3-2 half court press (1-2-2)/ 3-2 zone defense

Let me preface this by saying my team plays M2M defense 80-90% of our games. I'm not a big fan of zone defenses at the younger ages for reasons expressed all throughout this website. However, I've experienced teams using a 1/2 court trapping press on us with the intention of disrupting our normal offense. I've also had teams switch to a zone D which can be effective for a different look and also disruptive. We experimented with both of these concepts over the summer and fall tourneys/leagues. I liked being able to call an "audible" as it were and change things on the fly.

We've experimented with both a 3-1-1 and 3-2 half court press. The 3-1-1 doesn't seem as effective, so I switched to a 3-2, which works if we can guide the dribbler to one side or the other and invite the trap. The problem is the middle. Once a team sticks a big player in the middle just behind the 3, we're usually done. Any thoughts on running a 1/2 court press once in a while and which one is the most effective?

I have the kids get right into a 3-2 zone defense if we run that half court press. If I can disrupt the other teams flow and get a few steals/baskets, I'm good. I call it off and go back to our M2M. I like the 3-2 zone defense every once in a while, because it's different than the normal 2-3 we usually run into. Any thoughts on the 3-2?

Again, my thinking is to throw in a 1/2 court trapping press or different look on defense to change things up. Sometimes we're getting beat on 3's or the other team is on a roll, etc., and a change might just do the trick.

Thanks!

We used the 1-2-2 press which we started at differnt spots on the floor... but our favorite thing to do was to trap just over half court... IF we could get the ball up the side line and have him dribble over half court... it was an automatic call.... if it wasn't on the side line we just dropped into our match up zone.

There were times we trapped that spot out of our m2m also. I liked the 1-2-2 because it was safe.... we covered the pass in the middle, near sideline and the deep pass, we did allow a pass reversal UNLESS we were in a RED call which meant we denied the reversal pass and left the player under the basket open. We didn't do that often, we just did it as a surprise looking for a steal..... and we only did htis if we were losing.

The 1-2-2 is similar to the 3-2 depending on what YOU have for slides. Not sure if this helps you but if you have more questions, feel free to ask.

I consider the 1-2-2 and 3-2 to be essentially the same thing unless I'm missing something. We do exactly what you described, the "1" or middle of our 3 is responsible for guiding the ball handler to one side or the other. The other two players on either side "invite" the ball handler to cross half court and trap in that corner with the #1 player. The off ball d player can look for a steal on the reversal or be ready to trap on the other side. The #1 player has to explode out of a ball reversal to help with a trap on the other side, correct?

We've had teams use it on us and we basically put 3 players behind their front 3. It usually works to pass into the middle behind the "1" player on the zone D. How did you defend passes into the middle? Especially if teams do what we did and bring 3 players in-between the front and back two.

Guess I need to study more about the match-up zone. The reason I use a 3-2 if we're in that 1/2 court press is because it seems natural to keep the same formation. However, same weaknesses come with that zone. What is the basic concept behind a match-up zone? Pros? Cons?

Thanks!

Coach Rob,

Here are a few ideas. Just ideas.

I think it can be good to introduce new defenses (WHEN kids are ready) so they at least experience some new things. When I coach, I stopped during that because I usually get the kids for one year and I don't want to spend time teaching a NEW defense. I know that's what most coaches do, but as I get more experience, and I talk with Don Kelbick, I do less as a coach and keep things simpler. We stick with one offense and one defense.

So, some things you could possible do out of M2M are (these are more advanced man concepts, and there are lots of advanced things you can do)...

- Force the ball handler to always use their weak hand. This really causes havoc for the entire team. Even in high school quite a few kids are only comfortable advancing the ball with one hand and only comfortable driving with one hand. When we played one dominant player in particular, we took away his right hand completely. He could go to his left but could never pull up or score. He was normally the leading scorer but didn't score during that game and was completely frustrated. Keep in mind, this is something you need to practice a little bit. It takes skill to do this.

- Force the point guard to the left and to enter to the left. Keep them over there. Most teams are used to entering on the right. When you force them to a side they are not comfortable with, it messes with them.

- Deny the entry pass for the best player so someone else starts with the ball.

- Dictate which move the post players use. Make them go left.

- Guard the best player (ballhandler) full court. Have the inbounder double team so they can't get it to their play maker.

- Leave a left wing available. Drive to baseline where we have help. Maybe double team.

- Deny their first entry, so they can't start their offense. (requires scouting)

- Deny all passes.

- Trap and double team ALL baseline drives.

- Trap the first wing pass every time down the floor.

- Deny everyone on the floor except the worst ball handler. Leave him wide open near the perimeter (usually a big). Once he gets it put unbelievable pressure on him. All over him. Maybe even double when he gets the ball. He will usually crumble by traveling or throwing a pass without even looking. I know, I'm mean.

- Deny ALL cutters to the ball (this is just a fundamental that most young teams don't do well).

Most of those concepts have to do with dictating what the offense does. I just came from a camp with Don Kelbick. I think I heard him say this 20 times.. "Defense is about dictation. Offense is about control."

Don't allow the offense to get the shots they want and do the things the want. You dictate what happens and you choose the shots they take, if any.

Also, we have a Match Up Zone DVD almost done. I am supposed to have a final draft for review tomorrow. There are lots of different match ups out there. I don't like most of them because they are so complicated. I like the one we are coming out with.

