The NCAA Tournament is back! Kicking off day 1 with some pretty good games to start it off and some great X’s & O’s. We are going to be looking at some of the best sets throughout the tournament in these breakdowns and if you want to see any specific plays or actions that you would like covered you can reply to any of these, or reach out on Twitter!
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Previous NCAA Tournament Breakdowns
Slip Set - Baylor
A fun action from Baylor, here we can see a quick hand off on the wing and then a running slip in the middle of the floor. Hard to tell from the setup, but adding slight off-ball movement on the weakside would help this work at the high school level.
Zone Lob - Xavier
When Kennesaw State went to their zone Xavier was ready, and it appears that Kennesaw State was either playing a variation of 1-3-1 but more likely a 1-1-3 zone that splits the top 2 defenders in a 2-3 zone.
On the ball reversal, the top slot cuts through and sits into the middle of the lane slightly occupying any help up top for a moment. At the same time low the big seals off the middle and the opposite wing cuts underneath.
Then the ball is dribbled into the middle of the floor and the low player screens on the outside of the zone, a unique way to run a zone lob play.
Most zone lob plays will typically have a reverse with passes and then the ball is thrown from the opposite wing for the lob and the backscreens, which is why this play is pretty rare.
Winner - Creighton
I won’t dive too deep into this play since I have talked about this more than any other play, so here is the full breakdown on this set from Brad Stevens.
The basic premise is to screen low for a big to catch it opposite and then throw it over the top for a shooter to get a screen for an open 3.
BOB Curl Out - Kansas State
Nice baseline out of bounds set from Kansas State out of a box setup that initially looks like double screen action then flows into a quick-hitting layup.
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