The Defense That NO One Can Score On 

I used to student manage UH basketball before I got my bachelors. Coach Sampson and his staff teaches toughness and effort first and then the defensive strategies fall in place. Great video!

this is how 90% of teams play in europe. it makes sense that it works in college with the shorter three point line

That is some damn good defense I am super impressed gotta watch some Houston games for sure

Man I love basketball. Everything is simple but has so many parts it’s like nothing else

As a defensive minded player I would love to play on a team with this type of defensive philosophy but I also understand personnel is a huge component for this to work Two questions on attacking this type of defense: 1. Would setting off ball screens be something useful? 2. What about filling for the screener from the man who’s “tagging”? Thank you in advance for anyone who answers.

Fantastic video. The knowledge, the editing, the lead up talking about the unconventional approach by Houston, the data visualizations. Really versatile content, good work!

Jordan touched on it a bit talking about the passes being outside of the shooting pocket, but I think another thing with this system is that it disrupts the rhythm of a shooter, and the overall offense. I don't think people realize just how dependent college offenses are on rhythm shooters, and the natural flow of an offense

played against Shead in high school when he was in Manor HS. He's no joke

as an aspiring assistant coach, I love watching these types of videos, thanks for this.

Awesome video. I learn *so* much from your content -- would love to see more frequent posts!

Really puts into perspective how special of a performance Nijel Pack had against this swarming defense.

Excellent video! Thank you for putting in the time and effort to showcase this incredible defense.

Thank you goat , I watch all uh games but I needed to hear your voice break them down . I hope you enjoying the new year .

student here. ibe toured the facility and they always talk about what they focus on when it comes to preparation and recruits. one of the most interesting things i learned is that while height does matter, they make it a point that wingspan is one of, if not the largest, factors in who they choose to recruit.

This is an awesome breakdown of defending the ball screen. Well done!

Great breakdown man !! I’m going to binge all your vids now

Great video. UH is always a must if you want to improve the defensive strategies and skills.

It’s brilliant! Great breakdown!

Kansas 25-32 on 2-point shots yesterday. Figured something out.

Such a good video bro

Great analysis. Thanks for this vid.

Been waiting for your new video for such a long time! Never fails to provide great contents!

Excellent analysis. Thanks.

No one except Kansas today, lol. The Jayhawks were carving that Houston defense up in the first half.

When I coached we did some of these similar things. Loved your breakdown

Great video! You’re doing the Lords work, I only wish that breakdowns like this can make it to the mainstream. But the community online will appreciate it here still.

Great Video Bro!

LETS GO UH!!! Used to be on no one's radar when I went there back in 2014-2016. Glad to see us doing well!

I grew up in Houston and was an all state pg in 5A in the 2010s. Committed D1 but got hurt and had to go D3. Was way “over qualified” but still had a very hard time getting along with my coach and other players bc I played so much more aggressive and my coach was used to soft play. That’s just how we grow up playing here. I love it and still wouldn’t change anything. Proud to be a “tough” player.

Fantastic video!!! I'm going to have my 7th grade AAU squad watch this in its entirety. I emphasize that defense is about effort...Every single practice. It usually turns into points on the other end. #AlwaysLearning

I did my physical therapy internship for the basketball team when he was couching at OU. His practices were so intense it was mind blowing. If you play for him he has zero tolerance for ANY slacking. EVER

I had the pleasure of watching Sampson coached teams during his tenure at Oklahoma and while his offense was a bit stodgy and plodding it was consistent and he truly taught the value of shot selection and protecting the ball and not turning it over. Where he always had his teams though was in an aggressive defense that traveled really well. You'll have off nights offensively but his teams always played great defense and it kept them in games where they were off. It doesn't surprise me the success he's still having.

Awesome breakdown!

Great vid as usual. You need to give some space to screener. I'd set a ram action, off ball screen first for screener(wing), allowing screener to arrive on ball handler with speed and some space. That's where i'd start and see if blitz is as effective.

Would love a video dissecting UConn's defense because they play both Drop and Hedge/Blitzing depending on which center they have in the game... Both last year and this year! Seems to be workin out pretty well for them

Love to see you talk about the Duke game today!

Blitzing screen coverage, using length and athleticism to force off-target passes to allow time to recover, flyby contests, this scheme reminds me of the Big 3 Heat. The Mavs used double ball screens rip that Heat defence apart. Dirk's shooting forced Haslem to stay home, preventing him from tagging Tyson Chandler on the roll. I imagine it's hard for young guards to handle pressure like Jason Terry was able to, and not every team has a unicorn and generational scoring talent like Dirk.

