Championship ❌and 🅾️’s from Stanford & Baylor
Apr 09, 2021 7:24 pm
Hello Coach ,
You watched the NCAA Tournaments, right?! Of course you did.
Not only were both the men’s and women’s brackets thrilling, but from a coaching perspective there is plenty to learn from watching these top teams compete on the sport’s biggest stage.
So, by all means take a moment to rest after such an awesome month of basketball.
But then...it’s time to start your off season development by studying XsOs from the title winning teams. Both programs ran some exceptional offense based on reads that put players in position to exploit defenses by simply taking what was given to them.
Let’s dive in.
STANFORD CARDINAL
ATOs
Double to Stagger: Use your post players to free up a shooter. There also might be a sneaky slip screen opportunity, or even a drive by 1 on the open side.
Forwards Out - Chin: Looks complex, but the end goal is simply to open up a double gap for maximum driving space.
BLOBs
Box Up Elevator BLOB: Who doesn’t love an elevator screen? If the shot isn’t open, 1 can flip into a ball screen either direction as it essentially becomes a horns alignment.
X BLOB:
This set may look simple, but that’s what makes it work. You can run so many looks from a box alignment that the defense will never know what’s coming.
BAYLOR BEARS
ATOs
Weave Ball Screen: The Ghost Screen right before the Spread Ball Screen is sure to open up huge gaps for your guards to attack.
PNR Lob: Quick hitter that clears a side before the PNR action to remove all help, opening up the lob.
BLOBs
Box Backdoor BLOB:
It’s no secret that defenders can fall asleep when guarding the inbounder -- take advantage of it!
DHO Stagger BLOB: Set up your best shooter to come off this stagger for a 3pt look. There shouldn’t be any help from x5 as they’ll be dealing with the DHO/Stagger.
If you’re hungry for more March Madness XsOs, Coach Tim Bergstaser has put together a comprehensive 800-set playbook that includes actions from every single team in the men’s tournament.
If you want a deep dive into more Baylor here is the Baylor Bundle featuring No-Middle playbook and their guard development videos.
Another great resource for XandO junkies is a classic we found from the Baylor Staff on Baylor Bears Crunch-Time Plays: Using special situation plays to win at the end.
To your success,
-Coaches Clinic Community
P.S. Special thanks to Coach Tony Miller for contributing several diagrams in this piece. You can see some of his courses/playbooks for more plays and drills by clicking on links below.