In this week’s Slappin’ Glass Deep Dive, we go deeper into one of the most important offensive conversations in the modern game: how to attack switching defenses.
As switching continues to become a preferred solution for defenses at every level, offenses can no longer rely only on simply “getting the matchup” and hoping the possession solves itself. The best teams are finding ways to create the switch, organize spacing around it, and attack before the defense can load up, scram out, or triple switch its way back to neutral.
In this episode, we explore the details behind turning a switch into a real advantage. From immediate mismatch attacks and early seals, to stampedes, clears, flares, pitches, short rolls, and corner skips, the conversation focuses on how offenses can punish the defense without becoming stagnant or predictable.
We also discuss the importance of storytelling in teaching offense. The best concepts are not just a list of actions, but a way to help players understand the problem, recognize the advantage, and play with clarity inside the possession.
For coaches looking to better understand modern spacing, mismatch creation, and late-clock problem solving, this Deep Dive offers a detailed look at how top teams are attacking one of basketball’s most common defensive answers.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to attack switching defenses with more than just isolation
We explore ways to punish switches through seals, stampedes, clears, flares, pitches, and short-roll solutions. - Why timing matters after the switch happens
The offense has a small window before the defense can load up, scram out, or triple switch back to neutral. - How storytelling helps players understand offensive concepts
The best teaching connects the action to the problem it solves, giving players more clarity and confidence inside the possession.
Transcript
Dan 00:00
Welcome to the SG deep dive, where we revisit some of our favorite ideas covered inside SGTV, the Sunday morning newsletter, along with favorite conversations from the podcast. Some are tactical, some are big picture, and some are concepts we keep seeing show up across the game. These are the ideas worth spending a little more time with.
Let’s dive in.
Eric Fawcett 00:28
We’ve got some really fun content to talk about, I think, because this past month was a little bit of storytelling month, which was a topic that you guys have really touched on over the last couple of years, but you had two tremendous guests, Philip Humm, Claire Murphy. And what I really like about the storytelling element is there’s always a lot of conversation about all the different hats that coaches have to wear in the kind of holistic approach to the job. But one that probably doesn’t get addressed enough, I feel like, is the role of storyteller. And I feel like both of these guests really talked about why storytelling is important for a number of reasons.
And I think, you know, Pat, especially talking with Philip, one thing he said is how elite communicators, they lead with structure, simplicity, and one clear takeaway. And I know that that’s something that can be hard for us coaches. But when you hear that, what are some of the ways that you feel that could be applied to your team? I think
Pat 01:22
for me, our conversations with Philip and especially with Claire, who I thought spoke really well, the application of storytelling was just its role in helping your team critically communicate. In the moments of high stress and unpredictability, critical communication comes through trust, and how do you build trust is, of course, then it kind of gets drawn back to the culture, the environments you’re creating.
And storytelling is like a really powerful piece. The three H’s that Claire talked about, hardship, hero, highlight, just whether it’s using like different one, two minute segments where a player just has to talk and tell something about themselves. And two summers ago, maybe three summers ago, Dan with Coach Schmidt, who was with the London Lions at the time, and now is with the Atlanta Hawks organization. He used it when building out his pillars and his culture early season to make the guys tell, yeah, what was it, a personal hardship, right, or a personal struggle. And all of these are opportunities that just further strengthen trust. So that when there are moments of adversity, and hardship in a game that they’re more prepared to critically communicate, because I think they fear failure less and that they may screw up in the communication, or they don’t want to be wrong in how they communicate. But I think that like breaks it down in a way, in my opinion.
Eric Fawcett 02:39
Well, and I feel too, when you create more and more opportunities for those communications, then someone isn’t as worried about that fear of failure. Like you talked about when, if you’re going to speak out once every couple of weeks in whatever setting, and you’re wrong in that instance. I mean, I feel like that’s something that’s devastating, but when you create those opportunities for players to speak and those clear avenues for communication, then there is less fear of failure, especially when you know that that opportunity is coming again.
