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With only about 48 hours remaining until opening tip-off, you’re probably wondering why you should devote 20 minutes of your day to a novel some anonymous shmuck on the internet decided to write. That thought is fair; I’m not the best writer in the world, there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who know as much or more about basketball as I do, and most of the talking points heading into the season have already been beaten into the ground over the last seven months. But here’s why you should toss aside your preconceived opinions of me as a poster and read the thing: nobody who’s not directly connected to the program cares more about the current state of affairs of this team as I do, I promise not to bore you with the same bland, run-of-the-mill analysis the national media is going to give you, and the sheer amount of time I’ve spent breaking down tape will be enough to hopefully overcome any limitations I may have.
My original plan was to watch six games from the 2012-13 season that spanned the calendar in a relatively equidistant manner. That way, I could account for individual progressions made throughout the season, note how the team was adapting to the various schemes opposing coaches threw their way, etc. The six opponents I selected were Michigan State, Marquette, Notre Dame, Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown. I selected these games because they were among the best six teams UConn played all season, and in eleven of the twelve halves, UConn was competitive and relatively evenly matched with six of the best teams in the country. Unfortunately, the MSU game footage was not available on ESPN3, so I replaced that game with N.C. State. I planned on writing an in-depth summary on each play of each of those games, and then a detailed breakdown on the happenings and an analysis of the players at the end of each half. Why did I decide to do this? Because these are the type of ideas single men come up with when they have too much free time. Anyway, I logged about 10 total hours watching the N.C. State and Marquette games – I watched every play 2-4 times, over-analyzed just about everything under the sun, and came away stunned at how much I learned simply by re-watching two random games that may or may not have any bearing on the upcoming season. Then…life got in the way. Late August rolled around, my free time was greatly reduced, and I was only able to watch half the Notre Dame game and pinches of the Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown games from there. I mention this only because you would be shocked at how much goes on in a basketball game. The amount of moving parts on every individual play are virtually impossible to keep up with, and the box score only begins to scratch the surface of everything that happens out there. The fluidity and unending movement featured in every basketball game is the reason I love the sport so much. You get so caught up in the excitement of the live telecast that sometimes you gloss over the hours of scouting and scheming players and coaches put in during the course of a week. It is an outcome driven sport, but in this preview I will make a concerted effort to focus on the process that generates those outcomes.
The importance of a college basketball coach is impossible to overstate. Unless you’re Kentucky, North Carolina, or Kansas – which, let’s face it, we are not – the short-term and long-term health of your program is going to be dictated almost entirely by your head coach. Much of this is driven by recruiting, but great teachers of the game are able to possess a much greater margin of error on the recruiting trail, which is to say their immense knowledge of the game and ability to consistently win the chess matches every game produces can disguise any personnel deficiencies. Interestingly enough, the prevailing narrative from the national media a season ago revolved nearly exclusively around Kevin Ollie’s ability to motivate his players despite the lack of an opportunity to play in the postseason. Don’t get me wrong: Kevin Ollie’s uncanny ability to get his players to take a bullet for him is unquantifiable and crucially important, and as we have seen over the years, a bland personality and inability to manage relationships can be the undoing of an otherwise good coach. But, none of the intangible stuff matters if you crumble into the floor the moment you’re confronted with an x’s and o’s battle, which is an incredibly round-about way of saying Kevin Ollie is a damn good basketball mind and a disproportionate amount of the praise heaped upon him last season was predicated on his motivational skills. What he was able to do last season – with two reliable scorers for the majority of the season, no semblance of a post-game, and a miniscule margin of error due to routine stomping’s on the glass – was nothing short of remarkable and right on par with some of Jim Calhoun’s greatest coaching jobs.
The first thing you have to understand about Kevin Ollie’s offense is that, much like the old Calhoun offenses, it is extremely comparable to your standard NBA design. Pick and rolls occupy nearly every single possession, and although many possessions fail to register much off-ball movement, many of the simplest schemes are among the most effective. Over-complicating sets when your roster consists of two of the best improvisers in the country in Boatright and Napier is actually a bit counter-productive. This being said, the offense certainly includes enough diversity in the way of off-ball innovation to keep defenders guessing, and I have no doubts that, even without the benefit of two blurs in the backcourt, Ollie could tweak his offense so that it is less reliant on pick and rolls. Tailoring your offense to fit the personnel – rather than trying to stuff a square into a round hole – is a great attribute to have as a coach.
