Sending five men to the offensive glass.....

[Palatine]

I thought that Hurley comparing sending 5 men to the offensive boards to a football coach going for it on 4th down to be extremely revealing. And I had never that comparison before, by any basketball coach.

His concept was that the extra possession on offense, for an offensively elite squad like the '24 team, was more valuable than the two points they might give up in transition. It also brightly signaled he had completed his transition from a defense first coach to an offense coach first.

He made the statement, I believe, in the JJ Redick piece. I'm surprised it has sparked more discussion.

 

[husky429]

I'm almost positive that the philosophy comes from Tom Moore. Every team he's coached has always been solid to great at offensive rebounding.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

I'm almost positive that the philosophy comes from Tom Moore. Every team he's coached has always been solid to great at offensive rebounding.

He said in that interview that it came from PJ in college

But he has also mentioned before that Tom is the Rebounding Coach.

37:48

 

[MexicoHusky]

I listened to the interview as well... and although i agree that i dont think ive heard the comparison to "going for it" on 4th down before, i got the sense this was a known philosophical discussion in basketball. I got the impression from DH's tone. It didnt seem like he thought he was saying anything ground breaking and new.

I really enjoyed that interview because it touched a little bit on something ive become interested in. Euro vs NBA basketball. And how much Euro ball has caught up to the NBA game. There are some indications it has.

This is probably a different thread. Its very easy to see that league mvps have all been euro players for a few years, but the draft pick trends may be more significant. Young Euro players with multiple years of professional expierence are becoming very desirable.

 

[husky429]

I listened to the interview as well... and although i agree that i dont think ive heard the comparison to "going for it" on 4th down before, i got the sense this was a known philosophical discussion in basketball. I got the impression from DH's tone. It didnt seem like he thought he was saying anything ground breaking and new.

What we're doing is a bit old school. There's always been a balance between attacking the offensive glass and getting back in transition. The sort of basketball zeitgeist lately has been to nix most offensive rebounding and take away easy buckets. Certainly has been the case in the NBA.

 

[auror]

What we're doing is a bit old school. There's always been a balance between attacking the offensive glass and getting back in transition. The sort of basketball zeitgeist lately has been to nix most offensive rebounding and take away easy buckets. Certainly has been the case in the NBA.

I will admit to being pleased when Ollie's teams started prioritizing transition defense based on nascent analytics a decade ago. But this has been proven to be one of the areas where the college game is much different than the NBA and I was wrong. It is much easier to have a physical advantage on the glass in college vs. NBA where athletes are often much more similar to each other in athletic ability and strength. NBA athletes are also usually more dangerous in transition and college's smaller area under the arc and closer line means you have more players able to get into offensive rebounding position on a given play even if they are spacing the court.

Calhoun/Tom Moore had a ton of success attacking the glass. Hurley/Tom Moore have had a ton of success attacking the glass. Houston and Kelvin Sampson as well. Rick Pitino and Roy Williams, too.

 

[REB1094]

It works when it works! Easier to grab boards when your entire team is 6’4+, and your center is 7’2. When it doesn’t work, you get games like Seton Hall

Next year all of our PGs and SGs are 6’3 and below. Wouldn’t be surprised if we had less of a focus on offensive rebounds next year, replaced with some other plan to maximize their strengths

 

[bendm]

Offense wins championships in college bball

 

[jibsey]

Hurley bared his soul in that interview, and there’s no use repeating this but we have the best coach and staff in the country I’m guessing. How can there be better?
He has to rely on the talents of his players ultimately and that’s the crapshoot and challenge, he’s going to teach the right things in the right way.
This is the most talented team top to bottom to him yet the “experts” have us 4th or 5th behind the same old favorites. Good.

 

[dennismenace]

It works when it works! Easier to grab boards when your entire team is 6’4+, and your center is 7’2. When it doesn’t work, you get games like Seton Hall

Next year all of our PGs and SGs are 6’3 and below. Wouldn’t be surprised if we had less of a focus on offensive rebounds next year, replaced with some other plan to maximize their strengths

I recall when Bazz and Boat played for us and they always had an extraordinary amount of rebounds (especially the long ones resulting from long shots) so we have always been strong on rebounding and especially for guards. These two (especially Boat) were great leapers. So height is important but hops as well. When he gets more playing time we should see 6-3 Ball racking up some very good numbers. He has a ridiculous vertical leap. When the other team is leaking out and we get an offensive board it is then 5 on 3 or 5 on 2 so easy follow up shots.

