This was a fun game and there are fun things to write about afterward! It really wasn’t as close as the 30 point differential – at one point if you doubled the scores, it would have been 100-36 until we started emptying the bench. After I watch the game live, I typically try to think about what happened in that game and balance developments that are specific to that game while also keeping an eye on what’s been happening more broadly and what’s likely to continue to play a roll down the road. I’ll think about what I’m likely to want to discuss in my piece, and then I’ll re-watch the game keeping an eye out for things relevant to those topics while also being open to developments I didn’t catch on initial watch. I knew after watching live that this was going to be the time to write about the points we’ve been getting in transition and to take a deeper dive into how we’ve been creating those… but I didn’t expect that there would be THIRTEEN transition makes (not just attempts) to utilize. But, here’s the twist, we generated 7 steals in the game, almost 2 below our yearly average of 8.9; so it’s clear we’re not just pushing the ball as a result of opportunistic defense.
I’ll touch on our run-and-gun Wahoos, the Leon Bond enigma, and a few other player-specific thoughts below. Thank you for your patience as I paced myself on this one given the long break between games. Hopefully this comes right in time to build anticipation for Northeastern. Let’s get into it!
Embrace The… Pace?
Many of us may have just gotten this alumi magazine with these words scrawled on the cover. In fact, it’s been a pretty common expression as it relates to our deliberate play style. CTB has always preached to pass up good looks for great ones, which is the core component of our various offensive systems. You force a defense to work HARD for a full 30 seconds with the idea that, somewhere along the way, enough of a break down will occur and/or that fatigue will start to set in as the game progresses. And… we’re still doing this to a great degree. Our adjusted tempo, per KenPom, is still second to last in the country. Some of that is still how much our defense makes opposing teams have to work for a decent shot, and some of it is still our execution on the offensive side of the ball.
It’s not like we never get out in transition. CTB has always said that we “selectively run – if the “right” opportunity is there, we’ll take it. But I’m here to tell you that both the selection and the definition of the “right” opportunity have changed a little bit this year and, in addition to creating more opportunities on break outs and having more players who can capitalize, we are also being more aggressive at situationally pushing the tempo. This year we’re taking 14.5% of our attempts within 0-10 seconds of gaining possession vs. last year where we took 9.2% per Hoop-Math — Virginia basketball play-by-play statistics. Is this directly a result of getting more steals this year and pushing opportunistically? Well, I mentioned that we’re getting 8.9 steals per game this year, which is a significant jump from our rate of 6.8 per game last year, but not enough to increase the early shot rate on over 5% of our possessions. So, what’s happening? Did CTB make a conscious effort to push the ball more this year?
Maybe. I think the more likely scenario is that it’s been stressed that an Isaac McKneely open three is always a good look, coupled with the increased turnover rate, and the natural ability of our players both to run the floor and also to make smart passes that press those advantages, coupled with CTB’s trust of those decision makers. Let’s take a look at a few of the different ways we’re creating these opportunities.
After Turnovers
This one goes without saying and has gotten a lot of attention this year, especially with regard to the individual defense of Reece Beekman and Ryan Dunn. “Stocks” (steals and blocks) is a term now that commentators are making a point to emphasize when they cover the team which, supposedly we track in that way (but which CTB seemed to be hearing for the first time on his interview with John Freeman the other day). We’ve been used to seeing the Reece Beekman pick-sixes over the years, but Ryan Dunn is creating his own through both the way he roams the defense on the back end and in his ability off the bounce, coupled with his speed, to turn those into opportunities the other way. But, further, the introduction of Elijah Gertrude as a key contributor off of the bench as well as the continual refinement of Leon Bond’s role (which we’ll dive into later), have added numerous additional options/targets to push the envelope on these opportunities. Andrew Rohde as a fantastic outlet passer, and Isaac McKneely as a player who always has to be accounted for beyond the arc even in disruptive situations, have all amplified this potency. Let’s take a look…
Here’s the first bucket of the game and it comes after one of these fantastic plays by Dunn, playing our Safety on the back end. McKneely gets caught hard on a backdoor screen set by Groves’s man and Groves doesn’t recognize it or retreat to help cut off the pass. Dunn, though, who is guarding a man all the way out on the near-side wing, is alert, reads the play, and has himself in perfect position to pick off the pass. I do want to stop and focus on that part, because it really is a huge amount of court that Dunn is protecting here and is a huge part of what makes him so special. I also want to focus on how quickly he makes this a threatening play the other way, though. Watch how fluidly he intercepts the pass with his right hand and, actually, is moving too fast to immediately control it, so he throws it behind his head out in front of him so that he doesn’t have to stop his momentum and can push the ball. It’s a small but incredibly athletic thing that allows him to go from being the second farthest player near our hoop, to immediately being ahead of three NCCU players starting the 3 on 2 break the other way. There is absolutely no question that the single biggest reason that our transition numbers and opportunities are up this year is because of Ryan Dunn (because Beekman was already performing similarly) – both through his disruption but also being able to ignite this break out from his 4 position with such quickness and outright speed. The final part of this play is also a key part of the finishing, though. This doesn’t end with Dunn taking the ball to the rim and potentially finishing and/or drawing a foul; it ends with Isaac McKneely presenting himself on the wing outside of the arc. NCCU has to stop the ball handler and keep Beekman from an uncontested dunk, because those are the highest percentage plays but, and I’ll say it many more times this year, a McKneely three is probably our best shot this season, and this gives him a wide-open one.
