Uptempo Offense built for High School with VCU / Texas Press

While running an uptempo offense, VCU Shaka Smart (2009-15), posted an overall record of 163-56 (.744) and guided the Rams to five NCAA Tournament appearances. The 163 wins tied him for the second-highest number of total victories during the first six years of a head coaching career in NCAA history. VCU and Duke are the only two programs in the country to have posted at least 26 wins in each of the past six seasons. This was all done while running his famous VCU / Texas Pressing System.

After watching Coach Smart’s teams play I wanted to learn how to run his defense and play like those VCU teams. Once I started researching VCU / Texas Pressing system,  I found it was more than just pressing it was a style a play that requires enthusiasm, effort, grit, and hard work. The VCU / Texas Pressing system is a complete system of play that includes not only pressing but just as important a fast tempo offense that spreads out the defense and allows you to attack lanes and kick out for 3’s. For our VCU / Texas system, I combined Coach Smart’s presses with Billy Donovan’s spread pick and roll offense and broke it down to a simple uptemp offense that gives high school players structure but at the same time allows for freedom to make plays. Our motto is “Players make plays, plays do not make players.”

In this playbook you will find our spread pick and roll offense with each of its three entry’s, multiple set plays, and baseline/sideline plays. Also included is our zone offenses that incorporate the pick and roll to attack the defense along with zone set plays. For defense you will find all three presses we use as well as the roll for each player in each defense. Lastly you will find individual and team drills to properly implement the VCU / Texas Press.