Today I wanted to spend a minute to touch on a point rarely discussed but one that players need to be taught, handling errant full-court baseball passes. Typically these only occur at the end of the game in “need” situations. But they can also be worked in in various press offense scenarios or even just transition offense. How many times have we seen in the past year a player live Kevin Love throw a full-court outlet pass for a lay-up/dunk!
Here’s the scenario, a full-court baseball pass is thrown but will be clearly out of reach for the offensive player to successfully grab and maintain possession. However, rather than allowing the ball to sail out of bounds, the offensive player needs to make an assertive effort to tip/touch/deflect the ball before it becomes a dead ball. Explain to your players WHY this is important:
The opponent must now take the ball the full length of the court, rather than having it out of bounds just below their basket.