Rob -

Jeff is right on here...

The is good stuff.... pretty much what I called picking your poison - try to dictate who you were going to give shots to and beat you IF they could.... along with challenging every shot regardless of who is shooting. I would this ... the Hubie Brown Rule... NEVER FOUL THE JUMP SHOOTER.

I didn't notice that Coach Sar had a match up too. Missed that on the first read through. His sounds pretty simple. I'm sure there are good ones out there. It's just the few Match Ups I have seen were too complicated or there wasn't enough info on the DVD for me to understand how to do it. That's why I liked the one that Don Kelbick uses and we are coming out with on DVD.

If you are interested in it, maybe Ken has his written up somewhere?

Jeff -

I hope I get a chance to preview it... sounds interesting. Mine is pretty simple but there are a few rules to it and I don't think its appropriaate for youth Bball. My asst. and I thought about making a DVD but we are both retired and really don't have the resources to do something like that. ( funny, my mind is working better after the clinic haha )

Here is a game that we used the match up... especially in the first quarter... the video is at the bottom of the page .. AFTER all the information.


http://www.coachesclipboard.net/MatchupZone131.html

Great info all around. Very much appreciated.

Talked about a lot of this at practice last night. Especially like the defense dictates and offense controls. We talked about taking a team out of their rhythm by doing some of those suggestions above. Have a scrimmage with a few teams on Thurs, so that will be a great time to experiment.

Still baffled on the 1-2-2 press though. Trying to figure out how to stop a team that tries to pass in the middle behind our first row. I'm thinking if our "1" guy can force the bh to one side, our weakside back player would be responsible for cheating up and covering for a middle pass. Am I thinking correctly here?

I couldn't find the press on this site.... but I have it on this site....

http://www.coachesclipboard.net/122Press.html

That's what I needed. Thanks Coach Sar.

Curious what your thoughts are on this team running a 1-2-2. Looks like they were running 80.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagRGSYvoz4

Rob -

Actually, it looks like they are running what we called "70" - controlling the tempo and looking for a trap just over half court. I saw them trap a couple times at half court. Our philosophy was to let them get over half court and then trap the ball.

What really ticks me off is people who make comments ( like at least one of them below the video ) that don't have a clue as to what the coach wants them to do. Those kids WEREN'T lazy, they were doing what their coach wanted them to do, CONTROL the TEMPO..... keep the ball in front of them and then look for the half court trap.

When we ran that, you'd be surprised with some of the turnovers we got by just floating around like they were doing (keeping the ball in front of them) Control the tempo, keep people from doing what they want to do, make them play the way YOU want them to play.

When you have studs you can try to play your way, up tempo etc. When you are the underdog (so to speak) you make them play the way you want them to play, to your advantage. Using this press, IF you want to uptempo the game, you trap the first plass and continue to look for traps in the back court. Ok, I had my morning vent - I should switch to DeCaf haha

I hope what you got helps you. Good luck

You're correct, it was a 70, just got my numbers mixed up. Figured they were trying to slow the temp down. The one thing I saw in the video (and this happens to us) was the offense putting two guys behind the front two in the 1-2-2. It's more when we run the half court 76. In other words, once the ball handler is forced to a side, he waits for the #2 or #3 (depending on side) to come up and throws a lob pass over his head. It seems like you'd have to take this away by good ball pressure from #1 or teams will do this all day.

While the front two work in tandem... so do the back two -----

If they are bring the ball up the sideline..... the one back player has to take away the deep sideline pass... the other player is the safety for any deep passes... and everyone needs to move on what we called "AIR: time. When the ball is in the air - its time to move. If they reverse the ball the two back players switch roles....
Player A has side line.. player B had the deep middle... if they reverse it... Player B sprints to the middle and as he is getting there Player A takes away the sideline,

Is this what you wrere referring to?

Exactly. I watched the video again and it appears the 4 and 5 didn't cover sidelines when the ball was near half court on a couple of occasions. That allowed the easy lob pass.

One last question. If the ball handler has been forced to one side and let's say #1 and #3 go to set the trap in one of the corners at half court. Is #2's responsibility to cover the a pass crossing over half court in the middle or deny the reversal pass? It seems that the rule for my players should be to deny passes into the middle and allow reversal passes behind half court.

We had two calls.... actually, one was the way we normally covered it........ 1/3 trap ( and we wanted the ball to be just over half court ) and 2 took away the middle. With this coveragge you will allow the reversal pass.

Then we had a RED call.... this is when 1/3 are trapping and 2 would look to steal the reversal pass.... A taking away sideline... and B denying the pass into the middle. With this coverage we were allowing the deep pass under the basket... we only did this when we were losing and wanted to get the ball back. It can work anytime as a surprise becuase typically 2 would cover the middle.... The element of surprise can wrork.

At times my players would make that trap out of our m2m defense because we instilled in them that the ball just over half court on the sideline is the greatest place to play someone. We had two extra guys playing defense, the best defenders in the world, they NEVER made a mistake. The sideline and the half court line. (thats always good for a laugh too)

I hope this helps.

By the way, my 4/5s knew better than to allow that sideline pass.. they knew that they were going to hear from me of even worse, get the worst seat in the house.... the one right next to me! They said I had sharp elbows... Usually that seat was open during games. haha

Thanks for the clarification. Makes perfect sense. I hear you on that empty seat, all coaches must have those sharp elbows! Ha!