John Thompson III Georgetown Zone Offense

Talking to one of his players | John Thompson III Georgetown Zone Offense
“What do I talk to the coaches on zone offense?”
“Coach, tell them to recruit shooters.”
• 3 Lines dribble up and back, make dribble moves to warm-up –hand on top of the ball

First 45 minutes warm-up and fundamentals | John Thompson III Georgetown Zone Offense
We don’t practice with a whistle. Players get used to you talking in practice.
• Lay-ups – no dunk dribble moves
• Drive baseline – spin baseline and drive

We don’t get lay-ups like you do in lines. We do get 3-4’ shots pseudo contest lay-ups, so we try to shoot those kind in practice. 10 minutes each day on different kinds of lay-ups

• Lay-up lines – drive baseline, reverse dribble back to the top of the key extended / rebound line cuts to the corner while dribbler is driving baseline, comes out when the dribble comes out of the corner. It is important that the man cutting to get the backdoor lay-up sprint to the ball to get his man to chase him to set up the back door cut

• 2 lines across from each other FT line extended -4 minutes, 1 line passes to the
FT line area other line cuts to the FT line for the shot. Goal is to make a certain amount. Then the change the shot line and passing line to top / corner shots. 1 minute each are get to 10, 3 balls. 4th spot is other corner. Shoot get your own rebound, pass go to the end of the line. Goal from the 4 spots is to make 80. Run for all under 80 (20 from each spot)
“The best guys don’t always get to play. It is the guys who remember what the coach tells them to do and do it who play.”

• 3 lines vs. top of the 2-3 zone – loop a wing into the very middle of the zone in front of the center of the zone. On the catch he passes it to open 3pt shooter (top or wing). Add slappers on the catch. Rotate lines.

• 2 guard front – 2-3 offense vs. 1 guard front, with forwards out, center in. Wing entry and go through – you maybe open at any time, as the game goes on look for different place to be open. Center the ball back to the top. We may have a 2 on 1 we can reverse it to that wing. Post is trying to find a gap. Wing from the overload does the shooting drill cut (loop into the middle of the zone in front of their zone) to catch it in the middle. Good center we started weak side and quick reversal for entries. Post tries to post up lower vs. the zone to create that whole in the middle for that loop cut to the middle. Middle cutter looks for 1-shot 2-post 3-3pt shooters. When you leave go out opposite corner from where you came.

Now there is a new middle cutter (he calls it an ‘overload’ guy who loops in front of the center). There is no right answer to when you cut to the ‘overload’ position. Cutter needs to go when he sees the biggest who in the middle.

Biggest question to answer is when should I overload and when shouldn’t I. We align the floor with 4 out so it can go either way to start the offense. Sometimes we use a cut to serve the same purpose as a screen (from post players) because if you flash from opposite a guy may follow you which served the purpose a screen did vs. the zone, it moved a guy out of the area he wanted to guard. Post has no rules, he slides along the baseline. Counter: go opposite on the cut to put a different player in the ‘overload’ position. Ball fakes work like screens to force people out of their areas. We have to look for penetration. We need to look to get our big man involved. We through it down to the short corner (post) a lot. 4 out positions – I like to be interchangeable, so we call forwards out. Pass to the forward on the wing and he dribbles up. Passer cuts/loops through to where he passed it, opposite side exchanges to get the forwards out. Off of this offense they have the freedom to make plays. The cutter has to cut in a way that he is open or he draws attention of zone defenders, if you don’t get it get out opposite.

After they start to learn our pattern and start to match up we let them. After we have been working the overload (keep the ball on one side to ensure they are matching up).

Then I dribble over, ‘overload guy’ cuts behind him and dribble over guy basket cuts to that middle position. Post stays in.
“The way we play creates lots of running AFTER it gets to ½ court vs. sprinting it to ½ court” Sprint around in the ½ court to be more difficult to guard.

DRIVE DRILL – 70% of the backdoor cuts we get  |  John Thompson III Georgetown Zone Offense

Dribble at – cutter needs to read the way he is playing to decide to BACKDOOR or come around for HANDOFF or come around for

EUROPEAN 3pt shot. The driver does not know what the cutter is going to do, so the defense can’t know what they are doing. Work on it 2 on 2. They run it from a 1-2-2 set (5 out). Cutter makes a decision quickly so you don’t confuse the dribble at man.

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John Thompson III Georgetown Zone Offense