Beautiful. And, really, there aren’t many players in our history under CTB he’d probably be comfortable shooting this shot in transition, let alone intentionally trying hard to get it for him (as we’ll see later).
Okay, this next one, below, is the solo Beekman work that we’re so used to seeing (but never take it for granted because it’s special!). It’s still here, and it’s glorious. When you’re breaking down a play like this, though, I marvel at his awareness and efficiency of movement. Everything is intentional; he first deflects the pass with his left hand, which is always active, then as he chases the ball down and NCCU’s intended recipient gets his hands on the ball, Beekman stays up floor, using his left hand again to pull the ball away, and then his right hand to both keep it from going out of bounds and to push it farther up the floor, allowing himself to run to it, creating the speed and momentum for the break out rather than trying to immediately collect and dribble the ball. He gets the angle between his man and the hoop and stretches the ball out far in front of him with his right hand to keep it away from any potential shot blocks.
So much subtle headiness in plays like this from Reece!
Let’s do a quick tour through some other great Beekman initiated moments, but all with some differences. This next one is from a little later in the game at the beginning of the second half and it’s just a straight heist off of the dribble. He anticipates the attempted cross-over and is off. Interestingly, this time there are three of our guys out in front of all of the NCCU players, not just Beekman, and he adds to his assist total by feeding Dunn for the jam.
And then one more classic Beek, but there’s also an added element here. This is a great play where his help both forces the dribbler to stop his motion, but then he continues in for the clean pickpocket and breaks out the other way. But, notably, both Elijah Gertrude and Leon Bond are in position trailing this play. Gertrude takes his foot off of the gas, assuming that Beekman will finish this. Beekman clearly didn’t anticipate the hustle from behind (lesson learned) and coasts in for the layup, which gets blocked; but Bond hustles down the floor the whole way and gets the put back.
A good lesson learned for Eli and a good look at Bond’s focus/mindset, but also a good segue into some of our other options in this area….
This next clip, below, is exciting primarily because it doesn’t involve either Beekman nor Dunn, instead showcasing some of our other guys. The play opens with Buchanan hedging for Gertrude, and Buchanan did a much better job in this game than recently of both hedging and recovering, but also of being disruptive on those hedges. Here his man slips toward the hoop but Isaac McKneely does a good job of being in position to stop him before he can get a shot up at the rim. Buchanan recovers and they both double-team in the post, with Buchanan on the high side making vision for any pass out a challenge. Bond moves himself in position to easily steal the feeble attempt to get the ball out of the trap and immediately throws an outlet to Gertrude. From there, it’s just the Gertrude show as his individual speed overtakes the lone NCCU player back on defense, draws even with him, and then is able to easily use his athleticism to finish at the rim without worry of a contest. This play is disruption caused by Buchanan and McKneely, rotational anticipation by Bond, and then Gertrude afterburners/conversion. Exciting stuff!
Similarly, this next one also ends in a Gertrude run out and, frankly, he really is like a bolt of lightning who has shown a remarkable ability to positively impact this area in just the three games he’s been available. Also similarly, it highlights Buchanan’s quick and disruptive hands on the hedge. This was made possible by how quickly he showed off of the handoff and got his left hand on the ball before the ball handler could even move/adjust it. The ball trickles to Rohde who knows immediately where to go with it and lobs it ahead for Gertrude for showtime.
Okay, the last of the steal runouts in this game, although it’s literally all 7. All seven steals we got in the game turned into fast break points the other way, which is crazy. This last one is also attributed to Beekman but a shoutout to Jake Groves for pinching in on this hedge so that when the ball handler tries to split them, he loses control. Groves actually disrupts the ball first, then Beekman digs in and pulls it out/away from the man on the ground, the ball slides over to McKneely who immediately outlets ahead to the wide-open Dunn for the monster dunk. I like how Dunn could have gone after the ball too, and a natural impulse might have been to do so, but instead he reads that McKneely will get it and just takes off the other way.
These guys are hunting this stuff and are primed to take advantage. You can see it most on the leak outs and how quickly the outlet passers are looking ahead to get things going. It’s not just the increased steal rate, it’s what all of our guys are looking to do with those steals and how many are capable of both creating them and taking advantage of them.
