Let's take a look at one of the most intense and crazy games of the year!
Kansas State - Michigan State
Long thread, full of clips 🧵 #marchmadness
Nice ATO to start the game by KSU, creating a high-tag behind the backscreen
The way that MSU plays high in the gap on defense and how KSU was able to exploit it will be a recurring thing in this thread
On the other end good ATO to start the game
Veer action to get Hauser a good look
After some initial DHOs the main action is a spread P&R
You could see some miscommunication on KSU's defense, Nowell points to the baseline to ICE it, then get back in front of the ball that goes toward the middle of the floor
Love what Hauser does here
He moves from the weakside corner, fakes a flare, then jumps out behind the ball, his defender was caught in the middle of his help on the roll, able to shoot open
Good off the ball stuff from him
Nowell is in perfect control attacking the paint after the hedge
We're going to see a lot of clips of him punishing MSU's aggressive coverage in different ways
Nowell vs Show
Here he punish with a split, gets a paint touch, corner 3
Let's start looking also at the corners, and how MSU's defenders are helping high in the gaps, here you see that baseline cut but it's not completely open, but let's keep an eye on those...
No show here because the defender was deeper in the paint, so Nowell is able to get inside
The big leaves him open to recover on the pop instead of calling for a late switch
Last man has to help, opening up the baseline cut for the basket
Double high, MSU gets a switch on the first one, getting Nowell on their big
🤯But they don't read the situation and move on to a second screen, allowing KSU an easy chance to switch back and reduce the mismatch
Cut baseline, from both sides
We're going to see more of this, as my friend has noticed
...+1
Here you can see that their idea is to create a wall and slow down Nowell's drives, stunting in the gap, but KSU was ready to punish it almost every time
For me in the 1st half, KSU had better control of the XsOs of the game, the way they were punishing MSU's coverage on P&R and their off-ball defense
But Michigan stayed in the game with 3 things:
1v1, ORs, quick transitions also after a made basket
MSU once more loads to the ball, this time KSU punishes it with a pin-in instead
Unnecessary help here from Nowell, the defense did a good job at "stealing the under" on the Get and it's covering the action 2v2, his help allows the offense to create an easy 3
Once again Nowell turns the corner over the hedge, once that happens it's easy for the offense to generate easy baskets
Possession immediately after, look how Michigan is able to run immediately and score on the other end
They've done this all game long, displaying a great mentality and a consistent effort
One thing that stood out to me was the inability of MSU to punish the switches inside, here you can see it
Not a really deep seal, not a flash from the weak side
Later in the game they did a much better job attacking the other end of the mismatch on the perimeter tough
Another example, good job by KSU's defenders but...
Another baseline cut, this once generated not via P&R but with a 1v1
It's possible that KSU used this incredibly new technology in their practices to stress this principle (tweet):
KSU here tries to slip vs the hedge but the defense does a good job, 4 hands active, and deflect & steal the pass
Nowell is out for a few minutes for an ankle twist, KSU offense becomes more stagnant
They don't find great advantages on the P&R anymore and they settle for shots like this
Hoggard gets at the rim for the "and-1" two times in a row, to give MSU the lead
Nowell gets back on the court, so, in a completely logical way, KSU finds 3pt
Exactly the play that Tang draw up in his board 😂
Once again MSU keeps finding paint touches using 1v1 more than any specific set or action
The one time that MSU plays a perfect, literally perfect textbook defense on the P&Pop they allow another baseline cut
Here there's a smart screen by 5 to help, but the concept is similar to what we've seen before
KSU switches on the stagger here, as we've said MSU did a better job attacking the switch on the perimeter to generate open 3s than using the big inside, here's a good example of that
For 2 times in a row KSU looks for the slip on the empty corner P&R vs the hedge, they're able both times to score out of this, even tough not immediately on the first pass
KSU scores - quick transition - MSU open corner 3
Two great things here:
Walker attacking dynamically, splitting and getting in the paint
Akins creates a passing window by moving out of the shadow of his defender (who's caught ball watching here)
Switch, once again Hoggard is able to drive inside, gets 2 defender on him, and even if he misses the shot there's an open rebound for MSU
In the OT the game slows down and we saw more 1v1 to generate advantages, here Walker is able to knock down a crucial 3pt
Nowell vs hedge, once again, attacking the big as soon as he moves back
This time the defense doesn't hedge vertically, maybe it was a decision maybe he was just slightly late, but Nowell stretches it to the side and finds the roller
Hoggard playing some bully ball late in the game
Play of the game: Alley oop backdoor pass with 1 minute to play, that's crazy
🤔Also, at the end, do we think that Tang and Nowell were pretending to speak to set this up on purpose? Or were they really thinking of what to do but Nowell saw the opportunity for the pass?
