The Amoeba Defense

I have a successful Girls' Varsity team that missed a trip to state by 3 points. The final score was 101-98!!! We press and run and half-courttrap. Still, I feel as if I had a different 1/4 defense other then man or half-trap, we would have beaten the team that kept us from the state tournament. Could you share with me the basic movements and philosophy behind the Amoeba that Tarkanian runs? Thanks so much. I would like to implement the defense as soon as possible before we start our summer league in late May. Thanks for your time.

Coach Waldo Gutierrez

Coach Gutierrez,
I haven't been a coach that has particularly liked or used the Match-Up zone. I think all to many coaches rely on the match-up to disguise or hide poor defenders. In fact the best zone defense is literally a man-to-man, and the best man defense is literally a zone. Hall-of-Fame Coach Ralph Miller with whom I had the opportunity to observe during my coaching days at Oregon State often said you keep pressure on the ball, you deny any passing lane that can allow the offense to advance the ball closer to the basket, and the other players zone up behind to provide help.

Match-up or floating defenses work primarily because many young coaches don't know how to properly attack them. I for one have always experienced good success with my match-up offenses and look forward to these types of defenses. As a result I have never been overly eager to use them on the defensive end. Since my knowledge of the Amoeba is limited I turned to a coaching colleague Lason Perkins, assistant coach of the Raleigh Cougars of the USBL to give me more insight.

Here was his reply:

"I know the Amoeba very well. Fran Webster of Pittsburgh designed the defense back in the 50's and used it with his teams. He wrote a book on it as well as some articles which appeared in Scholastic Coach magazine back in 1976 I think. It is basically a switching defense that mixes zone and man to man coverage. Webster called it Amoeba because it changed its shape. Webster had a coach on his staff named Tim Gruguvich who took the defense with him to UNLV and introduced it to Tark. The way UNLV played it, it was more of a zone defense with pressure man to man concepts, which fit Tarks defensive scheme. Another coach who used the basic concepts of the Amoeba was Boyd Grant at Fresno State University and Colorado State. I learned thedefense from one of his assistant coaches, Fred Litzenberger. A lot of coaches refer to the Amoeba as the Fresno Match Up. Some claim that John Egli, a coach at Penn State Univ. back in the 1960's designed the defense and called it a Sliding Zone. Arkansas and Cincinatti have used the Amoeba. It is basically a 1-1-3 defense that plays man to man rules. The defense has different shifts it uses when the ball goes into the corner. You can also trap out of the defense as well as use it at full court." 

Thanks for Asking the Coach!