Off Of The Miss
This, though, I would suggest is a bigger philosophical change than pushing turnovers; looking to run after rebounds. Here’s one example below that can only be classified as a delayed break, but when Beekman recovers the deflected rebound on the sideline, he has his man entirely behind him and just uses that moment to push the advantage. This is new. How many times can we remember our guards stopping in place, looking behind them, waiting for the opposing team to clear, and then slowly bringing the ball up the court to set the offense? This clip below is NOT a huge advantage. In fact, one of our guys (Rohde) is still behind the play, but it’s enough to put pressure on the defense and see what happens. Furthermore, I’d say that McKneely being McKneely has unearthed a lot of these situations (and we’ll see more later). We don’t have to go coast-to-coast or take it all the way to the hoop – that is not an open opportunity here. But Beekman’s man trailing means that NCCU has to help and matchup in transition. They sag into the lane accordingly to protect, and Groves sets an intelligent screen to keep NCCU from being able to get out to McKneely. Not your standard uncontested fast break that we were seeing above, but transition points caused by mismatches created by pushing the pace and McKneely’s shooting ability. The shot goes up with 24 seconds left on the shot clock and it’s great shot selection.
Let’s look at another, this one on a long rebound. We don’t have numbers here, it’s just a two-on-two break the other way. Reece is comfortable pushing the issue and has become a good finisher when he can work his way into the paint, which he does methodically but still before NCCU can recover with the remainder of their squad.
Here’s an even more aggressive look at it. NCCU has gotten a steal and misses in transition due to a solid McKneely shot challenge. Beekman gets the ball under the hoop with two of his guys around him, surrounded by 3 standing and 1 sitting NCCU players. Now, from here, he could probably pretty easily (and historically would have) have slowed the ball down and waited for the scene to disperse. Instead, we get him ripping the ball, reverse pivoting, splitting two defenders, and racing back the other way, creating a 3-on-1 with his aggression. Groves probably won’t be the most common recipient on these kinds of plays, but Beekman does a really good job of recognizing who is with him and delivering the lob such that Jake can grab it on the way up and lay it in.
That play, if nothing else, represents an attitude shift. We’re not shying away from running when the opportunity is there, but Beekman is seizing the moment and creating an opportunity that we likely wouldn’t have found on previous rosters.
And here’s another clip, below, of us just being willing (and able) to punish NCCU for being loose in transition. When Dunn tracks this rebound down his back is to his hoop and he passes it back to Beekman. At that point, Beekman is behind every other player on the floor, but one NCCU player lingers and swipes at the ball, causing him to have to retreat and you can see that NCCU is searching as they aren’t aligned with their primary defensive responsibilities. At 8 seconds into the clip, you can see that Groves recognizes this and he’s directing traffic for Beekman and McKneely. McKneely fades to the wing, Groves sets a screen on the would-be defender (actually looking back at his own hoop in-so doing as we’re ahead of them on the floor), and Beekman throws a strike from the left-side of the logo all the way to McKneely. That’s a precise pass, but it’s also team awareness and intention.
This one’s similar, later, but even less excusable on the NCCU side as Murray doesn’t push the ball especially quickly, but Bond recognizes the spacing for McKneely and McKneely is, as he should be, always ready to fire when he has space. I’d say this one by itself is more just shooting what’s given rather than forcing the issue, but it’s still very notable that we were looking for it and willing to punish it.
There was one more where Rohde almost walked the ball up the floor after we got a rebound and NCCU just fell asleep with a fully set defense and Blake Buchanan cut to the hoop, still probably travelled, and converted. That one, and this one above, are probably more a result of the opponent and the lack of mental alertness that comes with being down 30 points with over a quarter of the game to go. Still, teams will fall asleep from time to time, and it’s great to see us both alert to recognize and willing to take the opportunity.
So, that was a fun section to revisit and write. Easy points in transition have really only come to us during the CTB tenure when they’re obvious. If I could leave you with one major takeaway from this it’s that we’re not just taking advantage of more obvious opportunities because of how disruptive our defense is. We ARE doing that, but we’re also looking to create these kinds of opportunities proactively after missed shots and opponent gambles in the backcourt. AND, we’re actively hunting these kinds of opportunities when we do create turnovers… AND we have many more players capable of both facilitating and capitalizing on these opportunities.
I’m not just excited because it’s fun to watch (and it is). I’m excited because these are the kinds of points that can keep you in games against good teams when you’re cold from the floor or are struggling to make headway against a defense. If you can reliably get a chunk of points each game like this, you’ll decrease the variance of your offensive output – which is especially important come tournament time (ACC or NCAA) when one off game will eliminate you. We’ve always embraced our defense, it’s cool to be able to embrace our defense AND its ability to create direct offense!
