NABC On the Court Open Practice with Matt Langel: Defense, Transition Offense & Skill Drills

with Matt Langel,
Colgate University Head Coach;
2019 Patriot League regular season champions;
2019 Patriot League Tournament champions;
2019 NABC District 13 Coach of the Year;
2019 ECAC Coach of the Year;
2x Patriot League Coach of the Year ('18, '19);
First-team All-Ivy League as a player at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000

Colgate University head coach Matt Langel was a star player at University of Pennsylvania. His time spent getting the Quakers to the NCAA Tournament helped shape his coaching philosophy that has led Colgate to back-to-back Patriot League championships. In this video, you'll get a look at the style of play Colgate is working to build that will get them consistently to the NCAA Tournament.

Guard-Post Breakdown & Transition

In Colgate's skill segment, you will get a look at how Coach Langel utilizes his time to teach actions within their motion offense. Post players focus on setting screens and reading whether to roll, pop, or re-screen, which will allow the team to play more of a motion style rather than run set after set. You'll also observe work on dribble hand-offs and rolling/slipping to the rim off of guards getting downhill and drawing two defenders. Meanwhile, guards work on reading screens while playing in a 3v3 and 4v4 setting.

One of the elements that makes Colgate so good is their transition play. In their 4v4 work, the team transitions into actions they will look for off of their motion offense, including double staggers, throwback options, post-up and Laker options off of cutters.

5v5 Play

This video is great because you'll get a look at how offense and defense should flow. You will see Colgate play 5v5 in order to run their offense and play off of each other. As Langel mentions, Colgate isn't a set offense team, but rather want to run actions and know where each other are at to play off of those actions.

In their man offense practice segment, you'll observe everything from dribble hand-offs, to double staggers, to post entries. There is certain to be an action or two that you can add to your offensive system. When practicing their zone offense, Colgate utilizes ball movement and attacks the high post to create scoring opportunities. You'll see actions similar to their man offense to attack a 2-3 zone, including hand-offs and slips to open gaps in the zone. On the flip side, you will learn how Colgate flies around in a 2-3 zone and applies full court pressure defense to limit scoring opportunities.

Colgate has won back-to-back Patriot League titles through their hard work and unscoutable half court offense. In this video, you will pick up more than a few offensive and defensive ideas that you can add right away to your program!

88 minutes. 2021.