Greg McDermott: Special Situations & Offensive Sets

with Greg McDermott,
Creighton University Head Coach from 2010 to 2026;
2020 Big East Coach of the Year;
2020 Big East Regular Season Champions;
2020 NABC Division I All-District Coach Award (District 5);
2018 NABC Coaches vs. Cancer Champions Award;
2013 MVC Regular Season Champions;
3x MVC Tournament Champions;
2011 CBI Championship Runner-up;
Iowa State Head Coach from 2006 to 2010;
Northern Iowa Head Coach from 2001 to 2006;
North Dakota State Head Coach from 2000 to 2001;
2000 NSIC Regular Season Champions;
2000 NSIC Coach of the Year;
Wayne State Head Coach from 1994 to 2000;
2022 Cascade High School (Iowa) Athletic Hall of Fame;
played collegiately for Northern Iowa

Get out your notebook and sharpen a few extra pencils, because this video is loaded with plays that you'll want to install with your team!

In this on-court instructional video, Greg McDermott covers a ton of areas that are sure to help your team with getting necessary buckets, as well as working on essential defensive concepts.

McDermott provides a toolbox of quick-hitting plays against a zone, baseline out of bounds plays, a variety of end-game plays (including some based on limited time on the clock), his favorite transition defense drills, his favorite rebounding drills, and the shell drill he uses each practice. He opens by discussing the need to prepare your team for anything, especially injuries to key positions.

Transition Defense Drills

Coach McDermott is a strong believer in taking easy opportunities in transition away from the opposing team. He shares a couple of transition defense drills that he uses to ensure that his team doesn't give up easy baskets. These drills work on stopping the ball, loading up to the ball side, communicating, and making sure the defense coming from behind flows to the weak side. These drills always end with the defense converting to offense and coming back trying to score.

• 5-on-3 Transition Defense - Communication is key in this drill. McDermott challenges the offense to get a shot off quickly by using a 12 second shot clock.
• 5-on-4 Transition Defense - This simulates teams that don't send their 1 and 2 to the boards. The defense focuses on double-teaming or pinching out during the box out.
• Circle Transition - A great drill for causing match-up issues for the defense. The unpredictable nature of this drill makes communication and purpose of action key.

One huge emphasis that McDermott stresses with all of his drills is they must be game-like. For transition defense, disadvantage drills are useful, but simply going with the disadvantage number isn't game-like. McDermott likes to limit the number of players, but then quickly add them so they eventually match-up evenly.

Quick-Hitters Against a Zone

Coach McDermott provides seven quick-hitting plays to use against a 2-3 zone. He covers ball movement, player movement, timing, screening, and how to seal. These plays contain options for getting a specific player open, 3-point shots from the top, shots from the corner, getting the ball to the high post, and generating low post opportunities. He explains that some of the plays' movements and actions are the same in order to help disguise the true intent.

Out of Bounds and Late Game Set Plays

McDermott shows a series of situational sets against zone and then a series of out of bounds plays to build efficiency out of timeouts and dead balls.

• Baseline Out of Bounds Plays - McDermott shows three plays to get great looks at the hoop. Your bigs will be excited, as each of the plays include a lob option.
• Sideline Out of Bounds - Four sideline out of bounds plays are included. These plays aren't only great for quick looks, but are fantastic for creating mismatches or when you're trying to score late in the game. Plays include slips, elevator screens, and 3-point shots.
• Late Game Plays for 3 - McDermott details three plays that can be used efficiently late in the game, both out of a timeout or on the fly.

Coach McDermott also provides some thoughts and instruction on the standard Shell Drill. However, his additional tweaks and philosophy behind it keeps the action going. With McDermott's version of the Shell Drill, you can realistically review all of your defensive actions in just 5 minutes.

This video is based on the most common questions Coach McDermott gets from other coaches. From key defensive drills to offensive plays, this video contains of wealth of information that would be valuable to any coach's game plan.

Produced at the Spring 2017 Kansas City (MO) Nike Championship Basketball Clinic.

70 minutes. 2017.