The Leon Bond Quandary
What is the Leon Bond quandary for those who haven’t read everything I’ve ever written this year (how could you???) or who haven’t been able to parse it from my previous stuff? The Leon Bond Quandary is that he’s undersized as a 4 against most major conference opponents, but doesn’t have the complete guard-skills you’d hope for the 3 on offense. He’s a suffocating defender at the 3, period; but you have to change the entire way you play offense when he’s in the game there (more on this to come). He can be very effective, as he was against NCCU, against under-sized teams (think, early round NCAA tournament mid-majors and/or the Miami Hurricanes) at the 4. But, as I covered in my recap of the Florida game (among others), he’s struggled to find space offensively, and to protect the glass, against larger teams when he IS at the Power Forward.
He’s been at his best against mid/low-major opponents this season, racking up some dominant performances with excellent efficiency; while being at his least effective (and getting some of his least run) against our best competition – Florida, Wisconsin, and Texas A&M. He did get his most run of the season and was an effective piece in the game against WVU, and wasn’t as effective offensively but made an impact on the glass against Syracuse….
You could tell that in this game CTB is still trying to figure out the best way to utilize Bond; giving him run at both the 3 and the 4 with different supporting players. He was effective on both sides of the ball, but again against lesser competition. So I want to take a look at where and how he contributed while mapping out some thoughts for the path forward, starting now!
Defense
The two defensive clips I’m going to show are from him playing the 4 but, given how NCCU matched up with us, it was a very perimeter-focused 4 and you could see how it would translate from the wing. Both of these lineups include Buchanan at the 5 with Gertrude on the floor. It’s a small sample-size, but I have started to notice that CTB begin pairing Bond with Gertrude and Buchanan which leans into our team being less perimeter focused and shifts the way we play in contrast with our starting lineup. More on that to come but, here we just see Bond’s range and his ability to help outside-in. His man pulls to the corner and Gertrude gets beaten on the hand-off curl. But, Bond follows the play in and just completely swats the shot away from behind.
And here’s a different look, below, again at the 4, this time with Murray and Beekman on the floor instead of McKneely and Rohde. That same core of Gertrude and Buchanan remains with Bond, though. This is more traditional post defense from us, with him executing a solid hedge and recover, and then eventually dropping from his perimeter defense at the point to swat what appears to be an attempt at a runner (but when I saw live was a lob attempt).
Now, I’ve illustrated some of the issues defensively in the past when he starts conceding too much size and you won’t see that here, but these two clips, above, should show the value he brings both as a very mobile small-ball 4 against teams of this size that try to spread bigger teams out. He’s actually the perfect response/solution to those kinds of teams and can practically just be Dunn-lite in that scenario on that side of the ball. But it should also illustrate the value when he’s anywhere on defense on the perimeter (including the 3) for his ability to get into the mix and use his athleticism to impact plays. There have been many other examples I’ve documented of him doing this over the year from both slots. So, if he brings so much value on the defensive end from the wing but can’t always reliably have a favorable matchup in bigger games, why don’t we lean into using him at the 3 more often?
Offense
We’ll see the banked-in three later in a different section unrelated to Bond, but this clip, below, is an example of the issue in a nutshell with a look from Flow:
Now, when watching this live the takeaway is probably that Blake Buchanan needs to be stronger with the ball and also know what he’s trying to do when he puts it on the floor. Both true. But the beginning of this possession starts with Beekman just absolutely destroying a defender with a ball screen denial/cross-over that forces both Buchanan and Bond’s men to get much more depth to help defend. Beekman parlays this into a wide-open three-point attempt for Bond who doesn’t take it and immediately passes to a covered Taine Murray in the corner, squandering the advantage. If Bond is going to play 3 for us, he needs to at least be willing to take this shot out of an offensive set like this one. I know there’s the passing up good for great conversation that happens, but you don’t get many looks from outside more wide-open than when he caught this ball; at least not within the regular flow of an offense – pause at 5 seconds, his man was at the elbow, he has the ball, and he’s not even pretending to be in a shooting stance. Heck, in a small sample size Elijah Gertrude is shooting 14% from three on the year and still took 5 attempts in this game! Bond spent his redshirt season working on his three-point shot and, while clearly it isn’t his comfort zone and we shouldn’t be designing offense to get those looks, turning down such wide-open opportunities allows defenses to not have to respect it and then we stop being able to run certain looks when he’s playing. The first step to being able to avoid that, especially in games where we’re heavily favored and up 19, is building a willingness to fire from deep that’s even a fraction of the confidence he has from the midrange. The percentage (although it’s 50% right now!) will probably not be great this year, but if the scout gets out there not just that he’s a sub-standard three-point shooter but that he doesn’t take them when open, now defenses can make your teammates’ sledding a lot rougher.
