Jim Larranaga's Approach to Teaching Offense & Defense

with Jim Larranaga,
University of Miami Head Men's Coach from 2011 to 2024;
2023 Final Four;
2x ACC Coach of the Year;
2013 AP College Basketball Coach of the Year;
2013 Naismith College Coach of the Year;
2013 Henry Iba Award;
2013 Adolph Rupp Cup;
2013 ACC Regular Season and ACC Tournament Champions;
George Mason University Head Coach from 1997 to 2011;
2006 Final Four with George Mason;
2006 Clair Bee Coach of the Year

This inside look at a Jim Larranaga basketball practice will offer you a glimpse of his offensive and defensive playbooks, in addition to the drills he uses to develop his players. You will get a chance to see skill development drills, nine different plays to incorporate into a ball screen offense or inbound situations, plus defensive strategies for success that will improve your team regardless of the system you run!

Offense

Learn how to develop players with confident dribbling skills using four drills you can run in your practices. The "Steph Curry Warm-Up" runs players through a sequence of stationary ball handling drills that can be performed daily for drastic improvement over the course of a season. The "Baseline to Baseline" and "Cone Dribbling" drills challenge players to perform on the move. The "Seven Seconds" drill progresses to 1-on-1 play that will give your dribblers a game-like challenge trying to breakdown a defender.

Three additional drills work on various phases of your team's perimeter shooting skills. The "Floaters & Runners" drill will teach your players how to finish over shot blockers anchored at the rim. The "6 in a Row" drill is an excellent form shooting drill that teaches athletes proper shooting footwork on the move while also providing shots from multiple distances on the court. Finally, the "2-on-1" drill is a fantastic breakdown drill for teaching players to read closeout situations for making the extra pass or taking the open shot.

The Hurricanes run through an extensive practice segment that breaks down numerous options within their playbook. You will learn a collection of actions that can be integrated into your high ball screen actions such as dribble hand-offs, hand-backs, rejects, re-screens, splits off post feeds, and more.

"42" features multiple ball screens that present different looks for the defense to cover. The twists to each consecutive ball screen will confuse help responsibilities and provide opportunities for backdoor cuts and other wrinkles to your offense. You will also get a chance to see how to enter into offense with the "Horns" and "Iverson" sets. Coach Larranaga also breaks down the options in four of his inbound plays that will get you quick scoring options within seconds.

Defense

For the defensive portion of this video, Larranaga begins with several progressions of the Shell drill. Through a 4-on-4 variation, you will see how to work on defensive positioning, trapping baseline drives, and cutting off basket cuts. Next, Coach Larranaga combines these concepts to challenge defenders to stopping multiple actions at the same time under conditions that more closely resemble true game conditions.

Using a 5-on-5 alignment, you will learn how to practice doubling the post with both of your bigs. Two variations are demonstrated to help your players learn how to trap through quick repetitions, as well as how to rotate following skip passes.

You will also get a chance to see a well-constructed version of 3-on-3 that will raise the intensity of your practices as players compete. Coach Larranaga focuses on defending the "OKC" action as well as initiating through the Horns alignment. You will also learn how to integrate a scoring system and shot clock to ensure that the tempo through this drill is fast.

Be sure to take advantage of this rare opportunity to observe one of the most accomplished coaches, and one of the great teachers, in college basketball cover both sides of the ball!

81 minutes. 2020.