And I feel like Phillip used the word vulnerability a couple of times. And you talked about trust and building trust. And I feel like those go really hand in hand, the building of trust with vulnerability. And also in that episode, if people are yet to listen, they have to, because there was a moment of vulnerability for Dan, who got put on the spot a little bit with a rare kind of active, very active teaching of a concept there. So let’s put it to the test here and see if some of these storytelling methods really stuck. Dan, do you remember your moments being vulnerable and having to speak? I’m also just curious, kind of your thoughts in this overall storytelling element, how you see kind of practical uses for being a storyteller in a coach’s career.
Dan 03:45
Yeah, I definitely do remember being put on the spot and I believe the story that I pulled on air was the moment that I kind of realized coaching was the path for me and the first time I stepped on the court to run my own practice and I think I kind of went through that moment. Was I correct? I think that was it. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yeah, that was a lot of fun to have. Phillips kind of put me on the spot there.
But I’ll just add to obviously both of your points, both of these episodes were really interesting and unique ways. I thought that Philip did a great job of the structure of how stories work, almost like a tactical way to attack a story and Claire much more about shared narrative and the emotion and the feeling behind those things. And so I thought the two of them together, if you listen back to back, I feel like you’ll get a pretty good crash course on the story element. What I really liked about Claire, I’ll go back to her for a second, I thought she did a great job of discussing a little bit of the science behind why stories stick. We’ve all been in those situations with a player where we’re trying to improve them or shape their role or discuss some difficult thing or even a good thing. And you go, okay, do I lead with the stats or do I lead with the analytics or do I lead with just kind of straight ahead stuff or like how do I kind of wrap this for this player? And she talked about why in those instances, like let’s say with a single player, a shared narrative or a story is so much more powerful in the form of like motivation and understanding for that player than just the straight facts and stats. And I think that was like a big takeaway for me of just the science of why our brains do that. I mean, you just popped it on me about what did I talk about? And this is a couple of months ago and I still remember the story in my head. And if you’d asked me about a stat or something, I’d be lost for it. So I thought that was a great takeaway from Claire.
Also, she mentioned some really good stuff about top-down leadership versus membership and the differences and how that more of a membership type of approach and shared narratives create situations where people can be more vulnerable or they can share their story and that becomes more powerful as you reach tougher times in the seasons. That was another big takeaway for me where, Philip, you’re getting the kind of like hows of put yourself in the situation of the story. And then I thought Claire was great with sort of a little bit more underneath it. Pat and I just had a fun conversation with her about halftime talks and what you do at halftime and what actually sticks versus doesn’t and how much time you should spend on stuff. And I thought that was a little tangent that was fun in the start subset.
Eric Fawcett 06:08
and very practical, and that’s what I loved. I mean, she talked about how storytelling is the most powerful tool for transmitting culture. That’s something, especially as some of our seasons kind of come to a close here, we’re gonna get into culture mode.
Feel a lot about coaches will be talking about culture and she talked about how storytelling can be like the most powerful tool for transmitting culture and I think that that’s a very powerful statement in a world where everyone is trying to think about those ways to do it and I do really like as well just the science behind convincing someone like how you were talking about the analytics or not and I’ve had this too with some of the teams I work with. If I’m talking to a coach and I’m saying like, this is why I think we should foul when we’re up three, here’s a spreadsheet that’s not as powerful if I say, hey, did you happen to see like these games where someone didn’t foul up three and lost because of it? I of course try to tell the story in a little bit colorful way than that, but the gist that those anecdotes are going to be more powerful than huge data sets for a lot of people and for a lot of our players and I was actually interested, I’m gonna throw it back to you, Dan, because with Claire talking about, I think the term she used was building ownership and co-creating the story of a season. For you at the college level particularly, you were hopefully gonna have guys for a number of years. I was just curious if you found that to be an interesting topic at all and what you think about that concept of co-creating the story of a season with a player or with players because I found that to be really interesting.
Dan 07:33
I thought that was really interesting and something I’ve taken to heart personally. And before we got on air, Pat, Claire and I were talking a little bit. I was telling her about, you know, I’ve got three young kids and before bed every night they’re wanting me to tell them stories. And Claire and I were kind of talking about the fun part is you can read them a story out of a book. I can just tell them a story, but oftentimes with myself and my kids, I’ll kind of stop and let’s see what they put in this, you know, what color was that car and the kind of co-creation of it. And it’s crazy. Like when you’re talking to your kids, they just light up. It’s like the coolest thing ever that they’re now in the story.
