small team strategy

i am coaching an 8th grade boys team that is small in comparison to the rest of the league. i have a top player who can score from anywhere but low post, and three other good shooters, but no real low post presence. i have 4 more players that are much less talented, 2 of them have some size, but not strong at all in the low post. i have tried teaching them a 5 out motion offense, but i'm having difficulty with all 5 really getting it together. our next 2 games are against teams with some big players, and overall more talented. any adivce for teaching specific game plans in practice?

We ran a lot of Open Post ourselves... high school varsity.... and we set up everone above the free throw line, this allowed us to take the ball to the basket utilizing our quickness... we were smaller than most teams ourselves... we got a lot of back door stuff too. Spread them out higher, make their bigs play defense away from the basket and hopefully your smaller players are quicker..... use that to your advantage.

sounds like a good plan. any advice on specific drills for practice?

At first I would do some 5 on 5 no dribble to teach them to look for open cutters and to protect the ball.... triple threat on the catch and look..... pass fakes and shot fakes will help. You can do this without a defense until you are sure they are running your offense the way you want it run.

After doing that for awhile, allow them to dribble and attack the basket..... Remind your cutters IF they make a back door cut to go all the way to the rim... that way they wont fake out the passer.

Once you are comfortable with the way they are running it... add an extra defensive player to force them to work harder.

Make sure they understand the way to break down a defense it to reverse the ball a few times, no one wants to play tough D for more than a couple passes....

1- Catch the ball and triple threat - read the defense and look for an opening to attack or an open player making a basket cut.
2- If they are being closely guarded and they cant make a pass.... ATTACK the rim - look for your shot or some one else cutting to the basket.
3- Save the dribble to attack or to get out of trouble and make a better passing angle.

I hope this helps

i'll give it a try. i've already done some no dribble drills that seemed to help somewhat. as far as defense, do you recommend alot of full court pressing against the bigger teams?

If you are quick enough to do that ... yes... especially if their bigger players don't handle it well....... remember to play to your strengths.... and IF you can take away theirs... I call that picking my own poison.

What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

our strengths are that we are fast, have 3 good outside shooters, 2 of which can drive to the basket and score, but too small to post up. We're probably too small to ourebound any team in the league. Also, I only have one solid player coming off the bench, and my starters get worn down because of this.

I'm not sure what your rules are about playing time for all of your players so take that into account.... IF its all about winning these games, control the tempo so you don't lose any of your better players to foul trouble or being tired. Sub wisely - change what you do, press a few times and back off a few times and play your half court defense. Run when you have the opportunity if that is one of your strengths - IF not, slow the game down and reverse the ball a few times and get a good shot every time down the floor.

If this was a team playing my HS team I would conrol the tempo, make their bigs come away from the basket to play defense - attack the rim when You have an opening or shoot the 3 ball when they come open.

What are your thougts regarding these upcoming games?

what about trapping the ball at half court against these teams?

IF you can catch them by surprise, thats a great weapon. We used a lot of that ourselves.. IF nothing else it disrupts their flow. We would one and done that trap.

As an every possession defense... play m2m and force the ball to one side so you have great help side D. Try to keep it there...... force the point guard to the free throw line extended sideline... then try to force it baseline... now you have cut down the area you have to cover on the floor... should be a 3 on 5 game then. Hope this helps.

we lost the game, my best player wasn't there and we got killed on the boards. Another big team coming up this week. Best player not going to be there again. Any advice to help on the boards?

To improve rebounding, you can do two things...

- Improve your defense. If teams are penetrating easily and causing your team to rotate and get out of position, then it's easier for your opponent to get offensive rebounds.

- Spends plenty of time on rebounding (drills, etc) in practice. It's what you emphasize.

We have some excellent advice on improving your teams rebounding here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/rebounding.html

If you are serious about getting good at rebounding, there's no question that ebook will help you tremendously. If you follow what says, your team will improve.

If you want to address your defense first, then you should consider this ebook which is on special for a few days:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/mandefense.html

Great advice from Jeff regarding DEFENSE.

I think the KEY is that your kids know its important to YOU.... and that in order to be successful we have to rebound.

Everyone talks about finishing on offense, putting the ball in the basket... We talked a lot about finisihing on DEFENSE.... forcing tough shots is great... but if you don't FINISH .... by REBOUNDING... you are in for a long night.

Keys to being a successful team are:
1- Control the tempo ( play to your teams strengths)
2- Play good defense on and OFF the ball..... and REBOUND
3- Protect the ball ( limit turnovers )
4- Get a good shot every time down the floor (notice I didn't say make... that doesn't always happen - especially at the lower levels.)