The Louisville women’s basketball team was one of the best transition teams in the Country. They scored 1.108 PPP, which put them among the Nation’s best. Below are a few of the reasons that they were so successful in transition.
- Wings sprint and get wide
- Rim Runner gets in front of the ball
- The point guard advances the ball (on a sprint dribble or pass)
- There is skill behind the ball | Trailer can shoot
The combination of the four factors above stretches the defense horizontally, but also vertically. As the wings and rim runner put pressure on the baseline/rim. The trailer puts pressure on the defense to also extend to the three point line. The other key is that Louisville’s guards do a great job of advancing the ball with tempo. They will attack off the dribble, but also show a willingness to throw the ball ahead. Below is a video of some of the different ways that Louisville scores in transition.
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The Truth About Shooting More Threes
“The Truth About Shooting More Threes” by Coach Doug Brotherton was originally published by HoopGrind Basketball
In the NBA, teams are embracing the analytics, which encourages teams to shoot lay-ups and threes. According to the data, mid-range jump shots are inefficient and do not lead to success. Like most things in basketball, the NBA is the trendsetter, so now college basketball coaches are doing the same thing, and even high school coaches are preaching that lay-ups and threes are the key to building a successful team. High School basketball is where the debate heats up, as a lot of long time successful coaches are not interested in adapting to this new strategy. After reading a recent debate on Twitter, I decided to dive into the numbers. Below is the process that was used for this project.
- Use MaxPreps to gather three-point shooting statistics
- Find the three-point attempts per game numbers for all of the 200 teams that qualified.
- Separate the teams who shot the most three point shots per game (30+ attempts per game), from the teams who shot the fewest three pointers per game (under 20 attempts per game).
- Look up the WIN/LOSS RECORD of all of these teams, to find out if increased three point attempts per game correlate to a higher winning percentage.
- Gather the POINTS PER GAME for each team, to find out if increased three point attempts results in a higher points per game average.
Here is the table that I created:
THE RESULTS
DOES INCREASED THREE POINT ATTEMPTS RESULT IN MORE SCORING?
After diving into the data, it supports the belief that shooting more three pointers will result in scoring more points offensively. In fairness, this study does not include pace of play, or any metric to judge the caliber of opponents. It simply shows that high school boys teams who shoot 30+ three pointers per game, score significantly more points than teams who attempt less than 20 three point attempts per game. This remains true, despite the fact that the teams shooting more three pointers, shot a much lower percentage from deep.
- Teams shooting 30+ three pointers shoot at an average percentage of 31% and score 76.9 points per game.
- Teams shooting under 20 three pointers make 37% of their attempts, but only score 63.7 points per game.
DOES INCREASED THREE POINT ATTEMPTS RESULT IN WINNING MORE GAMES?
The results here actually show the exact opposite. Shooting more three pointers, at the High School level, does not correlate to winning more games. In fact, teams shooting under 20 three point attempts per game won 73% of their games, while the teams shooting over 30 three point attempts per game won only 67% of their games. As one can see, this study only involved the 200 teams that MaxPreps listed. The requirements to be listed are that a team must have played at least 18 games, and attempted a minimum of 226 three pointers on the season.
- Teams shooting 30+ three pointers won 67% of their games.
- Teams shooting under 20 three pointers won 73% of their games.
In conclusion, this project is far from perfect, but it supports something that most experienced coaches already know. There are a lot of different ways to win high school basketball games. If your philosophy is to score more points, then attempting more three point shots should help your team accomplish this goal. It is just important to note that shooting more three point shots does NOT guarantee that your team will be more successful. If you want your team to maximize their ability, then you must find the balance between what your players do well, and how that can be incorporated into your system.
To further the discussion, you can contact Coach Doug Brotherton via Twitter: @CoachBrotherton
Or you can reach him via e-mail at: CoachBrotherton@gmail.com
You can also reach us via Twitter at: @DynamicCoaches -
“Chicago Action” – Pin Down to Dribble Hand Off
In the 2022 ACC Championship, Virginia Tech used the same set to score 11 points against Duke.
“Chicago Action” became popular in the NBA when Coach Fred Hoiberg was leading the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs. The action features a pin down, into a dribble hand off. Now, teams of all levels are using Chicago Action to free up talented perimeter players. In the case of Virginia Tech, Hunter Cattoor scored 9 of his 31 points off of this set play.
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Instantly Improve Your Offense
Every off-season, coaches spent countless hours researching and studying different ways to improve. Too often, this leads to coaches completely hitting the reset button on their program’s offensive plans. Here are a few simple ways to instantly improve your offense!
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Offense starts the moment your team gains possession. TEACH the game this way.
- When teaching our half court offense, we stress things like spacing, player movement, ball movement, and we provide structure to help players read the game. Why not teach transition the same way?
- SPACING | There two ways to stretch the defense. Vertically and horizontally. If we can get multiple bodies in front of the ball, we will stretch the defense vertically. If we can get our wings to run wide, we are now stretching the defense horizontally. This should be an instant reaction, the moment your team gains possession of the ball.
- PLAYER MOVEMENT | Win the first three steps! If your players will sprint the first three steps, you will get players in front of the ball. When you throw the ball ahead, have you taught your team how and where to space around the ball? Do wings run to the corner and spot up or bounce off of the baseline and lift to free throw line extended? Transition offense includes player movement and should be taught.
- BALL MOVEMENT | One of our favorite phrases is that we want “two early shares” in transition. If we can get two direct passes in transition, we are likely to have tremendous flow and rhythm on that offensive possession.
- PROVIDING STRUCTURE | We want to provide spacing rules, simple secondary actions, and then teach our kids to flow seamlessly into our half court offense.
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REMOVE “set it up” from your vocabulary
- One of the most under taught parts of an offensive attack is “FLOW.”
- Teaching FLOW requires a coach to get creative in practice, abandon static starting points, and requires teaching players HOW TO PLAY.
- The benefit is that the defense is unable to use the “setup time,” to also get themselves organized.
- One of the most under taught parts of an offensive attack is “FLOW.”
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Create an ATTACKING mentality, with an understanding of IF/THEN responses.
- The easiest way to create an attacking mentality in your players is to view mistakes in practice as teachable moments.
- The best teams are confidently attacking, as opposed to having “paralysis by analysis.” In simple terms, they are too busy playing basketball, to stop and think about what is next.
- If you can create aggressive basketball players, you will see improvements in your offense.
- To learn more about IF/THEN responses, check out THIS BLOG POST.
Lastly, what does this look like? Here is a video of our team putting these three simple concepts on display.
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