Inbound Play Philosophy and Box Inbound Series
A coaching friend of mine and I got the opportunity to talk to a Division 1 coach at a function recently and he asked the question “How much emphasis do you put on your inbounds plays?” The coach immediately responded that they want to score on 100% of their opportunities. My initial thought was that it was impossible, and most likely is, but I loved the fact that he was so matter of fact in his response about the importance their program places on inbounds plays. Below are some of the thoughts that have made us successful running our inbounds series.
We consider a quality inbounds play something that:
· Can lead to quick baskets
· Helps establish a rhythm offensively
· Can get one of our weaker players a quality scoring opportunity
· Puts us in position to set our transition defense
· Creates confusion for the opponent
I have always run quick-hitters against both man and zone defenses as a way to manage our shot selection for players and I view inbounds plays as another way of doing this. Similar to an elite point guard that can recognize when to get different teammates involved, inbounds plays can create scoring chances for players that may not be able to create their own shot. On the flip-side, an entire team’s game plan can be designed around shutting down our best players and we need them to score to be successful. If one of them is struggling early on, it’s nice to have an inbounds play designed to get them an open look and build a rhythm they might not be getting out of our half court sets.
As a program, we want to create confusion for our opponents when running our inbounds series. We don’t run an inbounds set that doesn’t have at least two different screening and cutting actions to prevent the defense from keying on our players and their action before the inbound. If run correctly, a jab-step, shoulder lean, or head fake toward the direction our players went on the last inbounds play might be just enough to free them to lose their defender and get the shot we are looking for.
Below are seven different inbounds plays out of our “Box” series that I have been successful with. We generally implement a couple out of each series to start the season and try and add another every few weeks so that we have a new wrinkle if we see teams multiple times. That said, the big advantage of having multiple plays out of the same set is it makes us hard to prepare for since we run multiple actions out of the same set. Scoring on inbounds plays is a huge momentum booster for us that gets our fans and team excited. It also allows us time to get in to and set our defense – usually a press.
We have a new contributor in Justin Duke. He is the Scio High School Girls Coach and Havoc AAU Boys head coach. He played at Linn Benton CC for two years and in the IBL for one season. I think that you will like his basketball plays.
Coach Justin Duke
Played at Linn Benton CC for two years and in the IBL for one season
Follow Coach Duke on Twitter!!!
Scio High School Girls Head Coach – HAVOC AAU Boys Head Coach
Back to Back State Title Game Appearances 2010-11, and 2011-12
League Champions 2012, Coach of the Year 2012
Click on the pdf link to download the basketball plays for your basketball playbooks: