Eastern Illinois Panthers Blob Play by John Zall

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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August 29, 2014

Eastern Illinois Panthers Blob Play by John Zall

The Eastern Illinois Panthers finished a game under .500 in the Ohio Valley Conference and return a majority of their impact guys this upcoming season. A big strength of their offense was scoring on possessions that started with them taking the ball out of bounds on the baseline. These possessions are commonly referred to as baseline-out-of-bounds or BLOB; and 2nd year Head Coach Jay Spoonhour was one of the best in the country at getting his team to execute on these specific possessions.

For the season, the Eastern Illinois Panthers averaged 6.5 points per game on BLOB possessions, a number that put them first among all NCAA Division I schools. They scored at an average rate of .924 points-per-possession(PPP), placing them in the top 80% in the country. During BLOB possessions Eastern Illinois also hit 51% of their shots, good for 6th overall in the entire country. When they weren’t hitting shots, they got to the free throw line 13% of the time, good for 54th overall in the country.

As you will see in the ensuing play diagrams and YouTube video, Eastern Illinois is not running anything severely complicated. They use the same 2 basic formations; a stack under the rim and a player in each corner, or a stack on the ball side block with the other 2 players somewhere on the weak side. The key to their success is the unpredictability of what they are going to do.

Their BLOB offense is predicated on good back screens, stagger screens, floor spacing and well timed rolls to the rim. Most of the shots, the Eastern Illinois Panthers gets out of their BLOB sets are layups at the rim or uncontested jump shots.

John Zall BIO

Coach John Zall just completed his first season as an Assistant Coach at Division II Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH. This past season Franklin Pierce University won 20 games and advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. Zall arrived at Franklin Pierce after spending the past 3 seasons as the Associate Head Coach/Head JV Coach at O’Bryant High school in Roxbury, MA. During his tenure at O’Bryant the program improved from 4 wins to 12 wins and qualified for the MIAA State Tournament twice.

Coach Zall also has experience as an AAU Head Coach for the Boston Warriors. As Head Coach for the Warriors his team won the 2011 16U State Title and twice competed in AAU Nationals down in Orlando, FL. On top of being a student at Northeastern University, Zall was named Head Coach of the Men’s Club Basketball team for the 2012-13 season. During his lone season as Head Coach, Northeastern finished second in the Northeast Regional Tournament featuring colleges from throughout the East Coast. Coach Zall has also spent time as a Head Coach in the Bay State Games where his team won the Bronze Medal in 2012 and at various camps including: Five Star, Boston Celtics, NIKE, Franklin Pierce University, Hoop Group and The Elite 75.