 

[uh-no]

Offense wins championships in college bball

shabazz nappier begs to differ. Just ask Scottie Wilbekin.

 

[bendm]

shabazz nappier begs to differ. Just ask Scottie Wilbekin.

2014 UConn is the only champion since ‘97 whose defensive efficiency ranked higher than its offensive efficiency.

 

[Scrutiner]

It works when it works! Easier to grab boards when your entire team is 6’4+, and your center is 7’2. When it doesn’t work, you get games like Seton Hall

Next year all of our PGs and SGs are 6’3 and below. Wouldn’t be surprised if we had less of a focus on offensive rebounds next year, replaced with some other plan to maximize their strengths

Height isn't the only determinant though.

A great deal depends on positioning and understanding angles from which the rebounds will come, combined with anticipation (BB IQ?) and we had smart and experienced guards in TN, HD and CS.

 

[nomar]

I thought that Hurley comparing sending 5 men to the offensive boards to a football coach going for it on 4th down to be extremely revealing. And I had never that comparison before, by any basketball coach.

His concept was that the extra possession on offense, for an offensively elite squad like the '24 team, was more valuable than the two points they might give up in transition. It also brightly signaled he had completed his transition from a defense first coach to an offense coach first.

He made the statement, I believe, in the JJ Redick piece. I'm surprised it has sparked more discussion.

Jumped out at me too. People are scared to do it because they think it’ll lead to transition baskets but this shows that, counterintuitively, it can prevent them. You’d still think we’d give up more than we gave up! I suspect we will in 2024-25, because we had some guys who were especially skilled in keeping possessions alive.

 

[McLovin]

What’s impressive is that despite how well we rebounded the offensive boards (84th percentile in NCAA) we were also one of the best transition defenses, only allowing 7.1 fast break points per game (89th percentile).

This team understood how hit the o glass but also rotate back to defense.

 

[mussels]

Offense wins championships in college bball

Good offense will always beat good defense and vise versa.

 

[jibsey]

What’s impressive is that despite how well we rebounded the offensive boards (84th percentile in NCAA) we were also one of the best transition defenses, only allowing 7.1 fast break points per game (89th percentile).

This team understood how hit the o glass but also rotate back to defense.

You would think there would be a lot of runouts but they’ve clearly figured something out.

 

[nomar]

You would think there would be a lot of runouts but they’ve clearly figured something out.

Well you can run out all you want but if the other team rebounds the ball, it’s not going to work out really well for you. But, yeah, also, they’re somehow containing other teams even when they don’t rebound a miss. Perhaps teams don’t cheat as much knowing how good our guys are at crashing the glass?

Like a lot of other things, this staff has figured something out, and other staffs are left trying to copy it by guessing at what they’re doing.

 

[HuskyWarrior611]

I recall when Bazz and Boat played for us and they always had an extraordinary amount of rebounds (especially the long ones resulting from long shots) so we have always been strong on rebounding and especially for guards. These two (especially Boat) were great leapers. So height is important but hops as well. When he gets more playing time we should see 6-3 Ball racking up some very good numbers. He has a ridiculous vertical leap. When the other team is leaking out and we get an offensive board it is then 5 on 3 or 5 on 2 so easy follow up shots.

I want to say there was a lot of strategy around Bazz and Boat rebounding well from Ollie’s side.

He knew our bigs weren’t going to be good on the boards with Nolan, Olander, Daniels and Brimah. So instead of them going for rebounds they focused on boxing out extremely hard to open the lanes for Bazz and Boat to crash the boards when they came down.

It was a brilliant gameplan around what should have been a weakness from what I remember.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Perhaps teams don’t cheat as much knowing how good our guys are at crashing the glass?

I hadn't considered this, but you may be right. It must be deflating to see a missed shot go up only to have the opposition grab the rebound and start over again. It would make me want to crash the glass harder, and not leak out.