Want to see our playbook?

[Fatroony5]

None of this stuff is particularly complicated basketball. Honestly--it's pretty basic stuff. It needs to be for college kids to be successful running it. Most any decent high school coach could write up these plays. The Xs and Os is not what made this a great basketball offense.

Picking the sets that work for our personnel, and coaching up the kids to be fluid with our sets and know all the scoring options is what made us great. There are SO many teams that run a decent set, but the players aren't even looking to score. Our guys all have the green light to make a play after every touch, and seem to know what the reads and scoring options are. That is GREAT basketball.

I think for those of us that actually have coaching experience, working with players, and in skill development, this comes as zero surprise at all to see the sets listed out. When you watch them, you see the types of sets they want to run. How they hunt shots for Hawkins, the movements for Karaban, 1-on-1 touches for Sanogo. There are lots of fun wrinkles in here and the movement was excellent. Really the biggest difference this season was having guys who could actually run these efficiently. Having multiple ball handlers, catch & shoot guys, and Andre being so efficient feeding the post. The pieces finally fit. With improvements from the returning core & adding pieces that could shoot, dribble, space the floor, and pass, we saw the offense explode. Personnel is so important, without it, these plays don’t work as drawn up.

 

[Samoo]

Imagine if they had a point guard to run this stuff.

We can dream, someday they could be championship contenders...

 

[NJHoops]

Never mistake someone saying something with confidence with them actually being correct or making any sense.

 

[Matrim55]

None of this stuff is particularly complicated basketball. Honestly--it's pretty basic stuff. It needs to be for college kids to be successful running it.

Man, you're underselling the depth and diversity of this playbook. We ran so many plays with multiple screening actions & weak-side movement to generate switches or just as distractions so that Adama could get isolated in the post. Nobody else in college hoops -- not even Gonzaga or Miami, who had great offenses -- did that.

And hell, lots of NBA teams struggle to put together playbooks with this much off-ball action. Just watch the Sixers or the Knicks!

 

[NJHoops]

Man, you're underselling the depth and diversity of this playbook. We ran so many plays with multiple screening actions & weak-side movement to generate switches or just as distractions so that Adama could get isolated in the post. Nobody else in college hoops -- not even Gonzaga or Miami, who had great offenses -- did that.

And hell, lots of NBA teams struggle to put together playbooks with this much off-ball action. Just watch the Sixers or the Knicks!

Hurley to the Sixers!

(not really, I’m just very tired of Doc; his brother did work for the Sixers at one time, though)

 

[husky429]

Man, you're underselling the depth and diversity of this playbook. We ran so many plays with multiple screening actions & weak-side movement to generate switches or just as distractions so that Adama could get isolated in the post. Nobody else in college hoops -- not even Gonzaga or Miami, who had great offenses -- did that.

And hell, lots of NBA teams struggle to put together playbooks with this much off-ball action. Just watch the Sixers or the Knicks!

Every coach in the league could draw up these sets with their eyes closed. Not every coach in the league can pick the right sets for their personnel, get the right players to run their sets, and coach up a group of players to effectively run sets and understand the scoring options. The difficult part of coaching is not understanding what a UCLA slice is or a horns twist exit.

 

[Yanksrock615]

Man, you're underselling the depth and diversity of this playbook. We ran so many plays with multiple screening actions & weak-side movement to generate switches or just as distractions so that Adama could get isolated in the post. Nobody else in college hoops -- not even Gonzaga or Miami, who had great offenses -- did that.

And hell, lots of NBA teams struggle to put together playbooks with this much off-ball action. Just watch the Sixers or the Knicks!

Correct. I’d say a third of the nba teams actually run offense like this. The Lakers coudlnt figure out something as simple as countering post help in 2020 and 2021 for Anthony Davis and LeBron James.

Lakers Post Analysis - Basketball Index

The Lakers have a problem handling extra help on their post ups. Read more about it in my introductory writeup here. Note: click on any element of the visualization and the viz will update to filter specifically to that data. Ex: click on “Turnover” from the Outcome of Post Up section to see the...

www.bball-index.com

I believe the future of basketball is similar to NFL playcalling. You see the defense in drop coverage? You run plays that beat drop. You see defenses hedging or switching, you run plays that beat hedging or switching. What makes this playbook so good is that they have all the answers, it’s just the matter of picking the correct play that beats the defense.

I loved watching kemba or bazz beat their man and create breakdowns in the defense through that, but I much prefer this style of offense.

 

[Umami Zen]

Oversimplification.. But to make a point.. If you compare last year's roster/personnel and their sets/offense to this year's roster/sets.. And the fluidity and precision shown this year..It was like night and day.. I felt our team BBIQ this year provided improvisational opportunities off of the sets when the defense/defenders broke down.. Our guys capitalized on that dynamic.. Sanogo's in -the- paint dominance and Jackson's point forward efficiency off of the defensive boards that allowed for transition buckets/threes when the ball was in his hands was huge.

