basketball sins can be covered up in a
strong team defense, where a good defen-
sive player might help a poor one. If
this defense is spread, it cannot hold up,
due to individual weaknesses.

The Break from Offense to Defense:
A quick reaction to the loss of the ball
and the ability to get back on defense
quickly is one of the first fundamentals.
This break cannot be as fast as the offen-
sive break because of the starting posi-
tions of the men. By stressing this fun-
damental, however, in practice through
team play and talking, it may be devel-
oped efficiently.

Formation of Defensive Lines and_ Po-
sitions: The placement of the players in
the defense is predetermined in some cases
by the requirements of the position. Big
men are immediately placed in the back
line for rebound duty, while the smaller
and faster men are placed in the front
line for various reasons. The man sag-
ging off in the front line should be smart,
a good ball “hawk”, a good rebounder on
long rebounds, a good passer, and drib-
bler. Tall active men are best suited for
this position.

The front line defense is placed at vary-
ing distances from the center line, accord-
ing to the ideas of the coach, his material,
and the opponents’ offense. Some front
lines are even with the front line, some
three feet in front, others half way, and
still others all the way to the center line.

Alternating Defenses

The policy on alternating defenses has
great’ psychological and practical possi-
bilities. Members of the Northern Divi-
sion of the Pacific Coast Basketball Con-
ference are a progressive group in the use
of many defenses. A coach in that con-
ference never knows what kind of defense
he well meet in the next game. The Stan-
ford team has used as many as three de-
fenses in one game. In three games at
Kansas City last March, we used a zone
defense against Rice, a shifting man-to-

10

 

 

 

 

 

Diagram 2.

Showing position of man-to-
man defense with the ball at (B).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diagram 3. Showing position of man-to-
. man defense with ball at (B).
D
O
td [J
Ea EJ
Diagram 4. Showing position of man-to-

man defense with ball at (B).

 

man against Colorado, and an assigned
man-to-man with necessary — shifting
against Dartmouth. We may not have
played each defense equally well, but I
believe we gained more than we lost by
changing our defenses. It is not advisable
to follow this policy unless the players
are fairly experienced.

The Assigned Man-to-Man Defense

In our discussion of defense, no effort
will be made to cover all defenses as one
would for a text book. Instead, we will
try to cover only those defenses which
we have used in recent years. The fol-
lowing is a description in detail of the
features of the assigned man-to-man de-
fense. After we have had practice on most
of the individual fundamentals, we are
then ready to assemble the defense as a
team unit.

The type of defense we have used a
ereat deal is the assigned man-to-man de-
fense with zone principle. Experience has
proved it a reliable and all-purpose de-
fense.

Execution: Since the players have had
considerable practice in 2 versus 2 and 3
versus 3 offensive and defensive practice,
it is easier to put together the team de-
fense with its phases of team play. We
try to show them these phases by placing
a regular defense against a dummy offense.
We familiarize the defense with the pass-
ing lanes and show how the defense must
change position with each pass, in order
to close those lanes partially or com-
pletely. As the ball moves around the
“horn”,*all players shift and change posi-
tion with each pass very much as in the
zone, hence the zone principle attachment
to the name. Diagrams 2, 3 and 4 show
various positions of the defense according
to the locations of the ball. B indicates
the position of the ball. The weak-side
guard and forward drop off as much as in
a regular zone. The use of hands and
arms should be the same. Talking by the
back line and, especially, by the center

THE ATHLETIC JOURNAL