Hello,
I am currently a freshman player and I have a couple of questions regarding my in-game play. All around, I am a mostly sound player with a few flaws. I have good shooting and ball handling. But one problem I always run into as a point man is that when a defender is pressuring me one on one in the backcourt I have a difficult time dealing with him. I have good ball control and moves, but I can never seem to shake this man pressuring me. I am 5'7 and 110 poudns. I was wondering is this a question of mental game or is it my physical stature that I am not strong enough to deal with a defender that close. Either way, when they find this weekness in games it is often exploited and I can't focus on my scoring or play running like I should be because all of my focus is on beating this man. Whenever teams play a zone or loose man, i average 15 points a game but when they begin to play tight man fullcourt or even halfcourt, I drop to a 5 point average. Please help, it is much appreciated

Thanks!
Noah

Work on changing your speeds when you bring the ball up the floor. It is VERY hard to guard someone that is good at changing speeds.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/chris-paul-change-of-pace/
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/change-of-speed-dribble.html

Work on a blow by move. If you develop an explosive dribble move and you blow by the defender a few times, they might start sagging off you and make things easier.

Practice the back up dribble. The back up dribble gets you space and allows you to get good passing angles. If the defender is pressure you in half court, attack aggressively toward the basket, then stop on a dime and bounce back. You will have all kinds of space and the ref will stop counting (avoid 5 second call).

Lastly you can work on the side step dribble and protect the ball behind you. Hard to explain but Magic Johnson and NBA guards tend to back their defender down and this allows them to protect the ball.

Experiment and figure out what works with you. Then go to the gym and play your buddies one on one. Have them pressure you. Then have then play you 2on1 full court. Practice bring the ball up against two defenders.

Great advice Jeff -

Most of my teams had undersized guards - this is something I picked up from an X Bulls player ( cant remember his name ) but it worked for my guards and it won me a steak dinner in Florida because it helped his guards win a game... a long way to go to collect. :-)

If you are right handed... take your defender almost all the way to the left side of the floor... (THEN use some of the techniques Jeff described) Cross over HARD and now you have the enitre width of the court to bring the ball up with your strong hand...... another thing you can do is once you get in front of him, dribble into the path he is taking to catch up to you. Try this out and let us know how it works for you.

Change of pace, change of direction and explosiveness are great ideas Jeff.

Thanks so much guys, my dream is to play in college and I'm attending many training sessions but this was the major flaw in my game. I will practice hard

I'm sure you will, good luck and let us know how things are going.

By the way, you are good size for a freshman, as for the weight, you will grow into your body. Eat a well rounded diet and a pizza here and there wouldn't hurt you either. :-)