Chapter 4 - Sinking Man-For-Man Defense

Sinking man-for-man defense was made famous by Coach Hank Iba from Oklahoma State. Used properly, it becomes a strenuous, hardworking, multi-purpose defense. Used improperly, as is so often the case, sagging defense practices result in little more than a rest period for four men while one man gives token effort and attention to the ball handler.

The very first task is to sell team members on the idea that when they sink or sag it is not to be a rest period. It is to be considered a strenuous, arm-waving, coordinated, cooperative effort by all five members. This effort should produce numerous deflections and a terrific psychological barrier to the offense. At its best the sinking man-for-man appears to be almost impenetrable. It appears to be a solid knot of arm-waving maniacs who will not allow a decent shot to be taken in the critical shooting area.

The sinking man-for-man is sometimes employed so effectively that the offense cannot determine the precise nature of the defense. Because of the sag and because of the arm-waving, the offense might well be led into thinking they are attacking a zone defense or a combination defense of some sort. This is especially true if the sinking man-for-man team uses switching tactics and does not call the switches so that the offense can hear them. Sinking man-for-man is related to zone in other ways. It virtually eliminates pivot play. The offensive post man finds himself surrounded by four men while one of the defensive players harasses the ball handler. He finds it difficult to receive and even more difficult to do anything with the ball. Middle lane drives are eliminated. As a matter of fact, there is little ball movement as a result of passing or dribbling other than around the periphery or outside edges of the defense.

Fig. 19

Sinking man-for-man defense creates ideal rebounding conditions. The defensive men are already nearer the goal than the offensive men.  In this case, the sinking players are almost shoulder to shoulder and foot to foot when the ball hits the backboards. They present a solid human wall blocking out offensive players from the boards. The only real rebounding danger is that the block off will be executed too close to the goal so that wide rebounds are received by the offense.

Arm movement is of utmost importance to a good sinking man-for-man. Without arm movement by all five men, cross-court passes may be made that would take advantage of the off-side sag. Some offenses treat an attack of sinking man-for-man as though it were a zone. This means they move the ball around the periphery for a jump shot on the weak side. The sag could be hurt in this manner without good arm movement.

The most important single facet of sinking man-for-man defense is good harassment of the ball handler. Many coaches call this pointing the ball. The basic idea is to have all players cue their position by the position of the ball and its relationship with the goal. The player guarding the man who has possession will move in close to prevent the shot.

Basically, there are only two ways to defend against the ball handler in the front court. You can defend against the drive or defend against the shot. Some players are great drivers and poor shots. In this event it might be appropriate to defend primarily against the dribble threat. This would require the defensive player to back off. It is our belief that many high school and college players can shoot the jump shot so quickly and accurately that we must give our primary attention to the shot. Therefore it is necessary for the man guarding the ball to move in close enough for arm movement to block the vision of the shooter. He should take his position in such a manner that the most dangerous driving route is cut off or overplayed. He is close enough to prevent a shot. The only real good alternative for the ball handler is a pass or dribble in the direction that is shown him. Let's take a look at one sinking man-for-man situation and see where each man plays and why.

Fig. 20

The first defensive man is guarding the man with the ball—right forward. He is overplaying the base line to prevent a dribble or drive in that direction. To do this properly, his left foot will be back and his right arm will be blocking the vision of the ball handler. The ball handler may drive toward the key hole or pass to his teammate—the right guard. As long as the right forward has the ball and is contained by the defensive player assigned to him, all the other defensive men will maintain the sag positions shown here. They should have both arms up with the major part of their vision focused on their own man and observe the ball handler using peripheral vision. Men 2X and 3X have the least sag of the remaining defensive players. They are guarding men adjacent to the ball and are therefore in the greater danger. Player 2X has sagged enough to pinch the ball handler's driving route to the key hole or recover quickly to a tight position on his own man if that man should receive. 3X plays the post man high and on the outside to prevent a pass. His first thought always is to prevent his man from receiving. Player 4X will play as deep as the foul line depending on his speed. Two passes will be required for his man to receive the ball. He should gauge how far he could move during the interval of time required to make two passes. Number 5X has the deepest sag of any man. In order for his man to receive, three passes would have to be executed unless a high, floating pass was thrown laterally across the court. If a cross-court pass is used and all five defensive men have their arms high for deflecting purposes, 5X can reach his man in plenty of time and possibly intercept.

