2015-16 UConn Preview pt 2 - Anatomy of the Nation's Most Imposing Frontcourt | The Boneyard

2015-16 UConn Preview pt 2 - Anatomy of the Nation's Most Imposing Frontcourt

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This is part two of a three part series that previews the upcoming UConn basketball season. If you missed part one, click here: http://the-boneyard.com/threads/201...daniel-hamilton-king-of-the-chessboard.79199/

In the fourteen seasons that Ken Pomeroy has tracked advanced offensive and defensive statistics, the University of Connecticut men’s basketball program has ranked higher in defensive efficiency in eleven of them. This more than likely has at least a little bit to do with the program’s recruiting philosophy, particularly under Hall of Famer Jim Calhoun. Because Calhoun and his staff could not match ammunition with the Duke’s, North Carolina’s, and Kentucky’s of the world on the recruiting trail, they often prioritized athleticism and size over skill, maintaining that the latter could be taught while the former two were more innately engraved in a player’s bloodlines.

We’ve seen this strategy mimicked by contemporaries both past and present, and while the teaching brilliance of Calhoun and his assistants could not be matched by everybody, a dynamic that could be verified by the program’s superior postseason success, programs like Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and now most recently Cincinnati have at the very least adopted variations of these tactics that premeditated success.

Certainly, far more than athleticism is required to navigate the minefields of pick-and-rolls that occupy the duration of even the most tepid division one offensive attacks, the least of which being a detailed understanding of opponent tendencies. To say communication is integral to defense is a sizable understatement; it entails far more than one player sliding his feet in the signaled direction of another. Rather, all five defenders must identify not only their proximity to the ball in relation to their primary assignment’s, but also, process the defensive technique that corresponds to every individual player.

While programs and teams may become renowned over the years for popularizing a particular scheme or method, it is important to acknowledge that even the coaches who subscribe to the most extreme principles of ball screen defense do not assign universal, one-size-fits-all tasks to their personnel.

The Indiana Pacers, under Frank Vogel, may be inclined to guard 1-5 ball screens in an ultra-conservative manner, with Roy Hibbert – one of the NBA’s most dominant defensive players when he’s right – conceding yards of ground, knowing he possesses the length to spring back out to the perimeter and puncture shooting windows. This is a means of inviting dribble penetration; in other words, the Pacers – knowing they hold the proverbial trump card – frequently choose to punt optimal defensive structure in the hopes of coaxing the opponent into attacking an unfavorable match-up or hoisting an inefficient shot.

However, despite Hibbert serving as the frontier that separates the taboo of mid-range jump shots from the prosperous land of paint points, the Pacers would not instruct Paul George to defend a ball screen in the same way they would Hibbert. Rather, George – an elite defensive player in his own right – would likely switch a 1-3 ball screen with the similarly versatile George Hill (and the Pacers ability to do this is why you will hear the word “wingspan” mentioned 700 times on draft night), particularly if it were late in the shot clock. In this sense, “scheme” can be a deceptive word; schemes are only as palatable as their personnel allows them to be.

The Pacers, then, in their defense of ball screens, must not only handicap the strengths and limitations of their opponents, but they must also determine the competence level of their teammates and themselves in executing various ball screen coverages. These are all calculations that must take place in the span of precious seconds (OK, I’m being screened. Who is screening me? Which one of my teammates is guarding the guy that’s screening me? How does coach want me to defend this particular ball screen against this particular player?), and the application of different ball screen defenses depending on where you are on the floor only serves to exacerbate the complexities of these reflexive movements that are carefully considered by the good players and internalized by the great ones.

To the extent that I am importing examples from the NBA is only to illustrate the conspicuous overlap between the philosophies that permeate the NBA and the ones that Ollie hopes to instill in his team this fall. Although it is easy to conflate reality with media-driven filler, Ollie’s journey as an NBA nomad has empowered him with the tools to professionalize his teams in a manner that is simply unviable for other coaches to replicate. What’s more, is that with the departures of Billy Donovan and Fred Hoiberg to the NBA, Ollie now very likely sits in the king’s chair of NBA-minded college coaches.

A year ago, Ollie’s assortment of inexperienced forward talent – namely, Kentan Facey and Daniel Hamilton – struggled to function seamlessly within schemes predicated on precisely the sort of hyper-active attentiveness and exhaustive focus that the 2014 team’s forwards had mastered to such an exact science that Ollie was able to downsize against low-post grunts like Adreian Payne, Patric Young, and Julius Randle for extensive stretches, stretches that illuminated the malleability of sound positioning defense superseding deficits in strength and size on the interior.

