Nelson's coaching assessment of last night

[nelsonmuntz]

Rather than screaming about benching this player or that player, let's get specific with what was wrong yesterday.

UConn's Offense:

Shot selection - UConn continues to take long, contested pull-up jumpers. These are bad shots and UConn misses almost all of them. Look at the shot chart:

Cincinnati 67-51 UConn (Jan 1, 2020) Final Score - ESPN

Game summary of the Cincinnati Bearcats vs. UConn Huskies NCAAM game, final score 67-51, from January 1, 2020 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

The Huskies are spraying the ball from all over the court, and taking a lot of deep 3's. Not surprisingly, these lower percentage shots are not going in.

Open attempts - Worse, we are not getting a lot of open shots. I believe we waste a lot of the shot clock on unproductive activity. Half the board has pointed out how crazy it is to start the offense with Carlton getting the ball 25 feet from the hoop. But how many times did Gilbert or Vital dribble out the remaining shot clock to take a long pull-up jumper that clanged? How many times did Carlton not get the ball until 10 seconds left, and when he finally got it, he was 15 feet from the basket?

A ton of our offense is 1-on-1 isolations. Gilbert, Gaffney or Vital breakdown, Carlton post up, etc. We had 50% assist rate, which is not great by today's standards. These type of shots are easier to defend, because the whole defense is following the ball. Post-analytics offenses are based on quick ball movement and reversals to get the defense facing away from the shooter and forced into recovery. Drives should be to pass, not hurl up prayers. I think Gilbert is a solid finisher, but those wild drives are such low percentage shots that he should be looking to distribute when he attacks, not shoot.

More shot selection issues. Polley and Vital are very good 3 point shooter off the catch, and both suck shooting off the dribble, especially when the shot is contested. One crazy idea may be to get them more shots off the catch. Look at Butler's or Villanova's offense. That is how I want UConn to play. Even Memphis is trying that approach.

Gilbert should only shoot jumpers if he is wide open. No one within 5 feet.

Polley should get 5 shots a game on kick outs. If he is not open when he catches it, pass and relocate. No one curls behind Carlton on his post ups, so when he gets in trouble or double teamed, there is often no one to pass to and Carlton ends up forcing a shot.

The result of all this bad offense is last night's debacle. We are taking a lot of bad shots which lowers our efficiency.


UConn Defense:

On a high level, Hurley had the right game plan going in last night. He was going to give Cincinnati the 3 point shot, and defend the paint and penetration. If you look at how UConn would set up on defense, after a token press they would drop below the 3 point line. Except on ball screens, where UConn, and especially Carlton, was inexplicably jumping out to hard hedge the screen. Why does UConn do that? If Cincinnati wants to take pull up 3's from 25 feet out off screens, I am inclined to let them.

Cincinnati had 16 assists on 26 shots, and several of the other shots were putbacks. Cincinnati is getting better ball movement and easier shots, as evidenced by their higher shooting percentage.

Cincinnati does the basics well. When a Cincinnati player's defender helps, that player cuts to the block. Cincinnati does a lot of give and go's, and UConn would occasionally lose contact with the cutter off the pass. High school defenders shouldn't make this mistake, and it is completely unacceptable at the D1 college level. The more common problem, and one I have brought up before, is that I don't think the players understand Hurley's secondary rotations in help defense. When the help defender flashes to the ball, someone from the weakside is supposed to drop down to the block to defend the open player, but we do not seem to do that, so that dump off pass is always available.

Cincinnati has excellent rebounding technique. Watch the forwards off the ball, and they are using swim moves, and breaking contact with the box out, to get inside of UConn's more athletic front court, and especially Akok, while the ball is in the air. This is something that will get better for Akok with time, but Cincinnati was impressive on the boards last night.

 

[gtcam]

Cincinnati has excellent rebounding technique. Watch the forwards off the ball, and they are using swim moves, and breaking contact with the box out, to get inside of UConn's more athletic front court, and especially Akok, while the ball is in the air. This is something that will get better for Akok with time, but Cincinnati was impressive on the boards last night.

