I'm interested in ideas for baseline inbound defense. In high school we always went 2-3 zone, but as 5th and 6th graders we play m2m exclusively. We hedge and fight thru screens normally, rarely ever switching, but under the basket on in bounds we are vulnerable. Should we be switching on all screens, zoning, or perhaps something else that I'm missing?

Make sure someone is always protecting the basket. Switch if you have to. But normally, hold your position under the basket until your team mate fights through the screen.

Do NOT follow cutters away from the ball. Deny cutters to the ball. Let them make the perimeter pass. Deny all penetrating passes.

These are all the same defense fundamentals we teach in half court. So we take those same fundamentals and show them how to apply under the basket. We always have to practice inbounds defense because kids don't realize the rules are the same. And they often follow cutters away from the ball chasing someone way out on the perimeter. You have to practice it. Drives you crazy at first, but with a little attention and practice they get good at inbounds defense.

I love it when teams 2-3 zone on inbounds plays. We often get lay ups by taking advantage of zone slides.

Good thoughts Jeff....

I used to 2-3 zone inbounds plays also.. then I got sick of seeing people get easy shots... we we went m2m and like Jeff said, make sure you have someone protecting the basket ( I think you mean the back side right? ) We started off by placing the defender right under the basket... then some teams got the ball back to the inbounder quickly for some good looks. At that point I did two things... one, run our pick the picker play and had the last cutter screen for the inbounder for a wide open shot at about 8 feet.

Defensively, we moved him to the FT lane line - FIRST RESPONSIBILITY was the back side.... once he made the pass, we jumped him quickly to take any easy shots away

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THIS is a must also..... just play them tough... force them to inbounds the ball on the perimeter.... NOTHING in the paint.

Thanks for the help. I must admit, I haven't effectively taught those points or practiced the situation enough. Look forward to implementing those ideas.

All good points on defending inbounds plays. We keep it M2M, but take the defender on the inbound passer off the inbounder and make him responsible for no passes in the lane. They also deny someone coming off a screen down the lane.

The trick (like Sar mentioned) is also making sure the inbounder didn't receive a pass back. The player who was defending the lane has to recover and get his man once the ball is inbounds.

This really is the key. We don't spend a ton of time going over defending inbounds plays, just enough to cover the points above. At 5th/6th grade, I'll allow the outside shots off an inbounds play, but deny all easy attempts.