Now, here he is, below, in the Inside Triangle with Buchanan and McKneely in the mix with him and Rohde and Gertrude on the wings. I still think that this is the ideal offense for him – ideal as either the 3 or 4 against a team like NCCU – but better at the 3 against larger competition. The reason being, because he’s really good at doing stuff like the below when he isn’t having to fight through so much length.
It’s a good first step drive on the baseline, gather, and power move up with the finish, but it works primarily because his defender doesn’t have the size to bother the shot. That player guarding him (#5) is 6’4″ Timmy Adedire, and if Bond actually gets someone giving up size on him, he’s going to eat, as he did. But if that’s a standard ACC 4, that move is very unlikely a bucket; he’s probably having to pump fake and kick it back out or getting it blocked. Now, say Bond is playing the 3 with Buchanan in the mix with him and, say, McKneely, with Groves and Beekman on the wings, in a hypothetical. If your standard ACC opponents matchup on size alone, they’re going to have most of their SFs on Bond in that scenario, in which case he should be able to go to work. Let’s say they put the 4 on him and put the 3 on Groves on the wing, now he’s either having weaker contests on his outside shot, or you could switch them and bring Groves into the mix with Bond going out to the wing and pulling the post away from the rim. There’s a lot of jockeying that could happen, but there’s some real opportunity to play the mismatch, because, as we know, Bond doesn’t just thrive around the rim, but he has that silky midrange game which is his bread and butter.
Here’s a look at his fadeaway in the post out of the Inside Triangle where his momentum baits his man like he’s going toward the hoop and he reverse pivots and drains the fade:
And here he is on a straight pull-up jumper off of the bounce at the elbow:
And here he is with a very Jordanesque fadeaway at the elbow after dribbling from the block up to the free throw line, then stopping and turning.
Now, generally speaking, I’m not a lover of the midrange game as a primary point of offense. Those of you might remember me last year talking about how Jayden Gardner’s midrange offense should be more of a secondary or tertiary option when we needed someone just to get us some buckets and our more efficient looks weren’t working. And that hasn’t changed – I’m not advocating for Leon Bond to replace the ability we have to stretch defenses with our current starters – but he could be an effective plan B (or even just a regular detour we take at times each game). While these are very tough shots, his 56.9% FG% is the absolute best rate on the team, no caveats (although, crazily, still lower than McKneely’s three-point shooting % alone) on 51 attempts.
Despite the degree of difficulty, though, these are still comfortable looks fired with clean vision over a smaller player. We have not yet seen him have a similar level of efficient success in the midrange game in some of those other matchups. He was 2-7 from the floor, for example, in 18 minutes against Syracuse, 0-2 in 8 minutes against Texas A&M, 0-1 in 13 minutes against Wisconsin, and 1-3 in 4 minutes against Florida. Again, most of those were from the 4 position which stands to reason that these types of looks don’t come as readily in those matchups, bringing us back to the concept of needing run at the 3 to be in play….
There’s also a minor issue that he does have a tendency to over-rely on the midrange when he does have an opportunity and a take to the rim would probably yield a better result. For example, on this play, below, at the end of the first half, Beekman finds him cutting from the corner with momentum toward the hoop. When he catches the pass there is a defender in front of him in defensive position, but rather than any number of plays he could have made here attempting to initiate toward the rim, draw contact, etc., he dribbles toward the middle of the lane and then launches into a fadeaway that carries him all the way back to the free throw line.
While I literally just wrote about his good FG% and how this element to his midrange game can be a boon, you really would rather he either go up through this guy or back him down and try to get him in the air/draw contact, maybe a little lefty hook that we know he has… something a little more efficient than this unless he absolutely has to.
Anyway, conventional wisdom tends to be – he’s a small ball 4 who can be a similar but lesser version of Dunn on defense but who can often create his own shot more often on offense. It would stand to reason, then, that you just play the matchups and lean harder into Bond when the opponent doesn’t have a long or physical 4, and reduce his time when they do. That IS what we’ve mostly been doing so far this season. BUT, I don’t think that’s the most effective use for him and I’m not sold that CTB is satisfied with that, either, given the run he’s been getting at 3 and the different lineups they’ve been playing with around him. The most effective use for him is to do all of those things I just mentioned at the 4 when appropriate, but then when you run into size and length and athleticism, to have a package where he runs the 3, locks up an opposing guard/forward, and is able to force mismatches on offense. That’s the piece I think CTB is building toward and trying to figure out the most efficient way to incorporate. It IS a tricky thing. He might be an answer to a defensive question but if the offense is clicking you don’t want to have to disrupt that just to accommodate. It’s very feel driven.
