We’re just two games in and this one was against one of the weakest teams in the country (the actual second worst, per Kenpom), but I’ve already got some pretty strong opinions on tightening up the lineup. Is that premature? Perhaps, but there’s a little more going on with it than just in-game performances. I’ll make the case for the specifics at the end, but it has to do with the collective inexperience of this group playing together, the upside, and the intensity and mental energy with which they’re playing.
It really wasn’t a convincing of a final score against the second worst team in DI. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it discouraging, though. Despite a slow and tentative start over the first ten minutes or so and despite a melt down when we went hard to our bench (poor Bryce Walker and Desmond Roberts played 1 minute and 34 seconds of game time and were MINUS 8 during that window – and it really wasn’t so much their fault! we were up 28 points with just over 6 minutes to go in the game.
That’s more what you expect when you play a team like Coppin St. and it was on the back of some of our guys waking up and playing more aggressively, moments of improved defense, and some of our guys playing with a high motor. In fact, the whole game was a weird weave of high quality and suffocating defense at times, interwoven with some really poor mistakes – but on re-watch, it really wasn’t as much of a collective issue (aside from the slow start) as I’d thought. It was more, one player had a very bad game and then we didn’t have an actual PG on the floor for 13 minutes as well.
But let’s just get right into it. Even when the quality of opponent is low, there are things you can look to that translate.
Dai Dai Ames Audition
Andrew Rohde being unavailable due to a back issue (he was a game time decision and would have started) gave Dai Dai Ames time to shine. You’d expect him to against such a poor opponent; but regardless of the quality of competition, he played well. He was an efficient 5-8 from the floor including 2-3 from deep which was good to see considering some questions about his outside shooting. He played a well-rounded game otherwise and it was very clear the things he offered that were different from what Rohde did. He was touching the paint and beating his man off of the dribble when needed. He was stickier on the ball and made some athletic defensive plays. He was finishing. Perhaps most importantly, though, the team just played faster and less… sleepily than it did against Campbell when Rohde logged so many minutes.
It’s clear that this team still needs Andrew Rohde in the rotation as long as Christian Bliss is sidelined and, possibly, even when Bliss is healthy. The 13 minutes that Ames rested were pretty ugly and would have been more so if we weren’t playing who we did nor against the matchup zone that Coppin St. runs; keeping individual player pressure from threatening our ball handlers. I made the case just last game that Rohde is a much different kind of player both offensively and defensively than Ames and there’s some value in changing things up to offer our defenses different looks. I still think that’s true – but I’m much more confident in what Ames can bring now having watched him with those primary responsibilities in our new system and I think that distribution – roughly 25-30 minutes to Ames and 10-15 minutes to Rohde as his back up (maybe playing him a few minutes off the ball for rest in certain situations which I’ll talk about later) – is the right call. Maybe once in a blue moon you invert that in the right matchup, it doesn’t have to be hard and fast, but I do think we’re clearly going to want him as the starter and getting more time.
Let’s showcase a few looks here that highlight what we’re talking about:
Coppin St. ran their matchup zone which at times functioned like a 2-3, others a 1-2-2, but with the core principle of flooding to the ball – meaning that they’d aggressively send more defenders to the ball handler, often outnumbering the offensive players to shut down drives, attempt to jump passing lanes, and then rotate on the pass. For example, if we set a ball screen at the point, they’d often flank two wings in on either side to shut down drives either way, and then try to jump back out to the pass on the wing.
I’m not going to spend a ton of time talking about our systemic approach to attacking this zone because we don’t play it a ton and there’s a lot of meat on the personnel development bone (and defense) – but Zach Carey touched on it some here, if you’re interested, but the larger array of shooting options certainly helps when playing against these kinds of defenses.
