We have pinpointed twelve areas that are important to our man to man defensive attack. They are areas that we try to touch on daily in our practices in some form of drill. We refer to these as the Dandy Dozen of Great Defense. While this book is basically covering the man to man philosophy of our defensive approach, you should note that these same twelve guidelines apply to all of our defenses including our pressing and zone attacks.
The Dandy Dozen of Great Defense is printed up in passout form and given to our players early in the season. We expect them to know them. We make sure when we are talking at practice about one of the areas that we mention it as one of the Dandy Dozen. When we watch video, both good and bad clips, we make sure to point out our defensive clips by relating them to one of the Dandy Dozen.
#1 STOP THE BASKETBALL
This is the overriding principle of our defense. Everything that we do in our defense is designed to stop the basketball. The way we defend the basketball, the way we contest the passing lanes, the way we deny the low post, the way we play helpside, the way we defend cuts, the way we jump to the ball — all designed with the thought of stopping the basketball.
#2 HAND ON THE BALL
Pressuring the basketball in the proper manner effects so much of what we do defensively. It allows us to overplay the passing lane as well as extend our help. We want to constantly influence the basketball away from the basket. When it is up top, we want to influence it to the sideline. When it is on the sideline, we want to influence it to the corner or back towards the jump circle. We ALWAYS want our hand on the ball. Regardless of whether it is before the dribble, during the dribble, or after the dribble has been picked up. If the ball is passed, we want a hand on the ball. If the ball is shot, we want a hand on the ball.
#3 JUMP TO THE BASKETBALL
This is a critical part of our defensive philosophy. Anytime the ball is passed, we should have five players jumping to the ball. More importantly, they must be jumping on the airtime of the pass. In other words, we want to begin our movement the instant the ball leaves the passers hand. Too often, a defensive player or team, moves after the receiver has caught the ball — that’s not quick enough.
#4 CONTESTING THE LOW POST
Games are won down on the block. We must be a good low post defending team if we are to be successful. When the ball is above the free throw line extended, we want to 3/4 the low post with our lead foot in the passing lane. When the ball is below the free throw line extended, we want to front the low post. Unless our scouting report says differently, we don’t want to allow any low post touches.
#5 CONTESTING THE HIGH POST
We believe this is simply the most dangerous place on the court for the basketball to be. Not only is it in the middle of the court where we cannot establish helpside and ballside principles, but it is close enough to the basket to be shot or driven. Defensively we must be able to anticipate the post flash and contest the pass to the high post. We should have a foot in the passing lane and contest with such vigor that we force the high post player to cut backdoor or extend her cut well beyond the high post area.
#6 HELPSIDE POSITIONING
It is our helpside that makes our defense strong. This does not mean that we want to play in such a way that we are constantly relying on our helpside. In fact, the use of our helpside means that some form of our defense has broken down. The key to helpside is to take away offensive spacing for our opponent. Our opponent should constantly be looking at 3 (offensive players) vs. 5 (defensive players) situation if we are stationed properly. If the ball is above the motion line, we want the helpside defensive player to have 1 foot in the paint forming a triangle with herself, the ball, and the player she is defending. If the ball is below the motion line, we want the helpside defensive player to have 2 feet in the paint, again forming a triangle.
#7 EARLY HELP
Once we have our defense set properly, we want to make sure that we are anticipating situations that need help. We want our help to come early. We don’t want to have to help once the ball is in the paint, rather before it gets to the paint. We don’t think we can help too early, but we certainly can help too late. Another reminder in regards to our help is that recovery is just as important. Help without recovery lessens the effectiveness of the defensive possession.
#8 CLOSEOUT
Because of the way we play defensively, we will often force the offense to skip the basketball or pass the ball in such a way that forces our helpside to rotate to ballside. How we closeout will be critically important in our ability to contest shots on shooters as well as how we take away penetration against the drivers. Know who you are closing out on and defend accordingly.
#9 BLOCKOUT
The worst thing we can do defensively is to put together a tremendous possession and not finalize it with a good blockout and rebound of the basketball. Treat each possession like a “work week” and the basketball is your “paycheck.” Make contact, maintain contact, find the basketball, and go rebound the basketball.