In Shonn Miller, the fifth year senior from Cornell, Ollie has succinctly diagnosed and addressed the chief contributor to dooming the 2015 Huskies’ defense to mediocrity, replacing (or, at the very least, adding a valuable insurance policy) unknown commodities with a bona-fide foundational piece on the defensive end, somebody who led the Ivy League in Defensive Win Shares and ranked seventh in the entire nation in defensive rating. His proficiency on that end can be corroborated by whichever method of analysis you choose; advanced statistics, standard statistics, plus/minus data, film study, doesn’t matter.

Miller’s game tape reveals, first and foremost, exquisite athleticism, the sort of unmistakable gracefulness that can only be associated with the rare realm of versatility that enabled him to guard all five positions at Cornell, lifting a tortured defensive unit that ranked 350th (there are 351 division one teams, if you should know) in defensive efficiency during the 2014 season without him to 78th the following year. Transformative individual efforts of that ilk are rarely traceable to one discrete skill or talent, and they aren’t here, either. Standing at only 6’7, Miller blocked 7.1% of opponent two-point shots, a rate identical to that of Kentucky All-American Willie Cauley-Stein.

https://youtu.be/lh0FpVjukZs?t=216


Here, Miller exhibits positional awareness that denotes basketball acumen worthy of a player ten years his senior. With Rakeem Christmas – suddenly having blossomed into one of the Nation’s top post scorers – facing up a smaller defender along the baseline, Miller sags into his line of vision, eliminating the wrap-around pass and guarding against overplaying his hand on a sudden post double.

However, for all of Miller’s immense physical gifts, the genesis of his anticipatory brilliance on this particular play was fostered in an environment decidedly less romantic, a destination likely tucked away somewhere in the corridors of the Cornell basketball facility. Miller knows that Christmas is going to spin back over his left shoulder, and he knows that the difference between a post bucket and something less favorable than that is likely to be fiercely negotiated by the inertia of the man with the ball and the primary help defender. As such, Miller knows he must await – however at odds it may be with his natural inclinations as an athlete – Christmas’ spin back over the left shoulder. It has been drilled into his head in the film room, at practice, and likely on the bus ride over. This is his test, a test that will grade his ability to innately recognize and react to various subsets of the Syracuse offense.

Miller meets Christmas at precisely the pivot point from which the finality of the move must be realized. And, somehow, Miller waits him out, swatting the ball back where it came from.

The micro details of this individual play are evidentially mitigated by the larger scope of talent differential. Even in a season which saw little to anything go right for the Orange, they were able to distance themselves relatively effortlessly from an offensively-challenged Cornell team.

In the larger scheme, however, the process by which Miller abides on this play is symbolic of a larger culture of diligence that he will fit seamlessly into as the Storrs calendar turns to fall. Anything that occurs on the floor – whether offensively or defensively – at a high division one level is, on one front or another, an appeal to the conceptual and spatial aptitudes of each individual player. While we can condense the essence of the aforementioned play to the swift interaction of Miller and Christmas within definite windows of time and space, extrapolating all of these movements – and, particularly, the information overloads that must dictate them – into something more concrete is an exercise from which much can be gained.

But for as useful as Miller is as a fire blanket, his ability to unite an unremitting motor with an exacting regard for discipline makes him even more valuable as a primary defender, both as a pick-and-roll anchor and as a shutdown one-on-one defender. Balance is very much the bedrock of defensive fundamentals, and for Miller, entering his fifth year of college after having played three years for Bill Courtney at Cornell, the vital process of mastering crucial elements of footwork is already in its graduate stage.

Not to belabor the point, but defenders, after internalizing the cursory tenets of man-to-man defense, are encouraged to broaden their perception of the court. In other words, every component bit of lateral movement that occurs within the fixated parameters of play must, on some level, derive from subconscious impulses. In this regard, the notion that man-to-man defense boasts a significant amount of zone principles – and vice versa – is very much a resounding truth of basketball dialect. The art of defending – at least for those who have mastered it, such as the 2014 championship team – can be construed as an extended interplay of offense and defense, one of which is trying to slash open irreparable crevices in structure and the other of which is desperately attempting to bide enough time to recover back to their default setting.

I apologize if the tenor of the preceding paragraphs are more reminiscent of a lecture hall than an informative preview. To the extent that I am speaking generally about the sport at large is not because I feel I am sharing anything particularly revealing but only because the way I perceive the game – and its unique structure – is likely to infiltrate my thinking process and influence my opinion on particular players.

Muscle memory, in basketball terms, is typically associated with offense rather than defense. It is easy to discern the relationship between practice and precision as it relates to shooting, or dribbling, or even passing, cutting, and screening. However, there are two ends of the court in basketball, with their weight distributed equally, and the refinement of fine motor skills have proven, time and time again, to warrant the same degree of emphasis that there more lionized counterparts do.