What this first clip, below, shows is how Ames’s handle and ability to maneuver tight spaces can help break down these tight spaces or exploit over-rotations. On this set, similar to match up concepts, you see that the defenders are responsible for areas of the floor but try to match up man-to-man within these areas and then pass players off. After we work the ball over to McKneely a couple of times, Ames takes a return pass and Buchanan comes up to set a ball screen for him. Ames uses this screen (and Buchanan does a good job of connecting/taking the Coppin St. player off of his feet) but notice how when Ames turns the corner there are three Coppin St. players pinching the lane to try to compact and deny the drive. Ames could settle for a kick out to Power in the strong side corner or McKneely on the weak side wing which would probably allow Coppin St. to close out and get a decent contest. Instead, he keeps his dribble, misdirects the Center and crosses over; somehow finding a way to weave his way through the traffic through sheer manipulation. Breaking through, he finishes with the left hand (his dominant one) and draws the foul.
People often say that Dai Dai has “wiggle” and this is what they mean. Coppin St. was in great position to completely shut down the lane here and his shiftiness got him through anyway. This is something you’re not going to see from Rohde. If he drives, he needs a pretty clean lane and he’s going to try to use his size and length to get a defender on his hip and either shoot or pass using his body as a shield. In this situation, you can bet that Rohde stops at seeing the line of defenders and rips a pass to the perimeter. It may have been a good one, and there’s time for that as well, but there’s value in having the skill and ability to get inside for the higher percentage shot.
Here’s another similar look defensively where if you pause this clip, below, at 6 seconds in with Buchanan setting another ball screen, you can see Coppin St. dedicating three resources to stopping the drive – the man being screened, with two flanking either side of Buchanan hoping to shut down the drive and top side looking to recover up to Power, if needed. They’re trying to discourage penetration here. Buchanan smartly switches the angle of his screen and sets it moving away from Power, to return the numbers to a two-on-two game, but Ames stops and kicks it back over to Power. But, this time, when Power passes back, they’ve got a plan. Buchanan sets the ball screen again, Ames uses it to his left and attacks, putting Buchanan’s man in tension and on his back heel. He forces a retreat and gets deep enough into the lane, and then hits a nice little step back jumper on the baseline to convert the play himself.
Not only is this good ball handling to be able to attack the zone like this, but it’s also confident finishing unlike what we’ve seen from Rohde during his time here; he shot 29% from the field last season. So, it’s just an added dimension not only to have a player more capable of creating this tension through his bounce, but who is also a greater threat to convert the opportunity himself.
We talked some last game about how it was clear they were looking to run a little more often but didn’t really have the opportunity to do so because Campbell pressed most of the game and we were slow and methodical in our press break. But here’s Ames attacking early in the possession against a pretty set defense, rejecting Cofie’s ball screen with a behind-the-back dribble that made the announcer “woo!” and a really pretty one-handed find in traffic to a diving iMac (as an aside, iMac needs to get more comfortable and calm down when he has the ball around the rim – he was clearly sped up here and rushed the layup attempt and he didn’t need to be).
When you’ve got as many shooters as we’re putting out there on the floor and when you have as much size as we do, I think you can afford to rely on an offensive system to get you looks and you don’t need quite as many ball handlers to helm your offense… but just like it’s good to have at least one player you can throw the ball to on the block to make something happen, it’s also good to have at least one player who can infiltrate a defense and attack all of that open space that your shooters are giving you. It’s not like a QB-style PG like Rohde can’t be effective – but it’s more easily disrupted like we saw against Campbell. This is a huge factor in favor of Ames.
But it wasn’t just the dribble penetration. Ames was also successful as a spot up shooter when he did take the opportunity. Here, below, we see him eventually drive to collapse the top side of the defense, kick the ball out to McKneely, and then relocate out to the three-point line to drill the deep ball.
He hit another one later. If he can be effective as a three-point shooter this year then that’s another huge reason to play him. Rohde shot 25.7% from deep last season and is 0-2 in a small sample size this year. Ames shot 32.9% from deep last year and this wasn’t a strength of this game. In fact, he’d often pass up open looks to try to drive the ball, and we did see that this game.
Here’s an example, below. When Saunders gets the ball in the post, the defense collapses around him and he’s able to find Dai Dai open on the perimeter. There’s a lot of space for a quality catch and shoot here, he’s open. Instead, he lures the defender into a close out, gives a pump fake, and attempts to drive and kick to iMac who settles for a long contested two-pointer.
