I like your goals! They will thank you down the line believe me.

OK, for one game and the championship... I would say to do whatever it takes.... let us know what they do offensively and a little bit about player personnel and then we can give you the right zone. What zone are you currently using?

Now, its game plan time... and they are a lot deeper than you - so you need to even the playing field. First of all my philosophy was this ... CONTROL the TEMPO .... Get a GOOD SHOT every time down the floor.... Control the boards if you can but at least break even there.... LIMIT TURNOVERS

I would shorten the game, that way their depth wont make a difference and you have 6-9 and that should be more than enough.

Use a 3/4 court zone press but more like pressure...NOT taking any chances..... keep the ball in front of you and slow them down.. make them think... force them to take some time off the clock that way. You can show the press... once THAT player gives up the ball, have one defender lock up on him telling him that he gives NO help... just deny him the ball all over.... then play the rest m2m or a box zone.

I would change defenses often, but have somebody log the results of how you did with the zone and m2m. That way in crunch time you know what to use. You can Box & 1 him.. or a 1 - 1 3 with one of them on him.

Offensively I would take a little time off the clock each time you have the ball... frustrate them. Look for great shots.. and offensively play to your strengths.
What are your thoughts?

Coach: I certainly hope this helps, for the past 20 years, i have been pushing the Don Myers m2m system on my players and it is not easy. I have continuously told my players, that this system will take at least three to four months of intensive drilling every night in practice. I have to continue to remind them, "its not where you are at the beginning that counts, its where you are at the end". I dont like to use past teams as examples however in this case, i coached a varsity team out of Ohio when i was there and we lost our first 7 games but i continued to stick by the system, continued to drill and teach every day. By the end of the season, we had won our league and went onto a regional. Too many coaches give up on their philosophies because either they truly dont believe in them or their players wont buy into it or someone else tells you to try something else ...cause it wont work. Its your job to sell your system to your kids and its their job to buy into it...finaly its your job to teach it.....good luck Coach Mac

Great thoughts Coach Mac!

You ARE absolutely right... you really have to believe in it 100%!
If you don't how do you expect your players to? I had pretty good luck with my players buying into my system... regardless of what we were running. Heck, we ran a Princeton Style Open Post offense... called Double Up... not the dribble drive of today, more about ball control and reading the defense, taking what they gave us. We played m2m - Dick Bennets ON/Up the line and a 1-3-1 Match up.... two completely different philosophies... and they played them pretty well. NOW IF I only had a couple of beasts inside we would have been a lot better.

Believe in your system and teach the fundamentals every day of the season... it WILL pay off.