James Jones: Defending Off-the-Ball Screens & Low-Post Actions, Half-Court Offense Sets, Drills for Half-Court Defense & More!

with James Jones,
Yale University Head Men's Coach;
2026 Ivy League Co-Coaching Staff of the Year;
2026 Joe Lapchick Character Award;
8x Ivy League Regular Season Champions (2002, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2025, 2026);
4x Ivy League Tournament Champions (2019, 2022, 2024, 2025);
4x Ivy League Coach of the Year (2015, 2016, 2020, 2023);
2x Ben Jobe Coach of the Year Award (2019, 2025);
2025 Coaches vs. Cancer Inspiration Award;
NABC Board of Directors;
2016 Hugh Durham Award;
2016 USBWA District 1 Coach of the Year;
2016 Advocates for Athletic Equity D-I Coach of the Year;
2016 NSMA's Big House Gaines Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year;
2014 CollegeSportsMadness.com Ivy League Coach of the Year;
Winningest Yale basketball coach ever;
Over 400 career coaching wins;
Member of the 2007 USA Basketball Men's Pan American Games Coaching Staff;
played college basketball for Albany

In this Open Practice instructional coaching video, Yale’s James Jones opens his gymnasium doors for all the coaches out there and provides an in-depth examination of how he runs his practices.

Known as an innovative and cerebral coaching mind at the collegiate level, Coach Jones provides a high-energy, comprehensive look at how he builds his team from the start of the season.Jones begins by showcasing multiple warm-up drills to set the tone with a high-level of intensity - to mentally and physically prepare his players to compete in a highly productive practice!

Moving through the practice, you’ll watch as Jones builds half-court man-to-man sets in his half court offenses, which leads into a segment of 5-on-5 situations. From there, the players break down 1-on-1 situations that build on-the-ball defense inside the paint.  

Defense: Shell Drill & Defensive Breakdown

On the defensive side, Coach Jones breaks down the intricacies of his defense with a 4-on-4  shell drill that reinforce the principles of his system  He moves into half-court defensive breakdowns on defending low-post actions and off-the-ball screening actions.

During all defensive drills, Jones emphasizes great communication as ‘the key’ to maintaining a gap-mentality defense.  To finish off the defensive segment, Jones showcases a favorite drill he uses to improve a player’s ability to take charges in the post.  

Transition Offense & Dummy Offense

Coach Jones shares a transition segment designed to build up to a 5-on-5 transition offense. For now, the primary focus of the drill is that it builds the offensive side, but for the defensive side of the ball, it’s also a great drill for creating 5-on-4 disadvantage-advantage situations. 

Jones moves on to a Dummy Offense – working on a variety of sets, including two effective scoring options called ‘Cutter’ and ‘Charlotte.’ 

After the Dummy breakdown, Coach Jones leads his team through a variety of 5-on- breakdowns.  

Coach Jones stresses the importance of basketball being one of the most-pure team games in all of sports. Throughout this valuable Open Practice, Coach Jones proves how strongly he believes in the tenets of team play – taking you through many drills and coaching points that accentuate needing all of your teammates in sync to succeed on the court. Through an explanation of his motion offense, to demonstrations on how to properly execute his Gap help defense, Coach James Jones sends home a message that to be a strong team, you must play as a team and utilize top-notch communication on the floor at all time!

113 minutes. 2023.