I wrote in my preview on Ames that he has to have wrapped his mind around the idea that he’s going to shoot before it comes to him – he’s not often going to just pull up on a whim and his first thought isn’t to shoot when the ball comes to him off schedule. That being said, watching him comfortably knock down two of the three opportunities he got in this one (and he looked pure in warm ups too), that would be a very positive development for the offense. If Ames can be a threatening shooter, now you realistically have some lineups where all five of your guys (4 if you’re running Blake) need to be respected outside of the arc – which will open things up.
The plays above on offense were pretty convincing regardless of competition. Yes, he’s going to face tougher defenders throughout the season; but that handle will be there, he will stand up better to pressure (although expect some turnovers still – the way he jams the ball into the lane sometimes they’re bound to come), and his ability to knock down a shot looks encouraging. Basically, offensively, we should be able to play faster and be impacted less by what our opposition is trying to do to us. Rohde is likely better at reading a defense and setting the table for our offense. His passing can put more tension on a defense and his vision to be able to play over many of his defenders is helpful; but isn’t as threatening to get a bucket himself and is more easily disrupted.
Now, defensively, this wasn’t the best test for Ames as Coppin St. isn’t the best competition and Ames actually held a size advantage over the 5’11” Cam’Ron Brown who only averages 3.5ppg across almost 27mpg. Where Ames can struggle on the defensive side of the ball is against size and or athleticism as he’s not overly fast and so when players get an advantage on him they can often keep him on their hip, get into the lane, etc. But what he does offer that we don’t really have elsewhere on this team is the ability to heat up the ball and get under players.
Here he is against the 6’3″ Toby Nnadozie, though, absolutely hounding him while trying to get into the offense. He kills about 15 seconds off of the shot clock and keeps Coppin St. with the ball around the logo for the majority of this possession just by playing aggressive defense on the ball and invading Nnadozie’s space. In the end, Coppin St. gets a decent enough look from the corner because Cofie is a little late passing Saunders’s man back to him after a hard hedge and recovering to the corner (although that wingspan still made the shot hard). In the end, it’s a missed jumper contributed in no small part by the fact that Coppin St. had limited shot selection because Ames kept them from initiating their offense for half the shot clock.
I’m not actually sure that Ames is a better on ball defender than Rohde. They’re very different players. Rohde kind of looms over his man, so to speak, and uses active hands/reach to both his man’s visibility and verticality – but he’s also less quick at the point of attack, is slower to navigate screens, and you won’t see him being effective hounding a ball handler like this.
But I think Ames’s style is much more aligned with what this team is going to need in most situations (although I’m sure there are some bigger guards it will make sense to play Rohde on more). It’s starting to shape up like (and I’ll advocate for this later) three of Blake Buchanan, Jacob Cofie, Elijah Saunders, and TJ Power will be on the floor a lot together. That’s 6’11”, 6’10”, 6’9″ and 6’8″ with all but Power having plus athleticism. That’s already a lot of length around the rim and in passing lanes. We’re probably better suited, then, to have that quickness at the point to hound the point of attack without having to fear as much what happens if he’s beaten off of the dribble because of the solid help behind. Have someone who is better at holding up to quickness and at creating pressure.
One more thing I’ll just add that I liked is that Ames played aggressively and physically and he had the ability to completely surprise like with this block…
Yes, he’s more explosive vertically than you expect, but this was consistent with just the tone and intensity with which he played. He was in attack mode most of the time, even it if was a little reckless at times. It was a nice boost when the rest of the team started sleepy and I think we’ll need the attitude and energy especially among a lot of the more mild personalities on the team extending through the coach. Given all of the circumstances around the season, I believe we’re going to need to find some fire – and Ames is one of the guys who can bring that.
