How Baylor Runs Their 'No Middle' Defense

In this video, we breakdown how the 2021 National Championship Baylor Bears ran their "no middle" defense. The focus of this defensive philosophy is to keep the ball out of the paint as much as possible, and they do that by keeping the ball from being driven to the middle of the floor. They overemphasis closing out to the top shoulder on the perimeter, and influence baseline drives.

Once they force the ball-handler to drive baseline, they are early to rotate out of the paint to stop (and sometimes trap/double team) the ball, and they scramble out on the backside, when it's throw out. This philosophy is not without its own flaws, but Baylor was one of the best defensive teams in the country running this scheme.

In the video, we will breakdown their defense into four parts;
1. How they closeout
2. How they rotate
3. How they guard ballscreens
4. Their X-Factor

I do not own the rights to these videos or this music.

[kalilg]

Wow. That's most impressive defense I think I have ever seen. Great for this era too.

[jacobhanner]

This is exactly what our highschool runs and we gave up 38 ppg last year. If you can master the rotation when the ball is driven baseline it is very effective.

[JTMont]

This was always how I was taught to play defense. High school and college. We played helpline with these same rotations

[bryceandcarter]

My high school team never played this way, they wanted full court pressure and denying of all passing lanes. It was frustrating, especially once we played more athletic teams that were able to beat us off the dribble. We taught “help” and help the helper or “crack back” but it wasn’t a staple of the defense and athletic teams tore us apart. It was very frustrating as a player when this defense seems like the best and most efficient in todays game.

[RampartPh]

nice very educational breakdown. i think another factor here is how long the team has been established. they need to know the system very well and they need to be familiar w/ the nuances of each other.

therein lies the problem w/ collegiate ball because players come and go so quickly that once a team is fully cycled, the next season the squad will most likely lose several players and the new hoopers need to acclimatize w/ the philosophy w/ a lot of time constraints in between seasons. but it is what it is, as the saying goes.

[JackWilcox-km]

I think more on the Goalie and help the helper roles and responsibilities. I think those are probably the most important pieces. I'll take anything I can get though. My plan is to give it to the team as homework before we implement.

[alexkozhemyakin]

Such an excellent and very interesting recap! Thank you very much, keep going! Subscription from me, bro

[Natty-jl]

Amazing recap i dont think many guys could recap that no middle the way you did

[onthesideline-coachprevost]

Thank you for sharing this. It's much appreciated.

[RK-rvdr]

You always fill us up with great content

[donovansaine]

Hello great break down. I am trying to understand at 3:41 of the video (Baylor vs Kansas) why doesn’t the player for Baylor #24 take on the crack back responsibilities? I know normally weak side guy takes on that job but in this situation #24 was guarding anybody as the play developed

[chleb]

Really insightful video. I love basketball (though admittedly i'm more of a glue guy than a star on the court) and love to see in depth defensive breakdowns. It's very difficult as a casual to understand when watching if the defensive possession for a team was a success. Ultimately the offense can miss on a horrible defensive possession and make a tough shot on a great one. I'm an NJ native and watch a lot of Nets and that's been on my mind with them a lot lately. They seem to have a poor defensive rating, but perhaps their scheme just has some variance? I'd love to hear any advice you have on starting these film studies to try to understand defensive schemes

[chrispaul]

great breakdown, my defense is very similar!

[jerichoilagan]

If you look at the most recent Celtics practice videos, it looks like they are implementing this defense with the lines they have on their practice floors

[ReginaRayam-gc]

Okay Baylor nice information about your Defensive techniques. God bless 🙏

[radonaccount]

Not sure if you’ll see this now, but how do would you run this against a 5-out offense? Feel like bringing help on the baseline from the goalie would just make you more susceptible to getting caught in rotation from skip passes when the offense has you spread out like that

[JackWilcox-km]

Hi Coach, I love how you broke this down. I want to install this into my HS team. Can I get another breakdown please?

[cblang]

I love college coaching bc straight up you cant do this in the nba due to shooting being on another level but its really beautiful defense

[drew]

I like how @2:19 you're saying they essentially force the other team to drive baseline, as Davion Mitchell gets beat middle lol. Good breakdown though

[zacharyallison]

Great video breakdown. Very popular defensive system in today's college and high school game. What are the 3 most effective ways that you would attack this type of defense offensively?