MIKE NEIGHBORS: TRANSITION OFFENSE

Two clinic curses:
1. Can’t take it all back
2. I can’t do that because…

“Be good at the things you do a lot.” -Pete Carril

Chart success of your line ups

How fast can you function

Reward role players
1. Win race
2. How many screens set

Transition is about race and space

MN: Player loses two races in a row and she comes out.
Not running floor you’re either tired or unengaged

Rim runners (MN calls “Rabbits”) make for a great transition offense.

Goal for rabbit is to occupy the deed defensive transition player

“Locks” are the left and right corner runners.

“Ball” refers to point guard

“Dragon” refers to trailer

Defender back peddling can’t defend offensive player running down hill

“Make the defense wrong.”

“Reward decision making, not actions.”

Outlet — must be quick or long (or both)

Point guard is passing up the street or crossing the street with the dribble

Doesn’t like to feed the “rabbit” below the foul line on the run — chases her opposite the ball.

“Quick Strike” drill (our Aggie)

“Boom” is call for double drag when Rabbit is late.

“Pirate” = roll and post up

Need a good zone offense because people don’t want to guard you.

MN: We only have 4 players (with options)

Man: defense decides match up

Zone: offense decides match up

“If your best player isn’t getting the most shots, you suck as a coach.”

Key ball screen concepts: Arrive w/out a defender (change speed, direction, angles)

How are you occupying the help

“Argue with an idiot long enough and no one will know who the idiot is.”

Green light shooting...player is given “green light” on game day because she met a set numbers from a series of shooting drills. Players have to earn their “license.”

Ball screen defense — you need to play it more than one way. “Switchin’ and Fixin’”

Post defense: chin on shoulder

Wall up because their aren’t enough good post players to score

If transition defense walls up as a team to take point guard penetration away, your trailer has to be open.

Don’t let coaches pass in drills...use players do all the passing to improve their passing.

Advice he got from Coach Gary Blair: Be great at something.

JIM CALHOUN: 4 THINGS A COACH CAN CONTROL

1. Every team can rebound if you put enough emphasis on it
     • Drills
     • Emphasized throughout practice
     • Can't give a lot of 2nd shots
     • Real judge of your defense is FG% defense
     • % of offensive rebounds you get – 40% + is good
     • % of defensive rebounds you get – 65% + is good

2. Defense
     • Contest all shots
     • Pressure the ball with help behind you
     • Pressure everything from the NBA 3 point line in
     • Make them shoot, pass, or dribble; don't let them stand with the ball
     • Force offense where you want them and then contain them there
     • Need to make stops when the game is on the line
     • Defend through all of practice, make the defense challenge the offense
     • Have a thought of the day
     • Have an emphasis of the day (ex. Rebounding)

3. Run
     • more possessions
     • allows for more mistakes
     • allows you to play more kids
     • run for conditioning and in drills
     • get #s to create good shots and create rebounding advantages

4. Play Hard
     • steals
     • charges

TRANSITION OFFENSE THOUGHTS FROM MARIANNE STANLEY

The following are some clinic notes I took on Transition Offense from Marianne Stanley who was speaking at our clinic at LSU.  I have known Coach Stanley for a long time, starting with me working her camps when I was a high school coach and she was leading Old Dominion to multiple National Championships.  She is one of the best teachers I've been around.  Here are just a few of her thoughts:

In order to be a quality fast breaking team, you must be good defensively and on the boards.  You can only be so good in transition if you are constantly taking the ball out of the net after your opponent scores.

Defensive rebounding is not talent — it’s heart.

Two important areas for developing transition offense:

      ◄Be good in the fundamentals of the game

      ◄Train and practice at speed

OUTLET PASS

◄The deeper the better…between free throw line extended and the hashmark.

◄Point guard sprint there, show you back to the sideline and call for the ball.

◄Look up!...majority of guard take outlet and immediately put the ball on the floor dribble and then look up...we want to look up first.

Important quality for guards is body control.

