Jump Ball Plays - Offense and Defense (Special Teams) by Tyler Whitcomb

Why is the Jump Ball so important? It sets the tone of the game. If your team is ready on the jump ball, can you steal a few early possessions and get a win. +4.3 points for special teams equals to 2-3 extra wins a year against equal competition. Special Teams are so important, every program starting in 2020/2021 should have a coach and have 10-15 minutes allocated every day to work on. That coach can come up with Analytics to support your strategy.

Do me a favor and look through your season at just the games that are close and see if you won the Jump Ball and what you did with it. An advantage is the psychological benefit of having the first possession and thus the first opportunity to take a lead. High school and NCAA don't have jump balls after the initial except in overtime and again how important is that Jump ball? They have a possession arrow, so the winner of the initial jump gets either equal or one more possession. In the NBA, you get the ball in 4th quarter to start as well.

Strategies for the Jumpball: Work on it everyday, spend 5 minutes before practice with your special teams coach working on jump balls and the timing. Side note, spend 15 minutes on Blobs and Slobs and play out of it and have blob battles. Work on your jump ball plays. Have 2 plays for winning the Jump Ball. 1 play for if you can hit the ball forward and attack and another for when they sit back and protect the hoop and you tap it back South. Put in a play if you know you are going to lose the jump ball, put your players back and run a run and jump out of it when they tip it back or set up in your 1/2 court trap. Can you find a jump ball specialist? Lacrosse teams have face off guys that only do face offs and actually get a scholarship out of it. However, I get it there isn't many jump balls in basketball
compared to LAX, but if you believe that every possession matters, try to find a guy or girl. If you have a kid that is big and athletic, but can't play- this might be for him or her. (Jump Ball specialist)Their stats can be on whether or not they won each jump ball, the PPP, the significance of tone, and lastly the end result.

Analytics behind the Jump Ball: This should have your interest! Chance of winning after leading after the first quarter for all levels is 66.50%. The average rate of scoring first when winning the jump is about 60%.