4-Out 1-In Motion Offense: Combining Princeton & Dribble Drive Concepts to Slice & Dice Half-Court Defenses

with Jamie Dixon, Texas Christian University Head Men's Coach;
2017 NIT Champions;
University of Pittsburgh Head Coach from 2003 to 2016;
2011 Sporting News Coach of the Year;
2010 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year;
2009 Naismith College Coach of the Year;
2x Big East Regular Season Championships (2004, 2011);
2009 USA Basketball U-19 Team Head Coach (FIBA World Championship - Gold Medal)

In this terrific, informative video, Jamie Dixon guides you through his half-court offense – playing without a traditional back to the basketball post player. You will learn basic actions and drives from the wing, baseline, lane line, the nail drive and more! Using concepts taken from both the Princeton Offense and the Dribble Drive Motion Offense, you will see how Dixon’s teams have become one of the more dominant offensive programs in college basketball today!

Basic Setup, Half-Court Actions

To begin this video, Coach Dixon showcases a ‘chin’ setup – demonstrating how having your post player start on the low block and moving to the high post, coaches can construct a simple 4-out motion offense. You will learn how to position your guards in the deep corners and other two guards on the lane line to help create more space for driving angles and paint touches. Dixon explains how this strategy instantly places your opponents into recovery mode, by playing at a disadvantage. 

By taking the Princeton Offense setup and combining it with the attacking style of the Dribble Drive, Coach Dixon explains why it creates a dynamic, nearly unstoppable offense. 

With a basic setup and responsibilities set, Dixon’s next step is to show viewers how adding different scoring actions makes your players feel confident. This is done by building on concepts taken from the Dribble Drive Motion Offense.

Coach Dixon demonstrates 3 different drives: 1) baseline drive, 2) elbow drive, and 3) nail drive. Each of these drives places more pressure on the defense and requires your players to maintain their spacing as to not bring another defender over to help and stop a drive. 

In ‘Baseline Drive,’ Coach Dixon shows how to create a scramble situation on the defense leading to open shooters and divers to the basket, who are looking for an easy scoring opportunity. With an ‘Elbow Drive,’ Dixon shows how players must recognize when they get too deep to pass the ball – but instead, must become aware of getting just deep enough to draw a help-side defender. 

In the ‘Nail Drive,’ Coach Dixon shows how to create a stampede drive and open the floor for your shooters to get an open 3-point shot or hitting a post player inside to get an easy bucket around the rim. Players will love to attack the rim and open up a scoring opportunity for their teammates, utilizing Nail actions. 

Ball-Screen Actions, Dribble Handoffs

With any offense to be successful, incorporating ball screens is a must. In this section, Coach Dixon shows how to make the 4-Out 1-In Motion Offense even more effective, by utilizing different ball-screen actions and dribble-handoff actions to get a scoring opportunity. 

Coach Dixon offers an inside look on using ball reversals to get a quality post feed entry opportunity. For perimeter players, he shows ‘Jet Cut’ actions and cutting to the basket while looking for a handoff. Post players can read the defense and give up the ball or use ‘Fan Out’ actions to skip the ball, opening the floor up even more.  

An option that has become more and more popular within a half-court offense in today’s game is the dribble handoff coming out of the post or ‘Grenade’ action. Coach Dixon shows how to execute this amazing action, as a hard-to-guard action that defenders will struggle to even switch on without fouling. 

Adapting to the defense and having your post player move around is becoming more popular in today’s game. Knowing how to spread the floor, create attacking actions and incorporate ball screens are the ingredients needed to make an unstoppable offense. Throw in Princeton Offense setup and Dribble Drive concepts and now you have created a new style of play!

Coaches Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.‘Love this video by Jamie Dixon! This style of play gives your players freedom and you, as the coach, the ability to still maintain control of the game with half court sets.’ 

69 minutes, 2023.