Glossary of Terms

Below, I will define terms we use to teach and eventually link them all to textbook clips.

Half Court Offense

Bank (spacing spot): Behind the backboard and outside of the paint on the baseline (where we make our money). This spot allows us to “change shapes” throughout a possession and oscillate seamlessly between 4-out to 5-out.

Corner (spacing spot): Block extended

Wing (spacing spot): Free throw line extended

Slot (spacing spot): Lane line extended 

Far side layup: Breaking the midline to finish on the other side of the rim

Break the line: When a driver crosses over the imaginary line from the on-ball defender to maximize optionality and leverage

NBA layup: Breaking the line of the defender and shooting on the other side of the rim

Outside layup: Finishing outside of your body

Inside hand layup: Finishing with your inside hand

Decel layup: When a driver slows down their steps on a layup to mess up the timing of a shot blocker

Fly by: When a driver jump stops and gets the defender who is trying to block his shot to fly by him for an easy layup

Beat or meet: When beating a defensive player, jumping off of one foot. When meeting a defensive player, playing off of two feet with a jump stop.

High jump over long jump: When finishing layups, we want high jumps over long jumps

Pro hop: A jump stop where the driver jumps laterally to avoid defenders or create a passing/shooting angle

Jump stop: A jump stop where the driver jumps forward 

Engage two (E2): Once a driver engages an off-ball defender, they should look to kick it out to an open teammate (rather than shooting over them or driving too deep). We never want to get married to a defender (driving too far into the trees).

Me first, for us: Great offensive players think drive to score, but it’s not in a selfish way. They know that driving aggressively will help them engage help defenders and that will lead to more playmaking opportunities.

Scan: Knowing where offensive players, defensive players and space are before the catch in order to make an effective Bama decision on the catch

Bama decisions: Quick decisions with the ball as the decision to shoot, drive, or pass is made before he catch (holding it for Alabama is too long)

Split and go: Hopping as the ball is in the air and then catching the ball with feet split on the floor in order to start a drive

Scadlock: Making a decision before the catch to drive by either 1) catching it on a split or 2) running through the pass to the rim to get outside the frame of the defender and create an unguarded path to the rim.

Runway drive: Seeing the space the defense gives (could be off a non-shooter) as a runway to drive rather than something that makes it harder to drive

Attack dribbles: Dribbles with the sole purpose of driving to the basket 

Brush cut: A spacing cut (the offensive player is not looking for the ball) just behind the on-ball defender’s back to create space and an obstacle for the on-ball defender to navigate. We will brush cut on every slot to slot pass (a pass that goes over the midline)

Quick starts, balanced stops: Our offense is based on relentlessly attacking the basket. To beat defenders, we must use quick starts–but to take great shots and make great passes, we must be controlled enough to make balanced stops.

Zions: Players who are not allowed to shoot jump shots (no exceptions)

Dames: Players who are encouraged to shoot jump shots off the catch when the ball comes from the paint

Catch to shoot/shoot unless you can’t: Catching any advantage pass with the mindset of shooting it 

Side dribble 3: Taking a dribble against a hard closeout to escape the defender and maintain the ability to shoot a heads 3

Stop your shot/shoot unless you can’t: Beginning to start a shot attempt but  feeling a defender too close for comfort, and then dribbling to the side for a 3 (this is very different from a predetermined shot fake)

Whirlpool: Moving in the direction of the drive in a circle (drive right, move right or drive left, move left) and continuing to decisively move in this way even if not open 

Get in his blindspot: In whirlpool situations, players should be moving fast enough to get in their defender’s blindspot (the angle where they are out of the defender’s vision)

Center it: Dribbling the ball from the corner to the wing/slot area to increase passing options 

Fill to four: Filling to spots beyond the 3-point line

2.9: On a drive, patiently pivoting for the best pass or shot possible (we want our passes out of the paint to make the recipient the best player in the state on that play)

Nash: Keeping the dribble alive and driving under the basket through the baseline to the other side of the floor to open passing angles to shooters and cutters, finish on the far side, grenade, or reattack 

45 cut: On a Nash, when a player in the weakside wing or slot cuts to the rim because their defender turned their back to them. The angle of this cut is approximately 45 degrees

Midnight cut: When looking to pass to a cutter, knowing that sometimes the pass is open late (when the defender loses vision and relaxes around the rim). The passer should stay on the cut until the cut is complete.

