I saw a quote somewhere attributed to Pete Newell that said that there are basically two main "genres" of offense: screening games, where you try to jam up the middle, create "blocks" much as in football, and take advantage of the fact that referees are generally reluctant to whistle a moving screen, and spacing games where you attempt to open up the lane area under the rim and create 1 v. 1 opportunities for your players. Popular offense such as Blocker / Mover, Bobby Knight passing game, Flex, Swing, and High/Low are examples of the former, while sets such as the Princeton Offense, Buna Offense, Phoenix Suns offense, the Triangle, and Dribble Drive Motion are examples of the latter methodology.
In the last few years, I have become increasingly interested in learning about spacing games such as the Princeton Offense, Four Corners, and AASAA/Dribble Drive Motion. We are currently running Vance Walberg's AASAA (also called The Dribble Drive Motion) with our Varsity and JV teams this season. This offense, most famously employed by John Calipari at Memphis, relies heavily on dribble penetration and the ability to shoot from behind the arc. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of this style of play is that the mid-range jumper is not a part of the offense. Even if wide open, we do not allow our players to shoot 15 to 18 foot jumpers -- a mid-range shot is an automatic turnover in practice. We refer to this philosophy as "Key or Three" or "Lane or Rain." Not surprisingly, eliminating the mid-range game has and continues to be a tough sell for many of our current players (not to mention their parents!)
The idea is to create an "extra point" mentality where your players are looking to get in the lane and get fouled, or get that extra point from beyond the arc. We feel strongly as coaches that the mid-range shot is really a sort of cop-out or compromise a lot of times -- in fact, we try to sell our players on the idea that the mid-range is offense for "wusses." We want them to be good enough and tough enough off the dribble to get in the lane and finish with contact or to pitch in out for the uncontested three. this "Lane or Rain" style creates excellent spacing for our perimeter players to dribble penetrate, and spacing the floor properly off our penetration creates open looks for our shooters from beyond the arc. In this offense, if you can really get to the rack as a player you will thrive, but if you can shoot it, we love you too.
As for post players (which we unfortunately are not blessed to really have this particular season), they need to be athletic, skilled enough to play on the perimeter, and possess good hands and finishing instincts. We don't have a place in this style of play for a big, slow kids, but we do have various calls and sets in which we will feed the ball inside for a post player to operate on the block or at the elbow.
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2 comments:
I have watched Memphis and I think they can shoot in the 10 foot area which actually is not too often for them but they seem to do it. Is this ok to shoot the 10 footer?
Pete, I think Coach Calipari actually designates certain players who are allowed to shoot in the 10 to 15 foot area (Derrick Rose, Douglass-Roberts, etc.) I have relaxed our rules about the 10 to 15 foot shots a bit. As long as it is around or in the lane area and it is not a "forced" shot against more than one defender, it is ok. When I was down in Memphis at Coach Cal's clinic, he said that for the 2004-2005 season (before they started running this offense) they charted all their mid-range jumpshots for the whole season, and they only shot 28%. He said that if he thought they could shoot above 40 percent from 12 to 18 feet, they would shoot them.
Last night against Barrie, we shot 12 for 17 from three-point land in the first half which has got to be some kind of record for our program! In the second half we were only 1 for 11, but that is still almost 50% for the game (13 for 28). To get that kind of point production from the mid-range area, we would have to shoot over 70%!
We shot the ball well last night, but we did not do a good job of attacking the basket and "creating bumps" as we only went to the line 8 times. For our system to be most effective, we should be making more foul shots than the other team attempts and getting teams in foul trouble by attacking the lane. Part of it was Barrie zoned us for much of the game, but we still need to do a better job of attacking the rim.
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