Teaching Clips from Elite Women's Play

Study and borrow from great teams and players. Don't reinvent the wheel; steal it. 

- Basketball is a game of separation, creating and denying it.

- Basketball is a game of mistakes. Winners make fewer. 

- Basketball is a game of passing and cutting. 

- Basketball is a game of creating advantage. 

- Basketball is a game of playing harder for longer.

- Basketball is a game of more and better possessions "possession and possessions"

Video is the 'truth machine'. Study how players and teams create advantage or make defensive errors. Defensive errors occur at EVERY level. Kevin Eastman wrote that the Celtics won a playoff game in 2008 against the Lakers despite allowing 32 points on defensive mistakes. 

A method to the Madness...Clark uses the "negative step" to blow by her defender. No help comes.  

Footwork. Footwork. Footwork. Pivoting is an underrated skill.

 

Screen-the-screener into a mid-range jumper and "Bob's your uncle." 

One clip, two truths. "Turnovers and poor transition defense kill dreams." Live ball turnovers become high points/possession plays.

 

"Execute the coverage and trust the protection. The help can never be beaten." Neither happen. I see high school games with almost NO pick-and-roll. Why? Use hard-to-defend actions. 

 

Staggering. Staggered screens opens a jumper inside the nail.

 

Stampede! Clark on the 'catch and go'. 

"Easy if you know it, hard if you don't," said my 'shop' teacher in middle school. PnR excellence with screen, rescreen, and pocket pass.

 

Even great players have lapses. Maybe she had foul concerns. Clark turns the ball over and provides no defensive resistance. Context?

 

More PnR MasterClass. 

Relentless. USC pounded the glass and hurt Iowa badly. That also contributes to possible foul trouble. That has to be part of the game plan.

 

"Basketball isn't a running game, it's a sprinting game." USC gets burned in transition off a made basket. Beating great teams means getting some "easy baskets." Arguably, great teams allow "no easy baskets." No team is perfect.

 

"Hard to defend action..." pick and pop and release from a Horns set.

 

...passing and cutting

 

Thoughts on slowing down Iowa:

• Pound the offensive boards. Few teams have the power of SC. 
• Pick up Clark high. She's "Trey Young" like as she'll 'pull' from anywhere
• Defensive transition... have clarity on who's getting back
• Slow down the pick-and-roll. You can't go "under with Clark" but you can tag the roller. 
• "The help can never get beaten."

SC stayed in the game with their inside power game. Nobody stops Clark but limit easy transition baskets and against the PnR LSU needs to have better protection (help) than SC mustered.