UConn has three kids who want to board - Akok, Vital and Whalley
Cincinnati as well as 90% of all D1 teams have everyone who wants to board because if they don't, they don't play. It's very disheartening to see your center, JC, not fighting and jumping for rebounds and getting so easily blocked out. You have a forward in Polley who flat out avoids any physical play - yes he has rebounded more this year but he doesn't go after them and should be achieving a much higher percentage. It's truly amazing that the leading rebounders for the past 3 years have been Vital and J Adams.

As far as offense goes - UConn has no offense - they have no strategy, no plans - this is a coaching issue

 

[HuskyHawk]

Rather than screaming about benching this player or that player, let's get specific with what was wrong yesterday.

UConn's Offense:

Shot selection - UConn continues to take long, contested pull-up jumpers. These are bad shots and UConn misses almost all of them. Look at the shot chart:

Cincinnati 67-51 UConn (Jan 1, 2020) Final Score - ESPN

Game summary of the Cincinnati Bearcats vs. UConn Huskies NCAAM game, final score 67-51, from January 1, 2020 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

The Huskies are spraying the ball from all over the court, and taking a lot of deep 3's. Not surprisingly, these lower percentage shots are not going in.

Open attempts - Worse, we are not getting a lot of open shots. I believe we waste a lot of the shot clock on unproductive activity. Half the board has pointed out how crazy it is to start the offense with Carlton getting the ball 25 feet from the hoop. But how many times did Gilbert or Vital dribble out the remaining shot clock to take a long pull-up jumper that clanged? How many times did Carlton not get the ball until 10 seconds left, and when he finally got it, he was 15 feet from the basket?

A ton of our offense is 1-on-1 isolations. Gilbert, Gaffney or Vital breakdown, Carlton post up, etc. We had 50% assist rate, which is not great by today's standards. These type of shots are easier to defend, because the whole defense is following the ball. Post-analytics offenses are based on quick ball movement and reversals to get the defense facing away from the shooter and forced into recovery. Drives should be to pass, not hurl up prayers. I think Gilbert is a solid finisher, but those wild drives are such low percentage shots that he should be looking to distribute when he attacks, not shoot.

More shot selection issues. Polley and Vital are very good 3 point shooter off the catch, and both suck shooting off the dribble, especially when the shot is contested. One crazy idea may be to get them more shots off the catch. Look at Butler's or Villanova's offense. That is how I want UConn to play. Even Memphis is trying that approach.

Gilbert should only shoot jumpers if he is wide open. No one within 5 feet.

Polley should get 5 shots a game on kick outs. If he is not open when he catches it, pass and relocate. No one curls behind Carlton on his post ups, so when he gets in trouble or double teamed, there is often no one to pass to and Carlton ends up forcing a shot.

The result of all this bad offense is last night's debacle. We are taking a lot of bad shots which lowers our efficiency.


UConn Defense:

On a high level, Hurley had the right game plan going in last night. He was going to give Cincinnati the 3 point shot, and defend the paint and penetration. If you look at how UConn would set up on defense, after a token press they would drop below the 3 point line. Except on ball screens, where UConn, and especially Carlton, was inexplicably jumping out to hard hedge the screen. Why does UConn do that? If Cincinnati wants to take pull up 3's from 25 feet out off screens, I am inclined to let them.

Cincinnati had 16 assists on 26 shots, and several of the other shots were putbacks. Cincinnati is getting better ball movement and easier shots, as evidenced by their higher shooting percentage.

Cincinnati does the basics well. When a Cincinnati player's defender helps, that player cuts to the block. Cincinnati does a lot of give and go's, and UConn would occasionally lose contact with the cutter off the pass. High school defenders shouldn't make this mistake, and it is completely unacceptable at the D1 college level. The more common problem, and one I have brought up before, is that I don't think the players understand Hurley's secondary rotations in help defense. When the help defender flashes to the ball, someone from the weakside is supposed to drop down to the block to defend the open player, but we do not seem to do that, so that dump off pass is always available.

