🏀 Implementing Pace & Space Offenses

WNBA Champion Coach, Button Hook SSG, 5-Out Quick Hitter

In this week’s AQTO edition (Total read time - 2 minutes, 31 seconds)

🏀 Aces’ Pace and Space Offense with Coach Natalie Nakase

🏀 Cornhuskers’ 5-Out Quick Hitter

🏀 Stack 3v3 Small-Sided Game

🏀 Men’s College Basketball Opening Night Xs & Os

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Las Vegas Aces’ WNBA Champion, Natalie Nakase

This week on A Quick Timeout podcast, two-time WNBA Championship coach, Natalie Nakase discusses team culture, pace and space offense, her first head coaching experience, and more!

Q: How do you all go about installing your Pace and Space style of offense?

[Coach] Becky [Hammond] is really big on playing 3-on-3. Basically, each possession is always 3-on-3 on one side, 2-on-2 on the other when you break up the court and space things. And then we’d break down parts of the offense based on what specific actions she wanted to run.

The players picked up things so fast, which allowed us to put in 30-40 plays in training camp. Credit to Becky. Sometimes, it’s not just what you know, but how do you get the players to buy in and absorb it quickly. And, it’s also reps. We were fortunate to have 12 players with really strong work ethics, which made our jobs as coaches so much easier.

Q: How much are you all playing out of concepts vs. running set plays?

Concepts are the majority. But it goes game-to-game based on the defense you’re facing. Overall, you have concepts that you’ll use every night, but we also try to attack weaknesses of the specific defense. Set plays are more for ATOs, end-of-game, and any other special situation. And those are all things we practice a lot. Becky will huddle them up, draw a play, and then we execute. We’ll watch film on those situations the next day, addressing things like the timing of a cut, those kinds of things.

Listen to the full interview…

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

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Play of the Week: 5-Out Stagger Curl Pop (Nebraska)

Fred Hoiberg’s Cornhuskers are a great study if you’re looking for 5-Out ideas. This quick hitter has the 5-man swing the ball then go set a stagger away. The shooter curls the second screen then sets a pin-in screen for the 5 to pop.

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SSG of the Week: Stack 3v3

The “button hook” concept is something I got from long-time college basketball coach, Doug Novak. It’s another way to align players in order to eventually get to 4-Out spacing.

We’ll play 3v3 when introducing this concept. In the first clip you’ll see the back cut that happens when the defense overplays the escape by the nail player. In the second clip, the ball is eventually entered to the post player, which triggers our split action by the two perimeter players.

Additional Resources:

• Rethinking Practice Planning | Doug Novak

• Developing Versatile Players | Doug Novak

• Player Development for Pace & Space Offense | Doug Novak

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