Miller perhaps personifies this dynamic better than any player in the country. Even in watching merely half of an early season game, Miller’s four years of extensive agility training, footwork, and balance refinement represent an unmistakable maturity that – save for a few generational talents – only age and experience can meld.

The distinct skill that I will attempt to glorify in this space more so than any other is Miller’s ability to close out on shooters. Perhaps my insistence on shadowing Miller – regardless of where he was on the court – contributed to me noticing a fairly regularized skill more than I would have normally, but in my estimation, it is more likely that his uncanny ability to help on drives or post-ups and then immediately spring back out to shooters, all the while maintaining impeccable balance and form, resulted from years of diligence on and off the court.

Now, make no mistake, Miller’s dominance at this level transcends work ethic and smarts. Having been recruited out of Euclid, Ohio, as a 6’4 guard, Miller promptly grew three inches upon arriving in Ithaca. Suddenly, somebody who Cornell had recruited as a power guard – think of a rich man’s R.J. Evans – had blossomed into a devastating small ball four.

Those who consider him merely a role player risk awakening to a dried up supply of coffee. It goes without saying that Cornell doesn’t typically sign players like him, and when they do, it is frequently because they stumbled across him. Such was the case here, as – although you must credit the Big Red scouting department for identifying his talent before most anybody else – nobody foresaw a growth spurt that would vault him from the humble radars of an Ivy League school to a legitimate NBA prospect.

And no, it is not hyperbole to suggest that Miller is a polished jump shot away from carving out a niche at the world’s highest level of basketball. To the extent that the NBA is shifting from a league predicated on mobility and versatility as much as size and strength has been documented extensively in previous carnations of my ramblings, and needs no regurgitation here. What I will say, is that there is a prototype at the next level that will be easier for Miller to mimic than it will be for somebody like say, Rodney Purvis. And, while I hate to run the risk of comparing every hybrid forward to Draymond Green, who is truly a unique player, Miller’s defensive rebound rate from last season (32.1%) compares favorably with what Green registered in his best season as a Spartan (28.4%).

Certainly, Green offered playmaking from the forward position in his time at Michigan State that Miller is unlikely to come close to matching at any point in his career. However, his impact on the defensive end is impossible to overstate, and as we attempt to contextualize just how transformative he figures to be on that end, I encourage you – and by encourage, I mean beg – to read a brief first half recap that I wrote on the Temple game (the one in Hartford) this summer after I had gone back and studied the tape. (The lesson as always here is that I am not a mentally stable person, but I hope that you will glean from it more than that):
 

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Fran Dunphy’s Temple Owls lead Kevin Ollie and the Connecticut Huskies 25-21 at halftime in a new year’s game that can only be described as a succinct synopsis of a season’s worth of listless half-court offense for both teams.

Temple, though, often possessed the sort of dominant defense capable of sustaining an inconsistent offense, and much of their success on that end can be traced back to Will Cummings and Jaylen Bond, two of the very best defenders in the American Athletic Conference. In a sport predicated on creating mismatches, the most popular trick in the bag is the high ball screen; it’s simple, effective, and hard as hell to guard. Whatever favorability’s these screens might yield for the offense – whether they be a crevice in the defense created by a firm screen, a forced switch that enables a mismatch, or a busted trap that supplies a transient four on three – are typically initiated by a guard and a forward/center. Simply put, this is because it is far more viable for a defense to switch a ball screen involving two players of like stature than it is for them to bear the size or quickness disparity that ensues from a one-five pick-and-roll. As such, it is vital for the overall health of a defense that at least one guard and forward are able to defend at a high level. In Cummings and Bond, Temple claims ownership to the two foundational pieces of an excellent defense.

Cummings, especially, demonstrated an impressive degree of lateral quickness in keeping UConn star Ryan Boatright in check. He was able to navigate a minefield of on and off-ball screens that account for the chief supply of the UConn offensive, displaying a commendable display of strength and defensive awareness, constantly slithering over Boatright ball screens and trailing his shooting pocket while the hedge man sealed the driving lane. If screens are the lifeblood of an offense, Cummings de-stabilized the entire operation by refusing to be screened.

It isn’t surprising, then, that with Cummings and Bond disrupting the success rate of high ball screens, that Kevin Ollie and the Huskies opted to conduct a significant portion of their offense through talented freshman forward, Daniel Hamilton. Hamilton, not yet particularly comfortable using ball screens (though he should be in time), was corralled early by Temple’s conservative pick-and-roll schemes that forced him into floaters and short jumpers that, while makeable shots, aren’t the ones he wants to take. With that in mind, Ollie and his staff mostly nixed Hamilton ball screens and instead tried to involve him in off-ball screens and secondary pick-and-roll action that bought him some terrain to work with. Hamilton is the ultimate match-up nightmare that will out-finesse bigger players and shoot over smaller guys, and although he has not reached a point of reliability with his array of unconventional leaners and runners – as his field goal percentage will reflect – he does pose the biggest threat to de-constructing Temple’s frugal defense.

