Ok I read the UConn article further. Things that seem relevant to me:
Any call Hurley barks from the sideline comes with a roadmap of decision-making principles that have been painstakingly drilled since the summer. And now the Huskies enter most games with roughly a dozen opponent-specific alignments that include five or six variations each â a nuance described by Hurley as âlayering actionsâ because it produces different outcomes from the same offensive shell to keep a defense guessing. The whole thing works like a series of âif-thenâ statements that inform the playersâ movements: If an opponent is switching on screens, then the screener slips to the hoop; if an opponent goes under a screen, the screener pops for a perimeter jumper.
I think this is kinda how every offense is supposed to work in theory, but UConnâs stands out for the sheer depth of their layered actions, and how good their players are at making those reads. My UVA angle is 1) do we have enough layered actions or the right layers, 2) are our guys developing enough their ability to make those reads? Even Blocker-Mover has counters built in as reads, but how many times did you see someone who wasnât Reece fade out to the corner when their man jumped the pindown/curl?
By utilizing a data company called HD Intelligence, Hurley and his staff are now focusing on things like points per shot and the distribution of where shots originate on the floor. They even build the teamâs offensive actions around the hot and cold zones of individual players. More than 76% of UConnâs total field goal attempts during the regular season came from either 3-point range or the restricted area at the rim, according to CBB Analytics, in conjunction with the overall goal.
Can we sign up a friend for this? His name is Tony and heâs a very nice man.
Edit: to riff a little on this and not just joke, connecting the data to insights and then to application is non-trivial. The data is the easy part for a resourced program like UVA. You then need someone to produce actionable insights based on the data and buy-in from the staff to apply those in practice, game-planning, etc. Hopefully the existing work in incorporating data-laden approaches into strength and conditioning (e.g. Catapult) and into skill development (e.g. the much memed-on Noah system) provides a decent template for doing this with Xs and Os.
Tailoring the overseas concepts to UConnâs personnel is one of Murrayâs greatest strengths. Rather than simply presenting the things heâs seen to the staff, Murray does so with certain individuals on the roster in mind â things like staggered screens for Karaban or zoom actions for Newton that address the exact problems Hurley and the staff are trying to solve. Murray holds one-on-one film sessions for players who want further reinforcement of the ideas.
Good stuff. Iâve been a little down on the impact of assistants on offensive philosophy, but this is a good example of a positive impact.
One last thought, as the rawness of the loss dissipates, people will realize what an amazing job the coaching staff did to get this roster an NCAA tournament berth.
Itâs a roster this staff built. If there are shortcomings, it was their evaluations that got us here. And weâre not building from scratchâŚweâre a few years removed from a national title, have been the winningest ACC program for the last decade, and have an NIL budget that apparently only trails Duke & UNC.
Of course most of the focus will correctly be on the offense, but thereâs also a personality of the program thatâs been off. Gone are the days of UVa being a group of âgrown ass menâ. Both physically and personality wise. The physical difference is obvious by just the watching the guys walk into the arena. It also seems like weâve leaned further into our reputation of choir boys. Sure, there were always the Malcolms and Huffs and Dres during the peak era. But we also had guys with swag. Justin, London, and Ty the obvious examples. Can Bliss and Gertrude be the answers here? J Willy did say Bliss was the biggest vocal leader heading into the season
And on a similar note, we havenât communicated as well recently. Sure, Reece and Dunn are great individual defenders. But they are quiet. Akil and Zay were LOUD. You could hear them from the upper bowl calling to their teammates defensively even over all the other noise of the game. Darion wasnât far behind. Houston was like that when they came into JPJ last season. We need communicators like that to truly get back to an elite defense. There is the famous quote about not needing to watch great defense, you can close your eyes and listen to it. We havenât passed the âlistening testâ in some time
Meh, I get that, but also itâs not a great sign that most of our young guys either saw their play regress, PT regress, or both as the year went on. Think thatâs the main disappointment with this season for me aside from the offense continuing to be trash.
Id also argue that this roster isnât talented but they did have some talent that the staff didnât capitalize on. On top of killing the confidence of a lot of players
Havenât really brought it up, but Iâve wondered quite a bit about your last sentence.
I commented somewhere else today about the offense looking better at times early in the season (not just this year)âŚeven with new guysâŚthen progressively getting worse through the year. Has to be a confidence/fear of getting yanked thing.
Itâs a joke topic in the womenâs basketball thread, but maybe it wouldnât be such a bad idea for Mox and Tony to switch teams for a couple of preseason practices. The women play free and joyful and passionate and fast⌠but sloppy and undisciplined. Both teams need to find the middle ground.
Great article about Rick Barnes (tweet below) facing a similar situation as Tony. Rick made changes and is reaping the rewards. Letâs use this framing for Eli Gertrude. Thereâs a real risk Gertrude bails. How could Tony keep him? âEli - youâre going to start this fall, and be a focus for our offense.â
See those quotes about Barnes changing his approach?