Defensive Identity Basketball: Choosing What Your Team Will Be

Defensive identity in basketball is a program's answer to one question: what kind of defensive team are we? The answer is a short set of choices (deny or pack, switch or fight, which way to send the ball, when to press, man or zone, crash or get back) plus the words, numbers and standards a staff uses to make those choices the team's habit.

Make those choices before the first practice. Coaches do not agree on which choices are right, so this page lays out each fork and who teaches each answer. The defenses themselves are on types of defense in basketball. It sits in the coaching section.

Defensive Identity Basketball Starts Before Practice

A coach should be able to state one thing about his offense, one about his defense and one mental standard. Three coaches start the work with a question or a rule.

• Ask how you want to win. Kelvin Sampson opens a clinic talk with it.
• Ask which style is your best. Mike Fratello also asks which stats you care about.
• Stay with one coverage family. Quin Snyder says not to abandon it just because it is going badly.

Coaches describe the identity in three ways.

• By what it takes away. Ettore Messina's three non-negotiables are no fast-break layups, no offensive rebounds and no open threes. Lawrence Frank's 2010 list is no layups, no free throws, no open threes.
• By a standard for every trip. The goal is one contested shot each trip, with no layups, no second shots and no rhythm shots. Tubby Smith's list is no layups, no second shots and contest every shot.
• By ranked priorities. Rank ball pressure, rotation, basket protection and rebounding. Don Meyer ranks team, rebounding, defense, offense, with rebounding above defense because it happens on both ends.

Not fouling can be part of it. Bo Ryan's 2015 Wisconsin team averaged 12 fouls a game, and Hubie Brown's first rule is never foul a jump shooter.

Fit matters too. On forcing middle or baseline, the talent on hand decides it, so learn both. Brad Stevens pressures more with an athletic edge and tries to trick the offense without one. Dick Bennett picks offensive sets that keep defensive balance, a 2-3 high or 4-out 1-in, and avoids 1-4 low and the flex.

Say your identity in one sentence before the first practice.

Deny One Pass Away or Pack the Gaps

Ettore Messina says the choice reorganizes every defensive relationship on the floor.

Deny one pass away, a pressure identity. X1 pressures the ball, X2 and X3 deny the wings up the line, and X4 and X5, two passes away, protect the basket.

Pack the gaps. X1 pressures the ball and the other four sit in the gaps inside a line about 16 feet from the rim. Nobody denies the wings.

• Pack the gaps. One defender pressures the ball and four sit inside a line about 16 feet out. No perimeter denial. Dick Bennett and Chris Mack at Xavier pack the gaps, and a 17-foot line and a "not a denial team" approach are also on record. Kelvin Sampson does not deny the wing, so he never gets back-cut.
• Pressure and deny. Play the ball hard, deny one pass away and protect the basket two passes away. A plain deny, an on-the-line-and-up-the-line denial (no reversal pass) and Tubby Smith's deny in a boxer stance all fit here.
• Switch between them on a trigger. Pack most of the time, deny on a cue. The pack line jumps everyone out to deny when the dribble is picked up. A set line can decide it, ignoring catches beyond the line and pressuring inside it. A color can call the level: contain, total denial, or a foot in the lane.

Do not mix the two without clear rules, because the defense breaks down. Whichever way a team goes, the one-pass-away defender has the same job: be able to stop the drive and close out to his man on the pass.

• Play off the distance. The farther his man is from the ball, the closer he can play to the ball, because the pass is longer.
• Let the scouting report move him. Against a non-shooter he can sit closer to the ball, against a good shooter closer to his man.
• Stay able to recover. Do not sag so far that you cannot recover on one pass.

Positions by passes away are on ball you man defense.

Decide it before the game, not after the first breakdown.

Pack Line and No-Middle Are Different Identities

Both keep the ball out of the middle. They differ on where the help stands and on what happens when the ball goes baseline.

Force middle, no baseline, the pack line version. X2 takes away the baseline, so 2 drives middle into X1 at the elbow, with X5 and X3 inside the line behind him.

No-middle. X2 keeps his nose on 2's high shoulder and steers him baseline toward the short corner. X4, the low man on the help side, goes to stop the drive.

Force direction is its own choice, and the options on record are these.

• Force the drive middle. Within the pack line, send it into the gap help at the elbows.
• Deny the baseline. Within the pack line, take the baseline without forcing a direction.
• Channel it no-middle. Quin Snyder's no-middle channel.
• Sideline, then baseline. Force the ball that way into a trap.
• Force to spots. Send the ball to spots 18 feet or more from the rim.
• Force the offense's left. Always send it left.
• Force neither way.

The full list is on lock left defense, the pack itself on how to coach pack line defense, and the rotations behind both on help defense principles.

The pack line has weak spots. It does not work without great on-ball defense. The pack line's weaknesses are hot three-point shooting, no shot clock and youth impatience.

Pick the help spot and the direction, then rep the closeout until it is automatic.

Switch Screens or Stay Attached

Pick one screen rule and teach it with one word.

• Switch everything. A pressure system switches every screen on and off the ball with contact, to remove hesitation. Pat Summitt had a call that switched all screens.
• Never switch. Dick Bennett's pack line fights through everything. Kelvin Sampson's Houston does not switch ball screens. The screener's defender contains at the level of the screen, and the trap comes only after the dribble dies.
• Switch by position or screen type. Switch ball screens among the perimeter players but never off-ball screens. Or switch top-of-the-key-to-wing and post-to-post screens but not down screens.
• Switch late, as a disguise. Steve Clifford says switching is best only without a clear mismatch, and uses a late switch as a disguise.

