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Saturday, December 14, 2024

Basketball - Reality Check on 35 Points

Friday night in Massachusetts, fifty high school girls basketball scores were posted in The Boston Globe. 45 of 50 teams won with over 35 points. I'm surprised that it wasn't even higher. Winning with 26 points in a 'shot clock state' seldom happens unless the losing team has abysmal offense.  

Winning without offense is like eating soup with a fork. What derails offense? 

For practical purposes, start with the Four Factors of Dean Oliver: SPCA

1) Shoot well

2) Protect the ball 

3) Crash the boards

4) Attack the basket

I watched the first quarter of a game that went poorly. Applying the above, here's part of the analysis:

1) Shooting. The team scored one two point basket.

2) Turnovers. The team had 13 turnovers, over half the possessions. 

3) Rebounding. The team got outrebounded at both ends. Successful teams almost always get over 75 percent of the defensive rebounds. Defensive rebounding is positioning and toughness. Offensive rebound is anticipation and aggressiveness. 

4) Free throws. The team took two free throws, making one. 

Another way to analyze is via individual possessions. Apologies for regressing to the early 1970s. What destroyed individual possessions? Problems posed without possible solutions seems so political. 

"Dribbling the air out of the ball." When all you hear at a game is the ball bouncing, it's a bad game. "You don't get paid by the bounce." Practice halfcourt 4 on 4, no dribbling. Pass and cut or turnover the ball on five second calls. This teaches players to move without the ball and to set off ball screens. 5 versus 7 full court is even better because of the "advantage-disadvantage." 

"Paint touches" Paint touches imply dribble and pass penetration. Kirby Scheff has documented the points per possession value of a combination of paint touches and ball reversal. "Movement kills defense." Paint touches and ball reversal force defensive movement and long closeouts. Long closeouts provide option to attack the basket and catch defenses in help and recover situations. When scrimmaging, have sessions where you disallow shooting until there's been a paint touch and ball reversal. 

"Standing around." There's a saying, "if you stand around, then you'll sit next to me." Cut urgently. Make passes on time and target. Scrimmage with 0.5 second decision-making with a pass and cut mindset. 

"Turnovers." Zak Boisvert divides turnovers among decisions and execution. 

My impression was that bad passes and 'fumbles' were the biggest culprits. Practice passing with weighted basketballs mixed with regular balls with a passer and catching line. You learn to catch the ball and pass quickly or duck.

Bad spacing. Bad spacing shows up on both offense and defense. Teams that are overwhelmingly right-handed also violate space, especially when running offense from the sideline. Teams that don't load to the ball and drop to the level of the ball don't 'shrink' space. Your coach taught that boundary lines are extra defenders, right? 

"Be hard to defend." Hard-to-defend actions include pass-and-cut (give and go), urgent cutting (back door cuts), simple and complex screening (e.g. Iverson action, screen-the-screener, Spain action, etc.). Some teams might try Zoom action (downscreen into DHO). Emphasize spacing with whatever spacing you prefer (five-out, horns, four-out one-in, two guard fronts). I favor small-sided games (e.g. 3-on-3) with no crossing the midline. 

Player development. How much of practice should be devoted to individual and small-sided offense (shooting, pick-and-roll, individual basket attack)? As much as you need. "We can't run what we can't run" and teams seldom win scoring in the 30s or below. 

Elevate individual player offense. 

Lagniappe. "The magic is in the work." 

Lagniappe 2. Did we have bad workouts? Of course. 





 

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