Tennessee "Staggers"

No, I am not talking about having one to many with this title. We used to run some man offensive action(s) that had stagger screen actions in it. We would end up with a post up on one side of the floor while there was double screen or staggered screen action taking place on the other side. Due to my lack of imagination and some failure to pay attention to detail, we did not ever get out of the stagger action the results I thought we should have.

I was watching Rick Barnes offense at Tennessee several years ago and was so impressed with what he did on the stagger side of the floor. You know by now, I have very little creativity. I am not in any sense of the word an "innovator" when it comes to basketball actions. I don't know, if the video is still available or not, but I found a breakdown of this Tennessee action on Youtube that was very good. Why Is it you find all the good stuff AFTER you retire! Evan Kurland does a nice job of breaking down the Tennessee Volunteer's Motion Offense on Youtube. I would encourage you to take a look at it. It's kind of a hybrid combination of motion offense with continuity. I think it could be very effective in high school.

If this topic interests you, check out the X's & 0's file page at this site where I have attempted to diagram some of the actions used by Coach Barnes at Tennessee. It is my understanding that Coach Barnes actually got much of his actions from Bob McKillop the retired head men's coach at Davidson University. McKillop was considered an offensive innovators.

"And you think you've had a bad hair day!"

I don't believe pure motion offense is for every coach. I have always loved the concept of giving a few rules and then teaching players to read the defense and react. I was accused at times of having the "patience of Job" but I never felt comfortable teaching or using pure motion offense. I kind of leaned towards what I would refer to as a "hybrid" type of offense that had motion principles but also included elements of continuity. I think the motion offense used by Coach Barnes at Tennessee would fall into that category.

If you have used the same offensive system for several seasons, you may

benefit from taking a look at your actions and "tweaking" them. These so

called "tweaks" may be as simple as giving your players several options

rather than just one standard action. Changing some cuts or adding a

different screening action. If nothing else, it gives opponent scouts some

new actions to consider.

With the advent of the high school shot clock, the game seems to be leaning towards 5 out or 4 out 1 in. I still am a believer in using set plays that will get a certain player a certain shot. I often see high school teams in late game situations in which the wrong player is taking a critical and sometimes the game deciding shot. GAME OVER!