As I was away all yesterday unable to personally clip up some of my favorite sets from Friday’s games, you can be sure The Basktball Playbook was still hard at work for @HalfCourtHoops. If you haven’t already, he is a must follow with the amount of content produced related to basketball plays. Without further ado, here are the Top 5 Plays from Friday brought to you by Half Court Hoops:
Initiated by a DHO into a dummy ballscreen, ballhandler waits for the first shallow cut to clear space for the backdoor and finish. More impressive than any of it, how about that lefty bounce pass on-time and on-target?
Nice pitchback ballscreen here with the two guards interchanging on the weak side to occupy the defense. The roller might have had more space if the guard for Utah State didn’t cut late, but still providing enough room for the dime & deuce.
Actions like these bring me back to the glory days. Box sets are classic quick-hitters that can be easy enough to draw on your hands. In this clip, you get a “Rip” action which is generally referencing a cross-screen or backscreen of some sort towards the rim. Buffalo simply pops corner and backsreens opposite elbow for an easy bucket.
How about some back-to-back backdoors? First one coming out of a BLOB situational where Oklahoma simply gets it in flowing right to the lift at the pinch post backdoor. The timing of the entry is executed perfectly because the tendency in those first few seconds after the ball is inbounded, the defense will want to relax. Ole Miss loses sight of the inbounder and is penalized two points for it.
The second look of the same play is initiated from halfcourt starting with around the horn work from the perimeter. Clear the eventual backdoor to the strong-side corner ensuing a post-entry and violence at the rim. This one had to give Coach Kruger goosebumps on the bench thinking, “Ok, my guys are ready to go!”
Last but not least is the Princeton staple – referred to as ‘Point’ by many or ‘Elbow’ by the staff’s I’ve been a part of running this style of play. I’m a sucker for some good Princeton actions and this one is as basic as they come, but effective nonetheless. See the initial interchange or dummy pindown for the post to establish positioning at the elbow or ‘point’ – this creates a 3-man side spacing.
Split-cuts can be some of the most effective actions for offenses because it forces communication defensively. And depending on how they are being defended there is always the counter to it that creates breakdowns. In this play, the point-guard chooses to replace himself sending the other backdoor. Post chases his pass into the ballscreen, but doesn’t need it as there is enough space to take 3 points right away.
Coach's Climb 