#10 DEFEND WITHOUT FOULING
It is vitally important that we do all the previous mentioned steps without fouling. There are three things that we don’t want to give up on defense. One is an open shot by a good shooter. We take this away by putting our hand on the ball when it is shot. The second is to not allow an uncontested lay-up (we will talk about this in #12). And finally, we don’t want to bail out the offense and let them get to the free throw line for easy points.
#11 TRANSITION DEFENSE
In the proper outlining of our defense, this should be listed first. Before we can play outstanding half-court defense, we must first sprint back and take away easy opportunities from our opponent when they fast break. We must stop the basketball first and make sure we don’t allow any open lay-ups. Next we should make sure that all good shooters are not allowed an uncontested shot. The goal of our transition defense is to force the opponent to play against our half court defense.
#12 KNOW YOUR SCOUTING REPORT
We will rely heavily on scouting to take our opponent’s out of their offense. It is important for our players to know what our point of emphasis is defensively and for them to understand who they are defending individually. Scouting has been tremendously important to our defensive success and will continue to be.
It is our opinion that if you have a set philosophy with each of these twelve areas and work towards refining them each day that you will have an opportunity to become a good defensive team. If we could make this list a “Baker’s Dozen” and add one more, it would be motivation. It is up to you as a coach to sell you team on defense. And not just the individual components of the system but the overall benefits of team defense and how those individual components complete the defense.
Selling defense to your team is a daily event — with no days off. We use statistics, video, drills, speakers, and anything else we can think of to stress the importance of defense and how it relates with the overall success of our program.
If you can get your team excited about playing defense, and couple that with the Dandy Dozen then you will put a team on the floor that will be difficult to score against.
Once we have our defense set properly, we want to make sure that we are anticipating situations that need help. We want our help to come early. We don’t want to have to help once the ball is in the paint, rather before it gets to the paint. We don’t think we can help too early, but we certainly can help too late. Another reminder in regards to our help is that recovery is just as important. Help without recovery lessens the effectiveness of the defensive possession.
#8 CLOSEOUT
Because of the way we play defensively, we will often force the offense to skip the basketball or pass the ball in such a way that forces our helpside to rotate to ballside. How we closeout will be critically important in our ability to contest shots on shooters as well as how we take away penetration against the drivers. Know who you are closing out on and defend accordingly.
#9 BLOCKOUT
The worst thing we can do defensively is to put together a tremendous possession and not finalize it with a good blockout and rebound of the basketball. Treat each possession like a “work week” and the basketball is your “paycheck.” Make contact, maintain contact, find the basketball, and go rebound the basketball.
#10 DEFEND WITHOUT FOULING
It is vitally important that we do all the previous mentioned steps without fouling. There are three things that we don’t want to give up on defense. One is an open shot by a good shooter. We take this away by putting our hand on the ball when it is shot. The second is to not allow an uncontested lay-up (we will talk about this in #12). And finally, we don’t want to bail out the offense and let them get to the free throw line for easy points.
#11 TRANSITION DEFENSE
In the proper outlining of our defense, this should be listed first. Before we can play outstanding half-court defense, we must first sprint back and take away easy opportunities from our opponent when they fast break. We must stop the basketball first and make sure we don’t allow any open lay-ups. Next we should make sure that all good shooters are not allowed an uncontested shot. The goal of our transition defense is to force the opponent to play against our half court defense.
#12 KNOW YOUR SCOUTING REPORT
We will rely heavily on scouting to take our opponent’s out of their offense. It is important for our players to know what our point of emphasis is defensively and for them to understand who they are defending individually. Scouting has been tremendously important to our defensive success and will continue to be.
It is our opinion that if you have a set philosophy with each of these twelve areas and work towards refining them each day that you will have an opportunity to become a good defensive team. If we could make this list a “Baker’s Dozen” and add one more, it would be motivation. It is up to you as a coach to sell you team on defense. And not just the individual components of the system but the overall benefits of team defense and how those individual components complete the defense.
Selling defense to your team is a daily event — with no days off. We use statistics, video, drills, speakers, and anything else we can think of to stress the importance of defense and how it relates with the overall success of our program.
If you can get your team excited about playing defense, and couple that with the Dandy Dozen then you will put a team on the floor that will be difficult to score against.
