Friday, May 10, 2013

Want to Test How Effective Your Man-to-Man Defense is? Track THESE 4 Stats!


This post is from our friends at Breakthrough Basketball, written by Kevin Germany. Breakthrough Basketball has continued to sponsor The Sweet Spot and provide us with a ton of useful information. A special thanks to Tonya, Jeff, Joe, and of course Kevin. Enjoy.

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4 Key Stats For High School Man-to-Man Defense
By Kevin Germany
From my experiences playing, coaching, and officiating high school basketball, I have learned that a team has a great defense if they excel in the following categories: deflections, recoveries, offensive rebounds allowed, and points in the paint allowed (DROP). The “DROP” acronym is designed to be an indicator of how well your team is playing on defense. Its purpose is to reduce the quantity and quality of your opponent’s shot attempts. 

Statistic #1: Deflections
Recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Rick Pitino is a staunch advocate for deflections. Pitino believes that deflections are an indicator of how hard your defense is playing. Keeping track of deflections for both you and your opponent can be very important. A high number of deflections means that your team is playing the passing lanes along with disrupting the opponent’s offensive rhythm.

Statistic #2: Recoveries
Great defensive teams are always able to quickly recover to the ball in order to cut off driving and passing lanes. The Miami Heat uses their tremendous team speed to quickly recover to the ball. The Heat often makes their opponents take difficult shots as a result of crisp and precise rotations. Crisp and precise rotations cannot be made without sufficient recovery speed. 
I recommend tracking recoveries to see how well your defense is playing. You will find that the quality of your opponent’s shot attempts will typically decrease if the total number of your team’s recoveries increases.
           
Statistic #3: Offensive Rebounds Allowed
            Giving up offensive rebounds is extremely demoralizing to any defense. Your team’s hard work is completely destroyed if your opponent grabs an offensive rebound. Allowing more offensive rebounds causes more free throws and layups for your opponents.
             Inspire and motivate your players to grab every single rebound on defense. Allocate time for rebounding drills during practice. Keep in mind snagging a defensive rebound is the only guaranteed way to get a stop. Wichita State reached the Final Four in part due to their rebounding prowess.

Statistic #4: Points in the Paint Allowed
The easiest way to score is to make layups. The three easiest ways to make layups are off fast breaks, penetration, and offensive rebounds. Any great defense can be shattered if an offense can find a way to get into the paint via the dribble or the pass. 
Therefore, focus on forcing your opponents to take shots outside of the paint. Not giving up a lot of points in the paint means that your opponents are taking more outside shots. Teams that rely on outside shots are more apt to undergo cold spells during the course of the game.
Be sure to track points in the paint for each game. You will find that teams that tend to have more points in the paint are more consistent offensively. Ideally, you want to force your opponent into taking long two pointers.

Concerned that your program may not be able to keep these stats? Breakthrough has a basketball stats app that can track the DROP statistical pattern along with countless other stats. It is far more efficient to monitor these stats via an app rather than to assign a student, a parent or a school official to do it by hand. You can customize the app to suit any statistical database necessary.




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