Point Guard: key to good transition is her vision...once she catches the ball Washington teaches for them to look “at the bottom of the net”...this gives a good centering point for their peripheral vision.

Lanes: “Don’t jog, don’t run.  Sprint!”

Definition of “sprint” — “as fast as you can” — anything less is not a sprint

THE TRANSITION GAME IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT

"If you think that your half-court defense wins your games, you don’t understand the game. If you take film and break it down, you will find out that only 30% of your points are coming out of your set plays and the other 70% are coming in transition, second shots, and foul shots. So the transition game is what it is all about."

-Hubie Brown

BASKETBALL THOUGHTS FROM PETE GAUDET

Find good things to break down a defense.  Break the whole defense down, then find ways to allow an individual to break his defender down.

The "Five R's of Posting" --
Run (the floor)
Rebound (post players ticket into the game)
Rooting out (post up)
Rotate & Recover (defensive)
Relocate (with and without the ball)

You never need more than two dribbles unless you are a point guard.

The ability to back up with a dribble and change directions is a skill not many have.

Not many players can properly feed the post.

Push the ball up the floor then decide you don't want to fast break as opposed to walking the ball up and then wishing you would've have pushed the ball.

TRANSITION OFFENSE THOUGHTS FROM MARIANNE STANLEY

As a young high school coach, one of my annual rites of passage was to travel from West Virginia to Old Dominion University to work basketball camp for Marianne Stanley.  It is still one of the best camps I have worked.  Tremendous teaching was the primary goal of the ODU staff and it spilled over into their treatment of the coaches that worked the camp.  Every night Marianne would host a clinic in the dorm and never left until the last coach was done asking questions.  After seven years of working two weeks a camp each summer Marianne became one of my mentors and someone that has helped me move up the coaching ladder.

Many years ago, I talked her into coming to LSU and speaking at our coaching clinic and here are just a few of the notes I took from her in regard to transition offense:

In order to be a quality fast breaking team, you must be good defensively and on the boards. You can only be so good in transition if you are constantly taking the ball out of the net after your opponent scores.

Defensive rebounding is not talent — it’s heart.

Two important areas for developing transition offense:
Be good in the fundamentals of the game
Train and practice at speed

OUTLET PASS

◄The deeper the better…between free throw line extended and the hashmark.

◄Point guard sprint there, show you back to the sideline and call for the ball.

◄Look up!...majority of guard take outlet and immediately put the ball on the floor dribble and then look up...we want to look up first.

Important quality for guards is body control.

Point Guard: key to good transition is her vision...once she catches the ball Washington teaches for them to look “at the bottom of the net”...this gives a good centering point for their peripheral vision.

Lanes: “Don’t jog, don’t run. Sprint!”

Definition of “sprint” — “as fast as you can” — anything less is not a sprint

5 REASONS FOR A FAST-PACED TRANSITION ATTACK

Here are five reasons for running a fast-paced transition offense via George Karl and Doug Moe as listed in "NBA Coaches Playbook."

BE HARD TO GUARD
Because only the point guard in our system has what could be called a defined role, the opponent is challenged to match up with every time we break down the court.

RUSH THE OPPOSITION
The very pace of a high-speed, fast-break offense often unsettles opponents.  Their comfort zone is disrupted because they have to think and move faster than they do against other teams.

FATIGUE THE OPPONENT
You can't count on the opposition being out of shape; any coach worth his salt will have his players fit enough to compete and win.  But being in condition to run a standard, set offense and being physically prepared to play a high-speed, fast-break attack for a full game are two different levels of conditioning.  And a winded or tired player is very vulnerable player.

PRODUCE MORE AND EASIER LOOKS
At its most fundamental level, winning comes down to scoring more points than your opponent.

USE PLAYERS' PREFERRED STYLE
Although not a determining factor in our deciding to commit to the break, another plus is that players are enthusiastic about playing a fast-paced style.