Cincinnati has excellent rebounding technique. Watch the forwards off the ball, and they are using swim moves, and breaking contact with the box out, to get inside of UConn's more athletic front court, and especially Akok, while the ball is in the air. This is something that will get better for Akok with time, but Cincinnati was impressive on the boards last night.

Agree with almost all of this. Disagree with Gilbert only shooting when wide open. I think he's an effective catch and shoot outside shooter as well. Unfortunately, as a PG he's rarely in that situation. He was effective off the ball with Jalen last year.

The most effective offense I saw us run involved AG bringing it up, giving it to Bouknight above the circle and moving to the wing as an off guard shooter. Suddenly we had a guy who could break down his man and we had shooters at both wings.

When Hurley talked about changes, I hope this was what he had in mind. If Bouknight starts for Polley, it lets us run the offense through him up top, leave Carlton down low, and have Akok, Vital and AG as shooters. When Bouk beats his man up top, those wing defenders absolutely will collapse on him leaving AG, Vital or Polley open. If DH insists on running this offense he only has one guy who can do that.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Hurley is old school, playground style coach offensively. To let a team play that way, you need a couple of 1-on-1 shot makers. He tried to let Gilbert and Vital be those players, but they don't have the shot making skills, so we end up with a bunch of crazy, low percentage shots from them.

Bouk is the closest thing we have to that kind of player, but he has a lot of work to do. Natural ability is a piece of being that kind of 20 ppg scorer in a1-on-1 offense, but there is a lot more to it. It isn't just taking 300 jump shots a day, it is taking 300 floaters a day, and 300 up and unders, and 300 stop and pops, and 300....it is a lot of work.

Honestly, I think that style of play is from a different era. Defenses are too sophisticated today for teams to be efficient offensively playing that much 1-on-1 basketball.

 

[Waquoit]

ti:dr
But I know it was all irrelevant.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

ti:dr
But I know it was all irrelevant.

This thread is for people that understand basketball. Why don't you stick to the threads where people are screaming VITAL SUCKS? That is more your speed.

 

[ctchamps]

Cincinnati has excellent rebounding technique. Watch the forwards off the ball, and they are using swim moves, and breaking contact with the box out, to get inside of UConn's more athletic front court, and especially Akok, while the ball is in the air. This is something that will get better for Akok with time, but Cincinnati was impressive on the boards last night.

UConn has three kids who want to board - Akok, Vital and Whalley
Cincinnati as well as 90% of all D1 teams have everyone who wants to board because if they don't, they don't play. It's very disheartening to see your center, JC, not fighting and jumping for rebounds and getting so easily blocked out. You have a forward in Polley who flat out avoids any physical play - yes he has rebounded more this year but he doesn't go after them and should be achieving a much higher percentage. It's truly amazing that the leading rebounders for the past 3 years have been Vital and J Adams.

As far as offense goes - UConn has no offense - they have no strategy, no plans - this is a coaching issue

Josh is slow to react, easily pinned by an opposing big and a below par jumper. Polley is easily boxed out. He struggles slipping by players which is not only a problem for him with rebounding but a problem with him getting open to take shots.

Both these players try but are ineffective.

 

[ctchamps]

Agree with almost all of this. Disagree with Gilbert only shooting when wide open. I think he's an effective catch and shoot outside shooter as well. Unfortunately, as a PG he's rarely in that situation. He was effective off the ball with Jalen last year.

The most effective offense I saw us run involved AG bringing it up, giving it to Bouknight above the circle and moving to the wing as an off guard shooter. Suddenly we had a guy who could break down his man and we had shooters at both wings.

When Hurley talked about changes, I hope this was what he had in mind. If Bouknight starts for Polley, it lets us run the offense through him up top, leave Carlton down low, and have Akok, Vital and AG as shooters. When Bouk beats his man up top, those wing defenders absolutely will collapse on him leaving AG, Vital or Polley open. If DH insists on running this offense he only has one guy who can do that.

This is close to my assessment. People underestimate Polley’s defense so you would be reducing defense for offense until Bouknight improves but that’s a sacrifice that I feel is necessary.

