The Buzz Defense: A Half Court Pressure Defense

with Mike Divilbiss,
former Associate Head Coach at Wisconsin Green Bay & Illinois;
30 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level

Mike Divilbiss has had his fair share of successful teams in his career, and one of the commonalities shared between those teams is a high-pressure trapping defense called "The Buzz". In this unique style of play, he teaches players how to use their aggressiveness to fly all over the court and trap the opponent out of their game plan.

If you want to learn how to run "The Buzz" yourself, then this video from Coach Divilbiss will outline what you need to implement it for your upcoming season.

Basics and Alignment

Beginning with the setup, Coach Divilbiss lays out where your post players, best anticipator, best rebounder, and best trappers need to be. Players must understand their "home base" to allow them to read and anticipate where traps are going to occur. Additionally, athletes must get into passing lanes in order to force opponents exactly where you want them.

With each pass, Coach Divilbiss slows down the defense and walks you through each player's home base and responsibility so you can do the same with your own team.

Requirements

In order to effectively play the Buzz defense, you must be able to do three things:

• Play hard every single possession
• Avoid mistakes
• Prevent straight line passes

With each rule, Divilbiss takes you through various examples so you can see how your defense should look and react to offensive attacks. As long as your players remember to sprint, closeout and stop at their home base on the flight of the ball, you will be able to shut down the most effective offenses on your schedule.

"The Buzz" has players fly around the court, apply pressure and speed up opponents - meaning it's a blast to play in for athletes and fun to direct as a coach. Coach Divilbiss does an excellent job describing how to install and move as the ball moves within his defensive system.

77 minutes. 2019.

All of Coach Divilbiss' proceeds of this video will go to benefit Lakeland High School Athletics.