Another staple in the Calhoun offense that Ollie appears to have inherited is the pin-down screen. Given the programs rich history of wings – between Ray, Rip, Caron, Ben, Lamb, and even Kemba to a lesser extent – carving out space for these guys with continuous screening and movement away from the ball became a necessity. Although there is a distinction to be made between the aforementioned players and the Bazz/Boat combination from a year ago (Shabazz and Boatright are more comfortable in pick and roll situations than guys like Rip and Ray), the general principal of getting your two best scorers an inch remains the same. Take a random possession, shortly into the N.C. State game, with UConn trailing 32-31, as an example: Napier begins with the ball at the top of the key and then dumps it off to Olander at the left elbow. Napier then immediately cuts off Olander’s right shoulder – likely a disguised dribble-handoff – and then that spills into Calhoun (who was on the left wing) cutting through the paint. As soon as Calhoun reaches the right block, Daniels bolts down to set a pin down screen for Calhoun, who pops up to the top of the key to receive a pass from Olander. Simultaneously, Boatright jogs down to the left block. Immediately after Olander dishes it off to Calhoun, he screens Boatright on the left block, and Boatright pops up to the top of the key, passes to Napier, and proceeds to exit the play as Olander screens Napier on the left wing. (This is all probably extremely confusing, so if you want to see the play in real time, go to about the 18:50 mark in the second half).
This particular play was well-defended by N.C. State and did not result in a UConn basket, however, this play, as well as any other, demonstrates the multiple dimensions of Kevin Ollie’s offense. Successful offensive sets are rarely dependent on the first or even second option; instead, they are like a 30 second orchestra with every player fulfilling their individual duties, however subtle they may be. This play is called the double pin down – the first option was Calhoun catching the ball with space at the top of the key after receiving a Daniels screen on the right block, the second option was Boatright popping up from the left block with space to launch a three, and if neither of the initial options worked, the play is supposed to spill into a pick and roll between Napier and Olander on the left side of the floor. This is only a single, isolated play in a season of thousands, but it does provide a glimpse into successful offensive methodology, a hallmark of a great coach. Every great play is intended to do one thing: decrease the defenses margin of error. Between Calhoun – a respected three point shooter – popping up to the top of the key, Boatright doing the same three second later, and the terrifyingly potent Shabazz Napier needing only half an inch to get a shot off, N.C. State is forced to account for three different capable scorers in the span of ten seconds. The chance of a poor hedge, miscommunication, or incorrect read increase dramatically when the defense has their plate stuffed to this degree. In other words, Kevin Ollie is forcing the defense to be perfect. More often than not – in an era of high roster turnover and overall lack of cohesiveness – perfection is going to escape the defense.
I should mention, now that I’ve just finished covering a favorite of Kevin Ollie against man-to-man defense, a similarly frequently utilized play against the zone. Let’s go back in the time machine to our final Big East game against Syracuse, or what some would say was our national championship last season. About six and a half minutes remain in the game, and Brandon Triche just hit a baseline floater to cut the UConn lead to six. Omar Calhoun has just hit two threes in a row, and Kevin Ollie wants to do everything within his power to get him another open look to extend the lead to nine and more or less put the game away. Promptly after crossing the timeline, Ollie directs Calhoun to the left corner (not coincidently, the sweet spot in the zone and also Calhoun’s favorite spot on the floor). Napier handles the ball behind the three point line, and on the right side of the floor. The goal here is to eliminate both Syracuse high men atop the zone – in this case, Triche on the right side and Carter-Williams on the left side – and allow Boatright, stationed parallel to Napier on the left side of the floor, a crease into the interior of the zone. Daniels screens Triche, allowing Napier some maneuvering room. As the Syracuse zone principals dictate, Carter-Williams shuffles over to pick him up. What Carter-Williams doesn’t expect, however, is the blind side screen Giffey is about to set. As soon as Daniels sets the initial screen on Napier, he proceeds to dribble left and dish it to Boatright. Because of the Giffey screen on Carter-Williams, there is a gaping hole in the middle of the Syracuse zone for Boatright to attack. This forces Southerland, the Syracuse defender nearest to Calhoun, into a dilemma. Does he allow Boatright to go one on one with the center, or does he help over and allow Calhoun to step into a wide open corner three? Well, he chose incorrectly, because as soon as Boatright hit the left elbow, Southerland was right there to meet him, leaving Calhoun all alone in the left corner. Boatright read the play correctly, and two seconds later the ball was in the basket and Boeheim was chewing out Southerland on the sideline. Good times.
