The Athletic Anonymous Coaches UConn-SDSU

[auror]

Quality article. Probably the best preview I've seen on the internet. A lot of embedded video examples as well. Subscribe to the Athletic already.

Film room: How San Diego State hopes to stop the UConn juggernaut

The Huskies have rolled opponents throughout the NCAA Tournament. Can San Diego State's defense and physicality make the title game close?

theathletic.com

“They have five guys on the court that can always be a threat in different ways, and they run stuff for all five guys,” said a Big East assistant coach, given anonymity to speak openly about the Huskies. “They run more set plays than any team that I’ve seen.”

That’s any team. Like ever. This is the impossible task of defending Connecticut. So many weapons. So many plays, and the Huskies aren’t scared to run something they’ve never shown on film all year and they execute it to perfection. How in the heck do you prepare for that on a one-day turnaround?

“What teams are doing and failing is, they’re trying to front [Sanogo], and what he’s so good at is using his size and physicality to kind of wedge you up the lane and get passes over the top. And then you’re screwed.”


If you front him, “it’s over,” SDSU assistant Chris Acker said. The Aztecs will not play exclusively behind Sanogo; rather, the plan is to discourage his catches and try to get him as far off the block as possible. What makes that difficult is Sanogo is “always swiveling and moving,” Acker said. Fighting him on the block is exhausting, because he wins those leverage wars.

Mensah has allowed only 37 points on post-ups all season, per Synergy. Try to put the ball on the floor against him, and that can spell trouble.

UConn could help Sanogo get angles by getting him on the move. Murray, who had already watched 11 SDSU games by Saturday night, noticed that Creighton had some success rolling Ryan Kalkbrenner toward the basket and getting SDSU’s centers to chase during the Elite Eight.

“On misses, they play really fast and they obviously hunt transition 3s,” one of the Big East coaches said. “They’re probably the best in the country at getting transition 3s. You really got to take that away; like, I would start there. Go find their shooters in transition.”

“He probably has the fastest push in college basketball,” Murray said. “Our guys are greedy in those opportunities to get ahead of the ball and really sprint hard and keep our spacing in the open court, and he does an unbelievable job of putting pressure on the defense. There’s nothing he’d rather do than get somebody an open shot.”

The Aztecs are still alive because of offensive rebounding — at the turning point against Florida Atlantic, they grabbed nine offensive boards in the span of two minutes and four seconds — but they’ll need to be careful in how aggressively they crash the glass, because getting back on defense needs to be the utmost priority against UConn.

San Diego State is built to destroy ball-screen offenses. The Aztecs have switchable defenders who can contain dribble penetration. Opponents shoot only 28.1 percent from 3 against them, because “They keep the ball in front of them, and you never touch the paint,” the Mountain West coach. “The best 3s you get are paint touch kick-outs, and they just don’t give those up.”

This is where Connecticut is different. Hurley built this offense to be different than the typical college basketball team. In the last few years, Hurley had relied mostly on ball-screen offense, just like everyone else. This offseason he set out to load his roster with shooting, making it so he could run off-ball screening actions to get guys like Hawkins shots and then stretch defenses out so Sanogo could get easier opportunities.

The Huskies do not have to rely on dribble penetration to get their looks. It’s all about the actions. They’ll off-ball screen you to death until something opens up.

“[SDSU is] pretty good at blowing stuff up like that,” the MWC coach said. “I think what they struggle with the most is just a team that free flows. If they know where you’re trying to direct the ball, they can do a good job of taking stuff away.

“What’s unique about [UConn] is they can run the same play for Jordan Hawkins and then three possessions later run the same play for Alex Karaban,” one Big East coach said. “That interchangeableness is really unique based on set plays. Sometimes if you’re in like a flow-type system, where the game is just going and it’s all concept-based, interchangeableness is normal. Their set plays are interchangeable. That’s really unique, and it makes it hard to prep for.”

The Aztecs switch a lot of ball screens but usually do not switch off-ball screens. It’s possible they do not switch much of anything in this game. In the first half against Creighton, they switched less to try to keep a big on Kalkbrenner. Sanogo could get similar treatment.

