Princeton play
Princeton: Dribble-At Back Cut (Dribble 1)
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 11 steps
About this play
The pressure release the whole offense rests on, and the first thing to install: when a guard is denied the reversal, the wing dribbles straight at his defender and the guard reads the man in front of him. Why: a defender who overplays has his back to the rim, so the back cut is a layup; a defender who sags cannot stop the handoff, so the guard comes to the ball for the dribble handoff instead. The Canadian national team's rules (Thomaidis) are the ones to coach: dribble at the baseline cheek of the defender, the receiver does not move until the ball has bounced once at him, then he cuts hard, and the pass is a bounce pass thrown low and late behind the defender's hip. A back cut from the top comes back out on the ball side. Counter shown: the scouted defense drops a step on every dribble-at to take the back cut away, so the next player dribbled at comes for the handoff, turns the corner, and the post who sealed the helper finishes. Rule: cut to score, every time, and expect the pass. I learned the dribble-at rules from Lisa Thomaidis's Canadian National Team playbook and Coach's Clipboard's Princeton pages; if you want to go deeper, start with those two.
