Bo Ryan: Wisconsin Badgers

I must admit that I have really enjoyed watching Wisconsin play this year.  Coach Ryan has done a great job of adjusting to his team's strengths this year.  Wisconsin has always been known for their Swing offense and strong half-court defense.  I have been also impressed with the high inclusion of ball screen actions that have been built into their base offensive foundation.  Today, we are going to examine a variety of Wisconsin Basketball Resources.

Bo Ryan: Man-to-Man Defense
Bo Ryan: Swing Offense
Swing Sets
Swing Playbook

Quick Hitters and Quick Strikes

Take a look at these quick hitters and quick strikes that will get your players quality shots in the places they like to score.  It is important to know how your players like to score and where on the floor like to score from.  Hope these quick hitters help.

Bruce Weber Illinois Quick Hitters

Doc Sadler UTEP Quick Hitters
Greg Marshall Wichita State Playbook

Golden State Horns 54 Slam

This is a set that I saw Golden State run last year that I found interesting, especially if you have a big who can attack off of the dribble.

Golden State Horns 54 Slam

Boston Celtics Punch 5

Doc Rivers is one of the best in the game at drawing up high scoring sets, especially out of time out situations.  This is a set called Punch 5 and it is a nice quick hitter if you have a point guard who is good at shooting off screening actions.  It also gives a nice post isolation as well.

Boston Celtics Punch 5

Orlando Magic Playbook

Coach Troy Culley shares an amazing playbook on the Orlando Magic.  It has a wealth of X's and O's.  It has everything from sets and quick hitters, to sideline out of bounds to baseline out of bounds plays.  Thanks Coach Culley for sharing such a great resource.

Orlando Magic Playbook

Jim Christian Leopard Zone Offense

The Leopard Zone offense is a great way to attack zone defenses like the 2-3 zone.  It focuses on getting the ball to the middle of the zone, which will cause problems for any zone defense.  I think you will like this offense for attacking zone defenses.

Jim Christian Leopard Zone Offense

Auszuege DDB Playbook

I thought that this playbook had some good offensive actions as well as good spacing.  Even though it is written in a language that I am not familiar with, I still thought it was a good resource. Spacing is always important to me and think it is one of the most vital aspects to good offense.  This playbook clearly demonstrates this concept, thus all of the cutting and driving lanes produced in this offense.

Auszuege DDB Playbook

Cuba Zone Offense

Today, we are going to take a look the Basic Cuba zone offense.  Being a coach that runs a very aggressive match up zone defense, I can appreciate what this zone offense is attempting to accomplish. If you are looking for a zone offense, you might want to check this out.

Cuba Zone Offense

1-4 High Cross Set

As a compliment to the the 1-4 high continuity offense, this set would serve as a good quick hitting action to add to your playbook. 

1-4 High Cross Set

Delay Game Points Of Emphasis

We have been working on our delay game situations at practice and we have really been stressing some key components that often get overlooked at this point of the game. Often, we as coaches get caught up in the X's and O's of delay game strategy, but overlook some of the details that make a delay game work effectively. Here are some of the key components that we stress in this situation.


1. Be hard to guard when you have the ball. When a player has the basketball, he/she needs to be in hard to guard triple threat stance. The defense is going to be aggressive; therefore, it is vital that the person with the ball is still in an attack stance. Too often, players will start to get flat footed and are not ready to make an athletic move. They stand vertical with the ball above their head, which will invite the defender to jam them up. This makes it hard to pass or dribble in this instance.

2. Be hard to guard off the ball. Delay offense does not mean that the other players get to stand and watch their teammate with the ball. Constant movement makes it harder for defenders to be in help position. Furthermore, when offensive players are moving, they are more apt to meet the pass and shorten up passing lanes. We constantly are reminding our players the mindset of the defense at this point. The defense is going to be aggressive, looking to jump passing lanes and/or foul.

3. Your best free throw shooters always need to be near the ball. We have a couple of players who are good free throw shooters and we tell them that 1 of you always need to be 1 pass away from the ball.

4. Understand the potential danger areas. For example, we don't use ball screens in a delay situation because we feel that we are inviting a team to trap the ball. For other teams, it could be the corners of the floor. It could also be you have a player who you don't want to have the ball (bad ball handler, poor free throw shooter....).

5. Shot selection. One of the most important elements you need to clearly explain to your kids is your expectations on shot selection. For us, we still look for scoring opportunities in our delay offense. I heard Don Meyer say something along the lines of: "Don't take a shot that you can make, take a shot that won't miss." That will mean different things to all of us based on the ability of our players, experience and coaching philosophy.

6. Know your timeout situation and who has the possession arrow.

Ernie Kent Continuity Motion Breakdown

A while back, I broke down Ernie Kent's continuity motion offense.  He has a bunch of good ideas that I think continuity coaches could benefit from. 

Ernie Kent Continuity Motion Offense