Intense Basketball Drills - Training for Toughness – Hard-Nosed, High-Intensity Practice

Illinois head coach Brad Underwood has built programs well-known for their toughness and grit. While at Stephen F. Austin and Oklahoma State, Underwood went to four straight NCAA tournaments and garnered a number of Coach of the Year awards. Using the spread motion offense and a high-pressure defense, Underwood-coached teams are tough to beat on any given night.

In this intense basketball drills video, you will get an inside look at a full practice at Illinois. Underwood explains how he and his staff install the motion offense as well as the transition defense.

Intense Basketball Drills for Defense

For Underwood, defense is all about hard work. He presents a number of drills to teach defensive fundamentals like up-the-line and on-the-line defense. Players work to influence the ball to the sideline in 3-Line Closeouts. Here, Underwood teaches players to use a big first step to defend an attacker instead of taking a small false step.

To teach Ball Screen Defense, Coach Underwood uses a continuous 2-on-2 drill to teach players to force everything to the left. Underwood’s teams use a hard hedge and ice the ball handler so they can attack dribblers. This forces teams to prepare for multiple types of ball screen defense.

Coach Underwood uses the Shell Drill to teach defensive rotation and help-side defense. Starting with 3-on-3, Underwood progresses to 5-on-5 where he teaches baseline rotation, ball screen rotation, and shrinking the court by forcing everything left.

To finish up the defensive portion of the video, Coach Underwood goes through his 1-2-2 full-court press. The idea is to force deflections and wear down an opponent’s offense. Underwood sets a goal of 35 deflections per game to force opponents into making bad passes.

Intense Basketball Drills for Offense

Coach Underwood then takes you through how he puts in the spread motion offense. Through a series of drills, you will see how players master attacking the rim off the ball screen or over-closeout. The Quick 3 Drill is used to stress putting pressure on opposing defenses. The focus is on getting defensive rebounds and then pushing the ball up the floor within seven seconds in an attempt to score.

The 2-Man Game drill puts guards and posts working together to get downhill off of a ball screen in the half-court. In 5-on-0, Coach Underwood teaches the flow of the offense and how to work ball reversals. This also puts pressure on opponents.

Coach Underwood’s philosophy is to also put pressure on the opponent and he does so by creating a culture of toughness. His teams put the program ahead of themselves and you will see that in this video. With well over two hours of content, you will get an inside look at Underwood’s offensive system as well as how they play tough, hard-nosed defense. Rent this Intense Basketball Drills DVD today.