And Claire was talking about before we got on, that’s like the most powerful thing you can do for learning and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And then when you go to your team that that process can be so powerful for the buy-in, especially, you know, early in the season of like, who are we? What’s our identity? What’s this season going to be about? And I would say now getting into the off season for me personally, these are things that I just find really, really interesting to study and talk about because I think that it’s one thing to walk into a room and tell a team, this is who we are, this is what we’re going to do, this is how we’re going to do it. And yeah, that has its place at certain times, but also if your players feel some part in creating that narrative or that story or this is who we are, this is how we go through adversity, this is what we’re going to do pre-season. I think that it builds the buy-in and I think, you know, Claire mentioned that’s sort of science behind it too of like, if you can get to that place some way, somehow as a coach, there will just start to be the bonds that form earlier than almost anything else. So to your point, Eric, I thought that was a great part of the conversation that I’m still thinking about.
Pat 09:11
And jumping on board with that point, what I’ve heard from other coaches and what we’ve started to do here at our club that I really liked, I think it falls under the shared narrative stuff, but in the back half of season and putting the guys in charge of for every game, having like a motto and then giving them like three things we want to do now, maybe the three things is more like the game plan and like making sure it’s like a soundboard getting echoed back to us. But I think what the motto, especially as we’ve gone through like preseason, the first half of the season, as the group’s been together so long, you know, we started to learn like what we really do well, maybe what are the areas that we always need to be working on or cognizant of so that we play at our level, whether it’s physicality hit first or something like that.
But as we kind of deliver that message and get to know the guys, our own language may also forms outside of just like our coverage language, I think. And these models, these themes keep reappearing week to week. And I like teams that kind of put on them, like, Hey, we need a motto for this game. So for this game, it has its story. Like this is what’s going to galvanize. This is going to be kind of our beacon on top of them. Like the three things that are come from it in terms of what the game plan we’re trying to establish. And I think that’s really cool techniques that we’ve heard trying to implement here. I think again, this top down versus membership, like it empowers the players, the guys, and I think anytime we can hold our players accountable to their own words is also way more powerful than us trying to hold them accountable to our words that we told them to whatever box out. We told them to get locked, but if they were telling us like, Hey, boxing out’s important or we’re going to hit first tonight, that’s the motto, you know, when it’s not being done, it’s like, well, this is what you guys told us to hold you accountable to, and I think that speaks volumes over anything that they get tired of us hearing week after week.
Eric Fawcett 10:54
Yeah, that’s powerful. It also reminds me a little bit with Philip in the start subset, which I thought this was a very, very interesting one for a number of reasons. But I believe you asked him if it was the power of quotes or visuals for physical objects. The physical objects piece actually really made me think about something we did in the summer last year in one of our roundtables, which is something I’m really looking forward to doing once we get to the summer here again with our Slap and Glass members. And we got some really, really good stories really about how different teams use different objects and what they use, the story behind that.
I thought that was super fun, but I believe you had some really interesting stuff to say about quotes. Dan, I have to ask you about that. You are our quote curator in our newsletter. He had some very interesting things to say about quotes, how memorable or not they can be, how inspirational or not they can be. I’m not sure if you remember that, if that one hits you like it hit me. But if you remember that start subset, do you have any big thoughts, particularly when it comes to quotes? Because we do know coaches love quotes.
Dan 11:55
Yeah, someone who is in charge of our weekly quote on the newsletter, I did find that interesting. One of the things I know, you know, Pat and I, we’ve talked about with the quote on our newsletter is doing our darndest every week to find something that’s off the beaten path. You want something that kind of hits in a certain way. And now reading a quote in a newsletter to think about on your own time is certainly different than trying to use a quote to motivate a team right before a game or at a practice.
But I think like what Phil talked about is it can come across, I’m sure at times, as inauthentic, if not done correctly, or not tied to the right stuff. If you’re just a coach, it’s just like, here’s a quote, and then it doesn’t back up with anything. I think that’s what Philip, if I’m remembering, was kind of like, this is where you got to be careful. And I think, let’s just say for myself, we’ll give an example, how I’ve used any quotes with our team is sort of like a beginning of practice, something to think about or something to like, whatever, this is the theme of a practice. And then you’re coming back to it at the end in some way. But if you’re just throwing it out there, just to throw it out there, then I think it can fall pretty flat.