The coverages in detail are on how to defend pick and roll.

Whatever you choose, say the same word every time.

Press as Identity, as a Weapon, or Not at All

Press for a reason you can name.

• Press all game. Vance Walberg presses the whole game to wear down the point guard. A press-first team plays 10 or 11 deep, and the press is only as good as the half-court defense.
• Press to disrupt, not to steal. Billy Donovan judges his press by whether it keeps the other team out of its half-court offense, with no open layups or threes. Hubie Brown says his slower pressing teams succeeded by never trying to steal.
• Press after made baskets. Hubie Brown picked up full court on makes in his situational menu, on top of a man base.
• State a reason first. Ask "why are you pressing?" Being behind late or crowd expectations are not reasons. Nine reasons to press and three costs are on record, with no trapping zone presses for youth teams.
• Do not press. A junior college man-to-man system forced over 30 turnovers a game without pressing.

Press families are on full court press defense, and one pressure man-to-man system is on SOS pressure defense.

Know why you press before you teach how.

Man, Zone or a Menu

• Man almost always. Kelvin Sampson played no zone in 40 games. Chris Mack keeps the pack line the same against every opponent, saying habits are hard to build if the defense changes often.
• Zone as the base. Run an exclusive 1-3-1 for years, with five reasons, or a season-long 2-3 base.
• Man base with a set zone share. Practice 80 to 90 percent man and 10 to 20 percent zone.
• A menu by situation. Hubie Brown would pick up full court on makes, play a 2-2-1 on every foul shot, a 1-3-1 on backcourt dead balls and man on misses. Signal the looks by color.
• A short situational weapon. Box-and-1 and triangle-and-2 suit a top-heavy opponent, run in short bursts.

The zones themselves start at 2-3 zone defense.

Choose the base, then keep it the same every game.

Crash the Glass or Get Back

Crash or get back, split by role. On 2's shot, 3, 4 and 5 go to the glass and 1 and 2 sprint back toward half court.

• Crash. Tom Izzo sends four to the paint and spends at least 15 minutes a day on offensive rebounding.
• Get back. Dick Bennett sends two or three back and accepts no transition layups.
• Split by role. The 3, 4 and 5 go to the glass and the 1 and 2 go back. Each player knows whether he is a crash or get-back player. Trying to do both sets a team up to fail at both.

The get-back side is on transition defense basketball.

Give every player one job on a shot and rep it.

Standards and Numbers

Publish your standard so players can see it. One goal is being the best defensive team in the conference, judged by the published league rankings. Rick Pitino charts deflections, aiming for 17 to 22 by halftime and over 35 for the game. Hubie Brown posts turnovers, steals, blocks and deflections at halftime.

• Points per quarter, tight. 8 to 10 points allowed per quarter (high school).
• Points per quarter, looser. 12 or fewer points per quarter (high school).
• Hubie Brown. 25 points per quarter, 20 forced turnovers, 10 steals, 7 deflections per quarter, opponents at 40 or 42 percent from the floor (NBA).
• Rick Pitino. 17 to 22 deflections at halftime, over 35 for the game (college).
• Chris Mack. Every competitive drill won by consecutive stops, usually three (college).
• Tubby Smith. A halftime stat: percent of shots contested (college).

A stop is not finished until the rebound. A stop is a possession with no score, ended by a turnover or a defensive rebound, and finishing the play with the rebound is a pillar of its own.

Pick one number, post it and chart it where players can see it.

Making It Stick Over a Season

• One language. Steve Clifford's test is whether players talk the coach's language to each other. Leonard Hamilton teaches 50 to 60 terms over six weeks with a written checklist. Define terms before the season, such as Blue for a switch and Red for a double, with hand signals.
• A name can change a behavior. Quin Snyder says the sillier the name, the more players remember it. Renaming a long closeout from "cold" to "bluff" fixed it, because players had heard "dare him to shoot."
• What you emphasize and what you tolerate. Kelvin Sampson says you achieve what you emphasize. Bob Knight is credited with the other half: they will do what you tolerate.
• The best player meets the standard. The top scorer must meet the charge and floor-dive standard or it collapses program-wide. Vance Walberg benches a star who will not work.
• Practice time shows the real identity. Thad Matta begins practice with 75 percent defense. Run defense on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Chris Mack tapes the pack line on the floor every day.
• Install from 1 on 1 up. Build from 1-on-1 to 5-on-5. Zeljko Obradovic installs only two or three new concepts per side in preseason.
• Check before you change it. Ask three questions before changing a scheme midseason: are we doing what we practiced, doing it well enough, doing it hard enough? Only if all three are yes does the scheme change.

The culture work around it is on how to build a basketball program, and the closeout habit every one of these identities needs is on closeout basketball.

What you repeat and what you allow becomes the identity.

More Core Coaching Guides

• Last Second Basketball Plays: Full Court, 3/4 and Side Out
• Free Throw Alignments in Basketball: Lane Spots and Box Outs
• Jump Ball Plays and Alignments: Opening Tip and Defensive Looks
• How to Run an Effective Basketball Practice: Plan, Pace, Score

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