Pascal Meurs

🏀 Professional Basketball Coach
🎥 X's & O's • Video Breakdown • Analytics
🇪🇸 Valencia | Former 🇲🇽 🇨🇵🇳🇱🇧🇪🇱🇺
✉️

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

If you're new here: I break down basketball from a coach's perspective.

X's & O's
Analytics
ATO's
Defensive concepts
Trends across EuroLeague, ACB and European basketball

A few of my favorite recent breakdowns ↓ 🧵

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Valencia Basket U22 🇪🇸 — Press Break

Sometimes the best answer to aggressive defense is ... to be even more aggressive.

Simple but effective press break: clear the middle and let the inbounder sprint through it.

The result? An open corner three within 5 seconds.

[EuroProBasket @europrobasket]

🗣️ @pascalmeurs
“Defenders use different techniques to contest three-point shots, from fly-bys to wall closeouts”

📍L’alqueria del Basket del Valencia Basket 🇪🇸

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Real Madrid 🇪🇸 — Double Iverson Wing Post-Up

The best wrinkles are often the simplest.

When everyone runs Double Iverson, defenses think they know what's coming.

Watch how Real uses a small variation to create a wing post-up, with no help defense in position.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Facts 💯👇🏻

[Ball in Europe @ballineurope]

Want to watch the ABA League in Ireland? Good luck.

Want to follow several European basketball leagues? Get ready for multiple apps, subscriptions and geographic restrictions.

It's getting better, but the great basketball treasure hunt isn't over.

https://t.co/xntMz0h1St

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Fenerbahçe broke the EuroLeague record with 14 blocks.

Saras: “Imagine how bad our defense was.” 😅

A lesson for players at every level:

Great defense starts by keeping the ball OUT of the paint. Not by waiting at the rim to block a shot.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

With Kyle Kuric on your team, you can add a wrinkle with a Ricky action to any of your setplays

Having a big that understands screening angles is crucial. Ricky action requires 3 screening actions in a row, each with a different angle

👇📽️ a Floppy & a Double Iverson play

#ACB

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Sometimes your setplays creates an advantage. Sometimes they don't

That's when you flow into your off. concepts you
have been building since preseason.
Spacing, timing and ball movement are key to keep challenging the defense

Breogán has been excelling at this so far in ACB

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Breogán 🇪🇸 — Preseason Concepts

Weak-side spacing behind the PNR:
• Baseline cut from the weak-side corner
• Wing drifts down to replace

A simple way to force the low man (who watches the PNR action) to choose between offering help as the last and covering the cut.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Limburg United 🇧🇪 — Quick Lob Play #BNXT

Nice quick hitter out of a timeout, overloading one side of the court to create space for a lob to their big man.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Emma Meesseman in the low-post is a problem.

Lethal in 1X1 situations and when other defenders keep an eye on her, she knows to find any teammate that is moving.

Court vision ➕ passing skills ➕ unselfishness

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Belgian Cats 🇧🇪 - Horns Chin to bring Emma in the post

Emma Meesseman's playmaking and passing skills from the post are crucial for Belgium. This Horns Chin action followed by a diagonal screen of Allemand/Vanloo will be one of the go-to-plays to set her up at the WC in Berlin

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Full article:
https://t.co/Q08m0eRsEH

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Valencia–Olympiacos tonight.

Short, structured shifts or longer stretches? The real coaching question is how those choices fit your players and playing identity.

My latest article: Two Ways to Manage 40 Minutes.

Keep an eye on the bench.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Full article:
https://t.co/Q08m0eS0uf

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Olympiacos’ rotation against Žalgiris caught my eye.

Not one single sub in Q1. One player staying on for the whole second half.

Tomorrow, Valencia brings a complete opposite approach

Two ways to manage 40'. Neither guarantees success.

Link to my complete article in comments

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Valencia 🇪🇸 — Opening Spain PnR

When not opening a quarter with their classic Double Iverson, Valencia likes this stagger into Spain PnR with the 4 and 5 as screeners.

Works because of excellent timing by Mirotic, on top of his quick and high release on the shot.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Not bad for a guy who isn't exactly known for his shooting touch..
Maybe Sako should consider shooting his free throws left-handed? 😉

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

🇧🇪 #BNXT League — Antwerp vs Kortrijk

0.6 seconds left in OT. Kortrijk steals & hits a half-court buzzer-beater. Game clock never ran

Referees "calculate" 0.68s from catch to release.
Basket cancelled
Spurs file a protest. Is the time gap between TV frames valid?

Thoughts?🤔

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Virtus Bologna 🇮🇹 — 2-3 Zone Blitz ATO

Sometimes the old tricks still work, even at the highest level.

Coming out of a timeout, Virtus catches Bayern off guard with a classic half-court trap.

Not even perfectly executed, but the surprise makes it effective nonetheless.

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Maccabi 🇮🇱 — BLOB with lob

Another example of a defense relaxing after surviving the classic screen-the-screener action.

Sometimes a split second is enough to get caught by what comes next: the lob.

[EuroProBasket @europrobasket]

Practice builds the foundation.
Game days show the progress. 💪🔥
.

#EuroProBasket #Basketball #GameDay #basketballoverseas #basketballinspain
.
📍Valencia- Spain 🇪🇸

[Pascal Meurs @PascalMeurs]

Can a player get an assist without touching the ball?

Who deserves more credit for TLC being wide open here: Maledon for the pass or Jantunen for sprinting the floor and dragging the defense?

Quantifying actions like this is the next frontier in basketball analytics.