Note that the middle is jammed. The base line drive is stymied. The outside shot is stopped. The greatest threat here is peripheral passing—quick movement of the ball to take advantage of slow recovery by weak side defensive men. Quick movement of the ball may take advantage of lazy defensive players who think the sinking man-for-man is a resting defense. We can see why some teams attack this defense just as though it were a zone. Actually, the defensive players should use good zone arm movement principles along with the best man-for-man foot work principles. Here are some other ball positions showing the sag position of all five men (Fig. 21).

The right guard has received the ball: 2X overplays the middle drive; IX drops off to a quick recovery position; 3X moves high on the inside of his man; 4X moves out to the head of the circle and in one step to pinch the middle in the event a middle drive is attempted. Number 5X moves to a position where he may pick up his man tightly, in time, if two quick passes should be made (Fig. 22).
 
When the left guard receives, 4X plays tightly, overplaying the middle; 5X moves up to a quick recovery position; IX drops off to a two-pass recovery position; 3X maintains his same pass preventive position; 2X drops back and toward the middle.

Fig. 21

Fig. 22

Fig. 23

The left forward has now received. Number 5X overplays the base line, 4X drops off to pinch the middle, 2X drops off to a two-pass recovery position. Player IX takes the deep, weak side, and 3X takes his overplay position on the post man. In giving these illustrations we have not moved the post man around a great deal. Needless to say, the offensive post man is not nailed to the floor. So the defensive post man must be constantly shuffling and moving to assume a stance that would prevent a pass to the middle.  There will be times when he would be in great danger if a lob pass were thrown to his man breaking goal ward. The best restriction on the lob pass to the post man is the deep sag man on the weak side—normally a defensive forward. When a lob pass is made he should yell "lob" and fade even more into the middle for (1) body checking action of the breaking post man, or (2) an interception of the pass.

The accordion action of sag, recover—moving in and moving out, onside and offside, by defensive men—requires a lot of coordinated and cooperative effort on the part of all five men. It requires constant verbal warnings of screens, lobs, cuts. It requires a team unity peculiar primarily to the sinking, switching, arm-waving, man-for-man defense.

There are two very difficult offensive maneuvers to defend against while using the sinking man-for-man. One of them is the set shot over a stationary screen. The other is the screen and roll.

Of course, the set shot over a screen can be prevented any time the defensive man is able to go over the top of the screen. If the screen is extremely tight and he feels the danger too great to go over the top, he may find his man stopping to shoot while he is momentarily blockaded by the screen man. To complicate matters further, his own teammate, defending the screen man, will sometimes get in his way. That is why this particular situation should be practiced as a break-down drill. It can be dealt with smoothly and efficiently if the players understand what they are dealing with and the method to be used.

In this situation, number 1 has passed to number 2, faked toward the middle, and stepped behind the stationary screen so tightly that the defensive man cannot get over the top. The result is a line up of four players, two offensive and two defensive. Some rule of thumb must be used to cover this play. Here is one such rule: the nearest DEFENSIVE MAN TO THE POTENTIAL SHOOTER MUST CHARGE   AROUND   THE   SCREEN   ON   THE   BASE   LINE   SIDE.

He comes around on the base line side because that is the most vulnerable position. If the lineup of players should occur at the head of the circle and it is difficult to determine which base line is nearest, the defensive man nearest the ball simply comes around either side as shown in Figure 25.

Fig. 24

If the ball handler drives toward the free throw line at the moment his defensive man comes around, number 2's defensive man, 2X, will take him, leaving IX to cover the potential roll-out man, number 2 (See Fig. 26).

This leaves IX in what is apparently an indefensible position. He is left trailing his man to the goal, and vulnerable to a lob pass. He should crowd number 2 and raise his arms high over his head and get his body between number 2 and number 1 as he breaks with his man for the goal. The method of playing the set shot over the screen we have just illustrated will be used by sliding teams—teams that prefer not to switch. Switching teams will want to handle the situation differently.

Fig. 25

Fig. 26

To use the switch, the defensive men will find themselves side by side at the crucial time of the shot over the screen.

Fig. 27

Player 2X would normally be waiting for the offensive man, number 1, to come around, at which time the switch will take place. In this case he must go around number 2 on the base line side—nearest number 1. Again, there is the danger that number 1 will drive opposite at that particular moment, leaving number 2X the defensive task of guarding the roll-out man, number 2. Of course, if he does drive, number IX will pick him up.   The biggest mistake most switching teams make in this situation is the failure of the deep switch man to come on around the stationary screen on the base line side.