Everyone but the Mountain West coach picked UConn to win by double digits, and everyone agreed for SDSU to have a chance the game must be low-scoring.

 

[auror]

I'm guessing he had Shaka or Marq assistant, Oats or an Alabama asst. Not sure who the MWC coach is because we haven't played any MWC teams this year.

 

[FLDawg16]

Interesting that it seems they will try to front Sanogo to deny entry passes. He's really good at sealing off his defender most of the time but still need high quality entry passes for it to work.

 

[August_West]

Quality article. Probably the best preview I've seen on the internet. A lot of embedded video examples as well. Subscribe to the Athletic already.

Film room: How San Diego State hopes to stop the UConn juggernaut

The Huskies have rolled opponents throughout the NCAA Tournament. Can San Diego State's defense and physicality make the title game close?

theathletic.com

 

[auror]

Interesting that it seems they will try to front Sanogo to deny entry passes. He's really good at sealing off his defender most of the time but still need high quality entry passes for it to work.

I think they were saying they won't front him much. But might throw in some front to confuse/mix it up.

 

[MJKI]

Athletic comment section never ceases to be a cesspool of anti-UConn rhetoric. Happened with Miami, Zags, Arkansas too

 

[WhereistheDove?]

This all aligns with what their tournament film shows. They've been really good at making dribble-drives difficult and defending on-ball screens. It was an absolute killer for a team like Alabama that just refused to adjust and ended up consistently with a highly contested drive into the lane with one of the SDSU rim protectors waiting to help at the basket. That being said, even Alabama ended up with a lot of clean looks from the perimeter (they bricked almost all of them but they had the shots).

It is kind of funny that our lack of a guy that can consistently go get a bucket off the bounce has been, understandably, a bit of weakness at times, but the fact that we don't rely on that, probably makes this team a heck of a lot harder to defend than anyone SDSU has seen so far.

 

[FLDawg16]

I think they were saying they won't front him much. But might throw in some front to confuse/mix it up.

Yeah I'm an idiot and managed to read BOTH quotes about it and still see the opposite somehow hahaha

 

[Edward Sargent]

Not as good as Hey Adrien!!

 

[gsmooth]

Quality article. Probably the best preview I've seen on the internet. A lot of embedded video examples as well. Subscribe to the Athletic already.

Film room: How San Diego State hopes to stop the UConn juggernaut

The Huskies have rolled opponents throughout the NCAA Tournament. Can San Diego State's defense and physicality make the title game close?

theathletic.com

Thanks for posting this.

What I found interesting is that they won't switch off the ball screens as much to avoid having a guard on a big in the post. That means that if Clingan and Sanogo can set good solid screens, ones that won't get called for fouls, Hawkins and other guards should be able to rise up and shoot on the catch with some clean looks.

Another interesting thing I noticed is, unless you only posted some of the article and not all of it, this is talking about UConn's offense vs San Diego's defense. UConn has to make sure they are dialed in and focused on defense and not let any frustration on offense affect their defense. If UConn can do that and also not commit turnovers, especially the live ball ones that lead to easy baskets (i.e. vs Miami), they can make it really difficult for SDSU.

Like Rick Pitino said, "when you play these tough focused defensive teams, you can't get frustrated. You have to make sure you play better defense than them."

 

[nomar]

Ugh, we're favored by too much. I hate this. Also, I love this.

 

[August_West]

Ugh, we're favored by too much. I hate this. Also, I love this.

Feels like we are 99 Duke . Dont like it at all.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

Feels like we are 99 Duke . Dont like it at all.

We still have that underdog/hungry mentality. Hurley won’t allow complacency or lackadaisical play.

 

[Tuna]

Feels like we are 99 Duke . Dont like it at all.

How about 2018 Villanova?

 

[runner11]

That was a great read. I still cannot wrap my head around the fact the Hurley has become an offensive scheme God. Obviously Miami was trash on D but their scouting report also said they are good against pNr and not so much against shooters running around screens.

 

[superjohn]

Feels like we are 99 Duke . Dont like it at all.

