A Box-and-1 Special.

A simple play that will produce high-percentage shots whenever your star is taken out of the offense

COACHES WHO ARE FORTU-nate enough to have a franchise player would do well to prepare something special for all the box-and-one defenses they are going to see throughout the season. Otherwise, they are going to be decimated by junk defenses that will take their star out of the game.

The answer, we believe, lies in keeping constant ball pressure on the defense to make it difficult for them to cover everyone.

We have been getting good results with the box-breaker shown in the accompanying diagram. After a dead ball or whenever the defense is able to get into the box-and-1, we will run this set play.

As you can see, we set up with a point guard (1), a short corner man behind the box defense (3), and two men at the elbows (5 and 4). #2 is the offensive star who is being chased.

The play works as follows:

1. Point guard (1) penetrates directly to the foul line, splitting the defense.

2. As 1 starts to penetrate, 5 and 4 cross-cut (with 5 going first) directly at the two defenders on the blocks, pin and spin.

3. As the two defenders are pinned, 3 breaks around to an open spot in the middle of the lane.

4. Upon getting the ball from 1, 3 can shoot if open or play a three-man game with 5 and 4.

Our special play provides very high-percentage shots and enables our other players to help out whenever our star is taken out of the offense.