TRANSITION OFFENSE THOUGHTS FROM BILLY DONOVAN

"A team changing from offense to defense is one of the most difficult things in basketball. Exploit this!"
-Billy Donovan

1. On a miss, free-for-all, score as quickly as possible.

2. On a make, we want the ball the inbounded as quickly as possible by whichever big is closest to the ball and we want the ball advanced up the floor as quickly as possible as well.

Teaching Point: In UF’s practices, ball isn’t across half court in 3 seconds it is an automatic turnover.

3. No set lanes, he wants his players to play. Coach Donovan wants his wings to run their lanes as wide as possible and sprint up the floor. If the two happen to be on the same side, it’s the 2nd player’s responsibility to call “push” and send the first wing through to the other side.

4. Utilization of random ball screens: If our first big down the court is behind the ball or not in position to get the ball in the low post in transition, it’s an automatic flat ball screen for strongside wing (trailing big can run in to set a double).

THE IMPORTANCE OF HALF-COURT OFFENSE

Regardless of your desire to run, remember 3 keys:

Seventy-five percent of all field goals come in half-court situations
The better your opponent, the lesser number of transition opportunities.
Transition baskets decrease on the road.
Secondary Attack (men) 27 (percent) .076 (women) 6 (percent) .081

From Bob's studies the thought for me is this: creating a good transition offense is important. But if you want to win and win consistently, you better be effective in half-court basketball.

From "Building A Championship Offense," by Bob Liqouri

KNIGHT ON TRANSITION AND TURNOVERS

"The most important thing in the break is to get there with the ball, and then work to get a good shot. Everybody says, 'If you run, you're going to have more turnovers.' I never accepted that. If you candle the ball, you can handle the ball. If you can handle the ball under the pressure of good half-court defense, you sure as hell ought to be able to handle it in full-court play against very little pressure."

-Bob Knight

DENVER SWITCHES TO DEFENSIVE EMPHASIS

Courtesy of Coach Musselman, a great article from Chris Dempsy of the Denver Post on how the Denver coaching staff altered the philosophy back to George Karl's days in Seattle -- with a "defense wins" priority.

We’ll start last spring, after the Nuggets were swept out of the playoffs by the L.A. Lakers. Assistant coach Tim Grgurich, Karl’s longtime right hand man, wanted the coach to wipe his hands of emphasizing offensive basketball. Grgurich wanted to turn back the clock to the defense-first system that was a success when the two were winning games by the boatload in Seattle.

“We can’t do this anymore,” Grgurich said to Karl. “We can’t coach like this anymore. It just doesn’t work.”

Karl paused.

“He was saying it for himself, but he was also saying it for me,” Karl recalled. “And I just looked at him and said ‘Grg, you know something, you’re right.’”

The article goes on to talk about how the Denver staff divided the team up and called on the players continually during the off-season. Interesting how they couldn't get a hold of Iverson.

Read the entire article at:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2009/05/05/confessions-of-a-converted-fast-break-coach/

EARLY OFFENSE

One of the best basketball websites out there is Hoop Tactics hosted by Ernie Woods and Bob Kloppenburg. I promise you that once you get to the site you'll spend hours looking over all the great detailed information. Ernie and Bob are not only outstanding coaches but great guys that care about the game and about us who try to teach it. Below is a small sample of their thoughts on early offense:

The main reason for early offense, accompanied by flow action, is to force the defense to react rather than act! This simply put is to advance the ball quickly into the front court areas and attack before the defense is able to become organized into a disruptive force. As a defensive specialists over the many years of coaching, we have found that the most difficult teams to defend were the ones with offenses that pushed the ball into the front court, hash mark areas in the time span of 2 to 3 seconds. This early offense push creates quick medium jump shots, or penetration lay-ups, or kick out passes for scores to occur before the defense had a chance to set up and disrupt any organized set play. We have also found that when teams walked the ball up the court, they were much easier to defend because the defense was able to get its players back into positions near the basket were they could execute pressure denials, traps to disrupt the offensive flow and to force rushed shots as time on the clock became a factor.