Fig. 28

The screen and roll presents a really challenging defensive play. If the defensive man could always get over the top of a screen, there would be no problem. However, we know there is no such thing as always in the game of basketball. We must prepare for every eventuality. In this case we will simply assume that XI cannot get over the top of the screen set by O2.

This forces a switching situation. Player 2X must pick up Ol, leaving XI to play the difficult roll-out maneuver. To do this he will turn his back on the ball. He will raise his arms overhead, get as close to the roll-out man as possible, and break with him to the basket, making sure his body is between O2 and the ball. This appears to be an almost impossible defensive play to make. In actuality, it can be handled very nicely if the players are drilled and conditioned to respond.

Fig. 29

If O1 should make his drive toward the base line, XI can get over the top of the screen more easily if he has taken his normal base line overplay position. However, he could get screened in such a manner that he could not get over the top. In this case, the switch should become mandatory (See Fig. 30).

Here is the most important thing for defensive men to remember in playing the roll out. Raise both arms straight overhead and keep your body between your man and the ball to prevent the lob pass.

Fig. 30

To illustrate how the sinking, sagging man-for-man techniques we have discussed may be used, we will take a very popular offensive pattern and defend against it. The Drake Shuffle has become popular throughout the country. No doubt your team will be faced with the task of defending this continuity type offense several times during the course of a season. Here is the shuffle in its simplest form, showing continuity and the necessity for each man to know how to play each cut (See Fig. 31).

To play the first cut executed by number 3, 3X should go over the top of the screen set by number 5. He should not allow himself to be taken on the left side of number 5 as long as the ball is in the possession of number 2 or number 1. He should not get too far ahead of number 3 in playing 3's cut and he should not allow 3 to outrun him.   He should keep his vision glued on number 3's chest, keep both arms up, and overplay his cut by half a man all the way to the goal (See Fig. 32). You will understand that this makes a pass to number 3 at any time very hazardous.  Number 3X is also close enough to body check in case 3 deviates from his normal route. The next cut is made in various ways by different teams using the shuffle.  In this illustration we will show number 5 moving down the side of the key hole to set a screen on 4X, who should have assumed a deep sag posi tion as soon as the ball was passed to number 1 (Fig. 33).

Fig. 31

There is no need for 4X to attempt to fight over the top while playing number 4's cut. He knows number 4 wants to receive near the goal or in the pivot area. He must anticipate this move and be there waiting for number 4 to greet him on his arrival. If he should try to go over the top on this cut and the pinch is tight, he will get rubbed off and have to trail his man to the goal. The dangers are obvious. He must be alert for a fake cut over the top and break down the base line by number 4.

Fig. 32

Fig. 33

Fig. 34

Number 4 will try this if 4X overplays too much. The defense of this cut is very simple if 4X is aware of this possibility and doesn't turn his head to admire the ball handling of number 1. He must keep his primary vision focused on number 4 at all times (See Fig. 35).

The third cut is created by an interchange between number 2 and number 5. Here is a situation that seems to be defended best by switching, even though the ball is not in the possession of 2 or 5. This area has become congested as a result of the cuts executed by 3 and 4. Number 2X is already standing where number 5 wants to go and number 5X is already standing where 2 wents to go. If the two defensive men simply exchange partners a very difficult situation has been met simply and without complications (See Fig. 36).

Fig. 35

Fig. 36

Here is one offensive opportunity that makes switching hazardous on this particular play. The initial switch is not difficult and the defensive men can handle this variation if they are alerted to its possibilities.

Fig. 37

The Drake Shuffle has many variations and options not shown here. These variations must be introduced to the defense and met by specific tactics. Drilling defensively against the shuffle makes use of all the principles of man-for-man play listed in Chapter 2. It illustrates how the middle can be jammed by sagging. To be successful, pressure must be put on the ball handler at each point. Good arm movement must be utilized to hamper passing. Rebound strength is good if the shot is taken at any one of the positions shown.

The greatest danger created by the use of sinking man-for-man tactics is human laziness. Sag men will be tempted to take advantage of the fact that their man does not have the ball and take a rest period.

Assuming that the team is sold on sinking man-for-man and well drilled on its principles, the number of shots attempted in the critical shooting area can be cut to a minimum.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...