Bruce Pearl Encyclopedia of Full Court Pressure
There is very little we can have great control over as coaches. One thing we can control is
game tempo especially with full court pressure
o Wooden controlled tempo by slowing with a 2-2-1
o Bruce Pearl wants to use 1-2-1-1
Why press?
o Style of play
You can play harder, more aggressive, and faster than your opponents
A way to look like a coach who reaches his players
Conditioning and comfort level becomes a factor in your opponents mind
Your opponents have to prepare with how to deal with it
You have to have a system of play that allows you to change a game and come from behind
It creates turnovers in the red zone (like a football term)
Teams turn it over right near your offensive goal
Bruce Pearl’s identity
o Rebound
o Run
o Press
o Defend
o Shoot high percentage shots
Often created via turnover
Can you press if you’re not athletic as a team?
o Yes, but you have to be conditioned and committed to playing 8-9 guys
He allows you to gamble far away from the basket, and expects you to play solid in the half
court
His starters control their minutes
o No starter plays over 30 minutes and they understand that
o He’ll allow them to sub out before they know their effort will slip, and sub in as they feel
ready (for the most part)
Being committed to being a pressing team, game long, season long, career long, requires you
get comfortable with ugly basketball
o Playing at his pace encourages quick shots and decisive, short possessions
o Other team can get layups
Like the Boeheim theory of a zone team giving up on it after one made three
pointer, he says stay persistent even if they get an easy basket or two
It’s a 1-2-1-1
o First man up is usually his four man with size and some mobility
You have to be waiting for the opponent to inbound
Toss the ball to the ref, let it bounce etc
Take away the home run pass by staying on his strong hand
Run if the inbounder runs
After you take away homerun, you can settle into taking away the cross court entry pass
Don’t jump
o Forces them to enter it into the short corner and trap areas
It creates angles for delivery
Read the passer’s eyes
Be loud (yell the count)
Yell “ball” once the ball is in the air and inbounded
o Deep man is the basket protector
o Normally the PG is back for defensive transition in most systems
Therefore, its tough to put him in the front of the press
He becomes the roamer
Roamer needs to be able to read who is up
o If there are more than two up, (3 across, 4 across etc) he comes up to help
o For the 2 and 3 man wins in the 1-2-1-1 (which reads 4-2/3-1-5), you go to “interceptor position”
on the ball side to entice the pass
Ball side defender is outside
Weakside defender is inside and in denial position so you can stop reversal passes, shrink the
floor, keep it same side, and entice ball side passes
Trapping
o Will trap the ball side inbound
o Long side inbound if the inbound defender ran with him
o Sprint into and out of traps
o Step out of bounds when a player escapes a trap and is dribbling up the sideline
Meet him with one foot out of bounds and try to take a charge
Most important rule, get into your pressure before they get into your press break
o Then you’ll create havoc and force the tempo you intend
Click on the pdf link to download the basketball coaching clinic notes:
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