(Rental)-Spread Princeton Offense

Tara VanDerveer, a highly accomplished coach with over 35 years of experience leading the Stanford basketball team, shares her knowledge and expertise on coaching basketball in this video presentation. She has a proven track record, having won three National Championships and coached USA Basketball to a Gold Medal, among many other accomplishments.

In the video, Coach VanDerveer explains how she has adapted her team's style of play by implementing a 4-out positionless system that incorporates their version of the Princeton Offense (Jersey). She demonstrates how to create multiple scoring options by using a 4-out basic alignment, in which four guards line the perimeter with 8-12 feet in spacing, allowing for easy cutting action and feeding the post. By using this system, guards can back cut, cut over the top, flatten out, or exchange places, keeping the defense on their toes.

She also uses a whiteboard session to diagram the actions and movements used to teach the Princeton Offense to her players. One of Stanford's favorite actions is their Blue Screen, in which the post player sets a ball screen on the best wing player and then follows up with a pin down screen on the wing after the ball is reversed. This action is tough to guard and creates a great scoring opportunity for the most athletic wing. They also run a simple Red Screen (wing pick & roll) that is created off of cutting action and the post player feeding the wing on a kick out.

Coach VanDerveer's drills are centered around layups and quality shots within the offense, with an emphasis on getting the best possible shot. Playing positionless basketball allows players to have fun playing in different spots.

In Pinch Post Shots, players feed the high post and work on their cutting action to simulate a screen, then come off of a screen for a shot. In Finishing Drill, athletes work on driving down the lane line and making various moves to get to the rim and finish through contact. In Buddy Layups, players work on swinging the ball around the perimeter and running actions they will use in their half-court offense, such as a backdoor cut for a layup and dribble hand-offs.

The video ends with VanDerveer taking the viewer through live game film, helping players understand how to run great movements and actions against any defense. This video is 97 minutes long and was released in 2021.