There’s been some talk from Coach Sanchez and players that Rohde brings some calm and stability to the team when he’s back there – but I’m not sure calm is really what we need right now! Coach Sanchez is pretty calm. Many of the players on the team (iMac, Taine, Power, Blake, Bliss…) seem pretty calm. Sure, we need a reassuring presence; but I also think we need some visible fire! Will talk more about this momentarily.
So, yeah, Rohde was hurt and didn’t play in this one and Ames had a very good game against terrible competition – but more than those circumstances, it’s what he showed and the types of attributes he brings. I’ll still reiterate my thoughts from last game in that I think there’s a distinct role for Rohde that can fluctuate and has to be backing Ames up (as long as Bliss isn’t a factor, for sure). The minutes we saw in this one without either were clunky, to say the least, and would be exploited by better programs. But it’s not just “you need any PG” – he does offer different things that I believe will sometimes be the better fit for the situation.
That being said, I’m in full “Ames should be the starter” mode now and hope we move toward that sooner than later. The team feels much more capable of handling the types of challenges good teams will present with his skillset at the helm of this roster.
Energy – Two Sides of The Coin (Cofie and Murray)
Collective team energy is something I’ve been keeping my eye on closely ever since the news of CTB’s departure. It’s easy to have the wind go out of the sails when you expect to play for someone as good as Tony and have that rug pulled out from under you so close to the season. The secret scrimmages seemed a little flat, then there was the news of Jalen Warley’s departure, there were some mumblings of some of the guys being a bit shellshocked by it all, especially those with a longer standing relationship with CTB.
Morale is going to be something we need to keep our eye on all season, I believe, as there will inevitably be ebbs and flows to our outcomes and the guys continue to go through the realization that the season isn’t exactly as they expected playing under a leader they weren’t expecting (at least as the primary guy). Now, that has the ability to break a bunch of different ways – they could rally around each other and have a great year or they could fracture, lose confidence in what they’re doing, etc. As it stands right now, I think the confidence has been shaken but they’re working on building it back up.
The way you do that isn’t just by having success, it’s by playing hard. Hustle. Mentally invested and alert. Aggressive. That breeds confidence and unity because it displays investment and effort.
On Monday, we came out of the gates sluggish in that area, and we’ll see some of it in the clips later, but we just didn’t look fully alert at times defensively and offensively we weren’t crisp in identifying our passes and moving the ball against the zone. We had shooters turning down looks, we had open guys we’d just wait a beat too long to get the ball to, etc.
I talked a bit already about how Dai Dai Ames was an exception to this and played aggressively and confidently throughout – but I thought that Jacob Cofie was really the spark that changed the momentum of how things were going just through his sheer effort and energy. It’s not just that he played well, which he did, it’s that he was seemingly everywhere and really provided a lift.
I’m going to start by looking at five plays from Cofie that were really just about effort and being locked in. In this first clip, we have the ball and Dai Dai misses a runner in the lane, but we see Cofie flash as he dives down the lane, almost being there in time for the put back if the defender wasn’t able to snatch it first. He hustles back on defense, is there to show on a hedge, and aggressively pokes the dribble of the Coppin St. player away. Cofie chases it at full speed – pursuing so hard that he loses his balance and falls down trying to chase the ball. Rather than giving up, he gets up quickly and sprints back, and he’s there to secure the rebound on the missed shot around the rim (shout out to Isaac McKneely for standing up strong to the shot on defense and forcing the miss).
How do you not play harder when one of your teammates is flying around like that? You absolutely love to see it.
This next look, below, Cofie spends the early part of the possession defending and, at times, lightly fronting the post. But then, on a drive to the lane, he gets his hand on and deflects a pass to his man. He immediately goes to the floor trying to secure the ball. The carom doesn’t come to him, but he’s able to quickly stand up and has the reflexes and length to retreat while keeping his arms up to completely snuff out the Coppin St. shot attempt.
Pause that clip at 15 seconds in – he’s literally just raising up from his knees while the offensive player is in a full attack dribble, and he’s able to cede ground and absolutely umbrella the shot. It’s incredible talent but also just not giving up on the play.
