Chin Series Continuity Offense: Highly Effective Princeton Concepts with Modern Modifications

with Jeff Horner,
Buena Vista University Head Coach;
Truman State University Head Men's Basketball Coach from 2018 to 2025,
2021 Elite Eight;
2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Coach of the Year;
2021 NABC Midwest Region Coach of the Year;
played for the University of Iowa (2002-2006);
played professionally (in Belgium and France and on the Iowa Energy G League team);
in high school (Mason City, IA) was Iowa's 2002 Mr. Basketball and a 3rd team Parade All-American

Jeff Horner takes the classic Princeton Chin Offense and shows off how he’s modernized it for today’s game –  a game where a shot clock and the 3-point line are prominent. The head coach at Truman State says that the success he’s had running this version of the Chin Offense is due to the way it involves everyone on the court and the potential scoring options for various players at any given time – as well as when required, how you can make sure your best player gets the ball when a score is needed. 

This offense is flexible and can be modified to adjust to changes in defensive tactics and the modifications can easily be implemented. 

In this highly informative on-the-court instructional clinic, all sets are demonstrated using 5-on-5 offense vs defense.

Chin Series, Chin Pressures & Chin Doubles

Horner begins by showing viewers the base set in the Chin Offense, where he demonstrates initial positioning and player responsibilities and roles within the offense. This leads to a good transition into the use of dribble hands offs (DHOs) to initiate the actions and the various types of screens that can be used, as well as when the continuity occurs, moments to look for in the high-low action and the best positions on the floor for bigs to post up.

With Chin Pressures, Horner highlights how to tweak and adjust the offense when the opposing defense adapts and tries to take away your DHOs. He also takes time to point out how the Chin Offense is especially tough to stop when you have a perimeter player who can really play and how to effectively use drag screens involving big-to-guard actions to free up additional scoring opportunities.

In Chin Doubles, Horner shows how this option has been extremely successful in getting good, open looks on the perimeter – using staggered screens, and follows it up by covering how to quickly transition back into the Chin set and the best ways to incorporate high-low actions from this look.

Chin Offense Quick Hitters. 

Horner then covers a detailed overview on how to surprise defenses by getting effective quick hitters out of sets that initially look like the Chin is being run. Quick hitters covered here include ‘Early’ – which is designed to get a shot within 5 seconds and features a corner 3 coming off a double-staggered screen.‘Early Back’ is a quick hitting option you can implement when defenses begin to cheat on ‘Early’ – featuring a 3-point opportunity on the same side that the ball is entered to initiate the offense. ‘Early Cross’ is an effective quick hitter that utilizes a cross-post screen and is designed to get your big the ball near the basket for a high-percentage, quick-hitting shot opportunity.

Horner’s version of the Chin Offense is a great fit for any level of basketball. Coaches who appreciate and understand just how effective and tough-to-guard different screens can be, will find this a fascinating and educational video. This offense gets all five players involved and is flexible enough to adapt to any game situation you may encounter!

51 minutes. 2022.