Pat 12:57
It’s similar to like a good drill, a good drill, even a great drill, but without context or real purpose behind it or understanding, it’s just wasted effort in the same, even a great quote. But if it has like no real application to your team, your situation, it may fall flat, it’s nothing more than just, yeah, okay, good quote.
Now back to my life, you know, uh, yeah.
Dan 13:20
Just to add onto your point, Pat, you got to obviously think about these things at all times as a coach. But if you are using quotes either before team meeting or before practice, and it’s done in a way where you’re thinking consistently, like, well, this quote is going to feed into what we believe about this, or this is part of our story. I think that stuff can be really interesting.
Even Philip or Claire might say, I mean, it could be tough how many practices we all have a year. If you’re trying to tell a story before every practice, that could also start to fall flat as like, geez, you guys tell a story after practice. So that’s where the feel comes in, I think, for sure.
Eric Fawcett 13:55
That’s probably where they’re co-creating a story of a season. Maybe that’s why she used that and not co-creating the story of a game where, you know, maybe 30 stories is a lot, but can those be chapters of a season long story?
I feel like that’s kind of the way I think about it because, and even as you were saying, Pat, if you got 30 mottos and they’re all drastically different from each other in one game, you’re talking about how the motto is about like crashing the glass and the next day it’s about getting back in transition off every mystery. Like, I don’t know, like maybe that could start to get a little bit confusing.
Dan 14:24
Eric, I’ll just share just something from us this year that, when you talk about a quote trying to be used correctly, I had a quote that I used with our team early in the season. It was, beyond the mountains, more mountains. Okay, we use it early in the season, and I use it again after some big win. And then it was kind of fun because we had this like team building thing where someone kind of poked fun at me about it on the team. And then it almost became this inside joke we would say to each other after a win.
And it wasn’t after every practice or game, of course, but it was just, you know, you get in a circle before practice. And I’d kind of look at them and they’d look at me like, yep, beyond the mountain. I think every team’s got stuff like that in their own groups that they can feel out what worked for them.
Pat 15:03
It’s funny how comedy at our expense can be a great galvanizer and actually teaching technique or anything. I remember last year we were trying to teach handoff techniques for our guys and I think we were referencing was it palgasol or some big man but our guys just thought it was so ridiculous that we were calling it after some player and the technique behind it.
So of course then they start doing it just to like not mock us because they’re good guys and not in a negative term but you know yeah they thought it was so funny to do whatever for this example the gasol handoff but then guess what happened a month into the season they’re doing it and they’re doing it effectively right they don’t even know but it’s like it’s stuck but whatever it takes.
Dan 15:41
Pat, to your point, it takes a lot of, you gotta sit in it as a coach, but we’ll do sometimes coach impersonation contests with our group, we’ll put them in groups of three or four, and we’ll just have some fun and say, hey, you’ve got this coach, you guys got this, and one guy will come up and act out, impersonate one of us. You gotta be able to sit there and get roasted a little bit as a coach, but what’s funny is some of the things that they would roast or impersonate is on, they’d go to the practice floor and one guy was roasting one of our assistants on how he teaches like stunting in a gap, and he’s really demonstrative about it, it’s like the best thing, but they’re like pretending, but guess what, when we get to the court, they’re doing it.
Pat 16:16
Yeah, the stunts are great finally
Dan 16:18
We wanted to take a quick second and say how much we enjoyed being out at the NABC Convention in Indianapolis. We had a great time hosting our classroom session and connecting with so many of you throughout the weekend.
We’re also really excited to continue partnering with the NABC going forward as we both look to support coaches through better ideas, teaching, and a shared commitment to development. While the convention may be over, the NABC’s work with coaches is year-round through clinics, resources, mentorship, and a community that spans every level of the game, it’s a place to stay connected and keep growing. You can learn more at nabc.com. The offseason looks quiet from the outside, but coaches know better. It’s film, portal lists, and recruiting boards all running at the same time. Huddle keeps it from becoming a logistical nightmare. Sports code, fast recruit, and huddle instat all in one place. One workflow instead of three browser tabs and a spreadsheet. The programs that clean up their operation in May are the ones who aren’t scrambling in September. Learn more at huddle.com slash slapping glass today.