Largely, though, Temple’s defense dominated the Husky attack in the first half, and were it not for some sloppy transition defense, indecisive rotations (mostly by Quenton DeCosey and his baffling unwillingness to help off Terrence Samuel), and occasionally soft post defense, they would be in firm command of the score at halftime.

It was the other end, unsurprisingly, that caused the Owls trouble, though often through no fault other than shooting. With the shot terrorizing Amida Brimah manning the middle for the Huskies, Temple sought often to drag him away from the basket by having their big men – Bond and Enechionya – set back screens for their guards, and then pop out to the three point line. This action serves the purpose of inverting their offense, and more importantly, UConn’s defense, to the point that Cummings and DeCosey are able to attack the rim without being deterred by Brimah.

Enechionya and Bond each drilled a three off this action, but Connecticut seems content to await the regression to the mean, and it’s hard to blame them. For the most part, Temple just doesn’t have the personnel to successfully initiate the offense through their big men – not only are they mediocre shooters, but they also lack the crucial passing skills necessary to punish UConn’s guards for overplay or inattentiveness.

Temple did enjoy some success attacking Daniel Hamilton, both off the bounce and with staggered screens that the freshman has the habit of cheating. Ideally, you would like to see Temple continue to manipulate the Cummings/Hamilton match-up. Hamilton has displayed no capability of guarding Cummings, and the best way for the Owls to untangle their star guard from the wrath of Boatright would be to create a switch. The Huskies have the tendency to casually switch 1-3 ball screens, and even if they hedge it cleanly, somebody like DeCosey presents a better pick-and-pop option than either Bond or Enechionya.

Based on the glaring deficiencies of both teams offensively, the rock fight that inhabited the first half appears unlikely to change form in the second. There are some fundamental, structural flaws in both teams’ offenses that will prohibit them from living in the money-making zones offensively – the paint, the foul line, and the three point line. Whoever can churn out enough mid-range baskets and conceded three pointers will be the one who secures this massively important conference win.

If you take nothing else from that game, I would advise you to make careful note of how – as it relates to the composition of last year’s Temple defense, a unit that ranked 18th in the country in adjusted defense – two players, Will Cummings and Jaylen Bond, were able to completely disintegrate the UConn offense.

At this level, though, that’s the game. If you can pair an elite perimeter defender with an elite pick-and-roll defender, you’ve already de-stabilized the infrastructure of the offense. Miller certainly qualifies as an elite pick-and-roll defender, and with Purvis possessing the potential to grow into one, the Huskies start every half-court mini-battle at a decided advantage, with the opposition forced to decide between maximizing the strengths of their personnel (in other words, utilizing their best big as the primary screener and their best perimeter scorer as the primary ball-handler) and ducking the cornerstones of the UConn defense.

Just so this preview doesn’t veer too far into homer territory, however, it is important to emphasize that Amida Brimah did not deserve AAC Defensive POY. And by using the word “deserve” I do not intend to insinuate that he didn’t work hard enough for it, just that there were other candidates – particularly in a conference where defense was the forte of virtually all the contending teams – who left a bigger imprint on the defensive side of the ball every time they took the floor.

Now, in saying that, I should contextualize the fact that the way I choose to interpret these awards is very much contingent on team efficiency in addition to individual play. I am a firm believer that great defenders – especially dynamic shot-blockers like Brimah – elevate the play of those around them, almost to the extent that they inspire guilt in the non-compliers. As the backline of the defense, UConn’s relative off year on the defensive side of the ball is as much as an indictment on Brimah as anybody else if for no other reason than that he burdens the bulk of the responsibility.

Brimah’s unit finished fifth in the AAC in defensive efficiency, a mark that was good for just 65th in the country. They lagged well behind SMU (#35), Tulsa (#19), Temple (#18), and Cincinnati (#14). Rarely was Brimah at the root of his teams’ defensive shortcomings, but a model of consistency he was not, and one must discredit him significantly for his biggest flaw, and one that often seemed to crop up in big games: his inability to stay on the floor.

Still just a novice to organized basketball, it’s hardly an alarming signal of reserve that Brimah is far from a finished product defensively. However, if his strengths as a player are to be illustrated vividly in this piece, it’s only right that his less desirable symptoms of basketball novelty be covered with similar candor.

Brimah’s biggest flaw as a basketball player – defensive rebounding – has been discussed ad nauseam, so there is no sense in assailing his name on that topic more than need be. It is a concern, though, and one that, as a seven-footer, Brimah must eradicate if he has aspirations of playing at the next level.