This will be one of those answers that I’m not sure will have a clear answer for a while, but is one I’ll be monitoring closely. Memphis is the first place we’ll see it tested in that way again – they’re big across the board except for Quinerly, but by the time we get to conference play it’ll be the consistent question. I do think this pairing of Gertrude and Buchanan with Bond is CTB’s current leading idea for a solution and might well be the one that sticks. As we’ll see later, Gertrude also has the ability to create his own offense in some very explosive ways and without much space needed, and Buchanan still does threaten the rim better than anyone else on the roster. Plus, you ratchet up your defensive ceiling and transition point potential with those three on the court together, especially if paired with Beekman and/or Dunn.
I love a good tinkering and tinker we will!
Gertrude’s Step Back
From run outs, to defense, to his first made three, and that nifty reverse layup, Elijah Gertrude has captured the imagination of fans. How good can this guy be? He certainly has a way of exploding from nowhere and creating something out of nothing; but that stood out the most with this fluid step-back jumper that he showcased for the first time against NCCU.
These two plays right here:
And right here:
Both made me sit up and point at the screen Once Upon A Time In Hollywood style. That’s a professional move right there with a really confident shooting touch; and makes me think that he’s much farther along with his offensive skillset than I’d previously thought. Given how he’s already shown the ability to almost perplexingly get by defenders from a standstill, having this ability to stop on a dime and jump back into a fluid jumper compliments his game so well. It makes him another player who can create his own shot for us and, paired with what I was talking about in the Bond section, makes sense to why they’ve been grouped together so often. Notice that in both of these clips we already have the second unit in, but Gertrude is paired with Murray, Bond (at the 3), Minor, and Buchanan. There’s no one else in that lineup who is going to create off of the bounce and, while Bond certainly should be able to isolate his man, Gertrude having his own isolation game, especially when the lane is ostensibly going to be more clogged, leads us to envision a variety of other ways that he could be utilized and lineups that he could unlock.
I do think that Gertrude and Bond are going to form a symbiotic existence on the floor together as the season progresses, but I also like that it appears you should be able to fit him into a lot of situations and he’ll find a way to make a positive impact.
Rohde’s Defense
I also wanted to take a moment to focus on Andrew Rohde’s defense. I thought this was a good game to showcase it as NCCU’s best offensive player, 6’4″ Guard, Po’Boigh King (#35), who averages close to 15ppg (closer to 16 without our game) was held to 4 points on 2-13 shooting from the floor. Those numbers would lead you to think that we decided to put Beekman, or even Dunn, on him but, no, Andrew Rohde was his primary defender for most of the game – shutting King out entirely while he was guarding him. NCCU played both Kansas and Georgia this year and this was easily his worst performance both in point total and shooting percentage; and any time you can hold any opponent’s most volume scorer to that type of output is a great sign. We underestimate, at times, what a presence Rohde’s length can be on the defensive end, and I thought he read the game very well, also.
Here’s a clip early where we see Rohde generally making things uncomfortable for Po’Boigh early, contesting the pass on the wing and then shading the back cut through the screen. He does a good job of staying home and not jumping too far out to the wing so that he can protect against the back screen NCCU set for Dunn’s man, who flares to the corner. The ball then skip passes to the corner and Rohde sags to help on the drive while then having to recover to the pass out to his man. King attempts to use Rohde’s close out momentum to get by him, and is successful, but Rohde is able to stay right on his hip and then use that reach to completely snuff out the shot/collect the miss himself.
That’s the kind of play that sets the tone early because King had an advantage on the drive from the rotation but was still completely smothered.
Here’s a look from later in the game, and this is just really good both on and off-ball defense throughout the possession before he gets clocked in the face. He shadows King early, and then does a great job of staying in guarding position throughout the attempted back-screen. He recovers through the pin-down screen nicely, assisted by a good Groves hedge, and then plays fantastic on-ball defense from there, shutting down the driving lane, staying in great position, and delivering a crushing contest that forces Po’Boigh’s shot to fall considerably short.
In reality, King became deterred. Take a look at this possession not much later where King again tries to take Rohde off of the dribble, doesn’t make headway, and ends up passing out. Also a good job by Rohde of staying alert here and crashing down to contest the rebound that, otherwise, NCCU would have had for a layup at the rim.
And it’s not just on the ball where he was able to provide a significant impact. Here’s a look from earlier in the game where Gertrude gets beaten off of the dribble entirely but Rohde sags in off of King and completely shuts the drive down/eliminates the possibility of a shot with his right arm. The driver has to dump off in the lane which results in a contested push shot and then our team swarms the rebound. Really good defensive awareness and reaction to nullify an advantage created by NCCU here.
