Dave Richman: Complete Guide to Man-to-Man Defense & Ball-Screen Coverages

North Dakota State’s Dave Richman has consistently had one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. In this video, Coach Richman shines the spotlight on his favorite, go-to defensive drills that he uses to build a rock-solid foundation of defense, based on proven principles and proper technique.

Utilizing demonstrations that range from 1-on-1 defense to a wide variety of ball-screen coverages, Richman breaks down high-level defensive concepts into an easy-to-teach, easy-to-learn format that you can immediately add to your own program!

Defensive Principles, Winning Habits + Transition Defense

Being great on defense is a challenge to every team and requires a commitment from everyone in your program. Consistent defense, strong rebounding and taking care of the basketball are three things that breed sustained success and will make your team tough to beat.  Coach Richman shares details on how to transform your basketball program into one that’s fun for everyone involved – players, coaches and fans – while maintaining a high-degree of hard work and staying true to the tenets of being ‘who you say you are.’ 

Richman then covers the topic of transition defense; in Richman’s view, all games are ultimately won or lost in transition. Coach Richman showcases a drill called ‘3-on-3 Transition,’ which focuses the defense on getting back to the paint and jamming the basketball in transition, forcing it out of the middle of the floor and toward the sideline. In this drill, your team learns how to create a ‘wall’ around the paint by being in the proper gap defense position, while each defender stays ready to help on any drive. 

1-on-1 Defensive Drills, Shell Drills 

The process of building a good defensive team begins with a foundation based in proper individual defense. Coach Richman demonstrates how he teaches defensive closeouts – with an emphasis on defenders staying to the inside shoulder and forcing ball handlers to the sideline or baseline. 

In the ‘TMZ Drill,’ Richman shows how to teach defenders proper closeouts, while holding ground and staying walled-up to players in the paint, ultimately forcing opponents to take tough, contested, low-percentage 2-point shots.

Coach Richman then highlights some of his favorite Shell Drill work, which he says is great for competing, building your defensive principles and to make practices harder than games. 

Richman says that these shell drill segments will also help your offense – providing them with a goal of creating and maintaining proper floor spacing, allowing them to drive to the basket. Conversely, this offensive spacing, forces your defense to dial-in to maintain gap position and block driving lanes.  

In this segment Coach Richman also demonstrates how to use this drill to get your players to compete and force opposing ball handlers to use their outside hand when dribbling. One principle that’s stressed as a priority - defenders must be positioned one-pass-away, while staying in the gap and not digging on the drive, which allows a shooter an open look. According to Richman, staying true to this principle is essential if you’re facing opponents who are high-level jump shooters!

Ball-Screen Defense 

Good ball-screen coverage is critically important to playing high-quality team defense. In this segment, Coach Richman showcases four different defensive techniques that he utilizes to teach defending ball screens.  In ‘Green Coverage,’ players work on fighting over the top of screens, while maintaining drop coverage with their post player to help protect the paint.  

In ‘Roll-and-Replace Coverage,’ Coach Richman showcases the best options for switching post-to-post as your guards go over the top. In ‘Vertical Coverage’ you’ll see examples of how guards can force a ball handler to use their weak hand and create a ‘catastrophic turnover’ – which is a turnover that leads to points for your team.  

Coach Richman has made defense a staple of his programs throughout his coaching career. In this highly valuable instructional video, you will learn all the critical concepts and principles to defending ball screens, playing a true pack-line defense and the secrets to developing a smothering, ball-stopping transition defense.  

This is a must-see defensive coaching video and perfect for coaches at all levels of competition!

Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 Stars. ‘This is a great defensive video with some terrific build-up drills and teaching techniques. Coach Richman forces us to think outside the box when it comes to defending ball screens and shows off principles that coaches can use with their own pack-line defense!’  

75 minutes. 2023.