B

 

 

Diagram 3. The guards shift in the direction arrows point in A. Players’ position after

 

for FEBRUARY, 1939

shifting are shown in B.

THE INCORRECT WAY TO PLAY ONE
AGAINST TWO

Illustration 18 shows the guard turning his
back to the man without the ball.

Illustration 19—The right arm and leg are
extended instead of the left.

Illustration 20—When the man _hook-
passes, the guard does not have enough time
to get back.

Illustrations 21-24—In guarding two men,
the player is violating the primary principle
of retreating, feinting and jockeying between
them; he is charging (Illustration 23) toward
the man with the ball.

 

cept any cross-court pass. Note that the
man with the ball cannot get an easy shot
nor can he make a cross-court pass with-
out the danger of an interception. If he
passes back to the center man, 1 advances
to cover him and:2 shifts to a position
under the basket. Guard 1 always covers
the center man when he has the ball.
Guard 2 always plays under the basket
when the center man has the ball. When
a pass is made to either side, guard 1
faces the ball as he retreats in the opposite
direction and watches for a cross-court
pass. Guard 2 always covers the side man
who has the ball, being careful to come out
no more than 10 or 12 feet from the
basket. If neither side man has the ball,
guard 2 plays under the basket, so that he
can shift to either side when the ball is
being passed. :

One Against Two

The problem of a guard who must
cover two men charging down upon him
is mainly one of forcing the men to pro-
ceed at a slower pace. The best way to
do this is for him to get the dribbler to
stop the dribble.

The guard should stay between the men
and retreat by taking short steps back-
ward. His attention should be concen-
trated on the dribble but he must remain
in a position to drop back to the basket
at all times. Many times the dribbler
will stop if the guard feints as though he
were going to charge the dribbler or suck

in toward him. When the dribbler stops, —

 

the guard has gained a few precious sec-
onds for his team mates to come back to
help him. Many times it is advisable for
the guard to slap his foot on the floor as
he feints his charge, because many drib-
blers concentrate so much on the ball that
they do not see these feints.

If these movements do not give the
players sufficient time to get back on de-
fense, then the guard should retreat to a
spot underneath the basket. If the drib-
bler or man with the ball is on the left,
the guard should shift laterally to the left,
keeping his back parallel to the back-
board, and extend his left foot and left
arm to block the shot, as shown in Illus-
trations 13, 14, 15 and 16.

If this man, instead of shooting, hook-
passes to the man on the right, the guard
should shift laterally to the right, keeping
his back parallel to the board and extend-
ing his right foot and right arm to block
the shot.

The worst mistake, and a very common
mistake, is shown in Illustrations 18 and

(Continued on page 43)