Putting Players In Positions to Make Plays | The Boneyard

Putting Players In Positions to Make Plays

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Hurley's offense just doesn't put players in positions to utilize their strengths and make plays. I don't know how they don't see this when they watch hours of game fill trying to figure out what went wrong. I think it's pretty obvious.

His horns set and weave set they run need to go ASAP

It might have worked earlier in the season some what, but once teams have a chance to scout you it just wont work anymore against league opponents. It's easy for any team to guard since the spacing is so poor and there is no room to operate

This is contributing to Carlton's poor play since both sets have him catching the ball 25ft from the basket.

Him and Whaley both have no business catching the ball out past the 3pt line since neither player can hurt you from there and it's taking away from Carlton's strength which is catching the ball under the basket.

What is the point of giving them the ball there, since the guards are not cutting backdoor off it, there is no other purposeful movement off the ball, and it just clogs up the middle of the floor?

Now the guards have to fight to get the ball back from the big and often are forced to catch the ball back near half court. Most of the time with the shot clock winding down they are forced to take a long contested shot or because the spacing is so poor with both bigs still at the foul line they have to try to split a double team in effort to make something happen leading to bad shots or turnovers.

This gets me to why Gilbert and Vital are playing poorly

With both of these offensive sets there is often three Uconn players withing 10 feet of each other leaving no room to operate and the other two are just standing around and as a result both players are taking long contested shots or driving out of control to the basket trying to make a play with the shot clock winding down leading to their turnovers and poor shooting percentages.

If there is better spacing and the guards have room to create, there is not many players in the country who can stay in front of Gilbert and now he can get back to his strengths which is getting into the paint and drawing defenders and dishing to the open man or taking open foul line jumpers. (If he would stop over penetrating)

Now with defenses have to help and rotate it's much easier for Vital, Polly, and Carlton, and who ever else is on the floor to get better looks. Bouknight and Adams will both excel because they both can shoot and attack the basket.

Once they start getting some better looks, shots should start falling, and they will get some confidence back which is something they desperately need since it almost looks like the players have no confidence in what they are doing on the offensive end right now.

Seriously, at this point I would be happy just to see some basic motion we all learned in middle school basketball

The simple - screen down, screen away

Using the simple motion principles like reading defender-curling if he's trailing, popping to the corner if he goes under, backdoor cuts if he tries to cheat.

There is a million different quick hitters you can run out of this set

I'm not the coach, that's just my two cents
 
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Hurley's offense just doesn't put players in positions to utilize their strengths and make plays. I don't know how they don't see this when they watch hours of game fill trying to figure out what went wrong. I think it's pretty obvious.

His horns set and weave set they run need to go ASAP

It might have worked earlier in the season some what, but once teams have a chance to scout you it just wont work anymore against league opponents. It's easy for any team to guard since the spacing is so poor and there is no room to operate

This is contributing to Carlton's poor play since both sets have him catching the ball 25ft from the basket.

Him and Whaley both have no business catching the ball out past the 3pt line since neither player can hurt you from there and it's taking away from Carlton's strength which is catching the ball under the basket.

What is the point of giving them the ball there, since the guards are not cutting backdoor off it, there is no other purposeful movement off the ball, and it just clogs up the middle of the floor?

Now the guards have to fight to get the ball back from the big and often are forced to catch the ball back near half court. Most of the time with the shot clock winding down they are forced to take a long contested shot or because the spacing is so poor with both bigs still at the foul line they have to try to split a double team in effort to make something happen leading to bad shots or turnovers.

This gets me to why Gilbert and Vital are playing poorly

With both of these offensive sets there is often three Uconn players withing 10 feet of each other leaving no room to operate and the other two are just standing around and as a result both players are taking long contested shots or driving out of control to the basket trying to make a play with the shot clock winding down leading to their turnovers and poor shooting percentages.

If there is better spacing and the guards have room to create, there is not many players in the country who can stay in front of Gilbert and now he can get back to his strengths which is getting into the paint and drawing defenders and dishing to the open man or taking open foul line jumpers. (If he would stop over penetrating)

Now with defenses have to help and rotate it's much easier for Vital, Polly, and Carlton, and who ever else is on the floor to get better looks. Bouknight and Adams will both excel because they both can shoot and attack the basket.

Once they start getting some better looks, shots should start falling, and they will get some confidence back which is something they desperately need since it almost looks like the players have no confidence in what they are doing on the offensive end right now.

Seriously, at this point I would be happy just to see some basic motion we all learned in middle school basketball

The simple - screen down, screen away

Using the simple motion principles like reading defender-curling if he's trailing, popping to the corner if he goes under, backdoor cuts if he tries to cheat.

