Sharman White: Attacking Zone Defenses with Continuity Offense and Set Plays

Sharman White,
Pace Academy, Head Coach;
2023 Class 4A State Champions;
10x State of Georgia High School Champions;
USA Basketball U17 National Team Head Men's Coach;
Georgia High School Regional 6AA Championship (2022);
Won back-to-back (2019 and 2020) Georgia High School State Championships, in 3A and 2A divisions respectively, with a combined record of 56-6;
Named Head Coach of NIKE Hoops Summit Team (2020 & 2021);
2014 USA TODAY All-USA Coach of the Year (at Miller Grove High School, GA);
5x Georgia High School State Champions at Miller Grove High School (2009-2012 Georgia Class 4A and 2013 and 2014 Georgia Class 5A titles);
2016 National High School Coaches Association Coach of the Year;
2013 Georgia Sports Writers Association Coach of the Year and Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Class 5A Coach of the Year;
3x Georgia Class 4A Coach of the Year and Atlanta Journal-Constitution Georgia Class 4A Coach of the Year (in 2010, 2011 and 2012)

Sharman White has been a successful coach at every level, including at the highest level with USA Basketball and helping to bring in 3 Gold Medals. During his career, he earned a reputation as a coach who knows how to utilize his personnel and style of basketball to produce a system that controls tempo and the pace of play.  

Using a multiple pressing system, Coach White keeps his opponents on their toes and guessing as to when they will press, how they will press and what type of tempo they want to force opponents to play at.

Coach White has developed a refined system for teaching his players how to control the game in a manner that is beneficial to his players and their skill sets.

In this highly valuable, detailed instructional video, you will get a look at how Coach White teaches his multiple pressing system and why each press is effective in certain situations. 

A Pressure System That Fits YOUR Program

Pressing is not an easy style of play to utilize consistently. It’s a defensive style of play that requires coaches to let go of some of the control they like to have on each trip up and down the court and understand that, sometimes, your press creates turnovers – while at other times, it may lead to a high-percentage scoring opportunity for your opponent’s when they successfully break the press.

Coach White begins his presentation by posing several critically important questions that coaches should ponder when thinking about installing a pressing style of play. The veteran high school coach who has coached for more than 24-years while maintaining a .812 winning percentage, asks you to ponder questions such as…

• What is your personnel like for this season and what are their strengths?
• How much should, and can, your team press during a typical game?
• Is pressing something you want to utilize as a weapon to get your or team going, or is it a tool designed to create havoc against your opponents?

All of these questions, and more, are key considerations to factor in when choosing a pressing style of play.

Full-Court Pressure Drills 

Coach White explains why all good presses begin with the process of creating a live-game atmosphere with game-like mindsets in your practices. The path to simulating live game situations begins with drills and the drills you utilize provide the key repetitions required to build the defensive culture of a pressing team. 

Starting off with a demonstration of the ‘5-on-5 Total-Deny Drill,’ Coach White explains how players must bring their intensity from the start and maintain a goal of not letting the offense catch a pass in the half court. This is a great drill to teach your defensive pressing players how to communicate, while working on their passing-lane coverage.

Coach White then shows off the ‘4-on-4 Trap-&-Anticipate Drill,’ where players work on reading the offense and learning where the next pass will go. Defenders are taught to maintain a focus on looking at the offensive player’s shoulders and eyes to understand where a player is looking to pass. This is also a great drill for simultaneously helping your own ball handlers to work on escaping traps, making correct decisions while under pressure and executing strong passes to an open offensive teammate. 

A Pressing System: Presses To Use & When To Use Them

Rounding out this informative presentation that includes helpful on-the-court demonstrations, Coach White details the pressing system he’s developed and shows how he utilizes each press in a par

Throughout all levels of basketball, more and more teams are running zone defenses to slow down their opponents. In this video, USA Basketball U16 National Team Assistant Coach Sharman White uses on-court demonstrations to illustrate the zone offenses he used to make Miller Grove High School a national power.

Coach White presents simple, yet effective ways to attack a zone defense using multiple continuity offenses and quick-hitting sets. The sets are easy to implement, but sophisticated enough to counter any defensive adjustments.

Three Continuity Offenses to Beat the 2-3 Zone

Using Coach White's "attacking the match-ups" approach to defeat a zone, you will learn three distinct continuity offenses that use similar principles to expose the weaknesses of a 2-3 zone defense. Coach White gives in-depth counters to the most likely defensive adjustments, ensuring multiple scoring options within each set.

The featured set is Kansas. The offense makes use of the short corner and overloads the side of the court with four offensive players. This play is simple enough for lower levels to use, yet it has multiple entries into the set to give higher level defenses different looks. It can be a standalone offense - or it can be the formation that teams can "fall back" into if a quick-hitting play doesn't get a shot.

Quick Hitters vs the Zone Defense

Need a 3-point shot or a quick post-up? Coach White has you covered with a plethora of quick-hitting actions within the zone offense framework. These sets, which build off the previously learned continuity offenses, give you a ready-made arsenal of sets to approach key situational moments of any contest. Whether it's the end of the half, coming out of a timeout, or the last shot of the game; Coach White's quick-hitters provide options for those clutch moments.

Beating the Junk Defense

When teams have difficulty containing your best players, they may defend with a box and one or triangle and two. Learn four effective plays to get open shots against "junk defenses" and keep your best players in the game.

Coach White's approach to attacking zone defenses is brilliant in its simplicity. As you watch the athletes demonstrate the offense on court, you'll wonder, "Why didn't I think of that!" This video provides invaluable instruction for any coach struggling to find offense against multiple types of zone defenses.

"As a coach for a team that prefers to play against man defenses; I knew the video was worth its weight in gold when the first game after implementing Coach White's continuity zone offense, our opponents were left with no option but to scrap their 2-3 zone and match up man to man." - Customer Review

Produced at the Fal