(Rental)-The Buzz Defense: A Half Court Pressure Defense

The Buzz Defense: A Half-Court Pressure Defense

Mike Divilbiss, athletic director and head basketball coach at Lakeland HS (ID), has made a career out of playing high-pressure, trapping defense. “The Buzz,” as he calls it, is unique in its style of play and Divilbiss details how to implement the defense in this video. Divilbiss has 30 years of coaching experience at the college level and has had his fair share of successful teams because of The Buzz.

Basics and Alignment

To begin, Coach Divilbiss shows each player where he is to be aligned. He starts with the post players and then identifies where the best rebounder, best anticipator, and best trappers should line up. Each player has a home base which allows them to understand and read where the traps are going to occur. Players are taught how to get into passing lanes and force opponents to go exactly where you want them.

The best part of his segment is when Coach Divilbiss slows down the defense and then walks through each player’s responsibility as well as the location of each player’s home base.

Requirements

There are three things that Coach Divilbiss states his teams must do in order to play the Buzz defense effectively.

1. Play hard every single possession
2. Avoid mistakes
3. Prevent straight line passes

Divilbiss provides examples of each rule so you can see how the defense should react and look versus an offensive attack. If players can sprint, closeout, and defend their home base on the flight of the ball, the Buzz defense will shut down even the most effective offense.

Playing the Buzz defense, coaches will likely use more of their roster since players must fly around the court and apply pressure at all times. This speeds up games and requires more than just a starting five. It’s fun for athletes to play. If you’re looking to install the Buzz, Coach Divilbiss does a great job of showing you how to implement it in this video.