Tara VanDerveer's Spread Princeton Offense

with Tara VanDerveer,
Stanford University Head Women's Coach from 1985 to 2024;
1,216 wins (when retiring, was #1 all-time men's/women's coach in wins, #1 All-time in wins);
2021 NCAA National Champions;
3x NCAA Championship Coach (1990, 1992, 2021);
5x National Coach of the Year;
11x Pac-10/12 Coach of the Year;
13x Final Four;
2x NCAA National Championship Runner-up;
1996 US Women's Olympic Team Head Coach (Gold Medal);
distinguished member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2011);
John R. Wooden Legends of Coaching Award (2014);
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2002);
Women's Sports Foundation International Women's Sports Hall of Fame (1998);
WBCA's Carol Eckman Award (2018);
Ohio State Head Coach from 1980 to 1985;
4x Big Ten Regular Season Champions;
played college basketball at Albany and Indiana

Tara VanDerveer accomplished many things in her 39 years coaching Stanford Basketball. She won three National Championships, including her most recent in 2021. Additionally, she has coached USA Basketball to a Gold Medal and has made 35 NCAA Tournament appearances. It's clear Coach VanDerveer knows a thing or two about style of play and playing to your players' strengths!

In this video, VanDerveer explains how she has changed the way her teams play using a 4-out positionless system that incorporates their version of the Princeton Offense (Jersey).

Basic Alignment Low

Using a 4-out basic alignment, Coach VanDerveer shows how you can create multiple scoring options just by feeding the post. Four guards line the perimeter with 8-12 feet in spacing. This allows for easy cutting action with guards able to feed the post with ease. Once the post has the ball, guards can back cut, cut over the top, flatten out, or exchange places to keep the defense on their toes.

Whiteboard Session

Utilizing a chalk talk session, VanDerveer diagrams the actions and movements used to teach their players the Princeton Offense. Once players have the basic alignment down, they can start to learn and implement the actions that will create open layups.

One of Stanford's favorite actions is their Blue Screen. The post player looks to set a ball screen on the best wing player and then follow up with a pin down screen on the wing after the ball is reversed. This action is tough to guard and creates a great scoring opportunity for your most athletic wing. You can also run a simple Red Screen (wing pick & roll) that is created off of cutting action and your post player feeding the wing on a kick out.

What makes this offense so unscoutable and unpredictable are the reads and actions your players look for based on defensive tendencies. Your athletes will love this style of play and all of the actions and reactions you can install in your playbook!

Drills

With an emphasis on getting the best possible shot, Coach VanDerveer's drills are centered around layups and quality shots within the offense. Every player is trained to shoot any shot. Playing positionless basketball allows players to have fun playing in different spots.

In Pinch Post Shots, players feed the high post and work on their cutting action to simulate a screen, then come off of a screen for a shot. In Finishing Drill, athletes work on driving down the lane line and making various moves to get to the rim and finish through contact. In Buddy Layups, players work on swinging the ball around the perimeter and running actions they will use in their half court offense, such as a backdoor cut for a layup and dribble hand-offs.

VanDerveer rounds out the video by taking you through live game film. This video session will help your players understand how to run great movements and actions against any defense.

Coach VanDerveer has a proven track record. She knows how to adapt to different styles and trends as they come up in today's game. Using the Spread Princeton Offense has helped her program rise to the top of college basketball with the 2021 NCAA Championship. This video details how to install and incorporates the concepts of the Princeton Offense into your offensive philosophy!

97 minutes. 2021.