But with Brimah being flanked by elite rebounders (Hamilton and Miller) at both forward spots, his occasional allergies to rebounding the ball are far less grave than they may have been were the roster composition different.

Certainly, though, the rebounding proficiency of Hamilton and Miller does not reduce the scope of the problem. At any level of basketball, rebounding is typically a non-negotiable stamp of a contender, and even if these Huskies are able to collect them at the bare minimum, it is more than conceivable that that the difference between dominance and competency on the glass could represent the pedantic line between a first weekend upset and a fifth banner (ironically, we’re probably still searching for a fourth if the man in question doesn’t grab one in the first round two years ago).

In addition to his rebounding ailments, imperfections plagued him as both a pick-and-roll and a primary defender a year ago, and to the extent that he improves in these areas may signal the difference between a defense that is dominant and one that is merely very good. Fundamentally, footwork was a concern of chief importance, and as Ollie spends time in the laboratory this offseason constructing defensive schemes around the closing speed of his shot-blocking menace, it is quite likely that this will be a primary point of contention.

Even for super-humans like Brimah, division one basketball is hard. Fast-twitch guards like Nic Moore and Troy Caupain can shift the inertia of the floor at whims notice, baiting sky-scrapers like Brimah into lunging towards them on close-outs, slipping slick passes behind the backline of the defense at the last possible second, and pulling up to launch without even a hint of proper shooting mechanics.

It is common for players like Brimah to underestimate their own length, and as Brimah probed the underbelly of the floor – the land of mid-range jumpers – he frequently overcompensated, allowing himself to be swallowed up by his own choppy footwork that he would struggle to resurrect until a quality shot had already been generated.

Playing center in a conservative defensive scheme like the one Brimah will engineer next fall is not terribly unlike playing quarterback, in the sense that you must allow your footwork and economy of motion to be regulated by a mental clock in your head rather than the movements of the players you are defending. Every hedge, every close-out, and every weak-side block attempt should fall in accordance with the expiration of this mental alarm clock.

OK, we’re trying to flush this pick-and-roll towards the baseline, which means Purvis should be walling off the ball-handlers right side. This means I have to play a one man zone – which entails sliding to a designated area rather than to a particular player – until Purvis is square with his man again, in which case I will recover back to my initial assignment.
 
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Essentially, defense is about angling your body to prohibit penetration into the high-reward areas of the floor. In a sport that is overridden with gifted ball-handlers and shot-makers, many of these adrenaline-infused spatial interactions can be condensed to a series of concessions that the offense and defense must administer until the negotiating table breaks between them.

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A freeze frame here – during a crucial possession of an AAC quarterfinal which sees the Huskies fighting to prolong their season and the Bearcats desperately trying to dislodge themselves from the 8/9 line – is indicative of how UConn will attempt to defend screen-and-rolls (at least on the wing) between guards and forwards in 2015-16. Purvis’ job is to steer Caupain towards the baseline and away from the screen. On this particular play, he accomplishes that by sliding parallel to Caupain, to the extent that he is level with both the ball and the screener. Now, Caupain can either drive baseline – which essentially defeats the purpose of the screen – or right towards the middle, where, because of the logistics of the screen, Purvis is likely to beat him to the spot.

Cincinnati eventually scores by dumping the ball into the post and cleaning up the miss, but that’s still an operation success for a UConn defense that had to fight for every inch of territory to avoid the crippling effects of the pick. What this play really demonstrates, as it relates to the upcoming season, is how the presence of a dominant shot blocker can yield major dividends in multiple capacities.

Brimah’s exploits as a shot-blocker are in need of no affirmation – as most metrics you will find verify him as one of the Nation’s best – but it is worth re-stating, in general terms, just how liberating it is for his teammates to lean on him as a security blanket. Nobodies job is eased to the extent Ollie’s is, however, and where some coaches will drive themselves mad trying to extract every last detail from their opponent’s scouting report (you can think of Ed Cooley here, whose under-utilization of precisely these same conservative schemes may have led to Paschal Chuckwu’s transfer), Ollie can simplify his methodology by allowing each of his players to defend ball screens in a manner that maximizes their skill-sets.

With personnel that fits together so seamlessly, even couch strategists like myself can provide a fairly accurate road map on the finer points of UConn’s defensive scouting report. They are going to force 1-5 pick-and-rolls towards the sideline and into Brimah’s wheelhouse – in other words, Brimah will drop back on the screen and play a one man zone for 3 seconds while the screened defender recovers back. Ollie may elect to defend 1-4 pick-and-rolls much the same, as Miller – a capable shot blocker himself – evokes much the same shot-blocking zeal as his partner, albeit at a more modest 6’7. It seems more likely, however, that Ollie and his staff will instruct Miller to string out the ball screen, as that would likely make the best of his superlative balance, timing, and recovery speed.