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🚨New post: We spoke about structured Freedom last week, now we break down how Alba Berlin applies it in one of their most used set
Thread 🧵 here but you can read here ⏬ for a more in-depth analysis franznannibk.substack.com/p/alba-berlin-…
Starting alignment:
📌Quite common for European teams, with the ball passed to 4 in the guard position, sometimes using a screen at the FT line from 5 to get open
📌Both corners filled
📌Rarely you could see 5 catching the ball on the first pass
From here, players have different paths they could take, but the main principle is to stay aggressive 1v1 both on and off the ball.
👀As you can see in this clip, it's crucial to attack if the defense tries to put exaggerate pressure on the ball to make it tougher to pass
Practice breakdown: Using offscreens
You will see here a series of activities and SSGs I use to introduce the concepts and the use of off screens actions to a U17 team last week
Blogpost and thread 🧵 open.substack.com/pub/franznanni…
🎯Always being assertive and aggressive in their 1v1 without the ball, both as a screener and as the player using the screen
We started the warm-up with some very simplified 1v1+screen, introducing the idea of a defender chasing OR shooting the gap
⌛️Initially, we didn't ask them a specific solution vs those choices.
🗺️This part is crucial to give the players the possibility to explore, experiment, and get to the right decision on their own before maybe intervening and trying to nudge them toward a more efficient solution
🏆Barcelona U18 won the ANGT in Zadar a few days ago
🗒️Consistency in Game principles is one of the things that make their Academy great
🧵In this thread, I'll be discussing a simple defensive principle that is applied from U12 to U18, and offer some ideas on how to teach it ⬇️
👀Ball is blind = go to steal
📌U12
As soon as the ball-handler turns his back you see the closest defender sprinting to go for the steal
📌What else do you see?
The other defender has to react to it! He's lifting up to rotate to the closest man!
📌U13
Here the trap comes on a pass, but the idea is the same
🤝Here you see 2 other player reacting, the one that get the steal and his teammate in the opposite corner who's lifting up as well
U13 Practice 🧵
You can check the video here, plus on this thread, I'll elaborate on some of the SSGs and comments in the video, please check it out!
I'm available for Questions & feedbacks
Context:
📌This is not MY group, it was the first time I saw them
📌They're not a "selected" group
📌I've ended up doing a wider variety of things than I normally would do because I wanted to show to the coaches of that club my approach on a few different topics
🏀Dribbling warm-up: Nothing fancy, just 3' trying to steal the ball from each other
You see how different footwork, crossovers, and body solutions emerge from them w/out a specific request
🏋️Loads: Type of dribbles, Only Weak hand, tighter spaces
I've written something about the Minicopa Endesa, I've created some small edits to highlight some of the most recurring offensive concepts that the top U14 teams in the world are using! Comments, RT, and questions are appreciated 🙌
Thread 🧵⏬
More than 8000 people were in attendance to watch the final, a “mini-Clasico” between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
⌛️In this tournament players like Rubio and Doncic were able to compete against some of the top competitors available for their age group at the time
Before starting the observations is important to notice that the Minicopa is a HIGHLY competitive environment ⚔️
What we see from teams here is probably not exactly what they would do normally.
It’s important to acknowledge it if we want to understand what we see
10 things I’ve liked this week:🧵 and link 🔗
(Complete video at the end)
1⃣Real Madrid 🇪🇸 automatic stack P&R after OR
📌19/20 season, interesting idea, I love the possibility of playing something automatically in a neutral situation after the OR instead of simple high P&R
2⃣This starting alignment might be my favorite, it’s very common in the US, less in Europe
👀Look how Manresa uses it to flow into a Flex screen the screener action
In the last 2 clips they change the positions of the players at the start and run a quick screen-the-screener
3⃣Look at the position of the "take-2 defender" on this aggressive P&R coverage
When the ball is going toward him he stands almost on the 3pt line in front of his man ON THE PASSING LINE to the corner
Every pass to the corner must fly over him so hopefully slow enough .. 1/2