There is a million different quick hitters you can run out of this set

I'm not the coach, that's just my two cents
I’m not a coach either but I agree. Time to try something different. It’s been stagnant offense for a couple years. Carlton at the 3 point line has no benefits. Hurts rebounding as well.
 
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Hurley's offense just doesn't put players in positions to utilize their strengths and make plays. I don't know how they don't see this when they watch hours of game fill trying to figure out what went wrong. I think it's pretty obvious.

His horns set and weave set they run need to go ASAP

It might have worked earlier in the season some what, but once teams have a chance to scout you it just wont work anymore against league opponents. It's easy for any team to guard since the spacing is so poor and there is no room to operate

This is contributing to Carlton's poor play since both sets have him catching the ball 25ft from the basket.

Him and Whaley both have no business catching the ball out past the 3pt line since neither player can hurt you from there and it's taking away from Carlton's strength which is catching the ball under the basket.

What is the point of giving them the ball there, since the guards are not cutting backdoor off it, there is no other purposeful movement off the ball, and it just clogs up the middle of the floor?

Now the guards have to fight to get the ball back from the big and often are forced to catch the ball back near half court. Most of the time with the shot clock winding down they are forced to take a long contested shot or because the spacing is so poor with both bigs still at the foul line they have to try to split a double team in effort to make something happen leading to bad shots or turnovers.

This gets me to why Gilbert and Vital are playing poorly

With both of these offensive sets there is often three Uconn players withing 10 feet of each other leaving no room to operate and the other two are just standing around and as a result both players are taking long contested shots or driving out of control to the basket trying to make a play with the shot clock winding down leading to their turnovers and poor shooting percentages.

If there is better spacing and the guards have room to create, there is not many players in the country who can stay in front of Gilbert and now he can get back to his strengths which is getting into the paint and drawing defenders and dishing to the open man or taking open foul line jumpers. (If he would stop over penetrating)

Now with defenses have to help and rotate it's much easier for Vital, Polly, and Carlton, and who ever else is on the floor to get better looks. Bouknight and Adams will both excel because they both can shoot and attack the basket.

Once they start getting some better looks, shots should start falling, and they will get some confidence back which is something they desperately need since it almost looks like the players have no confidence in what they are doing on the offensive end right now.

Seriously, at this point I would be happy just to see some basic motion we all learned in middle school basketball

The simple - screen down, screen away

Using the simple motion principles like reading defender-curling if he's trailing, popping to the corner if he goes under, backdoor cuts if he tries to cheat.

There is a million different quick hitters you can run out of this set

I'm not the coach, that's just my two cents
I'm not an English teacher, but the subject - verb agreement in this post is abominable. I've been trying to cut down on writing critiques, but I could not ignore this one.
 
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I am not a chef, but the cook needs more ingredients to make a nice pie before you can even begin to critque him.. :)
 

Doctor Hoop

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I am not a chef, but the cook needs more ingredients to make a nice pie before you can even begin to critque him.. :)
A few years ago my family shared a ski condo with the family of one of my best friends from college. One day we got back from skiing and realized we hadn’t gone to the market and there wasn’t much in the fridge. The two wives and I looked at the sparse contents and opined that we should get takeout. My buddy looked, and said “Nope, I got it. I’ll make dinner.” Next thing we knew we were eating delicious enchiladas, prepared with I have no idea what.

Sometimes a good chef can make something special out of not much
 
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Hurley's offense just doesn't put players in positions to utilize their strengths and make plays. I don't know how they don't see this when they watch hours of game fill trying to figure out what went wrong. I think it's pretty obvious.

His horns set and weave set they run need to go ASAP

It might have worked earlier in the season some what, but once teams have a chance to scout you it just wont work anymore against league opponents. It's easy for any team to guard since the spacing is so poor and there is no room to operate

This is contributing to Carlton's poor play since both sets have him catching the ball 25ft from the basket.

Him and Whaley both have no business catching the ball out past the 3pt line since neither player can hurt you from there and it's taking away from Carlton's strength which is catching the ball under the basket.

What is the point of giving them the ball there, since the guards are not cutting backdoor off it, there is no other purposeful movement off the ball, and it just clogs up the middle of the floor?

Now the guards have to fight to get the ball back from the big and often are forced to catch the ball back near half court. Most of the time with the shot clock winding down they are forced to take a long contested shot or because the spacing is so poor with both bigs still at the foul line they have to try to split a double team in effort to make something happen leading to bad shots or turnovers.

