Post game from the final of Euroleague Women 2013

Last year, the Euroleague final 8 took place in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The two teams that qualified for the final were the host team UMMC Ekaterinburg and Fenerbahce from Turkey. It was the first time that a Turkish team succeeds this achievement. The final was a performance only for one, Ekaterinburg . As the website of fiba refers: “Overwhelming favourites throughout the season, the star-laden roster of UMMC Ekaterinburg finally delivered against expectation, crucially settling any early nerves with a blistering start to leave the hopes of their Turkish opponent hanging by a thread within a matter of minutes.”

The most interesting thing from this final is the effort of both teams to transfer the ball at the low post, while most of the set plays also ended with the isolation of the big player inside the basket.

If someone watches the game(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8nyVu7FxCg) the crucial point of the game was the offensive transition and the defense of the host team which took advantage from the early minutes. On the other hand Fenerbahce chose to defend with hedge-out on the pick-roll Russian team’s offense and tried to change the rhythm and the momentum of the game using match-up zone defense and full court pressure.

I present two set plays, one of each team that the coaches used for having a post game from the beginning of the game. I must notice the fact that the Russian team defended very well when the ball entered the low post or the paint with double team from the weak side. Finally, I show a baseline out of bounds that Ekaterinburg used, for understanding that the effort for post game was constant, even after baseline or sideline out of bounds.

The first play that used the Russian team for an easy post game is the following:

The point guard (2) after the post up sets a screen for the center (5)

The Turkish team used a more complicated way to pass the ball inside, using a flex at the end of this play:

Finally, the hosts had a baseline out of bound with Diana Taurasi at the position 2 who after the throw-in set a screen for the center.

I am looking forward to your views, ideas, objections, considerations via my email: kitsoleris@hotmail.com or at twitter @Gkitsoleris. And since 2014 at Facebook: George Kitsoleris

Playing zone defense in ages 14-16

A topic with a special interest and an issue for a lot of arguments among the coaches, who train young athletes, is the use or not zone defenses. I know that many of you are against teaching  zone defense in the early years. Many coaches believe that this kind of defense does not help players improve their defensive skills, because it is usually less aggressive or without clear responsibilities.

The truth is that I had the same objections when I started to train girls at the age of 14, 15, 16.  I was considering that it is a “crime” to teach and use this defense, before the age of 16, but I was facing the problem of having to show offensive plays against zone in my trainings, because we would play against it. A colleague, who watched my team 8 years ago, told me after a game his opinion on this issue. He believed that the players must know how to play some kind of zone defense, before the age of 16 (In Greece this is the time when players change the level of the championship). He told me exactly the following:”If I was the coach of the team U18, I would like the players, who come from the team U16, to know how to play some kinds of zone defense”. It is late for the players  to learn this kind of defense at the age of 16-17.

Today, I believe that the zone defense teaching problems are solved with the use of match-up zone defenses. But the most important thing is to understand that for playing a good zone defense, the players must know the basic principles of man to man defense. And these principles should be known in a team from the age of 14-15. A girl U15 plays in the national team U15 in Greece and I can’t believe that she is elected to be in the best dozen players of her country without any previous knowledge. So we could often have or create teams under 14-15 that they are in a satisfactory level of man to man defense and know the basic principles: weak side, 1on1 defense, pick and roll reaction, box out, closing out, defensive transition, slides etc.

Then, it is the time when I start to teach some easy match-up zone defense like AMOEBA.. I have already shown offensive plays against simple kind of defense (like 2-1-2 or 2-3 or 3-2) in which players are assigned to guard specific areas of the court, rather than players.  Most of the times we don’t have offensive problems against simple zone defense, so the players understand the necessity of a zone defense with particular rules and adapt this defense to the opponents and not only to specific areas of the court.

You can see below how my team reacted against two zone offensive plays in the final game women U16 in 2011, using AMOEBA defense. I should clarify that we were training and playing this defense for nearly one month and a half, but we had only two days to prepare for this specific game and the opponent’s offensive plays.

The play 1 and our reaction were:

The second play and our reaction were:

You can also see the following video which shows highlights from the above plays and defensive reactions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXn_aanHnXc

I am looking forward to your views, ideas, objections, considerations via my email: kitsoleris@hotmail.com or at twitter @Gkitsoleris. And since 2014 at Facebook: George Kitsoleris