Nehemiah Snell: How to Play Lockdown Defense

Bergen Catholic High School’s Nehemiah Snell. Photo provided by Nehemiah Snell.

As a young kid, playing defense didn’t always come naturally to Bergen Catholic senior point guard Nehemiah Snell. But he knew that if he wanted to get more playing time on the court, especially as his offensive game was developing, he needed to get better at defense.

“I wasn’t scoring 20, 30 points growing up,” Nehemiah said. “So I had to become ‘the defender’ to get myself on the court so I could prove my offense.”

By his senior season at Bergen Catholic, Nehemiah had become the team’s main perimeter defender tasked with creating chaos, or as he referred to it “blood in the water”, for the eventual state champions. Said Assistant Coach Asiah Avent about Nehemiah’s defense: “Every team needs a Patrick Beverley type. Someone who can score but puts his defensive skills first and team first.”

Defense Is About Desire

How did Nehemiah evolve into such an elite on-ball defender? A lot of it is based on desire. “You just gotta want it more than the person in front of you,” Nehemiah said. “You’ve gotta have the mentality that ‘You’re not going to score on me. I’m going to stop you from scoring this basket.’”

Nehemiah remembered his competitive spirit being sparked in basketball battles with his older neighbor Rocco. “I really wanted to start getting better at basketball because he used to beat me. I didn’t like the feeling that he was better than me,” Nehemiah said.

He also recalled playing one on one with another neighbor Jonathan and treating it as if it were game 7 of the NBA playoffs. “If I wasn’t going to win, I had to foul you because you weren’t going to score this last point,” he said.

Nehemiah’s advice to younger players who lack aggressiveness on defense is “to be confident in yourself. Tell yourself you can do it.” He also suggested that if you’re in practice, guard the best player on your team and try to challenge yourself to get better every day. “And be in better shape,” he said, so you can go after your opponent, especially when he gets tired.

Playing great defense allowed Nehemiah to get easy buckets off steals.

Student of the Game

In addition to desire, Nehemiah said that being a student of the game plays a huge role in his success as a defender because it allows him to anticipate what the offensive player is going to do - sometimes before even that player himself knows it.

“I study the game a lot and I watch a lot of high level NBA offensive players and their tendencies,” Nehemiah said. “So when I see the same tendencies in players that are not at that level yet, I can notice it and prevent it from happening.”

From this understanding, he can bait his opponent into doing what he wants them to do. For instance, if he know his opponent’s weakness is pulling up off his left hand, “I almost want you to think you can shift me right but I really want you to put that ball in your left hand and take the contested left handed pull up,” he said.

As far as visual cues, Nehemiah said that he’ll read the offensive player’s hips but “a lot of it is just reading [the offensive player’s] body rhythms. There are certain movements you can’t do in certain rhythms.”

Developing Lateral Quickness

Of course, being a great defender also requires exceptional lateral quickness. Nehemiah said that he improved his foot speed by doing agility ladder drills as well as change of direction work with his athletic trainer Juwan “JuJu” Griffith.

“Being able to start, stop and change directions fast, that plays a big part in improving your lateral quickness and reaction time,” Nehemiah said.

Nehemiah also recommends playing a lot of one on one to build defensive instincts and get used to defending against different playing styles and body types.

Finally, weight training and nutrition has contributed to Nehemiah’s defensive performance. He started lifting when he was thirteen years old and gained about 30 pounds in a year. “I was super skinny and I knew I needed to gain more weight if I wanted to compete at the highest level of New Jersey for basketball,” he said.

In addition to lifting four days a week, Nehemiah said he drank a lot of chocolate milk and protein shakes to put on weight.

New Jersey State Championship

The Bergen Catholic basketball team celebrates charges as much as dunks. “I’m big on taking charges and sacrificing my body,” Nehemiah said. “When I get a charge, the whole bench is up and going crazy.”

Going into the fourth quarter of this year’s state championship game against Camden Catholic, Bergen Catholic was down by nine points. Nehemiah knew that he had to step up his defense. “I came into the huddle and I was like even if I don’t score a basket I’m going to get us the ball,” he said. He got a charge call and a jump ball, which set the tone for his teammates as they came back to win the game 52 - 49.

Nehemiah Snell taking a charge in the state championship game.

Nehemiah’s teammate Tyler McQuaid paid tribute to his impact on the team.

“Nehemiah is the best defender in the state, and I wouldn’t want to be in the backcourt with anyone else but him,” Tyler said. “In the state championship game he’s the reason we won. He changed that whole game around with his defense and set the tone for our comeback state championship win.”

Nehemiah’s hard work on the defensive end has paid off. He recently committed to Western Connecticut State University and is now working on further improving his strength and athleticism for college.

Nehemiah gave a special shout out to his athletic trainer Juju, to Nick DeAngelis and Cameron Hoo for “giving me a place to work out when not that many people did,” and to his high school coach Billy Armstrong.

One thing is for sure for any offensive players that Nehemiah faces in college. They will not have it easy.