Zoom and Handoffs play
Step-Up Ball Screen: Rejecting Ice
- Court
- Half court
- Length
- 10 steps
About this play
The step-up ball screen, set from below the ball with the screener's back to the baseline so the handler attacks up the sideline toward the middle, and what it does to ice coverage. From an empty-side alignment the post steps up from the dunker spot and screens the wing handler, the handler comes off toward the slot, and the post rolls down the lane line. Why the step-up is the answer to a defense that ices side ball screens: ice jumps the on-ball defender to the high side to force the handler baseline, and a step-up screen points baseline, so ice now pushes the handler into the screen instead of away from it. The reads: a dropped big means the pull-up at the elbow, under means the three, a big at the level means the pocket pass. The counter is for the on-ball defender who overplays the high side early to take away the step-up: the handler rejects the screen, crosses back, and drives the baseline to the rim with the strong side empty, Coach Hoops' reject, while the screener clears to the opposite block for the dump-off. Common mistakes: the screener stepping up before the handler has the defender on his high hip, the handler coming off the screen flat along the arc instead of downhill, and the weak side filling the empty corner so the baseline drive has help. The step-up and its answer to ice came from Zak Boisvert's clinic on beating ice coverage, and the reject is Coach Hoops'; I wrote it up in the animated step-up post on the site, which is the quickest way to see it move.