Here’s another great clip, below. Let’s make note of how many good and impactful things Cofie does on this segue. First, he switches onto a man, swipes at the ball, and flat out just steals/secures a pass (not just deflecting it, just ensnares) by raising his hands high. He looks to push the ball the other way, but thinks better of it and secures possession (he lost a ball like this earlier in the game). He jogs up the floor and sets up on the wing, where he takes a pass and then fires a really nice cross-court pass to TJ Power on the other wing. Power probably could of shot, but when he doesn’t, Cofie flashes to the high post and takes an entry pass after the ball gets passed back out to Sharma. He draws the defender and then feeds Power again, who shoots it this time. Cofie times the shot, crashes the glass, secures the board, and then takes it up, drawing the shooting foul.
!!!! That’s a freshman, a very talented one, and both sides of the ball on these two possessions just completely revolved around his contributions across a wide-array of skillsets but, again, defined by effort.
We’ve still got two more! Here’s basically a put back dunk working his way to the rim on a three-point miss from the corner:
And, finally, this is the second time in as many games that he’s gotten a breakaway dunk from his active reach and ball denial. This time, with a little flair at the end:
I continue to be incredibly impressed with what Cofie is bringing to the table for us. It’s a high level of skill and ability (he hit another three and got a double double). It’s flexibility to play either the 4 or 5 (we’ll see how he holds up against true Centers but I think he’ll be solid and, even if not, we still have Blake for that and can pair the two for a twin towers kind of situation) and unlock our ability to pack more of our frontcourt talent into the game 3-5 which I’ll discuss more later. But, very relevant, it’s infectious effort and activity.
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Conversely, Taine Murray had the worst game he’s had as a Wahoo. He had 6 turnovers, two fouls (one on a made three), and 1 rebound (no other stats) in 18 minutes played. Stepping on the out of bounds line, dribbling the ball off of his foot, getting the ball ripped from his hands… he airballed an open three.
Now the purpose of this isn’t to beat up or pick on him. Everyone has bad physical games and there’s no need to show any of the turnovers or more traditional physical mistakes. But the problem, to me, was that he just looked… elsewhere, mentally. It was like he was in a daze; and it wasn’t just that he had an off night, made some physical mistakes, or wasn’t assertive on offense, as we’ve sometimes seen from him in the past. In fact, not entirely, because the early game lull was very real, but many of the instances I attributed to sloppy team play or low energy live involved Murray.
Here’s one such example, below. Elijah Saunders plays a flat hedge on a ball screen set on Dai Dai Ames. *Side note, much more variability in how we’re handling ball screens this year. His man rolls and Cofie steps into the lane to assist on the roll. Ames is recovering, with his job being to deter the pass to Saunders’s man but to recover to his own. McKneely steps in to deter the drive, and his man dives from the corner, taking the pass. Saunders continues his momentum and Cofie drops over, double teaming the cutter in the short corner. Now, McKneely and Ames are kind of in no man’s land here. Ames has recovered to his own man. He and McKneely need to pass this off since McKneely’s man is being double teamed, likely where Ames dives to the guy under the hoop and McKneely takes his man (conversely, they could communicate that and switch the responsibility). Ames is new to the defense so you’re going to expect some miscommunication and if there’s a full-on fault here it is his. But, the back side of the Pack Line, the primary responsibility is to collapse on an open man under the hoop, if one exists. You read and deny the inside shot and make the defense pass to the farther away defender to take a jump shot. The best rotation here as a whole is probably that the bigger Murray collapses/fronts the man under the rim, McKneely retreats to Ames’s initial man, and Dai Dai (and his better foot speed) fades to read/anticipate a skip pass to either Cofie or Murry’s men. Murray has not just one, but two guys who pass in between him and the basket – Saunders’s man diving, who is the player he needs to jump in front of at this point, but also Cofie’s man who crosses right in front of him to the top of the key. A seasoned player within the defense, he makes no adjustment at all, and instead keeps the same spacing between his man and the play. It’s a read and react helping defense! The Coppin St. player could have actually been called for three-seconds with how long he hung out uncovered walking down the lane and under the rim here.
