How we defend
We play man-to-man.
Every team, every game.
A zone hides weak defenders. At the youth level it wins games, because most teams cannot shoot over it yet. It also means nobody on the floor has to learn how to guard anybody.
We play man-to-man at every grade level. Players learn stance, containment, closeouts, help, and recovery. They learn to guard a real person who is trying to beat them. It costs us games early. It is the reason our players can defend when they get to high school.
Shell defense gets weeks of work before our first tournament. Once games start we keep drilling it, moving through it faster instead of dropping it. We expect maximum effort every rep, and we do not let players go through the motions.
Justin was a two-time Big 12 All-Defensive Team selection, voted by the conference's coaches, and his team's Most Outstanding Defensive Player three years running. The defense every 1891 team plays is the defense he played.
