Defend, Deny, & Double:

Defensive Decisions that Matter ......

Dick Bennett believed the most critical defensive decisions you need to make is how are you going to defend the low post. He was not going to allow his opponent's post player to beat his team. I was reminded of this the other night while watching Dayton vs Kansas. I was surprised that Dayton chose to play behind the Kansas low post player. To be honest, I don't know his (Kansas post player) final offensive statistics but I do know at one time he was 12 for 15. I did not notice any significant defensive adjustment made by Dayton on the Kansas post player. How you decide to defend the post, has significant consequences on your team defense. We have choices to consider:

If you allow the ball to be caught this deep in the lane, its going to be a l-o-n-g night!

- 3/4 Wrap the post .... Use forearm to create separation. If you allow the opponent to get his body on you, you are now at a disadvantage. If a catch is made, how do you want your defender to react? You are baseline vulnerable, if you give up the baseline side pass. We taught the post defender to slide behind the offensive post player on the pass and take away the drop step to the baseline side.

- Dead Front .... Start in 3/4 wrap when ball is above or on the free throw line extended. Move over the top and dead front when the ball is dribbled or passed below the free throw line extended. Ball pressure is extremely important. We also need help side should the lob be thrown. Good teams will try to clear out the help side then look to throw the lob. Also, some coaches are reluctant to dead front because it is more difficult to keep the offensive post player sealed off on the shot.

- Double the Post .... Start in 3/4 wrap. If the ball is passed into the low post, the defender moves behind on the pass and takes away the baseline side while walling up. While this is taking place, another defender comes over walls up and takes away the space that would allow the offensive post to turn towards the middle of the floor. You can double with any of the 4 other defenders. This can be a scouting decision or you can designate a certain player based on your coaching decision. When you double, you want to double in such a way that the post player with the ball cannot split the double. The second man in the trap's goal is to prevent the post player with the ball from being able to turn his should towards the middle of the lane. You will need to work on defensive rotation should the offensive post player pass out of the trap. Most coaches are not going to double down off the player who made the post entry pass. Good idea to deny the ball being passed back out to the passer especially if he is a good shooter. Rick Majerus was even more detailed. He considered doubling on the catch, or

on the first dribble, or on the second dribble.

*Regardless of how you defend the post, you must practice how you are going to defend the offensive low post player once he catches the ball. For example, we tried to wall up and either take away the baseline or overplay the dominate shoulder. Walling up meant to get the defender to put up both hands straight up and get as tight as possible on the offensive post player. Now, I am "old school" and I always felt blocked shots were over rated. I encouraged our defenders in the post to stay on the floor and wall up. Make the offensive player shoot through you. If you are caught behind the offensive post player we wanted to take away their dominant shoulder. Most right handed post players are going to turn towards their left shoulder and most left handed post players will turn towards their right shoulder.

**I know many offenses may post up different players or even use an open post style of offense but I think you will regret it if you do not spend time and teach all of your players how to defend the post if you are a man to man team.