The guard movement of Louisville against the zone

If you saw the Louisville – Syracuse game today, you saw a clinic put on by Louisville on offense for the first 25 minutes or so. I thought Doris Burke did a great job of breaking down why they were having success, including showing the patience by the team and getting the ball to the middle of the zone.

One thing I want to focus on is the movement by the perimeter players.  Sometimes I will see an offense space the three guards well around the three point line but they will simply pass the ball around, while at a stand still. This makes them easy to guard and renders the offense less effective as the defense does not have to move far to guard the offense.

Louisville did an excellent job of moving their guards around and it got them plenty of open looks from beyond the arc. I wanted to highlight a few possessions where they did this exceptionally well.

Off the ball movement: Ball in the post

This post will touch on what players should do when the ball is in the post. While sometimes it is fine to stand and watch the post man go to work, some off the ball action can give the post player more options and more openings to create for himself.

There are basically two options that offensive players have once the ball is entered into the post: Dive from the high post or relocate to a new spot. Let’s look at these after the break.