http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=te4svk4vm1I

Yay or nay?

Also can someone tell me the cons of this technique

If I ever coach teams at the high school varsity level or above, I would test this technique.

I remember seeing it about 10 years ago when Scott Skiles was coaching the Bulls. Hinrich played it very well. If you have a mobile post defender who can contest the mid range jump shot by the popper without giving up dribble penetration, it seems like tactic that you should definitely test out.

With younger teams, I think there are far too many more important things to practice so I wouldn't use this at the youth, middle school, and not even the fresh/soph level. I have a hard enough time teaching younger teams how to properly hedge on a pick and roll.

With a varsity team I would say "maybe". With anyone younger I agree with Joe and say "nay".

There are probably 20 ways to defend the pick and roll. I have tried about 6 different ways. In fact, I tried something very similar to the ICE they showed in the video. With 9th and 10th graders, I found it took WAY too much time to teach kids how to defend pick and rolls.

So I settled on two simple ways to defend the pick and rolls...

- jump the ball and switch
- hedge

With both methods, the player guarding the screen has to come high on the ball. So it's easier to change things up and teach both ways. Last year we switched a ton because we had versatile teams where we didn't have to worry about mismatches.

I would also consider adding a "trap" option too. Again, the player guarding the screener has to come way out. So it's easier to teach.

With that said, I try to keep it to one or two methods for defending ball screens. And that's it for a team.

I have tried jamming and going under, etc. But you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time drilling that because the person guarding the screener would get mixed up... sometimes they would bust out, other times they would forget stay back. It's really really hard to learn to do it both ways. So it was a huge mess and would require tons of practice hours to get down. To me that is a huge waste of time so we immediately threw that out and kept it simple.

There are so many other important things to work on like - passing, shooting, finishing, footwork, triple threat moves, free throws, help defense, etc, etc, etc.

Based on my experience, I might not even try ICE with a varsity team. I think that will be tough for a typical kid guarding the ball to funnel the ballhandler. It will take lots of reps I think to get that down. It looks easy when you watch NBA guys do it on TV, but it's a lot hard than it looks.

With this video, I think the keyword is in the title of the video "NBA Defense". Totally different game than high school and even college. In the NBA it's all about match ups. So they run tons of ball screens with 6-10 guys screening for guards. That's why the NBA has gone to so many ball screens. It's super tough to guard when you have big
mismatches like that and it forces the defense to make tough decisions. Plus the NBA has better shooters and wider 3-pt line, so it provides more space for the pick and roll action.

So NBA defenses spend a huge amount of time practicing ball screen defense because they see it on almost every possession. And they might have 10 different ways to defense it. Against Derrick Rose and Noah they might defense one way. Against Steve Nash and Dirk Novitski, it would be another way.

At the high school level, it's completely different and not nearly as effective. In fact, sometimes it hurts high school teams because they turn the bhall over alot with those ball screens. Even college teams turn it over and the coaches make sure the "right" player is getting the ball screen.

Most of the teams we played didn't use he P&R at the side line.... more around the top of the key or the L..... we decided on one technique to use... That was showing early and recovering. That way we weren't spending to much time on something the other team used sparingly.......

I was a varsity coach and we scouted our opponents which gave us the advantage of working on that in practice just to make sure we were all on the same page. This worked well for us. One game where we were winning at the end and the other team was trying to utilize the pick and pop, we just switched that since they were looking for the 3 ball.

Both Jeff and Joe have some good ideas regarding this. I would like to trap this move but we werent very big so they could see over us... so other than it being the element of surprise, it was not a good option.

I think you have to look at your talent level and decide what will work best for them.... then teach it well. JMO

Geno Auriemma described this technique at a clinic I attended.

The key is: Can the screener hit the 15-17 foot jumper on the pop.

If he can, then there are still ways to make this work. Rotations from the weakside, or temporarily helping until the screener defender recovers and bumps back are key.

Pro's are very big on KYP: Know your personnel, and know who you are playing. They defend the screen and roll differently based on who is doing it, and the good teams are well schooled on what to do, where to do it, and against whom to do it.

At the youth level, that is too much information to expect them to absorb.

Now I will say that with my youth teams, I have had JUST as much trouble teaching hedge and over as I've had with most other techniques (other than switching: Hey if it was good enough for John Wooden.... :) )

A thing I like about it is it maintains consistency in on-the-line, up-the-line teaching. If you are trying to avoid having the ball go to the middle via the dribble, ICING enacts that. If it goes to the middle via pass, it is ideally in the hands of a big who is not a shooting threat and not comfortable on the perimeter.

Just my thoughts.

Brian Sass