Vacuum the zone, put a scorer into it! (basketball)

ZONE DEFENSES ARE THE BANE of most basketball coaches. Coaches become so consumed with getting their offense a good look at the basket that they tend to overdo the niceties of overloading, screening, triangulating, and/or reversing the ball.

They may focus on moving the ball while keeping the players stationary or moving the players and keeping a stationary post.

Every coach will have a variation on at least one of these themes. We prefer a little different approach, one that can be adapted to any kind of system. We attempt to create a vacuum in the zone, fill it with an offensive player? and then "hit" the man for an open shot at the basket.

LOOPING THE ZONE (DIAG. 1)

If we attack a zone with three perimeter players, we will have the point (#1) dribble at either wing. However, instead of pushing the wing to the baseline to maintain spacing, we will loop him back to the top of the circle, then reverse the ball from #1 to #2 (now at the top of the circle) to the opposite wing (#3) spotted up at the 3-point arc.

Note that #2's dribble move will freeze the defender at the top of the zone. The defender will have to stay with the defender to prevent the latter from penetrating on his dribble.

The dribble move, in short, creates a vacuum (at the top) that is filled by the looping wing (#2) who, upon receiving the pass from #1, may look for a shot or move the ball to #3, who often will be wide open.