This kind of thing you might expect from a new player to the system (although CTB yanked Gertrude for similar things last year), but you don’t expect a fourth-year guy to fall asleep on help side responsibilities so dramatically. It’s like he was planted in the spot.
Here’s another look, below. On this one, Cofie gets a deflection (Cofie!) again while defending the ball and Saunders reads that and attempts to leak the other way for a break-out. This wasn’t a good read as he committed too hard to it before it was clear Cofie would get the ball, but I like the idea and the aggression to make something happen (we’ll talked about us pushing the tempo a bit later and Saunders seems the most bought into this idea). But both Murray (and McKneely) watch Saunders’s man cut right down the lane past them, unguarded, and neither respond. Murray is right there when it happens and is in the best position to go with the cutter and try to cut off his angle (McKneely is also at fault here, although he more than made up for it throughout the game).
Yes, we haven’t traditionally had guys try to anticipate a defensive opportunity like this and hunt a fast break, and this is certainly a talking point for Saunders, but this is an area of focus on offense and you still have to be alert on defense to support these things. I much prefer action to inaction on the whole.
While it’s not arguable that he was at fault on those clips with poor help defense; he was still not the only cause and was vulnerable by not being more proactive to help support new players. But here’s a different example, below, of him just falling asleep on his man and not even noticing that he was cutting from the lane to run off of a pin down. He loses track of his guy for about a full second, and you see him identify it far too late and struggle to get off of the screen. Coppin St. misses, but this is a wide-open shot.
In a system and program that values experience and being “continuous” on defense, you really just can’t have this from a Senior; but especially one who isn’t making up for it in other ways.
Look, we know that Taine can and has been better than this in the past. His limitations historically have been more physical than mental or effort and I’m not trying to say that if you have one bad game you’re doomed to repeat it. But, there’s so much at stake here right now for this season and the future of the program. Coach Sanchez is making his case to be the long-term head coach and continuity of the roster is at its most perilous (and will continue to be whether he’s hired or whether we go with a new coach). The things most likely to contribute toward keeping this core around are success and the vibes associated. Taine’s biggest case to see time is that he’s expected to be a leader on the team who helps to stabilize things right now (especially the mental side). These kinds of mistakes are deflating and don’t match the intensity we’re seeing from others on the roster. With so many guys being new or young and needing repetitions to learn, with the majority of the guys playing with good hustle and energy and having a higher ceiling (and floor at the moment), we need to lean into their ability to contribute.
The main case for continuing to play Taine almost half of the game is mostly sentimental at this point. He paid his dues and stayed with the program throughout a tumultuous career… but I don’t think we can afford to think like that (in the modern landscape of college basketball at all, but especially for our program now). Ostensibly, he’s a very similar player to Ishan Sharma in both how they play and even in physical stature. Sharma has a quicker release and hunts his shot much more, with seeming unfailing confidence (even when he’s not on, like Monday night). Taine has had more success attacking close outs and is more experienced. He’s a proven shooter at this level although his willingness to take a shot is more easily discouraged. If I was factoring in nothing else, I’d still probably prefer Sharma as a player right now, but Taine is in his final season and Sharma is a Freshman with a ton of upside and ability to grow (and a mentality more inclined to do so, in all likelihood). If they’re already pretty comparable, then give me more investment into the guy with 4 years of upside who is more confident and is playing with a ton of energy right now. Energy is infectious as is timidity and, it can’t be repeated enough, that’s really important right now for how this team plays this early season. As it stands, they’re playing the same role in an increasingly crowded 2-3 position (with TJ Power getting many of his minutes there as well)
So, what does that all mean practically? Of course, we’re not just going to cut Taine out of the lineup cold turkey. He has had enough flashes over the years and we’re probably going to run into some ruts where we need a spark once in a while (probably more often than once in a while). But he can play the established veteran role who has already had some reps over the years who is the break glass in case of emergency for the new guys. Taine is averaging 18.5 mpg and Sharma is averaging 13.5 (small sample size of two games). I’d switch that and probably uptick it a little more so that it’s closer to 20 mins for Sharma, a few more minutes to TJ Power, and like 5-8 mins for Murray. Keep the door open for him to give you a turnaround, but build on those reps with your young/new guys, setting the stage for perhaps an even more dramatic shift when we get to conference play.