I promise to stop with the x’s and o’s barrage in a minute, but there is another play from that Syracuse game that I couldn’t resist sharing. This play was basically a variation of the one I just outlined above; with 13 minutes remaining in the second half and up 37-35, UConn ran another double screen at the top of the key to eliminate both of the top men, again Triche and Carter-Williams. This time, Napier receives an excellent screen from Olander at the top of the key, and because Giffey – a respected shooter – is stationed in the left corner, C.J. Fair is unable to fully help on Napier, allowing him to attack the middle man in the zone. Because the middle man is forced to step up on Napier, there is a huge vacancy near the basket, and Boatright, lurking the whole time in the right corner, swoops to the basket to receive an easy alley-oop the second Napier peals inside the three point line. Granted, Southerland – a frequent target of Boeheim’s ire in this game – falling asleep on the right wing makes the whole operation easier, but even if we were to assume he completes his assignment on this play, Napier is still one on one against a center. And really, it’s precisely that kind of manipulation of the defense that allows a play against the zone to work. The weakness of the zone isn’t necessarily the structure – it’s the fact that individual matchups are easier to exploit. It’s this type of basketball intellect from Kevin Ollie that inspires confidence in me that he can be not just a good coach, but a great one. From the hundreds of plays I analyzed this summer, there were varying degrees of success, and I certainly am not going to pretend that the 2012-13 Huskies were the Spurs in terms of visually pleasing team basketball. What I can say, though, is that more often than not, possessions culminated in high percentage shots, and with increased repetition, improved cohesiveness, and an expanding array of reliable scorers, there is no reason to think Kevin Ollie doesn’t have enough at his disposal this season to engineer an elite offense.
My original plan was to watch six games from the 2012-13 season that spanned the calendar in a relatively equidistant manner. That way, I could account for individual progressions made throughout the season, note how the team was adapting to the various schemes opposing coaches threw their way, etc. The six opponents I selected were Michigan State, Marquette, Notre Dame, Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown. I selected these games because they were among the best six teams UConn played all season, and in eleven of the twelve halves, UConn was competitive and relatively evenly matched with six of the best teams in the country. Unfortunately, the MSU game footage was not available on ESPN3, so I replaced that game with N.C. State. I planned on writing an in-depth summary on each play of each of those games, and then a detailed breakdown on the happenings and an analysis of the players at the end of each half. Why did I decide to do this? Because these are the type of ideas single men come up with when they have too much free time. Anyway, I logged about 10 total hours watching the N.C. State and Marquette games – I watched every play 2-4 times, over-analyzed just about everything under the sun, and came away stunned at how much I learned simply by re-watching two random games that may or may not have any bearing on the upcoming season. Then…life got in the way. Late August rolled around, my free time was greatly reduced, and I was only able to watch half the Notre Dame game and pinches of the Louisville, Syracuse, and Georgetown games from there. I mention this only because you would be shocked at how much goes on in a basketball game. The amount of moving parts on every individual play are virtually impossible to keep up with, and the box score only begins to scratch the surface of everything that happens out there. The fluidity and unending movement featured in every basketball game is the reason I love the sport so much. You get so caught up in the excitement of the live telecast that sometimes you gloss over the hours of scouting and scheming players and coaches put in during the course of a week. It is an outcome driven sport, but in this preview I will make a concerted effort to focus on the process that generates those outcomes.