@husky429 made a statement that perhaps this team is over coached on offense and might do better in letting them take quicker open shots. This forum would go beserk and accuse players of hero ball but UConn really only has three players who can create for themselves - Brendan, Al and James- and each has significant flaws.

Until Josh can figure out what he did earlier in the season and provide UConn with a viable internal threat Hurley might want a freewheeling offense to go with a lockdown defense.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It's not a lockdown defense. Just look at the shot chart. It wasn't like Cincinnati beat us with a lot of contested long jumpers. They were basically running a layup line against UConn.

It is definitely NOT an overcoached offense. The bad shot selection is killing us, because it kills our efficiency and also creates transition opportunities for the opponent.

 

[Excalibur]

If you watch around college basketball there are plenty of teams that initiate their offense with a high-post flash from a big. It's what happens after the flash and hand-off that really matters.

We ran the same offense vs. Xavier and Miami. Two bigs at the high post, two guards in the corners, and the point guard with the ball. The bigs can either receive a pass or start the offense with a high ball screen. The player who does not catch or screen sets a screen down for the guard/wing in the corner. The big who receives the pass (in most cases Carlton but sometimes Akok) will execute a hand-off either back to the point guard or to the player coming off the screen from the other big. At this point, Carlton has the option to either re-set the high ball screen or cut away, setting a down screen for the other guard/wing in the corner and then posting off of that screen. While the players are bunched at the beginning of the set, if executed properly better spacing develops after the initial high-post feed and hand-off. Even when executed properly, the sets take a long time to develop. By pressing, Cincy was able to delay us getting into our set, and we did nothing to force the issue or punish them for pressing.

Looking at the offense in Charleston vs. against Cincinnati, there are a couple of major differences. The first is that the initial feed is taking place much further from the hoop. Vs. Miami, Carlton/Akok almost always caught the initial pass between the free throw line and the 3 point line. Now it is almost always 22 feet from the hoop. Part of that is more pressure being put on ball handlers, and part of it is the defense contesting the initial pass.

The second issue is that Carlton, after handing off to the guard, is almost always opting to re-set the high ball screen as opposed to setting the screen to the corner and attempting to seal his defender after that screen.

 

[yungdowork]

Honestly, I think that style of play is from a different era. Defenses are too sophisticated today for teams to be efficient offensively playing that much 1-on-1 basketball.

I disagree with this point. A ton of offenses in the NBA are based around spacing and having their best players run iso. Look at what Harden does night in and night out in Houston.

The problem we have is that we don’t have the ball handlers or the shooters for it to work. The only shooter that teams really respect is Polley, and even he doesn’t do his best work in catch and shoot situations. The lack of shooters affects our spacing negatively since opponents are able to help on defense with less apprehension. Then in order to actually drive to the bucket, our guards end up having to beat 2 or 3 defenders.

In my opinion, running a smaller lineup with more guys who are comfortable putting the ball on the floor would allow for more fluidity in the offense. As it stands 3 of 5 starters really can’t handle the ball at all and the two guards who can are turnover prone and try to dribble into traffic too often.

 

[BigEastLuva]

Hurley is old school, playground style coach offensively. To let a team play that way, you need a couple of 1-on-1 shot makers. He tried to let Gilbert and Vital be those players, but they don't have the shot making skills, so we end up with a bunch of crazy, low percentage shots from them.

Bouk is the closest thing we have to that kind of player, but he has a lot of work to do. Natural ability is a piece of being that kind of 20 ppg scorer in a1-on-1 offense, but there is a lot more to it. It isn't just taking 300 jump shots a day, it is taking 300 floaters a day, and 300 up and unders, and 300 stop and pops, and 300....it is a lot of work.

Honestly, I think that style of play is from a different era. Defenses are too sophisticated today for teams to be efficient offensively playing that much 1-on-1 basketball.

