Open Practice - Building the Pack Line Defense from the Ground Up

After a long tenure as an assistant coach for the Creighton Bluejays, Darian DeVries joined Drake University as its head coach ahead of the 2019 season and led the Bulldogs all the way to a Missouri Valley Conference championship. Coach DeVries drew praise from college basketball analysts across the country for the job he did in his first season in town.

In this defensive instructional video from Coach DeVries, you will get an inside look at the practice drills and procedures used to construct an upper tier defense. DeVries and his staff demonstrate the focus and emphasis they bring to daily practices to help foster team communication, effort and intensity.

Covering Ball Screens

Starting from the base of 1-on-1 defense, Coach DeVries shows how to implement different coverages for one of the most common actions: the ball screen. Players are taught how to communicate and defend using a variety of coverages that include hard hedging, switching and fighting over the screen.

In each segment, DeVries focuses on the details which enable a team to execute successful defensive ball screen coverage. Footwork, angles and early communication are among the topics the coaches look for and insist on.

Shell Drill & More

Many coaches use a Shell drill to teach basic defensive rotations. In this video, Coach DeVries takes the Shell to another level as increasingly complex actions such as cutters, weak-side post cuts and dribble hand-offs are all thrown into the mix.

You will learn how to further break down components of an overall defensive scheme, as DeVries covers 1-on-1 post defense and 2-on-2 veer drills which force players to make decisions on how to defend the complexities of each of these attacks. Some of the drills that are broken down include:

• Two line closeout drills which emphasize help and recovery.
• Defensive scramble drills that promote communication and transition defensive competency.
• Transition drills that emphasize a fast-paced attack off turnovers.

Coach DeVries consistently demonstrates how to hold players to a high level of performance in many defensive situations. He shows how to raise your players' level of defensive awareness and execution by designing drills in which teams can only score by successfully defending.

Finally, in a series of game film breakdowns, DeVries shows how the myriad of techniques and drills that the team works on every day in practice transfer to actual games.

Coach DeVries' breakdown of his techniques for defense will help any coach build the foundation for a successful, high-pressure defense.

80 minutes. 2019.