The importance of a college basketball coach is impossible to overstate. Unless you’re Kentucky, North Carolina, or Kansas – which, let’s face it, we are not – the short-term and long-term health of your program is going to be dictated almost entirely by your head coach. Much of this is driven by recruiting, but great teachers of the game are able to possess a much greater margin of error on the recruiting trail, which is to say their immense knowledge of the game and ability to consistently win the chess matches every game produces can disguise any personnel deficiencies. Interestingly enough, the prevailing narrative from the national media a season ago revolved nearly exclusively around Kevin Ollie’s ability to motivate his players despite the lack of an opportunity to play in the postseason. Don’t get me wrong: Kevin Ollie’s uncanny ability to get his players to take a bullet for him is unquantifiable and crucially important, and as we have seen over the years, a bland personality and inability to manage relationships can be the undoing of an otherwise good coach. But, none of the intangible stuff matters if you crumble into the floor the moment you’re confronted with an x’s and o’s battle, which is an incredibly round-about way of saying Kevin Ollie is a damn good basketball mind and a disproportionate amount of the praise heaped upon him last season was predicated on his motivational skills. What he was able to do last season – with two reliable scorers for the majority of the season, no semblance of a post-game, and a miniscule margin of error due to routine stomping’s on the glass – was nothing short of remarkable and right on par with some of Jim Calhoun’s greatest coaching jobs.
The first thing you have to understand about Kevin Ollie’s offense is that, much like the old Calhoun offenses, it is extremely comparable to your standard NBA design. Pick and rolls occupy nearly every single possession, and although many possessions fail to register much off-ball movement, many of the simplest schemes are among the most effective. Over-complicating sets when your roster consists of two of the best improvisers in the country in Boatright and Napier is actually a bit counter-productive. This being said, the offense certainly includes enough diversity in the way of off-ball innovation to keep defenders guessing, and I have no doubts that, even without the benefit of two blurs in the backcourt, Ollie could tweak his offense so that it is less reliant on pick and rolls. Tailoring your offense to fit the personnel – rather than trying to stuff a square into a round hole – is a great attribute to have as a coach.
Another staple in the Calhoun offense that Ollie appears to have inherited is the pin-down screen. Given the programs rich history of wings – between Ray, Rip, Caron, Ben, Lamb, and even Kemba to a lesser extent – carving out space for these guys with continuous screening and movement away from the ball became a necessity. Although there is a distinction to be made between the aforementioned players and the Bazz/Boat combination from a year ago (Shabazz and Boatright are more comfortable in pick and roll situations than guys like Rip and Ray), the general principal of getting your two best scorers an inch remains the same. Take a random possession, shortly into the N.C. State game, with UConn trailing 32-31, as an example: Napier begins with the ball at the top of the key and then dumps it off to Olander at the left elbow. Napier then immediately cuts off Olander’s right shoulder – likely a disguised dribble-handoff – and then that spills into Calhoun (who was on the left wing) cutting through the paint. As soon as Calhoun reaches the right block, Daniels bolts down to set a pin down screen for Calhoun, who pops up to the top of the key to receive a pass from Olander. Simultaneously, Boatright jogs down to the left block. Immediately after Olander dishes it off to Calhoun, he screens Boatright on the left block, and Boatright pops up to the top of the key, passes to Napier, and proceeds to exit the play as Olander screens Napier on the left wing. (This is all probably extremely confusing, so if you want to see the play in real time, go to about the 18:50 mark in the second half).
This particular play was well-defended by N.C. State and did not result in a UConn basket, however, this play, as well as any other, demonstrates the multiple dimensions of Kevin Ollie’s offense. Successful offensive sets are rarely dependent on the first or even second option; instead, they are like a 30 second orchestra with every player fulfilling their individual duties, however subtle they may be. This play is called the double pin down – the first option was Calhoun catching the ball with space at the top of the key after receiving a Daniels screen on the right block, the second option was Boatright popping up from the left block with space to launch a three, and if neither of the initial options worked, the play is supposed to spill into a pick and roll between Napier and Olander on the left side of the floor. This is only a single, isolated play in a season of thousands, but it does provide a glimpse into successful offensive methodology, a hallmark of a great coach. Every great play is intended to do one thing: decrease the defenses margin of error. Between Calhoun – a respected three point shooter – popping up to the top of the key, Boatright doing the same three second later, and the terrifyingly potent Shabazz Napier needing only half an inch to get a shot off, N.C. State is forced to account for three different capable scorers in the span of ten seconds. The chance of a poor hedge, miscommunication, or incorrect read increase dramatically when the defense has their plate stuffed to this degree. In other words, Kevin Ollie is forcing the defense to be perfect. More often than not – in an era of high roster turnover and overall lack of cohesiveness – perfection is going to escape the defense.