This gets me to why Gilbert and Vital are playing poorly

With both of these offensive sets there is often three Uconn players withing 10 feet of each other leaving no room to operate and the other two are just standing around and as a result both players are taking long contested shots or driving out of control to the basket trying to make a play with the shot clock winding down leading to their turnovers and poor shooting percentages.

If there is better spacing and the guards have room to create, there is not many players in the country who can stay in front of Gilbert and now he can get back to his strengths which is getting into the paint and drawing defenders and dishing to the open man or taking open foul line jumpers. (If he would stop over penetrating)

Now with defenses have to help and rotate it's much easier for Vital, Polly, and Carlton, and who ever else is on the floor to get better looks. Bouknight and Adams will both excel because they both can shoot and attack the basket.

Once they start getting some better looks, shots should start falling, and they will get some confidence back which is something they desperately need since it almost looks like the players have no confidence in what they are doing on the offensive end right now.

Seriously, at this point I would be happy just to see some basic motion we all learned in middle school basketball

The simple - screen down, screen away

Using the simple motion principles like reading defender-curling if he's trailing, popping to the corner if he goes under, backdoor cuts if he tries to cheat.

There is a million different quick hitters you can run out of this set

I'm not the coach, that's just my two cents
Thank you, I agree with all of it. Please post more.
 
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A few years ago my family shared a ski condo with the family of one of my best friends from college. One day we got back from skiing and realized we hadn’t gone to the market and there wasn’t much in the fridge. The two wives and I looked at the sparse contents and opined that we should get takeout. My buddy looked, and said “Nope, I got it. I’ll make dinner.” Next thing we knew we were eating delicious enchiladas, prepared with I have no idea what.

Sometimes a good chef can make something special out of not much
please give me his number, lol
 
C

Chief00

Hurley's offense just doesn't put players in positions to utilize their strengths and make plays. I don't know how they don't see this when they watch hours of game fill trying to figure out what went wrong. I think it's pretty obvious.

His horns set and weave set they run need to go ASAP

It might have worked earlier in the season some what, but once teams have a chance to scout you it just wont work anymore against league opponents. It's easy for any team to guard since the spacing is so poor and there is no room to operate

This is contributing to Carlton's poor play since both sets have him catching the ball 25ft from the basket.

Him and Whaley both have no business catching the ball out past the 3pt line since neither player can hurt you from there and it's taking away from Carlton's strength which is catching the ball under the basket.

What is the point of giving them the ball there, since the guards are not cutting backdoor off it, there is no other purposeful movement off the ball, and it just clogs up the middle of the floor?

Now the guards have to fight to get the ball back from the big and often are forced to catch the ball back near half court. Most of the time with the shot clock winding down they are forced to take a long contested shot or because the spacing is so poor with both bigs still at the foul line they have to try to split a double team in effort to make something happen leading to bad shots or turnovers.

This gets me to why Gilbert and Vital are playing poorly

With both of these offensive sets there is often three Uconn players withing 10 feet of each other leaving no room to operate and the other two are just standing around and as a result both players are taking long contested shots or driving out of control to the basket trying to make a play with the shot clock winding down leading to their turnovers and poor shooting percentages.

If there is better spacing and the guards have room to create, there is not many players in the country who can stay in front of Gilbert and now he can get back to his strengths which is getting into the paint and drawing defenders and dishing to the open man or taking open foul line jumpers. (If he would stop over penetrating)

Now with defenses have to help and rotate it's much easier for Vital, Polly, and Carlton, and who ever else is on the floor to get better looks. Bouknight and Adams will both excel because they both can shoot and attack the basket.

Once they start getting some better looks, shots should start falling, and they will get some confidence back which is something they desperately need since it almost looks like the players have no confidence in what they are doing on the offensive end right now.

Seriously, at this point I would be happy just to see some basic motion we all learned in middle school basketball

The simple - screen down, screen away

Using the simple motion principles like reading defender-curling if he's trailing, popping to the corner if he goes under, backdoor cuts if he tries to cheat.

