How St. Peters Basketball used FLOW Continuity to Beat Purdue

I was in the arena for one of the best games I’ve ever seen: St. Peter’s vs. Purdue (March 25th, 2022). They made history by becoming the first 15-seed in the NCAA Tournament to make the Elite 8.

They used FLOW continuity ballscreen offense to neutralize Purdue’s size and athleticism.

BEFORE we get to the FLOW breakdown. As I watched the game, a couple of things stood out…

  1. There is no substitute for a team that believes in themselves and that plays the game without fear
  2. 2. Poise and pace are the secret sauce to offensive basketball, St. Peter’s had both
  3. St. Peter’s Competitiveness, pressure, and athleticism evened the game defensively against a bigger Purdue team. They pushed them out on all their sets
  4. Shaheen Holloway used elements of FLOW, Princeton, and Mover-blocker, and Circle Motion to pick apart Purdue on offense
  5. Every single St. Peter’s player played with their head up and saw the whole floor. They don’t miss open guys.
  6. St. Peter’s have 10-15 deflections on defense. Their activity changed the game.
  7. You know a connected team when you see it. Every dead ball and timeout St. Peter’s huddled up. Guys were actively coaching each other on the floor and during stoppages. They loved getting a teammate an open look.
  8. There was a toughness about the team that was hard to explain. Not a fake tough, but a real toughness that was contagious. They made big shots, got stops, and grabbed rebounds when it mattered most.

How FLOW Helped St. Peter’s Make History

1. Buddy Ball Interior Passing

Purdue’s drop coverage was exposed all night long against the interior passing of the Peacocks. High level decisions from the bigs for 40 min. The interior automatics, cutting, and decision making of the Peacock bigs was at a high level and neutralized the size of Purdue for 40min.

2. Flare and Ping Screening Action

The position of your trigger men in FLOW makes defenses susceptible to blind screening action. St. Peter’s used their opposite big to set flares for shooters on the weakside of the floor. Also Shaheen Holloway with elite play sequencing. The ping action for shooters using off-ball screening action was a great change of pace to their normal FLOW. As the game went on St. Peter’s went to more off-ball counters after Purdue became worried about the primary PNR player making plays.

Flare Screens

3. Scoring out of ISOs

Although there weren’t a ton of designed ISOs, the pattern and spacing of FLOW gave St. Peter’s 4-man a ton of spacing to attack off the dribble in the middle third of the floor. St. Peters exposed Purdue’s PNR defense with their 4-man all night long. There was rarely a time when St. Peter’s attacked the rim and didn’t get a good shot. They neutralized Purdue’s size and athleticism with fundamentals and decision-making. So so impressive.

ISOS

4. Ball Screen Angles

Purdue tried to ICE St. Peter’s ballscreens by keeping them on one side of the floor. When FLOW did break down or the Peacocks needed to make a play at the end of the clock, St. Peter’s PNR fundamentals were on point. Effective ballscreen chemistry involves not only the ball-handler and the screener but the spacing of the other 3 players on the court. The entire team new was a well-oiled machine in the biggest moments of the game.

Ball Screen Angles

Learn More About: FLOW Ball Screen Continuity

What you Get:

  • Best Selling Ball Screen Continuity Playbook (40+pages)
  • Hundreds of Live-Play Video Examples
  • Film Breakdown and Chalk Talk Sessions
  • Terminology and Teaching Progressions
  • Quick Hitters and Counters
  • Hours and hours of teaching videos
  • Case studies of successful college teams that run FLOW continuity
  • Breakdown drills
  • Skill development scoring progressions
  • A FREE BONUS PDF playbook on how to build AUTOMATICS into your offense

