“Cowboy” Quick hitter against a zone

Written by Coach Peterman

I have coached at the NCAA Division 2 (Southwestern Oklahoma State University), NAIA (USAO), and JUCO Levels (Blinn College and Carl Albert State College) as well as high school. I just felt that fellow coaches especially young coaches need to constantly work on their “game”. Just like the basketball players that we coach. We as coaches need to improve ourselves. That is my story and why I do this blog.

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Quick Hitters Basketball Plays

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December 21, 2014

“Cowboy” Quick hitter against a zone by Brendan Mann

Two years ago, my high school team was fortunate enough to attend the Stu Clark tournament in Las Vegas, New Mexico. My team’s head coach is originally from there and his nephew was playing with New Mexico Highlands University. We were able to attend a practice and the head coach tipped us off to this quick hitter. It is used against a 2-3 zone which we were anticipating seeing.
The play has the 2 and 3 guard stacking up at the free throw line and the 4 and 5 stacking up on the block as seen in the first graphic.

When the point guard yells “go”, the 3 sets a screen for the two and then gets out to the wing. The 2 curls around the posts and heads for the corner as seen in the second graphic. In every case, the defense is expecting the ball to swing all the way to the corner for a last second shot. This means that the low corner defender has to get out to the 3 point line and the middle man on zone is stuck guarding both the 4 and the 5. The 4 man is low enough that the other guard on top doesn’t feel responsible to slide down and cover the 2 men stacked on the block. Plus, he needs to be help side in case the wing were to try and drive the ball into the lane.

Once the ball is swung to the 3 on the wing, the 5 man simply steps over and screens or isolates the middle man on the zone, leaving the 4 man wide open. The 3 man dumps the ball to the 4 for an easy, game winning lay-up.

Most of the time the defense is left wondering how a man was left wide open in the paint!

Bio:

Brendan Mann
Phoenix, Arizona
Originally from Suburban Chicago – Moved to AZ after college and have lived there 9 years
Attended Undergrad at Culver-Stockton College in Northeast Missouri
Post Grad at Arizona State University
Coaching Experience: 9 Years – Middle School, AAU, and High School experience
USA Basketball Certified Coach
Work: Curriculum and Teacher Development at inner-city middle school in Phoenix
Favorite Piece of Coaching Tech: GameChanger App – score keeping and statistic analysis
Favorite Quote: “Don’t be upset about the results you didn’t get, with the work you didn’t do!

quick hitter