Duke 3-1-2 Inside-Out Pick & Roll Offense

This is part of the 3-Man Weave Offense that Duke used when they won the National Championship last season against Notre Dame. It's a simple way to use the 2-Man Game to get your Midfielders dodging into "the Slot".

A lot of people say that NCAA Lacrosse is a copycat league--that every team does the same things against each other. That's only natural, since every week every team has to be able to react to and defend against what every other team is doing. And out of that, we get to see a bunch of great plays!

This is a simple Dodging Offense that uses principles of classic Motion Offense, with some modern 2-Man Game to create space for your Midfielders to get some good shots in the middle of the field, right in front of the goal. Combine this with some 2-Man Game behind the goal to get your Attackmen involved.

Of course it never hurts to have a player like Myles Jones on your team that can do it all.

Already in the first two weeks of the 2015 season we see several top college teams using a simple variation of this same Offense we are calling the "Outside-In Pick & Roll". If you can teach your players both of these sets, you may find yourself with a very high-powered offense this season!


 Here's THE PLAY:

3-1-2 Formation: Set up your three (3) midfielders in an "Umbrella" across the top of the box. Put one Attackman on the Crease and two Attackmen at GLE on both sides of the goal.

duke inside out pick & roll college lacrosse offense

Figure 1.) Pass the ball to Blue 2 so he can Dodge from the corner into the "Slot". Start this play any time the ball moves from the "inside" or center to the "outside" of the field. We run this play most often on the left side of the field (when looking at the goal) so that most of our players can dodge and shoot with their right hand.

Blue 1 will run to set a Pick on Blue 2's Defender (Red 2). Make sure your players are setting their Picks on the Defenders' back side so they can't see where the Pick is coming from.

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GAME TIPS:

  • Make sure your players know when is a "Good Time" to start your Offense.
  • After one or two tries up top, pass the ball down to the Attackmen so they can try some 2-Man Game from behind the Goal.
  • Run this play in Practice against no Defense first so your players know where all the options are.