Dodd is right - 100%! For pete's sake, I've seen 5th grade teams do a better fundamental job at adhering to the basics on how to break a full court press. I didn't get home to watch the game until early in the 2nd half, but from about 15 to 5 minutes left UCLA repeatedly did things that you are absolutely positively NOT supposed to do when trying to break a press. And the kicker is that they kept on making the same mistakes over and over again even after they resulted in turnovers. Even though I'm only 25, I have coached grammar school hoops in recent years (and for my team I prefer the more disguised/masked 2 man trap (half or full court) as opposed to the 5 man full court trap). Yes, other college teams are bad at breaking the press, so take this as a reminder Bruins fans and fans of other teams.
So, class for those failing Bruins (in\cluding Love!) is now in session:
YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS - NEVER EVER FORGET THAT
Until we get the ball across half court, all 5 of our guys will be up (in front of half court or darn close) - UCLA often had 2 guys below THEIR OWN 3 point line - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK (ie facing our offensive hoop) UNTIL THE BALL HAS CROSSED HALF COURT
MAKE QUICK DECISIONS - and that includes the guy without the ball, teammates moving a lot to get open helps the ball handler make their decision faster (this includes non ball handlers being ready to get the ball no matter if you're a small or a big - we're gonna work as a team to get that round leather thing across half court in time!)
Passing beats the press, let me rephrase that - CRISP chest passes or over the top passes (the best, but sometimes not possible depending on the opponent). Not bounce passes (which killed UCLA's press breaking last night) and most definitely not too much dribbling. CRISP, POWERFUL Bounce passes (which UCLA wasn't doing) and dribbling can occassionally work, but doing it too much on press breaking will bite you in the ass enough. And UCLA kept on it doing it even after turning it over numerous times that way.
You get the ball - don't stand there OR what I saw Bruins do a lot of: catch a pass up high, stand there and bring it down (but not dribbling or often even not pivoting!), ie giving time for Western Kentucky players to swarm the ball handler and make it even worse (and the not pivoting quickly enough legally allows the defender to claim the space 1st if they get there quickly enough ie gets closer up to the player with the ball)
When possible avoid any of the sidelines, even after crossing half court (you know when you just made it across, but 2-3 defenders can swarm you on the sideline). UCLA did OK in this department (probably more out of luck). BUT one of the goals of the defense when running almost any press (full or half court) is to force the ball to the sidelines or baseline (or half court line if the ball has crossed half court) simply because those lines function as added defenders (ie there are exactly 6 small areas on the court where the lines can function as 2 defenders at once).
Here's the simplest approach: When breaking the press treat the ball as a hot potato so to speak. The longer you hold/dribble it the harder it will be to break the press. And with each and every second that goes off it gets exponentially harder.
That's enough for today. Oh, Ben Howland - all of your practices or talks to your team before the Xavier tipoff should include heavy doses of pounding in these press breaking fundamentals. I'm sure you have or can form some set-ups too.
