What happens after a miss?

the missed opportunity inside the missed or made shot…

When scouting, many coaches will chart shot selection. While still others will watch for player tendencies, but also by watching parts of the floor. But, there was a question that came to my mind: “What happens after a miss?” Regardless if the shot comes from the Bermuda or the Playground, the rebound seemed to be a sort of Reset–a chance for organization to happen. I was getting beat because of this. My team talent level simply did not match their superior talent. In the Pony Express system, “The Game Within the Game” (in between the 2 free throw lines) thrives. Now, a missed or a made basket is a green light to go. We’re not Waitin’…We’re coming at you–“Full-Throttle.”

What the Numbers Say

Across 31 years of NCAA Division I Final Fours, shot location
trends don’t lie:

• Bermuda Zone (mid-range, floaters, short pull-ups)
• • Men: 45%
  • Women: 46%

• Playground Zone (part 2-ball, part 3-ball isolatons):
  • Men: 27%
  • Women: 38%

Missed shots are certainly a part of the game. And yet, I began to see that my offensive scheme at the time did not capitalize on them. The Pony Express system does capitalize on them. The light is green. Not only do we scout who’s taking the shot, but from where they’re taking it from. We use the shot percentages to train our players to recognize the liklihood of misses and react to those misses. No guess work here, but from decades of shooting data. No team is exempt from this anomoly.

What I Learned the Hard Way

In no way am I suggesting you will start scoring a 100+ ppg. I am saying that when the team I am referencing was scoring 110.6 ppg, it wasn’t because we were waiting. It had nothing to do with drawing up some sort of a play design. It was because my mindset had changed. I got tired of watching my opponent have the time to organize themselves. I wanted to take that away. To me, that did not take talent to do. I started trying to attack my opponent’s defensive transition process with the Captain Ball rules.

While developing this transition phase, it is here where I realized the importance of defensive fundamentals. And, we were terrible when it came to defense…and sometimes worse than Terrible. Rather than trying to outrun opposing teams, I had come full circle to the important elements that make up the game of basketball, which is Defense. For the Captain Ball process to be hard-driven, effective, and explosive, it would involve the very basics of defensive fundamentals. Those basics included: solid closeouts, proper defensive positioning, aggressive and assertive boxouts based on shot attempt location, and quick outlets. That did not take talent, but it would require relentless repetition. To build structure into chaos, those defensive elements would have to be at an absolute premium…blue collar and nasty. Outside of other game situations that can create Captain Ball transitions, the defense has to be rock solid to maximize the Pony Express Fast Break Offense. 

When you build structure into chaos, point swings start to happen. Maybe not 100 ppg. but enough to move over into the left side of the W-L column.