Installing the Read and React Offense

Where to start. My formative years in basketball were in high school, when I finally (like most boys) learned to harness my athletic skills into a more productive set of abilities. The varsity and junior varsity coaches at my school had the most to do with that. Our philosophy was simple. We ran motion offenses (multiple versions, including flex) against man defense, and flood type offenses against zone defenses. And this was the way I taught offense since I started coaching right after I graduated.

I scrapped that this week after a loss on Friday, but my dissatisfaction with my offensive philosophy is a long time coming. I consider myself a strong coach in terms of teaching and strategy, especially concerning defense. My teams generally improve their defensive scoring average in my first year. Last years team reduced defensive scoring average by 5 points on the season, and this year we gave up 43 points in our first game. But my teams also seem to struggle scoring, averaging between 40-46 ppg year in and year out. I attributed this (and somewhat rightfully so) to the disease of AAU/Summer League ball taking the place of practice and skill development. We got great shots - but we just didn't make them. Recently though, I've been thinking that this problem wasn't fully to blame.



So on Saturday morning I came to gym with the basics of the Read and React in my mind and on my clipboard. I had modest expectations for a team that struggled with Flex and 2-Rule Motion. RnR blew my expectations out of the water. I have never seen so much productive player movement, and was astonished at how quickly my players learned it (especially an exchange student with incredible athletic ability and no basketball experience, who learned it instantly after screwing up Flex for 3 weeks).

On Monday we worked on the "4 out" and "3 out" formations, and I was equally surprised and impressed when we ran those successfully as well. We have 3 games in 6 days starting on Thursday, and we will be running this offense exclusively against man offense.

Basketballogy has a fantastic 5 part series on the Read and React (follow the link on the right) that I could not hope to replicate. In addition to providing other content on this blog, I will post regular updates to my program's development with this system. Following the link for Better Basketball will direct you to the official website for this offense for those interested.

Good Luck to all this season, and please feel free to post your own experiences with this offense.