Now, while I realize NCCU isn’t an ACC school, Po’Boigh King is still a good player. Just for contrast, here’s a quick look at him vs. a lesser defender in Taine Murray. On his second attempt through, King gives a quick drive fake to his right that staggers, Murray, leaving a wide-open driving lane down the left-hand side of the lane. Murray works to cut off the angle with both hands straight up, but his momentum in-so doing (and just urgency around trying to get back into the play for the rebound) allow Po’Boigh to collect the board and easily put it back in. Just want to reiterate, this and a fast break bucket are the only two he scored the entire game, which should emphasize the quality job Rohde was doing on him.
Rohde has been playing the 3 more often than not for us, but he still will often have a size/length advantage on his man from this slot, and he’s been very effective throughout his career of pairing that size/length combo with his perimeter skills to make life miserable for smaller, often quicker, guards. Let’s not forget that he often played the point last year at St. Thomas. Against Creighton, he mostly took Ryan Nembhard out of the game (9 points 1-5 from the field, they moved him to the corner in the offense), dominated G-League player Trenton Massner head-to-head, and basically matched Max Abmas last year (although that is a PG who he struggled to guard effectively).
Point being, I’ve spent a lot of time writing about how Leon Bond’s presence at the 3 can upgrade our defense, and it’s true. Bond IS a better defender both on-ball and on the glass and will probably scale up to defender larger small forwards better when Rohde is no longer towering over their space; BUT, Rohde’s defense is still a plus and using Bond in that way doesn’t mean a direct one-for-one transition. You can still play Rohde at 1-2 to give Beekman and McKneely rests and to give different looks/enhance team defense/reach in some ways.
Here’s an example with about 1/4th of the game to go. Rohde is playing PG here, with Murray at the 2, Bond at the 3, Dunn at the 4 and Buchanan at the 5. That’s 6’0″ Guy Fauntleroy (#1) who Rohde is guarding and Fauntleroy probably thinks he has a mismatch with regard to being able to take Rohde off of the bounce. Instead, Rohde doesn’t bite on the shot fake and completely mirrors his drive throughout, hulking over him, eventually giving a quality contest on a wild fadeaway that misses the rim entirely.
Playing Rohde more at the PG since Dante Harris’s injury has helped him on the offensive end, which I featured not long ago; but it also unlocks some of his versatility on the defensive side.
Coming into this season, I expected both Reece Beekman and Ryan Dunn to be defensive stalwarts, and then thought that between Dante Harris, Elijah Gertrude and Leon Bond, we might need to do some offense/defense subbing considerations with Isaac McKneely and Andrew Rohde. And, while it’s still true that Gertrude and Bond bring a different and more oppressive defensive element to the mix, I’ve been pleasantly surprised that both McKneely and Rohde are both just flatly good enough on defense such that they’re just parts of our best lineups when coupled with their offensive contributions. Rohde is a big part of our defensive excellence.
Head Scratching Over Minor
This was another less-than-stellar outing for Jordan Minor. I keep hearing people say that he’s still adjusting to the defensive and offensive systems for his various struggles. I’m not really sure that I entirely buy that. For example, here’s a great look at him playing well within the defensive system. He’s where he needs to be throughout, reading and helping McKneely who was trailing his man, by sagging off of his own and stopping the dribble at the foul line, then giving a good hard hedge without fouling to stop the ball handler, recovering, noticing that Bond took his man, and getting into good rebounding position to both grab the board and quickly flip it to Rohde to probe transition the other way.
I’m sure he still has plenty of room to grow with his knowledge, but that’s a player who knows the defensive system and has the ability to play it well! Most of the mistakes that I see from Minor appear to be physical ones. Sure, maybe that’s a result from having to think too much on the floor in general, but they’re coming at times where he’s already in the correct position but is just having trouble finishing… or even just catching the ball.
Here’s a look at what I mean. This is a nice pick and roll that he runs with Rohde. He slips the screen such that both defenders are still on Rohde, does a really quick reverse pivot, and is wide-open headed toward the hoop. He knows where he’s supposed to be on this play and Rohde delivers a nice pass over another defender that probably should have been an easy dunk for Minor. At 8 seconds into the clip, you see the NCCU defender who was covering Bond completely staggering and Dunn’s man not yet in the play. But, rather than catching the ball cleanly and pivoting for the dunk, Minor lets the ball get all the way into his chest and bobbles it, having to retreat to the baseline to collect. By that time, both defenders are on him. Now, he is able to find Leon Bond before the shot clock expires and the bank IS open for Bond (this is the play I was talking about earlier), but because of the bobble it went from a very high percentage chance to a much lower one.
I’ve noticed this a lot with Minor despite the limited amount of time he’s been on the floor – it’s like he gets alligator arms when the ball gets near him and is struggling to catch cleanly, which was always one of his strengths at Merrimack. In fact, I touted his ability to catch the ball on the move in the pick and roll and finish in my piece on him. It’s almost like it’s a depth perception issue, or that he really is just SO uncomfortable that the game is moving too fast for him.