Complete the cut: When a player decides to cut, they must complete their cut with full aggressiveness and attention all the way to the basket area because: the passer might throw it, stopping a cut makes the offense clunkier, the cut may be open late, and the goal of a cut is to score or draw help so someone else can get open. Cutting is a race to the rim. There’s no reason the offense shouldn’t win it because 1) they decide when the race starts and 2) they are facing the rim. 

See the help/throw it into space: The passer’s primary goal is to read the help defense, trusting the cutter will beat his man. We want to lead the cutter into open space, or skip it to the offensive player who this cut opens up.

Don’t leave it short: We never want to leave passes short (deep passes, passes to cutters/slips). Error on the side of throwing it too deep (away from the defense and potentially out of bounds)

Hold and hover: On baseline cuts, we want the cutter to hold in the corner until the driver is holding the ball. Then, once they cut, we want them to hover around the rim (first side and second side) for an opportunity to score.

Ghost cut: By waiting for the pickup of the ball, defenders usually get caught sleeping and the corner cutter can get behind them. From the defender’s point of view, they were last seen in the corner, disappear, and then show up again under the rim like they are a ghost.

Drift pass: On a drive, a pass to a teammate that the driver can see without pivoting. We want this pass to be made only when we know that the recipient is going to shoot. 

Fill pass: On a drive, a pass to a teammate behind the driver that must be done by pivoting

Throw a strike: Throwing an accurate pass to a shooter to increase their odds of making the shot 

Ball four: Any pass that is not a strike 

Pass and crash: Leaving your feet to pass and going through a defender (which will be called a charge)

One more pass: An unselfish act when a player passes up a good heads 3 for a great heads 3 by passing to a more open teammate next to him

Small gap versus big gap: The amount of space we have to drive 

Squeeze: Turnovers that occur when a passer or a driver doesn’t see off-ball defenders. This could be passing into a crowd or driving it into too small of a gap.

Shark: On a kickout pass, the driver needs to get out of the shark infested waters (inside the 3-point line) as quickly as possible 

Chasers: Players who receive handoffs 

Keepers: Players who give handoffs 

Cutters: Players who do not receive handoffs and do not give handoffs (unless they are grenading to an ace)

Jokers: Players who receive handoffs and give handoffs 

Aces: Players who can receive grenades 

Get action: A player passing to a teammate and chasing the pass for a handoff 

Arrive alone: In handoff situations, we want the Chaser and/or Keeper to go as fast as possible to arrive alone at the point of the handoff (which creates more urgency in the defense and leads to more breakdowns)

Drive the wake: When the keeper slips and the chaser drives almost at the same exact time in the space (the wake) that the slip creates

Grenade: Any dribble handoff coming from below the on-ball defender (could be from the paint, the bank, or the corner)

Everything comes out in the wash: There will be a great time to take a heads shot in the possession. Sometimes it’s on the first pass of the possession, but sometimes it takes four handoffs.

Whiff: When the keeper fails to sit in the space between defenders or force the over for the chaser

Zoom action: A three-player action where a down screen opens up the chaser for a dribble handoff

Zero cut: When the defender blows up a chaser’s ability to receive a handoff, the chaser will tightly curl around the keeper and cut to the basket. The keeper will pivot and get in the way of the chaser's defender as the chaser cuts to the basket 

Backdoor cut: Versus a defender’s overplay or a defender’s assumption, planting the outside foot in the ground and sharply cutting to the basket behind the defender (plant and go)

1/3 Rule: The amount of times we want the chaser going backdoor in handoff situations  

Dribble at: The non-verbal signal to tell a teammate to go backdoor. This is dribbling at the defender (but is clearly not a drive, so we are not whirlpooling) to tell the offensive player to cut backdoor. The dribble brings the defender to the ball and opens up the cutter.