10 Reasons I’m Thankful to be a Coach

  1. Transformation happens in the small moments. As a coach you get millions of those every single season.
  2. Basketball is the best metaphor for the journey of life that we all experience
  3. Genuine relationships are forged through the tough times and hard-earned triumphs – you get both every time you step on the floor
  4. There is nothing more satisfying than building a team that wins together
  5. Competition is the juice that keeps you going – you get to compete every single day
  6. The season builds on itself. Building a team and a program that is successful requires you to show up and do the work every single day
  7. True joy is found in commitment. A committed group of people working towards a single goal is a beautiful thing
  8. The best memories in life are always centered around one thing: overcoming obstacles with people you care about.
  9. You can redefine success to the more than the scoreboard at the end of the game. If you aim for excellence, you’ll catch success along the way. 
  10. Coaching is about relationships and relational equity compounds over time

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The Ultimate Guide: Basketball Team Conditioning

The game of basketball is physically demanding. The best players and most effective teams have conditioned themselves to perform at a high level throughout the course of a single game and over the length of an entire season.

There are million different ways to help your players get into “basketball shape”. Each coach and program should base their conditioning model on a variety of factors including:

  • Length of the Preseason
  • Number of Healthy Bodies
  • Kids playing Other Sports (at the High School Level)
  • Timing and number of breaks during the year
  • Sequence and timing of games
  • Style of Play
  • Baseline Fitness Testing

Regardless of the specifics of your conditioning model, there are a few key principles that you should consider when it comes to developing a plan for your team.

  1. Build From the Ground Up
  2. Quality over Quantity
  3. Track Everything to Show Progress/Regression
  4. Choose a Plan that Aligns with Your Long-Term Goals
  5. Challenge Your Players but Don’t Make Conditioning Something they Hate

I’ve put together a conditioning guide with:

  • 8 Workout Templates
  • Player Profiles
  • Testing Sheets
  • Conditioning Times Based on Position

To download the entire guide click here or on the link below.

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Here’s a look at the 8 conditioning workouts:

The Shuttle

The Interval

The Climb

The Grinder

The Gauntlet

The Mile Test

17’s

The Circuit

To download the entire conditioning guide click here or on the link below.

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3 Ways Coaches Can Promote Mental Toughness

The idea of toughness is often lauded as a key ingredient of winning teams. Although the concept of toughness has gained popularity in recent years, the understanding of true toughness still remains hazy.

A useful definition of toughness is: the ability to consistently do hard things that lead to desired outcomes, goals, and objectives.

Commentator Jay Bilas once wrote,

“Toughness is a skill, and it needs to be emphasized, prioritized and valued.”

Building winning teams is always the mix of many different factors; however, the elixir of success is never complete without the presence of toughness.

In particular, the mental side of toughness is often the deciding factor between winning and losing teams. If we believe that toughness is critical to success, then how can coaches and leaders help build tough-minded players and teams?

How can we teach and inspire our teams to build a mindset of toughness that allows us to overcome the obstacles that stand in our way?

Toughness is a skill that must be taught, practiced, and emphasized. Here’s how to do it.

Pace, Space, and Ball Screens

Click Here to Find Out How

Toughness is the Ability to Prepare

Understanding that toughness is the ability to prepare dissipates the mystique surrounding a somewhat nebulous concept. In other words, equating preparation with toughness puts real flesh on the idea.

When leaders associate toughness with preparation it removes the uncertainty about how tough teams (and individuals) must approach their work. Tough teams are prepared teams. The ability to prepare not only builds a mindset of toughness, but a foundation of confidence. Preparation begets confidence. As NBA great Steve Kerr once said,

“The more work I put in, the more I prepared myself, the better foundation of belief I built.”

Coaches can help build mental toughness in their players by building a structured system of preparation. Toughness is formed in the hours and hours of preparation in the crucible of the planning for contingencies. In short, preparation provides a pathway to toughness. It is an investment in one’s future ability to deal with difficult things, and as those deposits of preparation are made, toughness grows.

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Toughness is the Ability to Focus

Former UC Berkley Coach Jack Clark said,

Mental toughness is your ability to focus on the next most important thing.