There is a million different quick hitters you can run out of this set

I'm not the coach, that's just my two cents

Chief would argue if a guy can’t shoot you are better off having him cut to the basket than putting him on the 3 line and pretending that creates space. He’s useless there and the defense wants him to take shots from there.
It’s been really sad watching AG self destruct this season. I am still holding out hope he can turn it around but you have to question how much more playing time Danny will invest in him given his downward descent. I also think it’s gotten to the tipping point with the refs where he’s not getting the respect on his drives. At any rate, it’s tough arguing for the call when there’s not overwhelming odds he makes the foul shots. PG’s have to make FT’s.
There’s no player who would benefit more from listening to John Wooden’s be quick but don’t hurry rule. There is a difference between the two and I still hold out hope Al learns that. He’s a good kid and even Chief is at a loss why he doesn’t understand that. In general, if we had more guys setting real screens and making hard cuts to the hoop or around screens - perhaps AG could hit the cutters or the guys popping out?
He needs to get the hook on any pass below a guy’s waist - especially with Bigs. He is at his best facing the basket from the top of the key or the elbow off the dribbling. Because of his speed he gets space there to shoot or pass that goes away upon over penetration.
 
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one thing I noticed about alterique... he’d catch the ball a few times behind the arc in rhythm to step in and take a uncontested 3... but he doesn’t. he has made 3s in his career and hasn’t always been THIS bad shooting. if he can’t score by getting to the hole, kid needs to be a 3 pt threat to be productive.
 

Hans Sprungfeld

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Thank you, I agree with all of it. Please post more.
I find this a valuable discussion post as well.
I'm not an English teacher, but the subject - verb agreement in this post is abominable. I've been trying to cut down on writing critiques, but I could not ignore this one.
The post also suffers from using the word "since" when "because" would be better, but I only mention this because the overall post was thoughtful and otherwise well-offered. I can echo the sentiment above, but only toward being helpful to the OP who I would also encourage to continue posting.

My grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling corrections are usually offered to 'right-size' someone's heavy-handedness, overconfidence, or negativity. That's not the case here, and I would not have chimed in if someone else had brought it up. I seek only to be complimentary and helpful for future posts.
A few years ago my family shared a ski condo with the family of one of my best friends from college. One day we got back from skiing and realized we hadn’t gone to the market and there wasn’t much in the fridge. The two wives and I looked at the sparse contents and opined that we should get takeout. My buddy looked, and said “Nope, I got it. I’ll make dinner.” Next thing we knew we were eating delicious enchiladas, prepared with I have no idea what.

Sometimes a good chef can make something special out of not much
This is very much the essence of much creative cooking, whether it's a professional chef's Soup of the Day, or a family's making use of leftovers to stretch the food dollar or combat food waste.

It's important to remember that almost every team has its flaws and insufficiencies. The opposition's players aren't "good enough" either. Better players will generally produce better outcomes, but the roster is set for this season. The job is for the coaching staff to design and manage for highest performance on strategies and tactics that will get the best out of what they have to work with. The players are tasked with being their individual and collective best. And I argue that we fans on the Boneyard should approach things no differently.

Wednesday was a bad game. Nobody seriously argues otherwise. It was the start of league play at the beginning of the new year, and it held the hope that November & December were about getting ready for the following three months. The team did not look well-prepared, and we fans mostly were not prepared for what we saw. It was the first true road game, and triggered every bad feeling we've had ever since being positioned in the AAC. It is likely that teams will want us to leave with a bad taste in our mouth. I have no certainties to offer pro or con,but I do believe that we have coaches and players capable of much more than our worst imaginings.
 
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Holding X’s and O’s aside, the players need to stop thinking so much about the offense and just play.

Instinctive things like back door cuts, pinning your teammates man with a quick screen to free them up, etc. are things we just don’t see lately.

A guard will pick up his dribble and nobody even thinks to move into his line of sight to help right now.

Nobody looks like they even want the ball. They just mindlessly pass the ball around until they either make a mistake, or have no time and have to force something up. They’re deep inside of their own heads and it’s showing.
 
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Getting back to Gafney again he not only is better at finding people open where they can do damage but defensively he doesn't get posted like AG and still pressures the ball. Let him learn on the floor. He has the tools.
He has high basketball IQ just like JB and AA and BA. Put them out there with CV and you have your best team. This 5 can all create and play D offensive wows gone.
 

Mr. French

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Not discounting the validity of certain aspects of your post, but ultimately what are we saying here? You think him scrapping his entire man to man playbook for basic motion sets, which will (STILL) require the players to make good decisions and make shots against a man to man defense, will now make them play better?

I'm failing to see the solution ...
 
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if we had more guys setting real screens
Question: What's a fake screen?

Answer: A foul.

The man setting the screen can't move. He establishes a position and it's up to his teammate to use the screen properly. You learn that before middle school.
 
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Not discounting the validity of certain aspects of your post, but ultimately what are we saying here? You think him scrapping his entire man to man playbook for basic motion sets, which will (STILL) require the players to make good decisions and make shots against a man to man defense, will now make them play better?