I should mention, now that I’ve just finished covering a favorite of Kevin Ollie against man-to-man defense, a similarly frequently utilized play against the zone. Let’s go back in the time machine to our final Big East game against Syracuse, or what some would say was our national championship last season. About six and a half minutes remain in the game, and Brandon Triche just hit a baseline floater to cut the UConn lead to six. Omar Calhoun has just hit two threes in a row, and Kevin Ollie wants to do everything within his power to get him another open look to extend the lead to nine and more or less put the game away. Promptly after crossing the timeline, Ollie directs Calhoun to the left corner (not coincidently, the sweet spot in the zone and also Calhoun’s favorite spot on the floor). Napier handles the ball behind the three point line, and on the right side of the floor. The goal here is to eliminate both Syracuse high men atop the zone – in this case, Triche on the right side and Carter-Williams on the left side – and allow Boatright, stationed parallel to Napier on the left side of the floor, a crease into the interior of the zone. Daniels screens Triche, allowing Napier some maneuvering room. As the Syracuse zone principals dictate, Carter-Williams shuffles over to pick him up. What Carter-Williams doesn’t expect, however, is the blind side screen Giffey is about to set. As soon as Daniels sets the initial screen on Napier, he proceeds to dribble left and dish it to Boatright. Because of the Giffey screen on Carter-Williams, there is a gaping hole in the middle of the Syracuse zone for Boatright to attack. This forces Southerland, the Syracuse defender nearest to Calhoun, into a dilemma. Does he allow Boatright to go one on one with the center, or does he help over and allow Calhoun to step into a wide open corner three? Well, he chose incorrectly, because as soon as Boatright hit the left elbow, Southerland was right there to meet him, leaving Calhoun all alone in the left corner. Boatright read the play correctly, and two seconds later the ball was in the basket and Boeheim was chewing out Southerland on the sideline. Good times.
I promise to stop with the x’s and o’s barrage in a minute, but there is another play from that Syracuse game that I couldn’t resist sharing. This play was basically a variation of the one I just outlined above; with 13 minutes remaining in the second half and up 37-35, UConn ran another double screen at the top of the key to eliminate both of the top men, again Triche and Carter-Williams. This time, Napier receives an excellent screen from Olander at the top of the key, and because Giffey – a respected shooter – is stationed in the left corner, C.J. Fair is unable to fully help on Napier, allowing him to attack the middle man in the zone. Because the middle man is forced to step up on Napier, there is a huge vacancy near the basket, and Boatright, lurking the whole time in the right corner, swoops to the basket to receive an easy alley-oop the second Napier peals inside the three point line. Granted, Southerland – a frequent target of Boeheim’s ire in this game – falling asleep on the right wing makes the whole operation easier, but even if we were to assume he completes his assignment on this play, Napier is still one on one against a center. And really, it’s precisely that kind of manipulation of the defense that allows a play against the zone to work. The weakness of the zone isn’t necessarily the structure – it’s the fact that individual matchups are easier to exploit. It’s this type of basketball intellect from Kevin Ollie that inspires confidence in me that he can be not just a good coach, but a great one. From the hundreds of plays I analyzed this summer, there were varying degrees of success, and I certainly am not going to pretend that the 2012-13 Huskies were the Spurs in terms of visually pleasing team basketball. What I can say, though, is that more often than not, possessions culminated in high percentage shots, and with increased repetition, improved cohesiveness, and an expanding array of reliable scorers, there is no reason to think Kevin Ollie doesn’t have enough at his disposal this season to engineer an elite offense.
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