Molly Miller: 'Camp Buckets' - Learning the Pistol Offense - Post/Perimeter Breakdown Drills, Actions, Decision-Making & More!

with Molly Miller,
Arizona State University Head Coach;
Grand Canyon University Head Women's Basketball Coach from 2020 to 2025;
2025 WAC Regular Season Champions;
2025 WAC Regular Season Champions;
2025 WAC Tournament Champions;
2023 & 2025 WAC Coach of the Year;
In every season at GCU, Miller's teams have averaged between 10.2 and 13.4 steals/game and have ranked as high as number 4 (in 2023), number 3 (in 2022) and number 2 (in 2021) in the US among all D-I teams;
Drury University Head Coach from 2014 to 2020;
2019 NCAA D II Final Four;
5x Great Lakes Valley Conference Regular Season Champions;
5x Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Champions;
2x WBCA Division II Coach of the Year (2019, 2020);
Undefeated season (32-0) in 2020;
played college basketball for Drury University;
second all time for scoring (1,570 points), assists (439), and steals (407);
2007 Drury Athletics Hall of Fame inductee

Renowned for her program’s defensive toughness and ability to shut down opponents year after year, Coach Molly Miller coaches her team to be as tough to stop on offense! In this valuable early season Open Practice session, you get a look at Miller’s “Camp Buckets” - an inside look into how Miller teaches her offensive system and develops players to be great decision-makers with the ball!

Position Group Shots
Starting off practice, Coach Miller’s team works on getting up shots out of different actions in the Pistol Offense. From dribble handoffs to ball screen slip, pop and roll, post players are working on getting shots within their range and the guards are working on driving and attacking open space looking for flares, transition 3’s, and crackback shots. All of these open looks in practice build player’s confidence on when and where to shoot the ball on offense in games.

Station Rotation
To help players build their ball handling skill and agility, Miller and her coaching staff take players through quick station rotations. Each station is set up to work on agility and quickness. From simple slide drills to line jumps, players are working on agility.

In the final station you will see ball handling, where players are working on quick handles, pass fakes and ball fakes.

Pass and Catch
The foundation of every offense is being able to pass and catch. Coach Miller demonstrates several simple actions you can use within your drills to build players ability to pass and catch such as ‘Waffle Pass’ and ‘Pick and Roll Pass’. Using a Waffle Pass - simple jump stop pivot and pass - players work on hitting the crackback player filling behind them.

Space and Cut
The next layer to any offense is spacing and cutting. By maintaining spacing, you create advantages. Coach Miller uses different actions to teach pace and dialogue. This helps players control tempo and communicate with each other on the offensive end.  Coach Miller breaks down actions for guards to do in the half court; guards work on drive and drift, drive and crackback, and baseline drive and drift.

After getting reps up, your players will be ready for decision-making. By adding a defender, players are able to read who is open and make the extra pass based on the driving action. These actions contribute to growth in your players’ confidence within your half court offense.

3 Whistle Drill
You will see how Coach Miller retrains her players to understand that a whistle is not meant to stop, but rather to get players to go to the rim. Players are going through 5v0 actions to learn how to play off of each other. Each new whistle brings a chance to reverse the ball, drive, and attack.

Building on reps, your players will love to put their decision-making to the test. Adding defense will help train players to know where the open shooter is located. This is an excellent drill to teach offensive progressions that players will need to go through as they make quick decisions!

Breakdown Actions
In order to build a sound offense that relies on making good decisions, players have to be trained into recognizing what the defense is giving up. Coach Miller will take you through a variety of different shooting drills within their half court offense. Each one is put together so players know what pass to make and what action is available for them to use. After going through each action in a 3v0 setting, players will have to go against defense. From ‘keep action’ - fake the handoff and drive - to hitting the crack option for an open shot or quick post entry, your players will feel confident running the Pistol Offense after going through these different breakdown actions.

5v5 Play
Putting the offense together in a 5v5 half court setting is the best way to put your offense to the test! Going through all options on offense gives your players plenty of ‘tools in the toolbox’ to play the game. Players can use Get, Pop, Keep, Dribble Handoff, Rescreen, Swing the Ball and Post Feed. All of these options make your offense extremely unscoutable!

Having multiple scoring options that rely on making decisions is a recipe for a high powered offense. This style of play is set up through breakdown drills and building fundamental players. Coach Molly Miller will guide you through a variety of drills to help build the Pistol Offense and make your team unscoutable. Her knowledge in attacking the basket and building player confidence makes her one of the best in today’s game to teach offense!

Customer Review: 5 Out of 5 stars!
“Excellent video that breaks down the Pistol Offense into easy decision-making drills.  Coach Miller is thorough with each drill in how she teaches her players to read the defense and play off of what they give you.”

142 minutes. 2025.