Tough-minded people are able to blot out distractions and maintain focused discipline on the task at hand. Distraction is one of the greatest drains on performance because it impedes progress and sidetracks momentum. Mental toughness is the ability to bring one’s mind back to the present and focus on the next most important thing. A useful acronym for this concept is N.B.A. which stands for next best action. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said,

Toughness is being able to physically and emotionally perform your task through any condition.

Physical distraction (like a nagging injury that distracts an athlete from playing well) or emotional distraction (like when a player fails to get a call from a referee and becomes emotionally upset to the point of ineffectiveness) can be huge impediments to high performance.

A coach’s job is to help bring players and teams back to the present moment. One of the most effective ways to do this is to create a language of belief that brings a team back to center. In other words, as author and coach James Kerr puts it,

Language becomes the oxygen that sustains belief. In this way, leaders rewrite the future.

Leaders should compile a system of “culture codes” — short phrases that emphasize an important principle or truth that can be used in times of emotional or physical distress.

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Toughness is the Ability to Respond (and not Rationalize!)

Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said,

Toughness is the ability not to rationalize. Rationalization is making an excuse for not achieving more than you have to that point.

The danger of rationalization is found in the failure to take responsibility. The world is given to those who have the courage to take responsibility and learn from their mistakes (and their successes, for that matter). Response is so critical because it reorients one’s path of development. Responding positively (i.e. learning from a situation and trying to improve from mistakes) moves a person towards his or her objectives, while responding poorly (i.e. blaming and rationalizing) stunts one’s growth. Toughness is about building the capacity to be able to bend or flex under pressure without breaking.

Coaches need to set a standard of excellence within their programs that will not accept rationalizing. Building a culture of ownership requires the toughness to respond with responsibility rather than rationalization.

The ability to meet the particular demands of a given situation (whatever, whenever, wherever that might be) is a true sign of toughness. Toughness is rising to the challenge regardless of the circumstance in a way that fulfills the obligations of the present moment while pushing oneself towards the desired objectives.

Coaches can help their athletes push past the fear, distraction, and rationalization by training and equipping their athletes to stand strong in moments of difficulty. Toughness is a skill that must be taught, practiced, and emphasized; it helps us address the inevitable challenges that will confront us on the field of competition and in life. As author David Brooks once wrote,

We are defined by what life asks of us.

There is no greater test of character than having the toughness to respond to the difficult questions that life throws our way. This is the test we should all be preparing for.

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10 Princeton Quick Hitters

When you master the 7 key actions in the Princeton Offense, there are infinite number of possibilities to design quick hitters within the flow of the offense. The great thing about this offense is that everything builds on itself and you can design counters for any type of defense.

Here are 10 of my favorite quick hitters within the Princeton Offense. They are a part of the system I built called Mastering the Princeton Offense.

1. Stab Action

2. 4-man Rip

3. Flex Quick Hit

4. Flip to Laser

5. Flip to Rip Action

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6. Flip to Backdoor

7. Screen the Screener Backside Pin

8. Middle Cut to DHO

9. Quick Flare DHO Away

10. Double Laser

If you want to Download the PDF of Princeton Quick Hitters Click Here

Click here to Download the PDF

More Princeton Offense Resources

Master the Princeton Offense

Give your team the tools they need to be an offensive machine. There are 7 key actions in the Princeton that will build your team into an unstoppable force.

Here is a look at the table of contents from “Mastering the Princeton”

My experience playing in the Princeton style offense for 4 years at the Division 1 level (at the College of William and Mary) helped me score over 1600 points and shoot 40% from three while leading our team to one of the best season in school history.

I was an average athlete, but I was skilled. 

This offense helped turn a less talented player into a all-conference selection.

Quinn McDowell scored a career-high 28 points in WM’s win over Maryland

Here’s what a few people are saying:

Quinn breaks down the Princeton into smaller components that are easy to understand. Anyone can use this offense, you just have to learn a few basic principles and actions.

Mark G. (Small College Coach)

I always thought the Princeton was complicated, but its really not. Its all about using skill and spacing to beat your opponent. This system was massively helpful.

Tim R. (Head HS MBB Coach)

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