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- Aug 26, 2011
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BLUEDOGHOUSE said:
Actually, I watched the first 10 minutes a little more closely and our game plan was a little more complex.
Early in the game, when EWU would start to initiate their offense, Napier was on Brandon and would actually go over that high screen pretty aggressively. The goal wasn't to take away the three, though, so much as to keep EWU from being able to use the whole width of the floor. They are a team that shoots a lot of threes, but doesn't rely on a lot of off ball screening action, so much as floor spacing and quick ball movement (European style). What they want to do is have Brandon break things down and then they get the defense scrambling and find the open shooter. By hemming them in to just one half of the floor, we were taking them out of what they wanted to do. When you can only use one half of the floor, it's much tougher to get good spacing.
Late in the shot clock, when the offensive set had broken down and Brandon was making a move to the basket off a screen, we had Nolan (who was defending he screener) camped in the paint not worried about hedging, and had first Bazz then Boat go under the screen, as if to force him to beat us with a three-pointer. Once he made one (actually two, the first one was waved off), we adjusted and didn't give him that look. He made one other three but it was on a semi-break on the first possession of the second half before we got set. I think Boat fighting under the screen there was trying to stop Brandon from penetrating into an area where only Nolan was defending. He could have defended it better - you'd like to at least have the guy feel a little bit of defensive pressure when he pulls up, but it looked like he was trying to do what the coaches wanted. It's tough to defend a guy coming off a screen with no help. Even Ricky would get good hedging help from Jake and Free for a couple seconds (Ricky was so good that he recovered quickly and Jake/Free were able to get back to their men in no time). Jake was really good at that hedge, for a guy who wasn't the best athlete.
Haven't re-watched the second half to see what went differently. We held them to only 23 in the first half, but they had more success in the second half with some adjustments. Could just be a matter of making shots that they missed.