Nah, those teams were two of the best teams of that era and they were both #1 heading into the season and all season long. That game should've been a pick'em.

Anything can happen in one game but UConn and SDSU are not evenly matched at all.

 

[gsmooth]

How about 2018 Villanova?

I like that much better. That 2018 Villanova team was dynamite.

 

[gsmooth]

Feels like we are 99 Duke . Dont like it at all.

Interesting you say that. Look at what I posted 12 mins ago as well as on Saturday night. I want no part of the arrogance and dismissiveness that the Duke fans showed me on Monday morning March 29, 1999 at that Holiday Inn restaurant.

DOOOOOOOOOOOM

Are we still doing that? LOL! I haven’t been here in a long time. But I’m not loving the fact that all the talking heads are picking us to walk away with this. Molly in her UConn gear celebrating the ring before we have it is also making me nervous. So not sure if we’re still doing this...

the-boneyard.com

 

[nomar]

Nah, those teams were two of the best teams of that era and we're both #1 heading into the season and all season long. That game should've been a pick'em.

Anything can happen in one game but UConn and SDSU are not evenly matched at all.

I agree with you but you know what's funny? We're -7 tonight and we were +9.5 in '99. Anybody who watched basketball that year took UConn to cover, that was a joke. It was 1A and 1B all season long. But that's how well regarded Duke was that season.

 

[UKemba15]

I think they were saying they won't front him much. But might throw in some front to confuse/mix it up.

 

[bendm]

“They run more set plays than any team that I’ve seen. That’s any team. Like ever."

those 10 pts in 10 minute days seem like a lifetime ago now

 

[auror]

Thanks for posting this.

What I found interesting is that they won't switch off the ball screens as much to avoid having a guard on a big in the post. That means that if Clingan and Sanogo can set good solid screens, ones that won't get called for fouls, Hawkins and other guards should be able to rise up and shoot on the catch with some clean looks.

Another interesting thing I noticed is, unless you only posted some of the article and not all of it, this is talking about UConn's offense vs San Diego's defense. UConn has to make sure they are dialed in and focused on defense and not let any frustration on offense affect their defense. If UConn can do that and also not commit turnovers, especially the live ball ones that lead to easy baskets (i.e. vs Miami), they can make it really difficult for SDSU.

Like Rick Pitino said, "when you play these tough focused defensive teams, you can't get frustrated. You have to make sure you play better defense than them."

Yeah there's a lot more in the article. I just chose some choice bits. People should subscribe to The Athletic.

The Aztecs rely a lot on making shots off the dribble. They rank 18th nationally in the number of jumpers off the bounce they attempt per game, according to Synergy. The way they get a lot of those shots is running zoom action, where one guard starts in the corner, has a screen set for him and then receives a dribble handoff.

This kind of action has given Connecticut some issues this season. SDSU runs a lot of these actions along the sideline, which is where Marquette generates a lot of its offense. The Golden Eagles beat the Huskies twice this season and gave them their last loss. Marquette was able to take advantage of Sanogo’s aggressiveness in these scenarios and getting the ball to Oso Ighodaro in space.

The only issue is the Aztecs do not really have an Ighodaro, who is a rarity among college bigs in his ability to make plays for others.

Jaedon LeDee in the short roll might be key in this matchup. He's the closest to Ighodaro they have. He's got a 10% assist rate on the season as a PF/C. Ighodaro was at 19% (basically the assist rate of a combo guard).

There's a bunch of discussion about UConn hedging. The coaches are split as to if that will be really effective or something SDSU can exploit.

 

[August_West]

We still have that underdog/hungry mentality. Hurley won’t allow complacency or lackadaisical play.

99 Duke wasnt complacent, we just went out and beat them. Those guys played tough. We played tougher.

 

[August_West]

That game should've been a pick'em.

Not according to Vegas.

 

[August_West]

I agree with you but you know what's funny? We're -7 tonight and we were +9.5 in '99. Anybody who watched basketball that year took UConn to cover, that was a joke. It was 1A and 1B all season long. But that's how well regarded Duke was that season.

And we are that well regarded right now. 6 points immediately after Miami went to 8 in some places pretty damn quick.