Coaches’ Corner- Late Game- Inbounding Ball vs Denial Defense

Every coach and every team wants to be in this situation…

End of season championship game, loser goes home. 

Up 2 with only 7 seconds left.

You are shooting double bonus.

Your ball out of bounds. 

Get it in, make two free throws. 

Celebrate!!

This is a situation you MUST be prepared for, and you have a plan for. How do you get the ball inbounds when the other team is going to deny the ball inbounds?  How do you get it to your best free throw shooters?

Classic 2 Guards Up, Posts At Half-Court

Figure 1- Guard closest to the ball will be the screener. In this case, they screen and roll back.

Figure 2- Screening guard starts to screen but slips before getting there.

Figure 3- Cutter refuses the screen, and screener goes back to the ball. 

Figure 4- Screener screens, cutter curls and screens for the screener.

Figure 5- Posts at half-court count to 2 then cut.

Big-Little Tandem

Figure 1- This alignment is intended to make a guard defender and post defender handle either a cut as in this case. 

Figure 2- Or handle a screen as in this play. The weakness of this strategy is that late the opponent might choose to play all guards. If you have a post who can shoot free throws, it can be a good strategy to get it into a post when a smaller guard switches onto them. 

1 Man Only

Figure 1- The idea of this strategy is to give your most athletic player, your point guard or your best free throw shooter space to get open. The players at half-court will react and cut into open areas. 

Gamble- Go Long

Figure 1- Two players up, and two players at half-court. The players at half-court break to the ball. The player closest to the ball will start to screen, then slip and go long. 

Four Across

Figure 1- Players lineup across the ft line and ft line extended. The coach can decide who they want to place where. As the inbounder looks at the player, they are numbered 1 thru 4 from left to right. The coach calls out two numbers- the first number is who will take off long, the second number will cut off the two who are left. When the cutter goes off the screen, the screeners always break to the baseline.

Football Lineup

Figure 1- The players all line up on the baseline. They put their heels on the baseline or stand out of bounds. 

Figure 2- In this set, all four players start running down the floor. The player on the sideline closest to the inbounder plants after going 3 steps and cuts straight across the court. The two in the middle run to ft line then come back with an X off each other. The fourth keeps going. 

Figure 3- In this set, one player is going to plant and go across the court. One player will plant at top of key and come back. And third will run to ft line extended then cross the court. Obviously you can come up with your own plays. 

Pass and Cut

Figure 1- If it is after a made basket, the inbounder passes to another player who is out of bounds and then cuts toward the ball. 

Best Out of Bounds Play

Pick out your best out of bounds play. It doesn’t have to be the best to score but the best to get someone open. Remind the players not to shoot the ball if they get it- they are at the wrong basket.