Inside the Huddle: Down 2 with 12 Seconds to Go- Part 1

This Week’s Question: Your team has the ball out of bounds on the sideline with 12 seconds to go in the game. You are down 2 points. Tell me what you will do. 

Jay Hatch- Riverdale

Do we go for the 2 or the 3?

There are a number of factors that would go into it.  

1. Is my best clutch player a shooter or a slasher?  If they are a shooter - probably go for a 3

2. Have the officials called many fouls on drives?  If not, probably go for a 3

3. Has the game gone in a way that I would be confident we could win in overtime?   Are we on a comeback and really have no business being in the game. - in this situation, I am definitely going for a 3.

4. Have we used any of our special situation plays already in the game?  If so, we might run a counter to one of those. Could be a 2 or a 3 in this case.

5. If the situation is that the other team is switching 1 - 5, I would definitely use action that slips a screen.

Jon Palicki- Resurrection

We will go for the tie or the win.  Whatever the better shot is based on what the defense gives us.  If I feel like its a top team and we may not be able to compete in the OT, we may take the opportunity to win it right there.  Similar to going for 2 in football. 

VS MM

VS ZONE

Zach Keene- Macomb

Below are the diagrams for your first scenario - 

When we are on the road, I always liked to go for the win rather than overtime.  I also have always felt like if we are at home, we can go for the tie and carry momentum with our home crowd into overtime and win it there.  With that being said, I always liked to have a play set up with both options available and let my players make a play on what becomes available.

In this scenario we would run this against a man to man set.  I would put my best shooter in the 3 spot.  The 2 or 4 you can have as either your best rim/contact finisher or scorer or shooter.  You could also put your second best shooter at the 4 spot (these are set for whatever you are comfortable with.)

1 will pass to the 2 and then immediately follow the pass to get the ball back from 2.  2 then will run off a back screen from 5 at the opposite post.  You can also have it look as if you are setting a flair screen which would force the defender to have to go over the top of the screen.  2 should look for a pass from 1 if they are open (while we would like to go for the win on the road, we are going to take what the defense gives us and let players make the play).  

Meanwhile we feel like 3's man has to help in the lane a little with the lob or the cut down the backside of the lane.  As 3's defensive player looks to help, 3 will look to come off the second down screen being set by 5 at the elbow, looking for a 3 point shot near the top of the key.  If 4's man helps off the corner from the right, that would also allow for another shot opportunity from the corner. Again stressing that our players should look to take what is given to them by the defense.

Mike Jaskoski- Indianapolis Cathedral (Retired)

Looking for best shot whether it's a 2 or 3. Emphasize that 1 should be aware of switches and be prepared to dump the ball to one of the screeners.