Team Disparity

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by bbcoach7

I've been trying to figure out a creative way to make the last game more challenging and still get something of value out of it. Like I said, I won't make them count passes. That's bush league in my opinion, and it messes up flow and rythym on offense.

In addition to reffing basketball, I coach a different sport (soccer) and have generally been fairly successful.

We've often found ourselves up on teams and not being one to want to run up the score, I take measures that both limit scoring and benefit my players. I flip the positions around...defenders (many who never have a score all season) move forward into attacking positions. The forwards (who usually get most of the scores) are moved back to defense....hard to score from there. It does two things....it gives each player a chance to work on a skill set they don't use as often and it gives players who don't normally get the chance, an opportunity to score. Our rate of scoring drops (keeping it from getting out of hand) while we still rarely allow scores on us.

For basketball, you can do basically the same thing....make your bigs play on the perimiter and have the guards in the post. Your 5 or 4 brings the ball down the court and runs the offense. The 1 & 2, post up on the blocks or some such inside play. The 1 & 2 will learn how the post player wants to receive the ball and will usually be playing against bigger players, the post players will learn what it takes to get it inside and will learn better ball handling skills.

[bbcoach7]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

In addition to reffing basketball, I coach a different sport (soccer) and have generally been fairly successful.

For basketball, you can do basically the same thing....make your bigs play on the perimiter and have the guards in the post. Your 5 or 4 brings the ball down the court and runs the offense. The 1 & 2, post up on the blocks or some such inside play. The 1 & 2 will learn how the post player wants to receive the ball and will usually be playing against bigger players, the post players will learn what it takes to get it inside and will learn better ball handling skills.

I've had them flip positions before, and that will keep the score closer, but it doesn't really help them develop as players much because I'd never use them in those roles against a strong opponent.

Instead I took away the dribble once we were in the 1/2 court. We practiced it a little Monday. Then last night with a big lead we ran our motion (even though they were in a 2-3 zone with no dribble allowed except in the paint. We did it on the last 2 possessions of the game. First time- 6 passes & a 8'-10' shot. 2nd time (last possession of game) we made 14 passes (I checked the video) and finished with a lay-up down the middle of the lane against a 2-3 zone. We must have almost ran out the shot clock.

Those last 2 possessions were beautiful basketball to watch. Taking away the dribble like that forces the player with the ball to really see the floor, as she can't just catch & take off with the dribble. And the players without the ball are forced to work to get open. They can't be lazy and make the dribbler create the passing angle.

I'm going to run this a lot more next year, especially in practice.