"I Got Him. You Take Him"

When I was quite young the term "switch" had a much different meaning than it does today. In the college and pro game you see a great deal of switching by teams playing man to man or player to player defense. I must admit during over 40 years of coaching high school basketball we saw very little switching on defense. However, when we did, it caused problems.

"Commitment is not always displayed in public."

It's pretty easy to understand why. Anything you seldom practice against can present doubts in the minds of your offensive team. This post is not going to spend much time talking about switching other than a good switching man team may decide to switch only perimeter players and never switch when a big is involved in the screening action.

What I am going to focus on is what can the offense do to try and take advantage of teams that switch on defense. None of these actions will be useful on game day unless you can spend time in practice on them. One of the greatest fears a coach has is to try and make offensive adjustments in a game that you have not practiced!

Some of the techniques, I suggest you consider using & practicing to combat switching defense are:

A) "Split the Switch" .... We called it a "slip" screen. Versus a switching defense the player going to set the ball screen will simple cut to the rim just as he approaches to set a screen. Instead the screener releases to the

rim. This creates a difficult situation for the team that normally simply switches the ball screen. You also could of course slip screens off the ball the same way. By faking the screen action and cutting to the rim you can

put a lot of pressure on a defense that is trying to switch.

B) "Screen Your Own Person" .... This may sound strange but it can be affective against teams that are switching. When you go to set a screen for another player, instead set the screen on your own defender.

C) "Back Cut" .... Instead of screening away, simply back cut your defender by cutting to the rim.

D) "Big on Small Screens" .... If the defense switches when your "big" screens a "small", you have created a mismatch that you may be able to take advantage. Post your big with a small defending or have your small

drive by or create space to shoot over the big.

E) "Run Set Plays" .... Set plays often have different timing, cuts, & screens that may confuse or cause hesitation on the part of the defense.

Just remember. Often less is more. If you do not see switching very much, I would concentrate on trying to execute one or two adjustments such as split the switch and back cutting as examples.

If I had five players of about equal size, I would seriously consider installing a

switching man to man or player to player system.