A Sea Of Red

Welcome to Liberty Men's Basketball. We do this wild thing called defense.

Xavier's Ultimate Guide to the Packline Defense

What is a Packline?

It's an imaginary line 16' off the basket, mirroring the 3 point line.

Basic keys.

Packline is a man defense.

All off ball defenders will have both feet inside the Packline.

The on ball defender is extremely aggressive to the ball.

If the ball comes inside the Packline, that player is double teamed until the ball leaves the area around the basket.

When the ball carrier is inside the Packline and especially in the post, watch for defenders putting their hands up but being aggressive to the point of fouling with body checks. It's rarely called a foul, but is very identifiable in game.

Why?

We all understand that the closer you are to the basket, the better chance you have at making a shot. The Packline defends high percentage shots and let's opponents take better looks from low percentage positions.

Weakness?

High performances from 3.



Obviously the PDF is much more in depth and is available to you, but this is a beginners guide to understanding how and why the Packline works and when it won't.

Good post.

There’s also a wholistic mentality to it that translates to the offensive end as well. What’s interesting is that it appears RMK is deviating a little from that side of the philosophy.
In short they want to slow the game way down. It’s frustrating as an opponent to have to run your offense deep into the shot clock and then turn around and have to defend for just about the entirety of the shot clock on the other end. It will force you to make bad decisions born of frustration. If you take a bad shot your not going to have a quick chance to make up for it so you will try to make up for it on defense, make another mistake...then they just keep multiplying.

It seem this year we are playing a little faster but we are picking out spots. There are times you can tell the players want to sprint down the court but they slow it down and almost lull the opposing team to sleep. I think adding elements of the old "Ritchie ball" into the packline approach really adds a dynamic to our team and keeps the opposing team off balance. Part of that is that we have so many shooters on our team now.

I love the packline and how much it frustrates other teams but if a team gets hot from 3, like @Class of 20Something mentioned, then watch out. It will be a long night for us.

We shoot threes and layups. From an analytics standpoint, it's almost perfect.

Having the ability to play fast and rack up points quickly may save us on some of those nights where the other team catches fire.

Jonathan Carone wrote: ↑December 4th, 2020, 11:31 am We shoot threes and layups. From an analytics standpoint, it's almost perfect.

You are correct in principle, and yet Keegan proved it never hurts to have an all around game when we were struggling early from 3 and he was able to take advantage of how fast they were closing out on him to leave them in the dust for 3 sweet mid-range jumpers. It ended up paying off later when they had to respect that and he got better looks from 3.

Just a small point of information for those who have just jumped on the McDowell band wagon. He has always been a solid defender. That was how he was able to earn meaningful minutes from day one as a true FR, as opposed to a more physically gifted player of similar size who preceded him.

Jonathan Carone wrote: ↑December 4th, 2020, 11:31 am We shoot threes and layups. From an analytics standpoint, it's almost perfect.

Long 2s are the worst shot on the floor!

olldflame wrote: ↑December 4th, 2020, 12:00 pm

Jonathan Carone wrote: ↑December 4th, 2020, 11:31 am We shoot threes and layups. From an analytics standpoint, it's almost perfect.

You are correct in principle, and yet Keegan proved it never hurts to have an all around game when we were struggling early from 3 and he was able to take advantage of how fast they were closing out on him to leave them in the dust for 3 sweet mid-range jumpers. It ended up paying off later when they had to respect that and he got better looks from 3.

Just a small point of information for those who have just jumped on the McDowell band wagon. He has always been a solid defender. That was how he was able to earn meaningful minutes from day one as a true FR, as opposed to a more physically gifted player of similar size who preceded him.

Keegan’s got really quick feet and active hands, he’s definitely an asset on defense. He’s got good size too, I often forget he’s as tall as he is.

Class of 20Something wrote: ↑December 4th, 2020, 3:16 pm

Jonathan Carone wrote: ↑December 4th, 2020, 11:31 am We shoot threes and layups. From an analytics standpoint, it's almost perfect.

Long 2s are the worst shot on the floor!

Reminds me of Antoine Walker:

“Why do you shoot so many 3s?”
“Because there are no 4s”

20 Something, Xavier is probably a good source, but when I have questions about the Packline, I just ask Ballcoach.

Cider Jim wrote: ↑December 5th, 2020, 7:45 am 20 Something, Xavier is probably a good source, but when I have questions about the Packline, I just ask Ballcoach.

God help you. I know he never coached it.

JK37 wrote: ↑December 5th, 2020, 7:56 am

Cider Jim wrote: ↑December 5th, 2020, 7:45 am 20 Something, Xavier is probably a good source, but when I have questions about the Packline, I just ask Ballcoach.

God help you. I know he never coached.

FIFY

Haha, I won’t go that far. He did coach something right? Or am I wrong?

Awana

JK37 wrote: ↑December 5th, 2020, 1:39 pm Haha, I won’t go that far. He did coach something right? Or am I wrong?

Beer League softball

JK37 wrote: ↑December 5th, 2020, 1:39 pm Haha, I won’t go that far. He did coach something right? Or am I wrong?

He is in his own Armchair Hall of Fame.

I took one semester of coaching basketball and Coach Patterson talked in very basic terms about the packline. I think if you have the athletes to keep up with the ball but are slightly undersized you could probably make it work. Definitely would work with a solid flex 4/5 to collapse on the post or deny if they try to slash to the basket.

"It's an imaginary line 16' off the basket, mirroring the 3 point line. "

"Packline is a man defense."

These are the only two things that are correct. And even then, the Pack line is not imaginary, its painted right on the practice courts.

Unless Dick and Tony Bennett made a tape with Ron Sanchez and Brad Soucie since I've been AWOL, nobody knows the deal.

I am sensing a Montgomery County connection. Welcome back, Ryan!

Houston05 wrote: ↑March 16th, 2021, 5:24 pm "It's an imaginary line 16' off the basket, mirroring the 3 point line. "

"Packline is a man defense."

These are the only two things that are correct. And even then, the Pack line is not imaginary, its painted right on the practice courts.

Unless Dick and Tony Bennett made a tape with Ron Sanchez and Brad Soucie since I've been AWOL, nobody knows the deal.

I welcome any and all corrections. Basketball is not my thing, and I'm doing my best to learn and teach. Most of the world doesn't like watching good defense in any sport. Honing in on what makes the Packline great and understanding it in live situations can change how we watch.

Every year we get a new freshman class of basketball fans that make it to the forums. They're who I wrote the post for. You guys deserved better fans in the stands.

Defense could be dominant next year with Shiloh, Joseph, & Kyle plus other guys. Very big team with a ton of length! Best Liberty Defense ever?

That's a nice thing to have. However, you're not gonna win anything without effective guard play.

And you're not going to win anything without shooters/scorers. We focus on defense so much, that sometimes we forget about the offensive end of the court. Basketball is an offense driven game .

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑March 29th, 2022, 9:45 am And you're not going to win anything without shooters/scorers. We focus on defense so much, that sometimes we forget about the offensive end of the court. Basketball is an offense driven game .

That is incorrect. Most fans and spectators believe it to be true but the canard “Defense Wins Championships” isn’t just a whimsical statement .
Arkansas got as far as they did because they had several genius defensive efforts. Especially against Gonzaga who had the most creative and efficient offense in the Country. You do need to put the ball in the bucket for sure. But good defense beats good offense every time.