Pump cut: When a chaser gets the defender to pop tart, they can quickly throw it to the nearest teammate and cut in front of or behind the defender for a give-and-go 

Screen the back pocket: The keeper should dribble down or step down in order to force the over of the on-ball defender by screen the bottom third of the body

Twist and rescreen: When the on-ball defender goes under the first screen in a handoff, the keeper will twist, step down to a lower spot on the court, and rescreen in order to force the over

Smoke it: When the chaser flies around the handoff and uses the screen 

Reject it: When the chaser goes opposite of the screen in a handoff

Freeze it: When the chaser catches the ball and holds it in a handoff, waiting to attack the lunge or pop tart the defender

Pop tart: When a chaser lifts their eyes, heels and the ball up as if they are shooting to get the defender to pop up, and then uses that to drive by them

Lie with your eyes: When a chaser uses their eyes to manipulate off-ball help defenders in order to pass it to the keeper on a slip or skip it to a teammate on the perimeter

Wedge: When a keeper gets into the space between their defender and the on-ball in a handoff to create confusion of responsibilities 

Aim for air: In wedge situations, the screener should aim to sit in the space in between the defenders (not in the chest of the defender). This makes it harder to defender (it blurs the responsibilities of both defenders) and it makes it easier to win the race to the rim on a slip

Turn and run: Instead of pivoting to seal, a keeper slips to the basket by turning and running

Stay facing: When the chaser rejects the keeper’s screen, they should just run (or slide) to the rim (no turn is needed, they should just maintain their vision with the driver)

Slip: Any time a keeper is getting out of a screen and cutting to the basket (this is a track meet for us, not a wrestling match)

Keep: When the defenders switch or fall asleep in a handoff, the keeper drives to the basket instead of giving the ball to the chaser 

Keep versus switch or sleep: We want to keep the ball when the defense switches an ensuing handoff or the keeper’s defender falls asleep 

Skip action: When a player has the ball in the slot, they should look to skip it to the opposite corner. This will trigger a grenade with the closest ace. The defense will likely not be ready to defend this action

Neutral: When we have yet to force the defense into tough help decisions and closeouts 

Advantage: When we force the defense into tough help decisions and closeouts (we want to gain an advantage before we shoot)

Heads versus tails: A good shot versus a bad shot (focusing on the process of the attempt, not the outcome)

Double down: When we are getting heads 3’s but they aren’t falling. We would double down in a Blackjack game in Vegas. We want to have the mentality that the numbers will play out and the next one is in.

Like 3’s, love layups: The fact that layups will always be a higher value shot for us than 3’s–creating them is more important than anything 

Jackpot: Called at the end of games with a lead to tell our team we are running offense with the sole purpose of getting a wide open 2 

Dagger: After an offensive rebound, kicking out to an open 3-point shooter 

Jackpot, dagger, grenade: The order in which we want to attack after an offensive rebound

Transition Offense

Right back: After the opponent makes a shot, the closest player will rip the ball out of the net and inbound the ball as everyone runs their lane. We want to score right back as the other team is celebrating.

Rip it: After the opponent makes a shot, the closest player will rip the ball out of the net as quickly as possible out of the net (without letting it touch the ground) to get it inbounded.

Pushers: Players who bring the ball up the court after makes or rebound the ball after misses

Racers: Players who are running their lanes once we gain possession of the ball

Be your own outlet: On a rebound, that player will not look to outlet the ball (that’s too slow). They will bust it up the floor.

