Matt Van Pelt on Defensive Switch: Packline to Force Left (EP409)

In this week's basketball coaching conversation, Vietnam Men’s National Team head coach Matt Van Pelt joins the Basketball Podcast to share his defensive shift from packline to forcing left.

Matt Van Pelt is currently the Head Coach of the Vietnam Men’s National Team, as well as the Hanoi Buffaloes, the reigning champions of the Vietnam Basketball Association. He now has basketball experience in 28 countries, having ran camps and clinics all over the world, and is also the owner of Van Pelt Sports Management and the co-owner of Pro Coaches Academy and The Performance Lab, in addition to being a FIBA Certified Head Coach in Vietnam.

Matt has been in Vietnam on and off since 2017, where he is the winningest coach in the nation’s history with a record of 81 wins and 16 losses between 2 leagues and with 2 organizations. Matt won 3 straight VBA championships & 3 straight Supporter’s Cup Championships with the Saigon Heat, the country’s oldest professional team. Matt also led the Saigon Heat to the 1-seed and a finals appearance in the Asean Basketball League, which formerly hosted 10 teams from 9 countries in Asia, for the first time in the organization’s history in 2023.

In addition to 5v5 ventures, Matt was also the Head Coach of the Vietnam 3x3 Men’s National Team from 2022-24, where he won a VBA 3x3 championship, a silver medal in the 2022 Southeast Asian games, and pushed Vietnam to its best ever finish in the 2025 FIBA Asia.

Matt is a former professional basketball player overseas, where he played as a point guard in 13 countries in 7 years. Before going overseas, Matt was a 4-year starter as a player at Spring Arbor University in Michigan, where he also won the nation’s Pete Maravich Award.