Kirby schepp

Principles of zone offense In recent years half court zone offenses have often involved continuous pattern offenses that involve many cuts many ball reversals to try and distort or break down the defense. THe change to FIBA rules will impact both the amount of zone that is played as well they way we must attack it. Many zone "plays" that are out there often involve quick hiiters for 3's or jump shots . Players need to understand these concepts 1. How the zone works 2. How to get into the weak spots of the zone to create distortion or help situation quickly. 3. How to exploit situation where players must guard two spots in the zone.

4. How to move the zone by moving the ball. 5. How to attack the zone quickly as thr clock is winding down.

Teaching Concepts · Gapping The Zone · Creating a 2 on 1 · Screening the zone

Recognize and overload the "Soft" side The first step is teaching them how the zone works. It is worth your time to briefly teach players a zone, what the basic shifts are and le them play it a little so that understand what they up against.

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Kirby schepp

Playing in the gaps in zone Go where they are no and do not match up with them: immediately you will distort the zone with out even making a pass. When playing against a 2-3 zone the offense the weak points are • The point • The 45's • Short corner • The high post. Strengths This is a very good rebounding zone in most cases. It allows the defense to keep big player or slow player inside. It guards the baseline well. yer inside. It guards the baseline well.

There will be times in any zone, when the ball is moved quickly on reversal, after penetration or on and overload where players will have to guard two positions, or there is uncertainty on which player will guard a position. Most zone offenses will create situation where the defense must collapse and help and the swing or pitch the ball to a place where there is two offence and only one defense. The arrows represent two or more players must guard spots that players must guard at different times.

Here is an example of simple situation where the defense in forced to collapse and a quick passes forces a player to make a choice on who they will guard.

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Kirby schepp

Strengths This guards perimeter shooters very well while still maintaining a post presence The weak points in a 3-2 zone or a 1-2-2 zone are

· at the elbows · in the corners · and at the high post

The question the defence must answer are:

· Who guard the high post? · How high do the wings come out and play? · Do they trap or not?

Do the posts go to the corner to guard a shooter?

The weaknesses in 1-3-1 zone are: The elbows The deep corners The short corners Strengths This zone can be a great defence for aggressive trapping teams, and make it difficult to move the ball and run any kind of set offence Overall Weaknesses: It is a poor rebound zone when shots are taken from the wing or deep

corner. • The shift for the player who is going to the corners can be difficult. lt.

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Kirby schepp

The quick read and initial attack . Assuming you have initially set up areas where the zone is not, there are some initial reads that players can make. Players should ask themselves; how are they playing us? Is there a weak side? The easiest way to quickly get the defence moving is to attack one side and overload the other. The easiest example is 2-3 zone

In this 1-3-1 set the defence has two choices to make: Which guard will come and play the ball? What side of the high post will the other guard play on? In this case, the 1 has come out and the 2 has picked a side. This leaves the 3 all alone to guard the right side of the floor. Making this the "soft" side of the zone 4, playing in the short corner, immediately reads this and goes to that side, creating an overload.

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Kirby schepp

The ball is moved to the "hard" side of the zone first in order to move the defence and then shifted to the soft side quickly, which has been overloaded. The 3 can not guard both the short corner and the wing, and must make a choice. When the ball goes short corner, the 5 can not guard both the short corner and the high post who is sliding into the mid post area. At the very latest if the defence is able to guard this you will have them

scrambling. Don't let them reset! Keep moving the ball quickly and you will get a shot.

Using Screens vs. Zones This is a part zone offence that is often forgotten or done poorly. Players need to understand how the zone works and then learn how screen the shifts of the zone. In every case, screening the zone involves creating a two on one situation by shifting moving the ball and not allowing the zone to shift into its coverage.

Most of the time screens involve screen one the high players in the zone for penetration. Or screening one of the low players in the zone for an inside basket. In this example, we have overloaded one side of the floor with to perimeter shooters and screened the top of zone. The wing defender must make a choice to help on penetration. If he does there are two pitch out options on the wing and in the corner.

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Kirby schepp

Here we see 5 screening low to prevent the middle of the zone from shifting. This allows us to get an easy short corner shot.

Stacks vs zones

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Kirby schepp

Shallow cut ball screen On this play we use both types of screens. The ball is again put on the wing to shift the defense. The soft side is then overloaded and the ball quickly reversed and screens are used to prevent the normal shifts. The wing needs to make a choice between stopping the drive and short pull up shot or giving up the short corner to the baseline cutter. Another 2 on 1 situation.

Screens vs a 3-2 zone set

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Kirby schepp

End of clock vs. a zone With the 24 second clock it is wise to be ready for a end of clock situation that gets creates a scramble situation and allows the players to create a shot for themselves Ball screen at the elbow, 2 shooters on the soft side and a baseline cutter Maintaining our same 1 3-1 set, the wing will come high to the elbow, so that the top of the zone will match up. The high post will set a high ball screen while the other tow perimeter players space the floor on the soft side. It creates a situation where the wing of the zone is asked to guard two

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Kirby schepp

shooters because of the help situation created. At the same time, we have a baseline cutter. This forces the middle of the zone to either come up to help on the roll or stay at home to guard the baseline.

Here is the same play vs a 3-2 zone and out of a box set

vs. 1-3-1 zone it often better after initial reversal to flatten the defense be drioppin gthe high post low. Th player can cause havov in the zone by screening the bottom as much as possible and make the corner to corner to corner shift as difficult as possible. As a clock ender, the same play develops out of slightly different set and two screens can be used. This type of set can laso be adapted to work against any zone.

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