I saw this Kelvin Sampson philosophy up front in 2021, when they locked up Buddy Boeheim and my Cuse! As for now, from looking at these clips, a dynamic point guard with a pass-first mentality, and some players willing to cut to open spots closer to the basket, as opposed to stand behind the three line waiting for a cross-court pass they won't get, can put some holes in this tag and attack defense, as great as it is.

Id love to see a Marquette vs Houston matchup in the final four. Elite passing from both Kolek & Oso vs an amazing rebounding & defensive squad in Houston!

Ty I’m gonna start watching Houston games

I love Tugler, amazing to watch. Easily one of the most underrated players in CBB in terms of his effect on winning games. If they just had one dynamic create their own shot guy I think this team would be a buzzsaw in March. They still are they just lack the shot making at this point. About as fun a defensive team though as I've ever seen.

Finally new video, exciting times.

Great video

amazing video,thanks for ur hard work,I can‘ t wait to see the game UH with DUKE

Greta video, but for me the cornerstone of their defense is what they do after the blitz, great close outs and rotational knowledge are things that not even some nba teams do well

This is amazing

shout out to the absolutely botched wide open back door cut at 9:05

Jamal Shead and Jojo prove how important it is to have personnel that fit the system. Both are skilled, tough, athletic winners.

This was beautiful

The defense they play may me ahead a tear 🥲 a work of art

those rotation tags are what makes or breaks this type of defense, reminds me of classic syracuse 2-3 zone rotations but converted man defense with heavy ball pressure

Why on earth did you have to upload this before we played @kansas lol

The Rutgers teams under Pikiell have played a similar style using Myles Johnson as the blitzer. Recently it seems Omoruyi is more of a hedge.

It's a Up-To Touch to High-Flat Show. Atleast that's what we did at a team I helped coached 3 years ago.

I feel like their pick and roll strategy of blitzing works better against teams that don’t have talented ball handlers. Once they get later into March I feel like this trapping scheme won’t work as well because more experienced guards will be used to this pressure

4 year players are going to become back in style. They play in a league with tougher rules than the NBA.

You can get a bounce pass threw that type of double or trap what every they want to call it and the screen and take the mid range shot or he can drive and kick to the corner

Better point guards would solve this issue. This typical defense has played in Chicago. It works up until it doesn’t. There is a gap in between the two defensive players, or you can attack the top foot of the closest player to you dip the inner shoulder hand fight, and go. Would like to see more of this against better ball handler and decision maker.

you know march maddness is coming when you start uploading

Great analysis . I am amazed how the Jayhawks were able to just walk right through them. Defense of the century.?... 54 pts a game given up....boy, KU's 75 points were a once in a century . Big 12 ball is a little upscale for the newbies.

Robert’s is also a very good defense anchor for Houston with phenomenal perimeter defense. All of Houston’s defenders range from good to elite

Could you maybe do a video of the best defenses and how they differ and what works against them? Like this vs the Pack line D vs the famous Syracuse 3-2 zone etc

It’s so hard to focus on people I know nothing about but I let the video play out all the way while I worked so we good on watch time 😂💪🏽

Can you make a video on Butler University and how Thad Matta has turned the program around with a team of all transfers

the way around this defense is quick passes on plays designed to get the ball out of the trap quick. So if you know they are going to "blitz" you, you should have a play designed for when you see their big going for the trap. Have some one running to the far side and one running to the ball. the pass should be within a sec on someone being on you and the guard should know where its coming from so he can make the pass regardless of if his back is turned or not.

Curious to see what exactly Kansas did to dismantle this defense. From the box score and what I remember seeing, they don't seem to have taken many threes, but were very efficient on two pointers. One thing I noticed was the amount of risky passes they took - when they work, it's usually points, and while they turned it over a bunch it seems to have paid off ultimately.

Kelvin Sampson has made Houston a perennial contender and I love him for it. One of the best in the game for sure.

I also used this tactic of defense in city league basketball where I won many championships, it is not genius, it just makes sense because the defender is already there so I trapped it, however the counter for me would be to set the pick on the opposite side of the ball dribbler's defender that will leave the pick man's defender with no one to defend. You will run the pick and roll on the other side. Because a lot of time the pick man defender is trailing him too far. Let me know if have lost anyone..