Eric Fawcett 17:27
Speaking of storytelling, Dan, you had the opportunity to do a really cool presentation just the other week for NABC at the Final Four in Indianapolis, which is the center of the American basketball world for one weekend. Tell us a little bit about that, about that experience, partnership with NABC, all of that.
Dan 17:44
Yeah, as you just mentioned, was really fun. We’re recording this kind of on the back end of me coming home from Indianapolis and was a great final four. It was really cool this year in Indianapolis. You had division two, three, and NAI championships in Indianapolis as well. So just really cool for all of the sport to be there. And through our new partnership with the NABC, able to go out there and speak and do a presentation. And the three of us worked together on putting together the presentation on interesting ways that Europe was attacking the switch. And I’ll just say thanks to everybody who came out. I mean, we were blown away by the support and all the coaches that came out to the event. And as much fun as it was the hour presenting, I had fun the next seven, eight hours straight of just talking hoops and meeting with people after.
So thank you everybody for coming out and saying hello. And then I think for us, what was fun is just looking at interesting, unique ways that we’ve covered on the platform. I mean, really going back three, four or five years on some of those concepts and kind of putting them all together of how the international game thinks about attacking a switch and really like how they can isolate and stress a mismatch in some way. Other than just you’ve got a great ball handler, we’re just going to back it out. I still go one-on-one and let that player cook, which could be effective too if you have those players. But I think we were looking at really the principles that Europe uses to attack a mismatch. So you get a switch and then what are you going to do? And we broke it down into three different ways where first was looking at, okay, you get the switch and boom, we’re going right away. How can we cut space, whatever to attack right away? And I think probably for us, the really interesting part in which I spent a ton of time talking with coaches after and still about were the secondary actions and then also the actions against like teams triple switching things out, which was just really interesting.
Eric Fawcett 19:32
Matt, I think just like for something that is so common at all levels of the sport right now, it makes sense why there was coaches from all different levels there and why it was cool to bring some of those European concepts. But Patrick, I mean, a lot of the stuff came from what you were seeing in Europe over the last couple of years.
So I’m just curious as you’ve been overseas for a number of years now, do you see switching going up? Do you see it going down and all these different ways of attacking it? When I look at the presentation that Dan did, that was so tremendous. It was kind of a culmination of years of work. So just curious how you see those kinds of trends and what you’ve been looking at with your club this year when it comes to attacking the switch.
Pat 20:11
Well, yeah, one of your questions, yeah, switch isn’t going away. Unfortunately, we’ll get anxiety about it.
Still trying to figure out how our team can do it better. I mean, like everything I think we love analyzing here is the chess match that continues to evolve as teams get good in the switch, offense gets better. And then the defense counteracts, you know, we’re looking at Fenevace this season and how they are fronting the post and then denying the high posts aggressively to prevent high, low switches. So yeah, I’m looking forward already to next season when we just see like the counter to the counter to the counter, so to speak, but back to the video, we put out and just like all the stuff we’ve been able to accumulate and see out of Europe, what really stood out to me and like the actions that we’re finding that we’re having success with and that I like the most as well. Fun to teach fun to just watch other teams do is just how they’re attacking the big in space off the ball, like Dan said, in secondary actions. And I mean, the three things that come to mind. I mean, we’re looking at flares from and Ressa getting off the ball, put in the big in space where they’re usually not comfortable in gaps. They’re going to drop too low or they’re trying to navigate an action that how many times do they rep, you know, chasing a flare screen. Then also these dribble pitches, whether on or off the ball, whether the bigs defending the ball and their matchup’s going into a dribble pitch. So now can they, of course, stay in front of the ball and then switch out on the pitch or contest or vice versa, where the mismatch gets off the ball. So now the big is getting like gap helpers synced off and you drive right out the big and again, it’s how well can the big communicate, go back to critical communication, how well can they talk through this? So flares, these different kinds of pitches, whether on the ball, off the ball, and then this year, especially kind of tying it into, we call it Clyde clears, but this Clyde spacing or these slide cutting actions, which I think is also just like sweeping Europe and everywhere with middle penetrate. And what I mean is by middle penetration to a two or more side with a baseline cut, and let’s say the 45 drifting corner to really isolate that nail help and kind of put him in space. So the same theory holds teams get a switch, they get off the ball. They’re going to drive right back at that big, but they’re going to cut the corner behind empty out the side and they’re going to drift. And then you’re seeing just the bigs and long close outs. So situations are, I mean, honestly, just catch and shoot threes for the guard who has the mismatch on them drifting corner and not to mention then, you know, then it’s like back doors too. If they teams that are getting all right, they’re sitting on it now, they know the action’s coming, but now the big has to defend speed in space. And so then that’s when they get back doors, open up.