On the topic of ball screens between ones, twos, and threes, the Huskies seem content to maintain their formula from a year ago, with Hamilton, Purvis, and Gibbs switching interchangeably between assignments.

One potential objection to switching that liberally among perimeter players would be the frequency of cross-matches that would inevitably be sprung by the screening. While Hamilton and Purvis may have the lateral quickness to downshift onto quicker ball-handlers, it is unlikely that Sterling Gibbs could keep a bull like Shaq Thomas or K.J. Lawson from the paint.

That’s OK, though, because basketball is not played in a phone booth. Miller and Brimah can venture off their assignments and swat the shots of unsuspecting drivers out of mid-air, and although shot-blocking juggernauts can be dethroned by swift, crisp ball reversals, the precision with which this interplay must be executed with is off the charts, and only the rare college team will truly test the meddle of a dialed-in Husky defense.

And, I hate to go back to the NBA at the risk of boring our posters who do not watch the league, but even if you don’t like the NBA, the ideology that has become close to standardized on that level parrots the philosophies of Kevin Ollie to the extent that it is worth reading up on the league if for no other reason than to educate yourself on the schemes that will be on prominent display in Storrs this season.

For the purposes of this piece, though, which is already miles longer than it should be, all you need to do is think back to this year’s NBA Finals, a series that encapsulated the unviability of even the world’s most dominant player steering a team to the finish line by himself. James frequently drew the match-ups he coveted, whether it be out of ball screens or just a straight isolation. But because the Warriors could pack the paint to such an exaggerated degree, one on ones became one on one-and-a-halves, and if you think back to part one, which covered Daniel Hamilton, 40% tends to be the magic number that great players regress to when their shots are comprised of exclusively isolations (not coincidentally, James shot almost exactly 40% in the finals, finishing at .398 for the series).

Due to the brilliant construction of UConn’s roster, Kevin Ollie’s players will rarely, if ever, be forced to deviate from the friendly confines of that 40% figure. And it all starts with Shonn Miller and Amida Brimah.
 
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Excellent job champs! Dont ever apologize for something you are so passionate about, anywhere in your writings. And more so, ignore your detractors.

With this much analytical skill, I would think a school somewhere could use your talents. Have you ever thought about pursuing it?

Now for a little bit of ribbing; I will finish your third post as soon as the next case of RedBull is shipped!
 
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Champs, you've got good instincts and a clear passion for the topic. As someone who writes professionally for a living, three bits of advice that will encourage people to read your quality analysis, rather than just skim it and pay tribute to your energy.

- Simplify and shorten your sentence structure;
- Step away from the thesaurus; and,
- Use "turns of phrases" sparingly

A small example. People are much less likely to read 50 words:
Brimah’s exploits as a shot-blocker are in need of no affirmation – as most metrics you will find verify him as one of the Nation’s best – but it is worth re-stating, in general terms, just how liberating it is for his teammates to lean on him as a security blanket.

Than 14 words:
Brimah's shot blocking skills, among the nation's best, provide his teammates with extra security.
 
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Champs, you've got good instincts and a clear passion for the topic. As someone who writes professionally for a living, three bits of advice that will encourage people to read your quality analysis, rather than just skim it and pay tribute to your energy.

- Simplify and shorten your sentence structure;
- Step away from the thesaurus; and,
- Use "turns of phrases" sparingly

A small example. People are much less likely to read 50 words:
Brimah’s exploits as a shot-blocker are in need of no affirmation – as most metrics you will find verify him as one of the Nation’s best – but it is worth re-stating, in general terms, just how liberating it is for his teammates to lean on him as a security blanket.

Than 14 words:
Brimah's shot blocking skills, among the nation's best, provide his teammates with extra security.
I completely agree with Samoo. Parsing your complex prose can be challenging, and it grows harder over these long pieces. Your top-notch analysis proves your intellect. You don't need to prove it with your vocabulary. Simplifying the prose will increase its reach. And it is really great content!
 
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Champs, you've got good instincts and a clear passion for the topic. As someone who writes professionally for a living, three bits of advice that will encourage people to read your quality analysis, rather than just skim it and pay tribute to your energy.

- Simplify and shorten your sentence structure;
- Step away from the thesaurus; and,
- Use "turns of phrases" sparingly

A small example. People are much less likely to read 50 words:
Brimah’s exploits as a shot-blocker are in need of no affirmation – as most metrics you will find verify him as one of the Nation’s best – but it is worth re-stating, in general terms, just how liberating it is for his teammates to lean on him as a security blanket.

Than 14 words:
Brimah's shot blocking skills, among the nation's best, provide his teammates with extra security.
This perfectly sums up what I thought when reading this post. There's a lot of awesome information and analysis buried beneath all that language.
 
