On Saturday--opening game--we ran a play off the opening tip i.e. center taps to our forward, off guard sets a pick for backcourt guard who streaks to the basket for a pass from the forward--worked to perfection!!! I'm interested in other such tip plays???

I borrowed this very simple tip-off play from another website years ago:

The tip-off play described here is as simple as they get. Set your players up so that one of your bigger people is on the circle and faces the jumper and with his back to the basket. One player stays all the way back to protect your basket. The other two line up on the circle where the half court line bisects it, one on each side of the jumper. When the referee tosses the ball in the air, the two players at mid-court cut to the basket without waiting for the tip. The jumper tips to the larger teammate who is facing him. That player, upon receiving the ball, quickly passes to either of the teammates streaking to the basket. Performed well, this play usually results in a 2:1 fast break situation.

There are two risks. The first is that the cutting players may be called for leaving the circle too soon, but that is rarely called. The more common risk is if the other team controls the tip, they will have a significant numerical advantage as they go to the basket.

I'm not so sure that I would spend a lot of time on this type of play since you only use it once a game...... we were pretty small, maybe thats why! :-)
What we did try to do was to steal the tip by rotating every player one way with one player back as a safety.

Ken

I have to agree with Ken, devoting precious practice time to something that is used only once a game is an effort in futility. Although it might look pretty, it will only look pretty once. coach Mac

What we do is very simple, most teams forget about the post player following the tip so we throw a back pick on the player that is jumping following the tip and streak our post player to the basket most times it can result in an easy basket.

Its kind of like having a Home Run play for the last few seconds of the game... (Hubie Brown's) we would practice it OCCASIONALLY... we wanted to be ready for anything but we didn't run that every day, maybe once a week just to stay sharp.

In all my years of coaching we only ran that a couple ot times - one time a kid missed a lay up and another time we scored and won.

I like your option Mac.

I would agree with everything mentioned earlier about the time factor. This year I have a tall center and we have not lost a tip yet this season. I keep it very simple. He is right handed and he tends to tip the ball to his left side. I keep my best ball handler at halfcourt and have my quickest wing player on the side of our basket. After the tip, the wing player dives to the open gap, mostly likely above the three point line on the left wing and my center runs down the center of the floor and we look for a post play to begin the game. Very basic and teaches players to run to the motion spots in our offense.