Lag time: We want to start our races as soon as we gain possession, with as little time in between as possible

No fly zone: We want racers finding a sideline and getting out of this area (middle two-thirds of the court) as quickly as possible. Get wide first, then worry about depth.

Lock spots: We want racers getting to transition spots (corners and wings) and then locking into those spots until an action forces them to move (a drive occurs or we flow into halfcourt offense). This eliminates cutting and crowding the paint for no reason in transition offense.

Fix it: When three racers end up on the same side of the floor, the furthest racer from our basket (who can see his two teammates in front of him) will fix it by cutting across the court (preferably in front of the ball, but sometimes it will have to be behind the ball) to the other side 

Win your race: The goal for every racer is to win the race against their defender

Conditional racer: This is the racer you do not want to be. These players only run their hardest when they can get a guaranteed shot. By doing that, they miss out on times they would have helped us. You have to run as hard as you can 10/10 times to get the chance to score 2/10 times.

Pitch or push: The pusher will decide if they can pitch it ahead (this is their first option since it’s faster) to an open racer (if the defense is condensed) or if they will keep their dribble and drive it down the alley (if the defense is hugging)

Find the 2v1: The pusher should look for the side of the court with a 2v1 numbers advantage

Ping, ping: Quick passes between racers in transition to find the open man for drives

Four seconds or less: The time it should take to get the ball over halfcourt once we gain possession

Press Defense

Black: An off-ball defender attacking the ball handler and initiating a switch where the on-ball defender will immediately get out to keep only one defender on the ball and our numbers even

High hands: On a black, the defender who is attacking the ball will come with high hands to force a rainbow pass or a bounce pass 

Rainbow pass and bounce pass: The passes we want to intercept 

Red: A trap 

Read the shoulders: Off-ball defenders reading the pivot of the ball handler on every movement to help anticipate passes because that will tell you where he is passing it 

Low top: On the rise of any shot, all offensive players find their man, use their lower body to drive them inside, and stay on the top side 

Shiver not shove: Using your arms on the back of the opponent but not extending them (so you don’t get called for a foul)

Controller: The on-ball defender in our press who applies max pressure and intentionally gets beat

Gapper: The off-ball defender in the middle of the floor who can’t get gapped 

Scram: When a third off-ball defender rotates up or over to defend the ensuing pass out of the black, they will scream SCRAM! to indicate a scramble switch. 

Fire: When the opponent rebounds, we only want one guy on the ball. We will scream “FIRE” to get one guy off the ball to fix it 

Nemo: On a red, denying the two closest passes and leaving the two furthest offensive players with only one defender. Blood is in the water.

Get to your quarters: The court is divided into four vertical quarters. If the ball is in an outside quarter, every defender should be on that side of the court. If the ball is in an inside quarter, every defender should be in a middle quarter.

Get to 50: Get halfway up the court between your man and the ball.

Teaser: An off-ball defender who is inching up the court, teasing a deep pass because they understand they can recover on the air time of the pass 

Hugging: An off-ball defender who is too close to their own man (either vertically or horizontally) and therefore not aggressive enough 

Ball line: The line of the ball from sideline to sideline. The rule is that if you are behind this line, you must sprint to the ball line and figure out what to do next.

Adams: Holding a box out 

Westbrook: Chasing down a rebound 

Avalanche: All five guys on defense going to the rim and ready to go get a rebound 

Head tap: Signal to come out of the game. This is the most selfless act you can do for your team

Cowboy: Put ‘em up! Put your hands up and wall up around the basket (don’t foul!)

Situational/Miscellaneous

Poison: Get away from the ball (at the end of quarters/games when we don’t want to foul)

Bonzai: Intentional foul

X’ing: Screening on our free throws to get offensive rebounds 

Woof: Used when there is a defender coming from behind a ball handler to get a backtip 

Nail: The nail found at the center of the FT line 

BTS: Big time stuff (the tough, winning plays we celebrate in film)