For much more on early offense, click here:

http://www.cybersportsusa.com/hooptactics/earlyoff/earlydefault.asp

TRANSITION SHOULD NOT EQUAL MORE TURNOVERS

"The most important thing in the break is to get there with the ball, and then work to get a good shot...Everybody says, 'If you run, you're going to have more turnovers.' I never accepted that. If you can handle the ball you can handle the ball. If you can handle the ball under the pressure of good half-court defense, you sure as hell ought to be able to handle it in full-court play against very little pressure."

Coach Bob Knight
From "Knight: My Story by Bob Knight with Bob Hammel

ERNIE KENT AND THE OREGON FAST BREAK

WHY?

1. Get easy baskets

2. Players enjoy it

3. You can still be good defensively

KEYS:

1. Get teams to miss

2. Read transition situations

3. Get great shots for shooters

4. Sell it - chemistry & sharing the ball

CONCERNS:

1. Do not get caught between the speed game and slow down game.

2. Need a smart/complete point guard

3. Must be able to read ("We run & read")

GOALS:

1. 65-70 shots attempted

2. Score 8-+ points

3. 30+ assists

SHOT SELECTION

There are three factors that must be considered when deciding on a shot:

WHO: Again, one person might have a decent shot but we might have a better shooter open. Good shot selection will find us getting the ball to someone “who” is in position to hit a high percentage of the shots from that location. Sometimes we will have to “pass up a good shot to get a better shot.” Players also have to understand that what might be a great shot for one player will be a poor shot for another player. In other words, shot selection will vary from one player to another.

WHERE: Location is critical. We are working for a lay-up each time down the court. If we don’t get a lay-up, then we want an open shot for our best shooters in a high percentage area. The key is to again remember the “where” differs from shooter to shooter. It is important that each player not only knows her shooting range, but the shooting range of her teammates.

WHEN: This might be the most difficult to understand. When a shooter is really stroking the ball well, we need to know to get her open and get her the ball. The score and possession also make a difference on “when” to shoot. You might have an open 3 off the first pass of the possession. This might not be the best possible shot for us. But that same shot might come up in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock and it could then be a good shot. If we are up 10 with 2 minutes to play, an open jumper from the wing early in the possession might be a poor shot. But if we are down 6 with 2 minutes to play, that same shot would be a good shot for our team.

TEAM-ORIENTED SHOOTING PHILOSOPHY

A major key to shot selection is your ability to dictate roles to your players. They must understand that a shot is NOT her shot — IT’S OUR SHOT! We are far more interested as a staff in the field goal percentage of our team than individual field goal percentages. A player taking a shot is representing her teammates and our staff. It creates a level of ownership. It is common place at practice for me to stop and ask a player if another player's shot was a good one. "Is that the shot we wanted?" If they answer yes or know, I always ask them "Why?"

OFFENSIVELY: YOU WIN IN THE PAINT

Dick Matta once said "you win getting the ball inside." I believe that is a great deal of truth to that theory. Often coaches will look at their team, see no dominate post player on their roster so the begin thinking of ways to win from the perimeter. I think regardless of your personnel you must find ways to score inside.

At LSU offensive philosophy is simple — GET THE BALL INSIDE! Now there are a variety of ways we can do this, such as:

◄Beat the other team down the floor in transition.
◄Pass the ball inside to one of our post players.
◄Pass the ball inside to one of our perimeter players that may be posting.
◄Pass the ball to a player cutting to the basket.
◄Take the ball to the basket off the dribble.
◄Grab an offensive rebound.

To make sure we properly emphasize this, we keep track of all six categories in both practice and games. We emphasis to our team the importance of "paint points." We also will specifically demand paint points out of them at times in practice. Please don't misunderstand that we don't shoot the ball from the perimeter because we do -- it is part of the necessary balance to open up the paint. But it is easier to get the quick jumper and, especially against good defensive teams, takes time, effort and patience to get quality shots in the paint.