Stud Muffling - Stopping the Star Player

How do you "wear down" your opponent? Are you fast, physical, fundamentally excellent, crafty, or have your relatives officiate? Actually, a coach recently shared that an official was an uncle of an opposing player and gave her all the calls AND drove her home!

We don't have any advanced scouting but it usually becomes apparent who the offensive foci of our opponents are. With scouting, you can identify personnel, individual and team tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. In Belichickian fashion, you want to take away what your opponent wants to do.

What is your philosophy? Does the star "get hers" and you limit the supporting cast or do you want to limit the lions and tigers and make the dogs and cats beat you? I will presume that you don't want the star to beat you single-handedly.


Individual attention. The least disruptive approach involves putting your best positional defender on the star player. If you have a Bruce Bowen or other elite defender, that's a great start. You can add the adages, "make shooters drive" and "make drivers shoot." Often a combination of 'better than usual' defense and 'frustration' sow doubt and confusion. Individual attention also has merit especially for the better passer as she will overcome other approaches, provided her complementary players are efficient. Part of the strategy can mean maximum ball denial, which we called "hawk". Hawk was chest to chest defense designed to deny the star access to the ball. And part of that was developing players with the skills and temperament to play "defense first" basketball. But ball pressure on the cast is critical to prevent easy passes to 'the star'.

Modified help. Teams will "naturally" rotate help to star players. That can mean digging, faking, or doubling from the perimeter on the post, playing modified "Pack Line" to deny direct drives, or selected double-teaming (two-timing in Pete Newell parlance).

Zone defense. We have not played half-court zone defense all season, although we have practiced it on a limited basis. Zones have strengths and weaknesses but sometimes contain the star player. One weakness can be rebound positioning and we are small, so that's an issue for us. Zones can protect players in foul trouble and also encourage more perimeter shooting. Within the context of a zone, you can "over-rotate" the zone to the star.

Extreme help. The most extreme help is regular double-teaming to get the ball out of the star's hands.

I don't like this strategy because I've seen it fail spectacularly causing a sectional championship loss from failed rotation (despite it being a point of emphasis).

I prefer this approach but recognize its limitation against shooters and dependence on enough size.

"Effective doubling" with extreme help and profound awareness away from the ball has merit with a weaker supporting cast. Of course, you can combine or alternate approaches.

Junk defenses. Depending on your preference and experience, you can go to "box-and-one" or "triangle and two". I'd rather make modifications on what I think we do well than making global overhauls, especially as a man-to-man defense core. That doesn't mean junk defenses (including the Amoeba Defense or "The Freak") don't have roles. I'd rather work to create simpler options and consistency than five mediocre defenses.

Offensive attack. Some 'star' players only play one end of the floor. Attacking them to create the three F's - fatigue foul trouble, and frustration can have a role, too. That depends upon how much you want to deviate from your core.

Sometimes nothing works.