Pat 22:43
So those are the three things, especially like Clyde clears that I’ve really enjoyed watching and shout out Valencia and Adrian Martinez, if coaches want to study it more, especially now as they’re entering the Euro league playoffs, like I think they’re going to see a ton of switch and I’m sure they’re going to be doing it all the time. Not to mention the ghost screens that I think they’re good at as all those teams in the past have been good at.
So I’ll leave it there. I mean, I can talk about all the actions, but just how teams are thinking about putting a big in space off the ball and attacking them is what I really like putting the video together and studying over the last couple of years.
Dan 23:18
Real quick plug for any of those, we do now have that full compilation video on SGTV. So all the stuff we’re talking about right now, if people want to see that, go to SGTV because we’ve got the compilation video, but I think we put a collection together of all the deeper dives we’ve done on each specific concept over the years together as well. So just pause for, you know, if you’re listening and intrigued at all, we’ve got that whole video for you.
Eric Fawcett 23:42
Yeah, what a great one to start with if you are yet to subscribe because it does feel like this was the culmination of a lot of years of great work. And once you see this, you’ll see all kinds of other tremendous content and more tremendous content coming every week.
But for me, watching the video, the presentation on the whole, the thing that just struck me about the way that the European game reacts to the switch is that it’s just so seamless getting into whatever the switch attack is. And it feels like even within the flow of the offense, if there’s a switch, it’s not like, okay, flip the switch, hit the switch button, let’s back it out and get whatever it is they get into it so quickly. And the first part of the presentation where there was some of the attack directly, that’s maybe the extreme example, but even the secondary actions, it just seemed like whether it’s immediately getting to a spacing that allows the ghost to come from the right corner, like we saw from Valencia, whether it’s the spacing of the court is such that we might try to drive the wake. And if we’re going towards the two side, it’s the Clyde cutting, whatever it is, I felt like that was the through line through all the different concepts was, hey, switching is here to stay. Like you said, Patrick, that’s not going away. I don’t think it’s good enough anymore to be like, oh, okay, like let’s stop what we’re doing once we get a switch, let’s back it out and maybe get into the boomerang stampede, which can still be good. I just feel like sometimes it feels like that’s where switching is so effective is when you can take the opponent out of what they’re doing. And I love seeing how all these teams in Europe, it’s not a counter anymore. It’s just like, this is the base coverage for so many teams, then offenses need to be prepared for it as a base coverage they’re going to face. So that was kind of my takeaway.
But you know, Dan, you had all kinds of conversations with coaches, so I’m curious what you heard about this.
Dan 25:21
I think what’s interesting and what I really enjoyed as you’re starting to put the presentation together and go back through all this stuff and sort of starting to figure out the theme and the through line of stuff is if you just look holistically, why does a team switch on defense in the first place? And a lot of times it’s to just keep yourself out of rotations, to not have to play five on four, four on three.