A secondary benefit to our offensive sets was that it took some pressure off of Newton to be a classic PG(pass first) and more of a ball handling CG with great vision and the opportunity to go to the hole or get an uncontested three. In other words.. Danny adapted to his players/roster and maximized their unique talents through their ability to take what the defense gave them and the flow of the offensive scheme and their execution was flawless..

EDIT: Clearly the mid-season redeployment of Andre in and around the dunkers spot facilitated opportunities for he and his teammates that didn't previously exist..

 

[HuskyHawk]

Every coach in the league could draw up these sets with their eyes closed. Not every coach in the league can pick the right sets for their personnel, get the right players to run their sets, and coach up a group of players to effectively run sets and understand the scoring options. The difficult part of coaching is not understanding what a UCLA slice is or a horns twist exit.

I'm not sure if you an @Matrim55 disagree or are saying slightly different things. I agree with @Matrim55 that you can watch NBA teams struggle to get their guys to play this way. The Warriors do it, the Celtics do it, and even they have lapses where Tatum plays hero ball. Many NBA teams struggle to get guys to run this stuff and almost no NCAA teams pull it off. Yes, they can have the plays, those aren't all that special, but UConn actually played unselfish, move the ball, off ball motion basketball most of the year. On top of that one of the anonymous coaches said what he couldn't believe was that they ran these no matter who was on the court. About 5-6 guys had interchangeable roles in these plays. He was amazed by that. Sometimes Joey is Newton, sometimes he's Hawk. Sometimes Newton is Hawk and Andre is Newton. Sometimes Alleyne is Alex, sometimes he's Newton.

For a college team trying to play man defense, that is just brutally hard to defend. Kansas did some similar stuff at times this year and every year really under Self. But they had trouble staying on script this year. I really think our depth allowed us to us far more constant off ball motion than most teams can. Most teams tire, get lazy, take bad shots or somebody stops moving.

 

[McLovin]

and assuming every possession is an actual play.

Who is calling the plays, and how? I can see plays set up during a timeout, but I doubt every possession is planned out.

They have sets where they can run multiple things off of. I’m sure part of it is the coaches picking up on opponent weaknesses and telling the team to run the plays to exploit them, and I’m sure some of it is on the players reading the defense.

A lot of it is “if based”. “If we run a staggered screen for Jordan and the defender goes over both and Adama’s defender stays back in the paint, then XYZ (plan b, c or d).”

 

[McLovin]

Hurley is not going to the NBA. Do you think he wants to deal with clowns like Kyrie because some GM decided he wants him on his team? No. Hurley always talks about culture, NBA coaches don’t build a culture. They are at the mercy of a GM and front office. That’s not Dan Hurley’s style

I used to think there was no way Hurley could coach in the NBA (because of how aggressive he was on the sidelines). Now that he has chilled way out, I think he’d do fantastic in the NBA if he wanted to deal with the drama.

I’m really not worried about that in the near term, but I think he’d be great at managing those egos in the NBA if he ever wanted to try…

 

[runner11]

Every coach in the league could draw up these sets with their eyes closed. Not every coach in the league can pick the right sets for their personnel, get the right players to run their sets, and coach up a group of players to effectively run sets and understand the scoring options. The difficult part of coaching is not understanding what a UCLA slice is or a horns twist exit.

A lot is implementation, right? Like, to us, a screen is a screen. And then you hear Rip talk about our screen setting and how we are drilling down to precisely nail the timing and the angle of the screen. Or Hawkins and the intricacies of his movement and feints while setting up the defender.

Maybe it was Voskuhl who discussed our screen setting. It’s all a blur.

Running a play and perfecting a play is prob the difference. Half ass sets where the screeners are loafing and the play devolves into ISO seem commonplace.

 

[Hogoff]

I got these for Christmas from the wife one year.

 

[tzznandrew]

If you compare last year's roster/personnel and their sets/offense to this year's roster/sets.. And the fluidity and precision shown this year..It was like night and day.. I

There were some BBIQ things with last years's team: some, like Whaley are deservedly beloved high-motor players who were still only during last year getting comfortable in basic sets. Personnel was another: good as Cole was, his height made it difficult for him to finish and he couldn't see over the top, other players were fine set shooters but could do what Hawk or Joey could do. A third thing is that the players this year stayed fresh to run these actions. They had more reliable depth than the year before.

Ultimately last year's playbook was suited as best as possible to last year's team, which didn't have the depth, shooting, or BBIQ to run this year's playbook.

 

[Dogdeacon]

My 10 year olds Travel team already has 12 plays.

C'mon - a tangent but 10yr olds should just be playing not running sets.
I coached 11-12 yr olds this past year & they struggled to execute our 3 Baseline out of bounds plays (1 or 2 would do wrong thing). You can run an offense but rarely multiple offensive plays.

When he was 10, one of my older sons played for a coach that would actually stop fast breaks to call out plays - painful to watch & counterproductive to skills, growth & a sin unto basketball. Had to get said coach removed.