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Eh.That's not champs's style, and it need not be his style. Lots of very good writers don't write as you suggest, so why should he? In fact, I enjoyed reading this more than I would something as milquetoast as what your revision suggests.1

That said, the reason to write as you suggest (as I know you expressed) is that you might reach a wider audience with that simpler style. So be it, I think. You invent your audience with your style, and maybe you folks aren't in it. ;) You know, sometimes you have to work a little harder for something worth while.
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1. Here's where I walk back a bit and suggest that your choice of illustration was spot on. That sentence, in particularly, could have used revision. But champs spends all this time writing a piece--largely well-written and insightful--that he knows only a few die-hards are going to read, and the reaction is to criticize his prose style.
 
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Eh.That's not champs's style, and it need not be his style. Lots of very good writers don't write as you suggest, so why should he?
I think this post by TZZN is brilliant, and summarizes my thoughts very well.

This is the Harry Potter effect. I couldn't read those books because they were written at about a 4th grade level.

They just changed the PSATs to eliminate all vocabulary. All that remains are laughable questions asking about the particular use of simple words in context.

And, of course, and believe-it-or-not, some possess complementary vocabulary and diction that allow the exact and distinct use of words with nuanced differences in meaning that are aggregated as synonyms in thesauri - and get this - without using a thesaurus!

Double plus good!!!!
 
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A small example. People are much less likely to read 50 words: . . . Than 14 words:
Brimah's shot blocking skills, among the nation's best, provide his teammates with extra security.
Prolix, brother! Prolix! You can do better, and we must think of the hoi polloi! The Hoi Polloi brother! Think of them.

I suggest: "Brimah blocks good. Team likes."

I've improved on your Moby Dickian largess and whittled the surfeit away, concluding with 5 words, the removal of two - count them, two! - commas (the speed bumps of the prosaic world, as I say!), and two completely unnecessary apostrophes (possession, schmesion!)! Onward Brother, Onward!
 

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Champs, you've got good instincts and a clear passion for the topic. As someone who writes professionally for a living, three bits of advice that will encourage people to read your quality analysis, rather than just skim it and pay tribute to your energy.

- Simplify and shorten your sentence structure;
- Step away from the thesaurus; and,
- Use "turns of phrases" sparingly

A small example. People are much less likely to read 50 words:
Brimah’s exploits as a shot-blocker are in need of no affirmation – as most metrics you will find verify him as one of the Nation’s best – but it is worth re-stating, in general terms, just how liberating it is for his teammates to lean on him as a security blanket.

Than 14 words:
Brimah's shot blocking skills, among the nation's best, provide his teammates with extra security.
Do you write CliffNotes for a living? Just kidding. You suggested something out of kindness which champs can decide to employ or not. And I would bet donuts to dollars he has the capacity to dumb things down to discuss bb with less than advanced players or fans of bb. But since the overwhelming majority of us in this forum are at that dumbed down level and demonstrate it in the overwhelming majority of things we chose to bring to this forum, it's a breath of fresh air to have this type of detailed analysis freely given for our entertainment should we chose to read it.

And @tzznandrew I looked up milquetoast which, even after checking the definition struggle with the application to which you've applied it (as I chose to write this meekly).
 
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ctchamps

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A year ago, Ollie’s assortment of inexperienced forward talent – namely, Kentan Facey and Daniel Hamilton – struggled to function seamlessly within schemes predicated on precisely the sort of hyper-active attentiveness and exhaustive focus that the 2014 team’s forwards had mastered to such an exact science that Ollie was able to downsize against low-post grunts like Adreian Payne, Patric Young, and Julius Randle for extensive stretches, stretches that illuminated the malleability of sound positioning defense superseding deficits in strength and size on the interior.

I only got this far (above referenced paragraph) in reading your work and as demonstrated in the post I made just prior to this one I got distracted (I swear I have a form of ADD). That post is a decent juxtaposition to the paragraph I'm highlighting.! Anyways before I get back to continuing your terrific work I wanted to reference this paragraph as being utterly brilliant and astute.
 

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And then I go two paragraphs later and this gem appears:

Miller’s game tape reveals, first and foremost, exquisite athleticism, the sort of unmistakable gracefulness that can only be associated with the rare realm of versatility that enabled him to guard all five positions at Cornell, lifting a tortured defensive unit that ranked 350th (there are 351 division one teams, if you should know) in defensive efficiency during the 2014 season without him to 78th the following year. Transformative individual efforts of that ilk are rarely traceable to one discrete skill or talent, and they aren’t here, either. Standing at only 6’7, Miller blocked 7.1% of opponent two-point shots, a rate identical to that of Kentucky All-American Willie Cauley-Stein.
 
