The outlet pass is an unheralded weapon for any basketball team. The ability to control the defensive rebound, chin the ball with elbows held high, pivot or power dribble away from the opposing player and snap off an accurate pass to the proper outlet player, not only starts your fast break, but it allows your other players to read the situation and get into their proper lanes. It all starts with the outlet. Yet this skill remains under-emphasized and under-taught.I was reading where ESPN's Jay Bilas tells the story about former UCLA star and current Minnesota Timberwolves Kevin Love. Bilas explains how the Bruin coaching staff had Love demonstrate the power of his outlet passing skills to the ESPN crew after practice. The 6-10 sensation stood on the baseline and threw a crisp two-hand chest pass the length of the court and hit the opposite backboard with a dead-on bullseye.
Bilas said that he and his colleagues stood in stunned silence as the UCLA coaches then explained how Love's penchant for strong two-hand chest, two-hand overhead and one-hand baseball outlet passes had given their team fast-break opportunities not seen at the school since the days of Bill Walton. Go to "You Tube" to see some examples of Love's outlet passes.
The story of outlet-passing will immediately remind some old-school coaches of NBA Hall-of-Famer Wes Unseld. Unseld, an undersized center at 6-7, who played for the Washington Bullets, was known as perhaps the game's greatest outlet passer. Surely, no man in basketball history ever began more fast breaks with a 50-foot outlet pass than did Wes Unseld.
Now that Kevin Love brings the Unseld-like production back to the outlet pass, Ohio State women's assistant Pete Gaudet outlines an easy-to-run outlet-pass drill in his book "Practical Post Play".
"Stand a player in front of the backboard with a ball and have him or her pass the ball off the glass and secure the carom to simulate rebounding a miss. The rebounder immediately locates a teammate moving between the foul-line extended to half-court."
"The rebounder must pivot outside and fire an outlet pass to the outlet player. At times, the coach can make a defensive player move toward the passer to stop the outlet. Here, the post player should respond with a power dribble along the baseline, before making the pass."
Hi Dave. Great idea to start a blog discussing the fundamentals and finer points of the game. As more coaches discover this resource it will be interesting to compare notes.
ReplyDeleteWhile a great outlet pass can be a very effective offensive weapon for teams who like to get out and attack quickly, it is far less important for teams who prefer to walk the ball up and get into structured set plays. It is also important to note the requisite skill of rebounding. Each of the players described above (Love, Unseld, and Walton) all could be counted on to secure a high percentage of the defensive rebounds. Few teams at any competitive level have the luxury of releasing their players early enough to make a great outlet pass effective because they must have everyone first concentrate on getting the defensive rebound. This is likely why few coaches spend a lot of time teaching the skills described above.
For teams who do wish to run off defensive rebounds, and do not have the luxury of a Love, Unseld, or Walton, the second pass (not the first) becomes the more important pass in the break. I would argue developing the skill of getting the ball across half court either up the sideline or cross court to the opposite wing through the air on the second pass is even less-emphasized and under-taught than the initial outlet pass. Many full-court drills start with an outlet pass but at that point the teaching tends to drop off while we just let our players "play" until they get into the front court. What happens between the first and second pass is the most important skill we can teach when emphasizing the fast break. See Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan for more on this point.
Both Pitino and Donovan claim the best breaks are those that include the ball traveling in the air across the timeline. Dribbling the ball across the timeline on the break is not only dangerous but slows your break down. For most teams, the ball traveling across the timeline in the air is going to occur on the second pass not the first. We can admire the anomaly of the 50-foot outlet pass, but it is impractical to emphasize and teach.
Okay...I got the ball rolling let's hear from you coaches out there!