
  Why recruiting for character and building meaningful relationships is foundational to executing an analytical system.

This episode is a masterclass in clarity-driven coaching, teaching with precision, and building efficient offense without sacrificing player confidence or freedom.

Together with Hudl

Hudl Powers Every Possession

If you’re already using tools like FastDraw, FastScout, or FastRecruit—you know how essential they are to your workflows. And now that they’re fully part of the Hudl ecosystem, they’re more powerful than ever. From film and play diagrams to scouting reports and custom recruiting boards, everything flows together. One system. Built for high-performance programs.

​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

📺 Middle Penetration - 3-Side Overload • Hammer Screen​

"A quick strike hammer screen capitalizing on the point guards advantage to break middle against their matchup."

✚ Pair With: A well paced and executed late-clock Step Up Screen with a backside Hammer Screen.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our breakdown on spacing an overloaded 3-side when breaking the middle of the floor.

📺 Hammer Screen - Elbow Over • Zoom DHO​

"Coach Pannone getting in his "bag" for this well-designed Hammer Screen off the Zoom DHO."

✚ Pair With: Playing off the elbow Scissor Cuts to screen a shooter to the ball and a big to the rim.

🔒 SG Plus Content: Our "Crunch Time" session with Coach Ryan Pannone detailing late-clock offense, attacking switch, defending baseline inbounds and more!

Interesting Reads

📚 Joy, Constraints, and Priorities — A Guide for Making Decisions about Future Learning​

We typically hear the word constraints as a negative, bringing to mind all the activities we cannot do. As we gain more responsibilities personally and professionally the demands on our time and energy increase, which limits our options for activities.

However, acknowledging our limits can shift our perspective on constraints: From a negative viewpoint on what is lost to a positive viewpoint on what to embrace. Personal and professional responsibilities are gifts, giving us the opportunity to steward the gifts well.

​

📚 Coaching Flow: A Girl-Dad’s Crusade – Kill Cones, Unlock Flow, Raise Adaptive Kids​

*Thanks to Lason Perkins for the tip on this one, the podcast from this article is great too.

Leaders — and every team member — must be leaders. One of the most critical functions? Task clarity. David doesn’t bark plays; he creates environments where kids grasp the why, own the how, and adapt in real time.

​

📚 On Generating Good Ideas​

It's good to perturb your information intake. By default, we end up interacting with the same circle of people discussing the same topics (our friends and coworkers, our job, the news in our industry or area). This means that you quickly exhaust the ideas that can come from these inputs. Getting outside these inputs through talking to new people, physically changing location, or ingesting information on different topics can open new pathways to new ideas. I occasionally find that after a particularly good conference or trip I will have more ideas, and that's the result of this influx of novelty.

Quote of the Week

Thank you for reading and have a great week coaching,

Dan, Pat, and Eric

info@slappinglass.com

​