I’m not going to go through all of the misses but there were a few on buckets you’d have expected him to convert, especially against such small competition. This one I thought was the most glaring as Taine created a good opportunity for him in a fairly standard layup (albeit in traffic). Yes, he (or the ball) seemed to get hit on the way up, but he does need to be strong with the ball there and be able to finish – something that he did all of the time at Merrimack.
So, I don’t really know on this one. When I watch the mistakes, it feels more like the yips than it does struggling to adjust to our systems. He’s doesn’t seem to regularly be in the wrong place, etc. Perhaps the two are correlated in that he’s having to process so much that some of these more fundamental things are struggling as a result; but it’s definitely not a level of competition thing in a game like this. Minor has had to play against Chet Holmgren, Drew Timme, Trayce Jackson-Davis, etc. Watching him struggle just catching and finishing in a game like this one was certainly concerning for hopes of long-term contribution because, even if the outlook of what that contribution looks like has changed, I still think there can be a role for him as an enforcer inside as long as he’s efficient with the wide-open opportunities that he gets, like these. We’ll see. I do hope they continue to work to get him opportunities, and especially would like to see him get some run against Memphis and their physicality, when the time comes.
Buchanan’s Progress
The section I’ll close with today is revisiting Blake Buchanan’s journey. I’ve mentioned previously that, while we definitely seem like we can make do with his learning curve, that we will likely need him to be playing well, come March, if our best outcomes are to be in play. The thing I’ve been most encouraged with lately, and showed a few examples above in our transition section, is his hedging and recovery and his active hands on those hedges. He is our best non-Dunn big at not just slowing the ball handler on the hedge but at attacking the ball and causing deflections, which is a huge boon for this attack-style version of our defense. Here’s a different quick look at it:
On this one, he doesn’t just get a piece of the ball, he deflects it all the way into the backcourt, forcing NCCU to completely reset their offense with just 14 seconds left on the shot clock. It doesn’t always have to yield a turnover to be impactful and he’s consistently created these kinds of opportunities (as well as being quick back to his own man after the hedge). This is great stuff and definitely his most polished and consistent asset. You can see, again, why pairing him with Gertrude and Bond is such a tempting idea.
I highlighted another clip against Syracuse where he got completely stuck with the ball on the perimeter and pushed increasingly far out, not seeming comfortable with the ball. I liked this developmentally from him, below, where he still seems a little uncertain when the ball sticks with him, but he utilizes the pump fake, takes a couple of dribbles toward the basket, and then creates an assist opportunity on the kick out for Rohde on the three.
To be clear, I’m not touting this as a remarkable play, by any means, I’m just calling it out as growth where instead of getting overwhelmed with the ball, he ended up creating a quality opportunity for a teammate. This is the kind of stuff that will help us, isn’t a big ask, and that he can continue to replicate right away.
Similarly, this is a good catch and finish off of a pick and roll and is encouraging to see from him. One of the most impactful elements to his game against Florida was how quickly he was able to transition from catching the ball off of these opportunities to attack the rim, normally attempting a dunk and drawing contact. This is where we need him to show up most often on the offensive end and, while I don’t love him bring the ball so low so that it could get tied up, he still has good continuous motion from his roll, his gather, and his movement into his shot (as well as good touch on the finish).
Buchanan had a few other good finishes in this game, wrapping with 9 points on 4-7 shooting. While it should be expected that he can thrive in games where he has size mismatches, it’s good to see him able and willing to take advantage. If he can reclaim his confidence in these games, it should hopefully help him build momentum into the heart of conference play. I fully expect there are going to be continual ebbs and flows with Buchanan’s production as we progress, but the positives are still evident, so the goal should be building toward more consistency in the areas that we know he can thrive. Good rotational defense with active hands, attacking the offensive glass, attacking off of the catch in the pick and roll, improving defensive rebounding awareness…. These are all things that should be fair goals and will be hugely impactful if he accomplishes them.
In Conclusion
Still far too long until our next contest for my liking, but it should be a good warm-up game to get back in the flow before the contest against Memphis, who provide a stiff and physical challenge and just also beat Texas A&M themselves.
Hopefully this time away will be one that can help those who have been struggling without derailing any of the positive developments we’ve been seeing. There is a lot to be excited about this team both for the present and the future, but the most exciting thing, to me, is how it’s still an unsolved puzzle and, despite all of the new and positive developments re: lineups, pace, attack/turnover forcing defense, etc., there’s still so much room to integrate talented, hungry, and developing players into the mix, unlocking a bunch of options to mix and match, depending on our opponents. CTB feels like he’s leaning into these opportunities, as well, and isn’t deferring to future seasons, he’s still actively trying to solve them now.
The anticipation builds.
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