Every coach I ever talked with always said they wanted a fundamentally sound team. This is why Teaching the Fundamental Eight is being presented. Any coach wanting to be creative and a bit different should read this.

Yes, it is true that coaches today are faced with a smorgasbord of offensive ideas; however, I believe that most offenses will work in proper situations. That is if you teach the basic fundaments of basketball and your team uses good timing, spacing and execution. The dilemma, however, becomes choosing which offensive sets will work best for your team.

One coach told me he was searching for the supreme offense, an offense that he would never want to change throughout his coaching career, no matter what his personnel. He wanted an offense that could be used in the elementary and junior high school systems.

Of course, such a system must be simple enough for the youngster, yet complicated enough to compete against modern-day defenses. Unfortunately, the problem facing the high school coach is a constant turnover of personnel. Unlike the college, or pro coach, he cannot recruit a big pivot player, or a slick quick guard with which to build an offense. He must make do with whatever turns out and must have an offense that fits their abilities.

When I began thinking about a system simple enough, yet adjustable to the many defenses, and adjustable to the elementary and junior high levels, my own experiences as a youth came to mind. Those basic fundamentals flashed before my eyes

In my studies of modern-day trends of basketball offenses, I found that every successful coach used at least one of these old time fundamental plays in his offense. Some were changed a tiny bit, but not much. I decided to adopt all of these starting from an alignment best suited at the end of a non-successful sideline fast break. As you know, I believe the sideline fast break to be the most effective offense against the full-court pressing defenses and zone defenses used today.

Consequently, I will use terminology for the position players and assume no scoring opportunity presented itself and we are ready to attack with a chosen offense which will be given a number 1 through 5.

First, let’s select from 8 plays, show the drills used in teaching them to players, then we can select the ones best suited for the personnel at hand. It really won’t make much difference what your initial alignment be 2-1-2, 1-3-1, 3 outside 2 inside wide set, 1-4 deep or shallow, etc. The 5 plays will remain the same. In short these five fundamental plays, plus their individual options, or counters will make up your offense. These five fundamental plays are simple enough to be taught at the elementary level, yet will give any coach in the school system the flexibility to fit it to his players.

I still believe the fast break with little dribbling as possible is the most potent offensive weapon in the game.

I feel that choosing five of these eight basic plays give us five different offenses. Run from various sets gives you a multiple offense, even at a grade school level. All these plays are basically mirrored. If we don’t get a shot on the left side, we run it on the right; however, instead of running continuous, pick and rolls and give and goes, we can develop patterns using more than one of these old time plays.

Before any multiple-option offense can be performed, the fundamental moves described in subsequent pages must be learned. I see the greatest problem of most offenses is execution, no matter the level of play; however, as one progresses up the ladder of basketball skill, the need of a second and third option become necessary.

The eight basic plays are the basis for my numbering system. As two-three (23) is simply a 2 play followed by a 3 play. It is easier to say, "Run a 23," than to say, run a give and go followed by pick and roll to the goal." Of course the more digits the more complicated the offense. Quite obviously this saves time and is much clearer during timeouts in a heated contest. Here is the law:

In this system of play, the offensive options used by the varsity may not be the ones best suited for the reserve squad. Nevertheless, we are teaching both the same fundamentals. Whenever change is needed, that change is simple.

Concentration on scoring on the first option is important. Proper execution should result in a good shot; however, good defense often prevents a good shot. In so doing, they often overextend and make themselves susceptible to the second option.

The majority of patterned, or continuity offenses fall into a three-numbered classification. Since most coaches are forced to change their offense because of player changes, the system we are about to explore lends itself well to such changes. The coach easily identifies and explains the offense to both players and staff. Any offense can be coded. For example, one my favorite coaches, North Carolina’s legendary Dean Smith, was a 154.