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Do you write CliffNotes for a living? Just kidding. You suggested something out of kindness which champs can decide to employ or not. And I would bet donuts to dollars he has the capacity to dumb things down to discuss bb with less than advanced players or fans of bb. But since the overwhelming majority of us in this forum are at that dumbed down level and demonstrate it in the overwhelming majority of things we chose to bring to this forum, it's a breath of fresh air to have this type of detailed analysis freely given for our entertainment should we chose to read it.

And @tzznandrew I looked up milquetoast which, even after checking the definition struggle with the application to which you've applied it (as I chose to write this meekly).
I use the word, when I do, as the OED suggests: "Timid, feeble, ineffectual; insipid, wishy-washy." So, with regard to writing: bland, flavorless, inoffensive, etc.

To be clear, that's not to suggest that the original writer only writes that way as a rule, but just that his revision lacks flavor and that the advice there given, taken to the extreme, is bound to produce flavorless prose.
 

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I use the word, when I do, as the OED suggests: "Timid, feeble, ineffectual; insipid, wishy-washy." So, with regard to writing: bland, flavorless, inoffensive, etc.

To be clear, that's not to suggest that the original writer only write that way as a rule, but just that his revision lacks flavor and that the advice there given, taken to the extreme, is bound to produce flavorless prose.
Just wasn't sure of the connotations. Thanks.

And agree the trade off for more readers would be flavorless prose. champs decision to target a larger audience or develop his writing style. I hope he sticks with the latter. It's quite developed and has a chance to go somewhere.
 
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Prolix, brother! Prolix! You can do better, and we must think of the hoi polloi! The Hoi Polloi brother! Think of them.

I suggest: "Brimah blocks good. Team likes."

I've improved on your Moby Dickian largess and whittled the surfeit away, concluding with 5 words, the removal of two - count them, two! - commas (the speed bumps of the prosaic world, as I say!), and two completely unnecessary apostrophes (possession, schmesion!)! Onward Brother, Onward!
This is the "Tarzan" analysis. Let's use it for the whole season and conserve screen space.
 
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Do you write CliffNotes for a living? Just kidding. You suggested something out of kindness which champs can decide to employ or not. And I would bet donuts to dollars he has the capacity to dumb things down to discuss bb with less than advanced players or fans of bb. But since the overwhelming majority of us in this forum are at that dumbed down level and demonstrate it in the overwhelming majority of things we chose to bring to this forum, it's a breath of fresh air to have this type of detailed analysis freely given for our entertainment should we chose to read it.

And @tzznandrew I looked up milquetoast which, even after checking the definition struggle with the application to which you've applied it (as I chose to write this meekly).

I think it's less a matter of dumbing it down than eliminating gratuity to make the sentences punchier, and I'd agree with Samoo if we were talking about persuasive writing or advocacy, but when you're breaking down your favorite college team on a message board I say let your prose flag fly. No one ever accused David Foster Wallace of concision and he did alright for himself.

Personally, if someone takes the time to write posts that long in an effort to educate his fellow fans, I'm sure as hell not going to critique the writing. I appreciate and respect the time it must have taken to put that together.
 
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A year ago, Ollie’s assortment of inexperienced forward talent – namely, Kentan Facey and Daniel Hamilton – struggled to function seamlessly within schemes predicated on precisely the sort of hyper-active attentiveness and exhaustive focus that the 2014 team’s forwards had mastered to such an exact science that Ollie was able to downsize against low-post grunts like Adreian Payne, Patric Young, and Julius Randle for extensive stretches, stretches that illuminated the malleability of sound positioning defense superseding deficits in strength and size on the interior.

I only got this far (above referenced paragraph) in reading your work and as demonstrated in the post I made just prior to this one I got distracted (I swear I have a form of ADD). That post is a decent juxtaposition to the paragraph I'm highlighting.! Anyways before I get back to continuing your terrific work I wanted to reference this paragraph as being utterly brilliant and astute.
That "paragraph" is actually just 1 sentence.
 
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I think it's less a matter of dumbing it down than eliminating gratuity to make the sentences punchier, and I'd agree with Samoo if we were talking about persuasive writing or advocacy, but when you're breaking down your favorite college team on a message board I say let your prose flag fly. No one ever accused David Foster Wallace of concision and he did alright for himself.

Personally, if someone takes the time to write posts that long in an effort to educate his fellow fans, I'm sure as hell not going to critique the writing. I appreciate and respect the time it must have taken to put that together.
Yup. There are lots of styles, and some work better than others. Responding to champs post with "how about you write more like I write" didn't feel particularly helpful or useful to me.
 
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Seriously, how long did this take? You clearly know your hoops and love UConn, I'm just worried it's wasted on most of us dum dums.
 
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