It works in college but with the pro's the short roll is something that would happen every single time.

Love the vid bro, sent you an email btw.

I think the Zoom action would be a decent alternative to the ball screen. Yeah the Veer play you showed didn’t work, but if you set a solid pin down screen it could work a couple times, I think. Did you notice how soft and the guy defending the Veer screener sagged off? Dude was playing conservative and sat in the lane. Run the Zoom action and have that screener stay in corner and attack the guy sitting in the middle. But, obviously you can’t just do that the entire game. Just a way to snag a couple easy buckets.

So basically guards in college aren’t tall, strong, or skilled enough to escape the trap or make the skip pass

Kinda wish you would've come out with this video after Kansas vs. Houston. 😂

I'm glad Tuggler got some shine. Him being a Freshman is what stood out to me the first time I saw him play. I didn't know he was from Cy-Falls, though. Jamal. Shead. Is. the. Truth.

Great defense. Houston has alot of length and speed to be able to do this. Not many teams can do this due ot personal. 1. Knowing they are going to trap, attack the ball screen with your tallest player (post player), let him see out of it, once you get the ball out of the trap you will have an advantage. Roll with your guard, get it to him behind the trap. 2. Ghost screens. 3. Dont ball screen

Alright! That's playing with heart! Would love to see a NBA team have all players on the court take defense that seriously! Also, they need that coach for the All-Stars 😂, nah he'd probably have a great attack lol

Very important to keep ballhandler’s back to basket so passer cannot hurt you with penetration passes, as Houston does.

wonder if they would blitz zoom action? or for that case any off ball screens

They're effectively pre-blitzing the screen. Dscreener doesn't wait for the screen to be set.

houston seems to be the only players who aren't afraid to make a little contact. those boys are ballin' best option is to set better screens, create contact, & better footwork

its also the hustle that comes with it

I’m from Houston and the 2011 jack Yates HS team (3rd ward) did this same method. Was blowing teams out by 60- 70 points 😂

For a couple of years now, Jamal Shead had been good for 2 or 3 stocks (steals + blocks) per game.

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ this video

Iowa State didn't seem to mind.

Why doesn't the off ball wing show to the ball if Houston is blitzing the ball handler? Like, if you know they're gonna blitz, wouldn't the 2 or 3 come back to the ball? Then, instead of a skip pass or a late pass to the roller, you can get 2 quick passes to the roll man or the guy in the corner if they rotate on time. 4:57 when the big comes up, the ball handler is obviously trying to go right. So the guy on bottom of our screen should've came back to the ball, stretching out the defense even more Edit: after watching more of the video it seems like kids don't even know you can move around without the basketball because none of them move to the open space on the floor. They actively watch the PG get blitzed and go "sucks to be you" and just stand there waiting

A&M’s offensive style is very iso-heavy which is likely why they gave Houston a real run for their money both times they played them. This style of defense is also very susceptible to drawing fouls though since it’s so aggressive, which we also saw happen against A&M in the tourney

It's not a trap, it's just a great hedge. Other teams hedge and quickly move back without stopping the ball handler like that Virginia clip. Houston hedges until the primary defender is able to get back in front of the ballhandler and play team defense to only leave the weak side corner open

We've seen this before if you are old enough to remember that unlv team in the early 90s. Their defense was suffocating.

Their help-side rotations are something else

That’s great defense

In Euroleague blitz is way more used than switch as in NBA, but bigmen are often slow to recover with nowadays shooters. Curious to see Cougars defense in NBA, would shut down many PnR reducing finally the average scores?

Where did you get the ball screens statistics from?

Is there discord or something where I can find athletes that “THINK” the game like this? I would love to interact with you guys.

Houston been strapping for bout 4 years

This looks EXACTLY like the Miami Heat’s 90s defense under Pat Riley. The big men (Alonzo Mourning, PJ Brown, and later Brian Grant) always blitzed the ball handler in pick and roll. Heat always had a good defense.

from what i’m seeing here, they give up a lot of three point attempts bc they lock down inside the arc so well that the only thing left is to chuck one

I do this with my AAU team. I call it jamming the screen. 95% of the time the ball handler is gonna try and pass over the top. Must have excellent communication if that pass gets through as far as where to rotate. Great defensive strategy IMO

I mean am I crazy or is this the best defense ever assembled.

Check out Houston vs Iowa State