I'm failing to see the solution ...
Sometimes simplifying things leads to less thinking, better execution, and better results.

None of us "know", of course, but your failure to see the solution, doesn't mean it couldn't still be a solution.
 

HuskylnSC

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I have a suggestion to those who say Al can and those who say Al can not shoot 3's well. Next time he shoots, watch his legs. If after he elevates and his legs are calm and roughly perpendicular he will make a high percentage and if his legs are doing something crazy he will make a low percentage. This has to do with being squared up and in balance. The greatest majority of Al's shots (3's and 2's) are taken off balance.

There are lots of reasons a player is off balance frequently. Most likely he is hurrying or he is already out of sync because of some move he is making. Al seems to be of balance a lot. I just think he is trying too hard to make something happen. Great heart, great attitude. Just needs to slow it down a bit and let the game come to him a bit.
 
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I have a suggestion to those who say Al can and those who say Al can not shoot 3's well. Next time he shoots, watch his legs. If after he elevates and his legs are calm and roughly perpendicular he will make a high percentage and if his legs are doing something crazy he will make a low percentage. This has to do with being squared up and in balance. The greatest majority of Al's shots (3's and 2's) are taken off balance.

There are lots of reasons a player is off balance frequently. Most likely he is hurrying or he is already out of sync because of some move he is making. Al seems to be of balance a lot. I just think he is trying too hard to make something happen. Great heart, great attitude. Just needs to slow it down a bit and let the game come to him a bit.

Bingo. Not saying he's a great shooter at all but when he's mostly square he will make more. Seems he shoots it "sideways" kind of at times in which he makes even less than a very few. He's a better shooter than what we are seeing we know that but no matter, he has huge issues making shots and as a supporter of him I am losing faith in AG turning it around this year. Besides the shooting if I see him dribble between double teams 2-3 times a game and then penetrate too deep only to not touch the rim or the backboard I will break my Samsung. He's better and smarter than this, please come back to earth AG please?!??!
 
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C

Chief00

Question: What's a fake screen?

Answer: A foul.

The man setting the screen can't move. He establishes a position and it's up to his teammate to use the screen properly. You learn that before middle school.
Chief shouldn’t waste his time responding. But, if you think our guys are setting screens properly, there is nothing Chief can do to educate you.
 
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Chief shouldn’t waste his time responding. But, if you think our guys are setting screens properly, there is nothing Chief can do to educate you.

You're not wrong chief. Our ball screens are set to get guys going laterally instead of downhill.
 
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I coached high school for 11 years and always had a handful of quick hitters to go along with a motion offense. I don’t recall us running quick hitters since the days of George Blakey. And when was the last time we scored off an in bounds play?
 
C

Chief00

Quite frankly, it’s both our screens and cuts that don’t have a sharpe edge to them. The cuts are too loopy. If we had a loopy cut in the Calhoun days it was around two Bigs double post screens. But the runner would still run their defender closely up against the screener at the point of the screener. The loop part was just to get to a good spot to receive the pass and get off a high % shot.
 
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C

Chief00

Holding X’s and O’s aside, the players need to stop thinking so much about the offense and just play.

Instinctive things like back door cuts, pinning your teammates man with a quick screen to free them up, etc. are things we just don’t see lately.

A guard will pick up his dribble and nobody even thinks to move into his line of sight to help right now.

Nobody looks like they even want the ball. They just mindlessly pass the ball around until they either make a mistake, or have no time and have to force something up. They’re deep inside of their own heads and it’s showing.
You are exactly right. You just don’t see the basketball instinct plays anymore. Are the players over coached so they lose their creativity? Or do they just never develop those instinctive moves, learning from older players in unsupervised playground basketball growing up?
 
C

Chief00

Bingo. Not saying he's a great shooter at all but when he's mostly square he will make more. Seems he shoots it "sideways" kind of at times in which he makes even less than a very few. He's a better shooter than what we are seeing we know that but no matter, he has huge issues making shots and as a supporter of him I am losing faith in AG turning it around this year. Besides the shooting if I see him dribble between double teams 2-3 times a game and then penetrate too deep only to not touch the rim or the backboard I will break my Samsung. He's better and smarter than this, please come back to earth AG please?!??!
When he shoots really poorly he does kick one leg out in front and that usually generates an off balance shot and incidental contact that makes the play even more off balance.
 
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Screen play is a "dance". It's not dependent on the screener alone. The defense must be read properly. The screener and the teammate he is doing the screen for must be coordinated and of like mind to make the "dance" successful.
 

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