 

[August_West]

other players were fine set shooters but could do what Hawk or Joey could do.

I really liked and like Tyler Polley, but yeah his cuts were very lacking and not sharp, thus made him much easier to key on and run off the 3 line. Hawk is obviously a super elite cutter, and Joey was surprisingly incredible at it too. I mean he could run the same routes as Hawkins with a pretty good success rate. We tried to run a lot of the stuff we did this year, last year, but just couldn't get it off. Good post. Roster is everything.

 

[auror]

Yup.

Here's last year's chart for reference. Still very good, but not even in the same neighborhood as 2022/23:

The evolution of the offense from 2 years ago to last year to this year to the 2nd half of this year is fascinating.

• We barely used the post 2 years ago. The bigs were mostly screen setters and offensive rebounders.
• Last year we used the post a lot more with Sanogo, and had a bunch of sets designed to get him moving into space to get a free post-up, so that he could easily get deep post position for closer jump hooks. You can see in the chart all those paint touches that basically filled the entire paint.
• This year we added a lot more sets designed to let him seal defenders completely off for layups and skip the post ups entirely as part of our other actions. After January, we basically eliminated all the post-ups from the playbook since they were just getting doubled smartly in ways that made it tough for us to take advantage. We brought some back for the early rounds of the NCAAs when we had some nice mismatches, though.

 

[6xChamps]

I'm slightly concerned that the playbook was just leaked like that...Why would UConn release this to the public?

No one released it this guy just watched a ton of basketball and documented the plays. Think of it as similar to someone watching the all 22 in an NFL game and documenting the routes.

 

[JustbrewitMan]

Every coach in the league could draw up these sets with their eyes closed. Not every coach in the league can pick the right sets for their personnel, get the right players to run their sets, and coach up a group of players to effectively run sets and understand the scoring options. The difficult part of coaching is not understanding what a UCLA slice is or a horns twist exit.

I dunno man. I respect the heck out of you as a poster, but you just keep throwing little digs at Hurley whenever you can. Even after he and his staff have taken us to the promised land.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but at least one of the anonymous coaches in that Athletic article was raving about the depth, complexity, and implementation of that deep playbook. Doesn’t sound like “anything a decent HS coach can draw up” to me.

 

[husky429]

I dunno man. I respect the heck out of you as a poster, but you just keep throwing little digs at Hurley whenever you can. Even after he and his staff have taken us to the promised land.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but at least one of the anonymous coaches in that Athletic article was raving about the depth, complexity, and implementation of that deep playbook. Doesn’t sound like “anything a decent HS coach can draw up” to me.

I just find the implementation more impressive than the actual plays drawn up. I wouldn't call that a dig, but you do you.

 

[caw]

None of this stuff is particularly complicated basketball. Honestly--it's pretty basic stuff. It needs to be for college kids to be successful running it. Most any decent high school coach could write up these plays. The Xs and Os is not what made this a great basketball offense.

Picking the sets that work for our personnel, and coaching up the kids to be fluid with our sets and know all the scoring options is what made us great. There are SO many teams that run a decent set, but the players aren't even looking to score. Our guys all have the green light to make a play after every touch, and seem to know what the reads and scoring options are. That is GREAT basketball.

I don't disagree with the vast majority of what you wrote, though that bolded part I fully disagree with. The off ball movement with the majority of college ball is pathetic.

Agree it's not particularly difficult stuff to draw up/have available. As demonstrated by the website you can find these plays anywhere and with time you should know them like the back of your hand.

And yet 90% of college teams mostly just run pick and roll with two guys in the corners for the vast majority of their plays. How many of the teams UConn played this year had a playbook even close to as complex? Maybe X and Marquette. Even Creighton's was much simpler.

A lot is having the personnel to run the plays but also the guts to run it when most kids learn pick and roll, drive and kick, or one-on-one growing up and your point guard is new to the team. Very few high school and practically zero AAU teams run anything close. Even some NBA teams run less complex stuff (though part of that is shot clock related).

It's not just having the green light but also having the timing down with the guys running around screens, the guys setting screens and the passers throwing the passes. This takes considerable work as a team to get even one of these plays down to the absolute correct timing with all the options on the play. The focus each play has, from each player, is immense; especially when defended tightly/aggressively.

 

[metsfan2323]

Hurley and our reality as UConn fans is incredible. And yet you still want to live in fantasy land.

Calhoun alluded to Danny being stubborn. Even Danny admits to making changes in philosophy. Watching Hurley through his first 15 years or so, he definitely had an archetype. Hurley is huge into personal development so maybe it was him that needed out.

You are the one living in the fantasy land, your fantasy is that Danny listened to the jackwagon, screwball complainers on the Boneyard and finally learned how to coach this season. I was just watching highlights from 2020 and there is plenty of motion in the offense, as others have pointed out the stagnant stand around offense is an Ollie legacy.