You have a point, but think about Hurley’s guards from Wagner to now. None of them have stuck in the league, not even Terrell, who was well-respected out of Brewster. When you don’t have iso-bucket getters (like Hurley’s most talented guard JR Smith), you use defense to get easy buckets in transition turnovers. Maybe if he pressed 94 feet all game and took greater advantage of CV, Rique, Sid, Bouk and Gaffney on the perimeter, we might get another 10-15 points a game. But with Gaff and Bouk’s ascent next year, you’ll see more of his offensive playbook open.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

If you watch around college basketball there are plenty of teams that initiate their offense with a high-post flash from a big. It's what happens after the flash and hand-off that really matters.

We ran the same offense vs. Xavier and Miami. Two bigs at the high post, two guards in the corners, and the point guard with the ball. The bigs can either receive a pass or start the offense with a high ball screen. The player who does not catch or screen sets a screen down for the guard/wing in the corner. The big who receives the pass (in most cases Carlton but sometimes Akok) will execute a hand-off either back to the point guard or to the player coming off the screen from the other big. At this point, Carlton has the option to either re-set the high ball screen or cut away, setting a down screen for the other guard/wing in the corner and then posting off of that screen. While the players are bunched at the beginning of the set, if executed properly better spacing develops after the initial high-post feed and hand-off. Even when executed properly, the sets take a long time to develop. By pressing, Cincy was able to delay us getting into our set, and we did nothing to force the issue or punish them for pressing.

Looking at the offense in Charleston vs. against Cincinnati, there are a couple of major differences. The first is that the initial feed is taking place much further from the hoop. Vs. Miami, Carlton/Akok almost always caught the initial pass between the free throw line and the 3 point line. Now it is almost always 22 feet from the hoop. Part of that is more pressure being put on ball handlers, and part of it is the defense contesting the initial pass.

The second issue is that Carlton, after handing off to the guard, is almost always opting to re-set the high ball screen as opposed to setting the screen to the corner and attempting to seal his defender after that screen.

I agree that our sets were taking a long time to develop, and that Cincinnati was making that problem worse with pressure and their pass denial defense.

Because Cincinnati was denying the pass, not only was Carlton receiving the ball well past the 3 point line, but he was having a hard time getting the ball back to the guard. Cincinnati was denying all the passes, and rather than exploit a defense that would often have 3 defenders above the 3 point line, we were trying to beat them with dribble drives and pullups. You beat deny defenses with backdoor cuts and backscreens away from the ball, but almost all of our action was on the ball. We need to take what the defense gives us.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I disagree with this point. A ton of offenses in the NBA are based around spacing and having their best players run iso. Look at what Harden does night in and night out in Houston.

The problem we have is that we don’t have the ball handlers or the shooters for it to work. The only shooter that teams really respect is Polley, and even he doesn’t do his best work in catch and shoot situations. The lack of shooters affects our spacing negatively since opponents are able to help on defense with less apprehension. Then in order to actually drive to the bucket, our guards end up having to beat 2 or 3 defenders.

In my opinion, running a smaller lineup with more guys who are comfortable putting the ball on the floor would allow for more fluidity in the offense. As it stands 3 of 5 starters really can’t handle the ball at all and the two guards who can are turnover prone and try to dribble into traffic too often.

We are running an offense designed for a single dominant player when we don't have a single dominant player. That doesn't mean we don't have offensive weapons, we just don't have a player like Kemba or Donyell or Rudy or Caron that can beat the other team 1-on-5 when he needs to. My point is that offenses that depend on that kind of player are archaic in modern basketball.

I think you meant that Polley can only shoot in catch-and-shoot situations, since that is all he does. I think Vital is an excellent catch and shoot shooter. Akok and Bouk can catch-and-shoot 3's. We got enough shooters, we just need to run an offense to get them inside-out shots. I would run screen and rolls with Josh all day, not to get Josh the ball, but to collapse the defense for kickouts. I would also post up Carlton, because he is actually very good at sealing his defender. Post him up and use him to reverse the ball to weakside shooters. When the defense stops helping down low, now you have Carlton 1-on-1 inside, where he can be effective.

Hurley has to play the hand he is dealt.

 

[willie99]

I beginning to think Mutz doesn't like Hurley much

Tomorrow's another day, save some anger for then, don't waste it all on one day