And I thought when you look at all these things together, these are just ways that the offense starts to tip the scales back and say, that’s fine, you can switch, but we’re still gonna create a closeout some way, somehow, and it’s not just our best player taking your mismatch off the bounce every time. We’re gonna get a closeout somewhere. I think that was something we talked about a lot during the presentation and then after was these aren’t things where you’re just getting wide open baskets every time. Oftentimes these are things where you’re just creating a longer closeout with a mismatch. I mean, that’s the whole point of offense. You create a closeout somewhere and now you can play advantage basketball. And I think that was like the fun part putting that all together is instead of switching, becoming something that as a coach on the offensive side, you’re just scared of in a sense, which I mean, we still always are. These are actions that I felt like an offense can look at like, well, we’re just gonna use that switch to weaponize our offense, not freak us out. And we’re gonna create a closeout and here’s how. And I’ll just take it one step further. I don’t wanna get ahead of ourselves. We did a deep dive on sort of these full court horns actions and staggers and stack or Spain actions where they’re coming way out to half quarter beyond and kind of like the total basketball thing. I think when you watch that, one of the things is a benefit is I think that it forces an earlier switch and offense is saying, listen, we’re not gonna wait till you switch at eight seconds and then do this. We’re gonna force a switch in the first 20 seconds. And then we’re gonna spend 20 seconds trading that advantage and that closeout and really put the defense in a situation where like, what are you gonna do now? And I think some of these things, I feel like give the offense ways to feel more in control over how they attack as scary as a good switching team can be.
Pat 27:18
The last point I’ll make and what you guys hit is I just think the teams that do it really well are so comfortable in their spacing. And so I think that’s what contributes to the seamlessness, you know, maybe they’ll identify the one to secondary actions that work for them, but they always know what spacing they’re going to end up in when the switch happens.
So there is no surprise or like you said, Eric, we need to back it out and balance the floor. It’s just like, Oh, it happens. We’re in, they know the spacing, they know where the two sides coming from. They know if it’s coming from that right corner, you know, it’s just, you’ll see them make the play call and they go right into it. So the big, before he knows what’s happening, he’s being put in this action. And that’s probably like the foundational piece of the through line too, is just, yeah, these spacings are so common for these guys. And I always go back to like, of course, talk about this total basketball, but with coach Tabellini, or when we had coach Tiago splitter, he talked about it, like they’re just playing out of this one spacing all the time, and just getting so good at it, that then they can really scale the pace of it and the seamlessness of it.
Dan 28:14
Yeah, Pat, to add to your point and Eric kind of mentioned the spacing was big because that’s the through line of a lot of these things. And I think the other thing that the conversations I had with coaches after the presentation for the rest of the final four, that was interesting.
And then going through the videos that it crystallizes as well as not every switch is created equal. So sometimes you get a switch in the mismatches that your player is a great shooter, but not a great driver. So it’s like, well, you can’t just throw it to them and have them cook or something to make a play, right? Or you get a switch and your player is pretty good out of the high post. It’s like a four or low post. So not everything is a switch. Here’s a speedy ball handler. We’re getting in the paint. We’re making a play. It’s like, oh, we got to switch. Their five is on our three and our three can really shoot it, but they can’t really take them off the bounce. So here were a couple like the dribble pitches, the Clyde clears where they’re like, I can weaponize this mismatch with a shooter in a similar way to a ball handler or to like a high post catch. And I think that was where some of the interesting conversations I had like in the terrace and the hallways of the final four were like, Oh yeah, we did this with our player similarly, or we did this with a shooter. And I think that was what was fun too, is like the extra conversations coming out of it.
Eric Fawcett 29:27
that does seem to be kind of the next level beyond some of the stuff on the ball is like, okay, well, what is the reaction of the other three defenders within a switch coverage in kind of how they generally are going to want to like suck into the paint and really start to sit in the gaps and take away those drives. So the way that the collides cuts and moving that way. And so I love that idea about like, how do we weaponize a shooter within kind of the switch structure and not just make it the guy with the ball in his hands. And I think that that’ll also lead into probably a summer of study for us and starting to talk about some of the switching off the ball and how that can mess us up and what we can do there.
And it almost was quite fitting for those of you who maybe don’t watch college basketball, the team that won the division one national championship was Michigan, a team that pretty much switches everything one to four going up against a team in Connecticut, who runs a lot of complex off ball action that we have even recently talked about on SG plus. And just kind of seeing that butt into each other was a perfect setting, I thought just coming a couple of days after your presentation, but that seems like the switching is certainly here to stay. And it’s going to be something that we continue to talk about on the site.