The Best Of Japan Women's Basketball
Say hello to a new brand of basketball ft. Japanese National Team
It’s a few weeks post Olympic Games and two of the main takeaways for Women’s Basketball fans were probably along the lines of…
1) The USA is really damn good
2) Japan is FUN to watch
I created a 10 minute edit and voice over video highlighting Japan’s performance and offensive concepts that I was really eager to release until YouTube/Japan’s strict copyright policies of the game film shut down any hope of me uploading that video…
Although the video isn’t on YouTube, you can access the link here for anyone who is interested in checking it out… The rest of this newsletter is my best attempt of breaking down this video in written form!
Coach Tom Hovasse
Former Penn State men’s hoops star Tom Hovasse is back in the limelight, instead this time he is being recognized for leading the Japan Women’s National team to a silver medal in the recent Olympic Games. Tokyo must be booming right now because Japan put on a hell of a show and has quite possibly set the new standard for 5 out basketball, showcasing the ability to compete at the highest levels even with an undersized squad.
Spacing & Cutting
Two factors that allowed Japan’s undersized roster to compete with the big dogs was their discipline when it came to cutting and spacing. You’ll begin to notice as you watch several clips the amount of space and gaps there were for guards to penetrate on offense. Now, it would be naive to not acknowledge the fact that they are playing with FIBA rules/regulations but still, any player who does not have the ball is almost always spaced behind the 3pt line, far enough away from the ball handler so that the defense cannot guard two offensive players at once.
This spacing allows for dribble penetration by Japan’s speedy point guard and puts off ball defenders in a bind having to decide whether to stunt and go home to the dead-eye shooters on the perimeter or commit to gap help in order to stop the drive heading towards the rim.
Corner Cut
We’re going to kick things off with my absolute favorite concept from Japan which was the “corner cut”. Cued by a middle drive, the player in the ball side corner snuck right behind their defender, who like I mentioned above, was in that grey area of helping on the drive or staying home. Most traditional defenses emphasize never helping off of a ball side shooter and in that case, Brittney Griner should stunt at the drive and then immediately return to her player in the corner… Easier said than done though, right?
That traditional game plan would be effective assuming Griner’s player stayed in that corner but good offense takes advantage of “sound” defensive principles, and in several cases Japan cuts the stunting defender resulting in two points. As soon as Griner takes a peek at the ball being driven at her, the corner cutter has already snuck along the baseline. Another example shown below vs. France.
Boomerang Action - Attacking The Big
Most teams are accustomed to taking advantage of mismatches through the post. What if instead of staring down a post entry pass or forcing a lob over the top that isn’t necessarily there, we attack the mismatch through the perimeter. The “boomerang” actions allows us to take advantage of a switch on the perimeter by isolating a particular matchup that we feel has an advantage. Whether the switch was initiated with a typical post to guard ball screen or just out of the flow of play where maybe the defense was forced to scramble and rotate, the first step to activating the boomerang action is for our players to be able to identify when the opportunity arises.
In the clip above, the point guard realized she had a mismatch and so did her teammates. She gave the ball up quickly, just to get it right back and attack downhill. The initial pass allows the ball handler to…
1) reset their dribble if they had picked the ball up prior
2) create momentum or a head start on the catch
3) Force a closeout situation on the pass back - assuming their defender jumped towards the ball/gap on the pass
“Boomerang action is a perfect example of creating freedom out of structure. The ball handler has the opportunity to make a play at the rim, draw help and dish or shoot it off the dribble if the big is sagging off. Now, not every guard has the skillset or speed to get by a post player on the perimeter but for those players that can, I think this phrase can simplify the action. “Give it, get it, drive it.”
More boomerang clips here from Zak Boisvert’s YouTube Channel
Tagging Up Or Just Being Aggressive?
To say that Japan was 100% tagging up in their game against Belgium would be pure speculation but after watching that entire game, that’s exactly what it looked like. They got to the Hi-Side whenever a shot was taken, matched up and “flooded” the ball on makes and misses and as a result earned a ton of extra possessions. I watched all of their games and Belgium was the only one that I felt the Tagging Up system was incredibly noticeable. Japan’s game plan could have just been to be super aggressive attacking the boards and not necessarily “Tag Up”, but it was close enough to at least mention it…
Tagging up is a defensive transition philosophy where all 5 offensive players pursue the offensive rebound by getting to the "Hi-Side, side closest to half court” of the player that is nearest to them. Instead of one or two players sprinting back to cover the basket in D transition, matchups are already set as soon as the defense gets the rebound and the ball handler is immediately picked up and shadowed by that nearest player in order to deter any long outlets and slow their momentum. The emphasis on getting to the Hi-Side (photo above) is critical because if a player goes to the low or “baseline side” beneath their player and doesn’t get the offensive rebound, they are giving a potential opportunity for the offense to leak out. Remember, tagging up is at heart a defensive transition philosophy, with the by product being improved opportunities for offensive rebounds as a result of 5 players crashing. As we know, more offensive rebounds lead to extra possessions to score the ball and possessions are the name of the game.
There is much more that goes into this system but I’m only going to touch on this briefly since there are way more qualified coaches and teams that have been using it consistently and can explain the nuances in a much more comprehensive way. So if I confused you there, my bad, to make up for it I’ve attached some resources below…
For more on “Tagging Up” check out these Coaches & resources…
1) Aaron Fearne - The coach who came up with this brilliant system…
2) James Janssen Associate HC - Davidson WBB
3) Ryan Pannone - NBA G-League HC
Transition 5 Out Spacing - No Rim Run
The last theme we’re going to take a look at is Japan’s 5 out spacing. If you watched Japan at all this Olympics then you are fully aware of how lethal their 5 out half court offense is. Using the concepts we discussed above and the fact that all 5 players seem to be in constant motion makes every move unpredictable and as a result, extremely hard to defend… It all starts in transition.
In both the clip above and below, you see Japan’s “post player” knocking down trail 3s. Posts playing out on the perimeter is definitely more common these days, but to have both a 4 and 5 run straight to the 3pt arch as opposed to the paint is very different than the typical WNBA transition style. Normally, at least one post rim runs or sprints up ahead of the pack towards the paint. Defenses counter this by sending a player back in transition to cover the basket and then another to stop the ball. When WNBA bigs like Tina Charles in this case, are so used to sprinting back towards the paint and not giving up anything easy early in the clock, it’s easy for them to naturally forget to stop at the 3pt line. The problem is when the USA bigs ran too deep into the paint they gave Japan’s posts a high quality look at 3 or put themselves in a tough defensive spot having to close out.
With all this being said, I did not forget that the USA won the gold medal game with ease and is clearly the better team with better players. There is no denying that the rest of the world is starting to make things more competitive though, which is great for women’s basketball as a whole.
The USA has set the bar for years and will continue to do so but the more exposure we can bring to other countries and leagues the better. As you can see there is a ton of really good basketball being played outside of the United States.
Well done, Japan!
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What I’ve Listened To
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