Legendary coach Don Meyer thinks that Transition Defence is one critical thing young or new coaches often neglect to spend enough time on. Your ability to defend the fast break begins on offence, namely shot selection and floor balance.

Coach Runchey likes to talk about the ¡"Three R's of Shooting" - Range, Rhythm, Rebounding - and I think these three will play the first part in determining how well teams can ignite the fast break against you.
If your players take poor shots that are outside their range, out of rhythm and without players in position to offensively rebound then your opposition will have an early advantage in fast breaking.
If your opposition is not threatened by your players attacking the hoop after a shot to chase down offensive rebounds then they will start to "leak" wing players who don't to need box out. Long shots will create long rebounds, which can be dangerous situation for defending teams to get back against as often there is no need for the outlet pass.

Coaches (myself included until last year) often neglect to teach their offence to finish a shot in transition spots. Before you can teach this, you must decide one critical thing: How many players are you going to send to the boards after a shot from your team?

Some coaches will send three, which will give you two players to act as "Safety & Deep"

3,4,5 have gone to the boards.

1 has gone deep to protect the basket.

2 is the safety and will patrol for long rebounds, but more importantly he will pick up the outlet pass and aim to slow down the dribbler.

Once the ball has been outleted 5,4 and 3 must sprint back and ensure that the high and low help spots have been filled before matching up.

It is important that players understand that in transition you do not have a player, you must first be sure of three things in transition before matching up: The hoop is covered/low help, someone is in high help and someone is in front of the ball carrier.

"In transition it is not mismatches that beat you; it is open shots and layups" - Rick Majerus

Other possible tactics for offensive rebounding include:

1. Sending four players to rebound and having one safety, this will speed up the game and can make it hard for teams to outlet pass. This tactic however will leave you vulnerable if the opposing team is organized in transition and can get a quick outlet.

2. No rebounders and getting all players back to slow down a game. This will ensure that you are very hard to score against in transition but you will almost never get a second chance to score.

Once you have decided how many players you will send to the offensive glass you can start to incorporate defence into your offence. I like to remind my players that the game is "seamless," and that you must always "Finish your offence with the start of your defence." You are either in one of four states of play at any one time:

1. On Offence
2. On Defence
3. Converting/Transitioning to Offence from Defence.
4. Converting/Transitioning to Defence from Offence.

My philosophy in teaching transition defence, like anything is to teach incrementally and build up to the whole.

Keep the ball in front

Don't foul

Contest the shot and box out

You must sprint back to the basket straight away.

Now your job in a game is to slow down the offence until your teammates get down the floor.

Try to make the offence make an extra pass by hedging at the ball or take a charge.

Communication is the key - "I got hoop." "I got ball."

First player back get the hoop

Second player back get the ball

Work in Tandem.
The bottom player will work side to side, and the top will work up and down.

They must always have pressure on the ball and help at the hoop.

The player closest to the ball picks up the ball, the closest to the hoop must get the low help position and the man in-between must get the high help position.

Further Reading & Related Topics...

Serbian Transition Drill