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As I sit and watch college hoops up here in New York City from my
"bedroom/living room/t.v. room/den/dinning room" I have over the
course of the past four or five years noticed more and more that the
art of breaking the press, even by teams who do press, has somehow
gotten lost. I can only come to the conclusion that they either do
not know how to teach a press breaker and or simply do not spend the
time on it they need to in practice. This is in relation to the full
court or 3/4 court trapping press. Half court presses are attacked
in a slightly different manner.
There are several things to keep in mind when facing teams such as
Florida, Georgia Tech, Louisville etc. who want to create 40 mintues
of insanity for you on the
defensive end. First thing you want to ask yourself is this; where
do they want to get their traps in these two types of press? The
answer is up high when the ball fist
comes in near the sideline or against the sideline on either side of
the half court line. So, these are obviously the spots you want to
keep the ball out of. Next thing you
want to ask yourself is what type of players do they use to trap?
(i.e., do they put their four man up front on the trap or do they
put him on the ball when it is being taken
out of bounds) Here are the things to teach and or run when
combating such presses.
1.) Tempo- Now this sounds odd, perhaps when talking about beating
the press but not only is this the key to the game flow in general
but it is the absolute intention of a pressing team to dictate
tempo. When you are pressed it is absolutely necessary that you
ingrain into your kids to NOT run to take the ball out of bounds.
Whoever you designate, which is usually either the 3,4, or 5 man,
you make it a must for them to walk to take the ball out of bounds
while the other guys jog to get into position. Once this happens you
also really practice with your kids to not move until the man out of
bounds slaps the ball. If you have such a luxury, you can hopefully
have your 5 man take the ball out of bounds, if you feel he is good
enough with the ball. If not then I would try to make it your four
man. The reason I say this is that you want as many viable ball
handlers out against the press as possible.
Secondly once you beat the press you want to attack it and if you
have both wing spots taken up by your four and five man you will not
have the potency once the press is broken to attack it as the ball
gets in the middle and crosses half court. Best way to get a team to
quit pressing you is to get 3 or 4 quick lay-ins. Something a lot of
teams also seem to not understand is that when you do get the ball
across the timeline and you do not have an easy shot, back it out
and run your offense.
This is a key to tempo against a pressing team. Make them play some
half-court defense. This will do wonders for your shot selection and
do damage to their
feelings about the success of the press. It will take an edge of the
traps and an edge reaction time they have in cutting off the middle
and sideline ball side.
2.) Next thing that is very important when breaking the press is
just as I mentioned above, getting the ball into the middle of the
floor. No matter what pattern you use in
the backcourt, 4 across or two guard stack with your wings at
halfcourt, you need to try to get the ball into the middle of the
court and into someone's hands who will then take the ball, face up
and attack the basket. There are a couple of different ways to do
this.
One of them is to run the stack with your point guard and second
guard from around the top of the key opposite of where the ball is
being taken out from with your point guard setting a pick for your
two who then pops diaginally towards the ball side, but not into the
corner while your point guard rolls right back down the middle of
the key towards the ball, but he should not get himself under the
basket.
I see a lot of teams try this stack but they do it ball side when
the press occurs which often puts the two guard to far into the
corner and allows for a trap to be easily formed there on him. You
also see the guard who rolls back get himself under the basket and
suddenly is unable to make anything other than a bounce pass from
under the basket. Both guards when they get the ball should NOT
dribble but turn and face up down the court. With the size of todays
players you have to make alterations to this form of press breaker
to accomodate teaching the kids where to stack. Once the ball comes
in to the second guard you then cut the one man in front of any
defensive player who might have stepped up once the top man and the
side man on the ball side have gone forward to trap. You cut your
point man IN FRONT of this defensive player and your two guard has
to get him the ball and you are then off to the races as the wings
fill the lanes and you make this press pay. Now, it is imperative
that the two man handle the trap properly. You can teach one of a
couple different things to get the ball through the coming trap.
First he can obviously pass over it. Next he can learn to step
through the trap by taking the ball high and as the defensive
players stand upright to follow the ball he rips the ball down low
and splits the trap.
If he can not get the ball into the point guards hands the guy who
takes the ball out of bounds then steps in and he passes it back to
this man. The point guard should
then run down until he is a bit past the half court line then bust
straight up towards the inbounds man who now is inbounds and has the
ball. It is impreative that the one
man understands he has to get open and get the ball. Take his guy
away, take him to the side, whatever it takes.
3.) Once the ball is gotten in the middle, and or a longer cross
court pass is completed then the ball is gotten into the middle you
must attack the press and make it
pay. While the ball is in the backcourt with the two guard and the
man who has taken the ball out of bounds neither of them should
abandon the other until the ball reaches the middle. When the two
guard passes the ball back to the man stepping in bounds if he is
not able to get the ball to the point guard cutting to the middle
then the two guard positions himself about two steps ahead of the 4
or 5 man who has stepped inbounds and keep himself available to get
the ball back. This will also have an affect of creating a
non-trapping placement of the ball. Always, the kids should be aware
to not be in a hurry at any point in time.
4.) Wing movement is also critical when breaking the press. If you
start your wings, your 3 and the 4 and or 5 depending upon which is
taking the ball out of bounds,
along the sidelines around the mid-court area they have got to be
active. If the ball can not be inbounded, the wing who is on the
side the ball is being taken out on needs to take his guy two steps
backwards than bust up to the ball along the sideline, but not to
close to the sideline. Two steps off would be the most preferable.
If the ball is then passed into this wing player coming up from half
court the ball almost always is passed in further down the court
than the press would like it to be to obtain a trap. Once the ball
is gotten there the point guard still has to try to cut in front of
what ever defensive player is in the middle and you still want to
try to get him the ball on the move and the oppossite wing can then
fill the weakside lane and try to get a two on one break against the
back man. The wing player along the sideline needs to also turn and
square up and look down court, you never know where the defensive
players might be.
If the guy coming up from the wing gets inbounds pass and can not
get the ball to the point guard cutting almost always, this deeper
pass has the affect of collapsing the press back below the ball and
will allow him to pass the ball back to the two guard who originally
cut off of the stack towards the corner. You then can attack the
press from there. When the wing on the ball side busts up the wing
on the weakside of where the ball is being inbounded has to come up
a couple of steps and bust long. Now, if they guy taking the ball
out can run the baseline the half court wing players have to be
aware of this and of course come up and go long depending upon which
side the inbounder is on.
Well, there is a blue print in writing of what we used to call ZPO,
or zone press offense but it also served as our MPO, man press
offense as well.
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