Coaching 10-11 yr old boys, we had a great chance for our 3rd win tonight. Up 11-4 at the half. In the 3rd quarter it started going downhill. Our leading scorer called "press" and decided we needed to full court m2m press. As a 2nd year coach I didn't realize until later my mistake.

I should have brought the boys back into our half court (paint with ball pressure) defense. Instead the other team got several open looks and made their shots. On top of that, my PG got into a 1 on 1 contest with their PG, instead of running the offense and giving cushion on D since this kid was FAST.

Long story, but my QUESTION is, would you agree in the philosophy that if you're winning and controlling the game with half court offense and defense, then stick with that, but only when your down late in a game, run a full court press?

Why is your leading scorer or any other player putting you in a "press"? Only the coach calls press ... the very first time it happened and then either they scored or you rebound call time out and bench the player who called time out ... unless you gave them permission to do this ... your mistake was allowing this to happen/ continuing to press.


Wayne Walters

Thanks I appreciate your input on this and your many other posts. I am learning but it takes me a while to process these things. Can you answer my strategy question, does it make sense to stay in half court defense when it's working and we have a good lead?

If it is not broke don't fix it.

Wayne Walters