But, I can hear the commentary that this is overreaction to one (really) bad game right now – it’s not just that; it’s a considerable body of work contrasted with significant flashes of potential coupled with the fact that we just need the hunger on the floor right now.
Isaac McKneely Starting To Look At His Hand
… and realize his power. I spent the first ten minutes of the game or so wondering why iMac wasn’t more aggressively hunting his shot against the zone (which should be neon lights for him). But then, somewhere along the way, he did. He started to play aggressively; and not just more eager to shoot, which he absolutely was cashing 4 of 8 threes (take more by all means!), but across all areas of the game.
Here we see him grab a board and immediately push against numbers – love the crispness and accuracy of that outlet pass before Taine slows things down. Then when the ball eventually gets back to him on the wing, he sort of lulls the defense asleep by being a little deeper and looking like he’s going to pass it back out, before just rotating right into a beautiful shot.
He’d just hit another before this and you could tell he was feeling the game a this point.
Here’s some very good on-ball defense to end the half, blocking the shot without fouling.
And here he is, below, exploiting how well he’d been shooting by pump faking, drawing the defense, and then throwing a nice alley oop to Buchanan behind the defense.
I’m leaving out a bunch of shots and plays here and he did make mistakes – but the main point is that we got to see a sustained period of McKneely playing his complete game in this one.
I’ve talked a lot about energy and intensity and aggression in this piece – which is a slight abnormality for this site as I’m normally more focused on tactics. But when you go through such a bellwether moment like we have, it’s super important. You traditionally didn’t have to worry about whether or not guys were going to play hard under CTB – that was a given. In fact, last season was the first I can remember where you’d consistently see extreme variations in quality of play as it related to effort and morale. But this is a much different situation now and you look to your players, especially your experienced ones, to lead through example. I was worried about iMac taking it hard, and optically I thought he looked pretty tentative in the Campbell game and at the beginning of this one. But about halfway through the first half, something positive seemed to switch mentally that should go a long way this season if he can sustain it.
Pushing The Tempo
We talked a little last game about how we appeared more willing to push the ball in transition, but didn’t have many opportunities because of how Rohde was dealing with Campbell’s pressure. This game, on the other hand, we saw a continuation of those efforts. Elijah Saunders appears to be the most aggressive in looking for these opportunities. He’s been aggressive running the floor, so much so that we saw that failed leak out earlier, and he also took a few early midrange jumpers in isolation that missed (not featured below). I didn’t love the shot selection on those, but in a world where you’re trying to go quicker, I appreciate the philosophy and confidence behind taking those looks.
But here’s a look, below, that I think best illustrates the change in mentality. The play starts with really good and physical defense by Dai Dai in transition (he also got credit for a block here), recalling the earlier point about his agility and toughness here. He saves the ball to TJ Power who kind of forces the ball ahead sloppily to Sharma. The ball leaks out and Sharma has to chase it down to recover it. Undeterred, he fires the ball ahead to Saunders, at level with his defender, who gets taken down going up for the shot, drawing the free throws.
In the past, this is very likely the kind of play that we would settle down and set up a base offense, especially after the way the pass got out ahead of Sharma. The numbers weren’t obvious (it was three on two but practically speaking it just played out as a one-on-one) and gameplay itself was chaotic, and yet we strung one pretty wild pass into another aggressive one to draw FTs.
This next one, below, ends up being a 3 on 4 fast break which, again, we’ve historically run when the opportunity was obvious, but we rarely would force the issues like this. McKneely pushes the ball when he gets it, Ames runs to the far corner, and Saunders fills the middle of the floor, taking thepass and once again drawing the foul.
Lastly, here’s another neat conversion where we’re forcing the transition issue. Cofie gets a steal with another heads-up deflection (go Jacob), Power outlets to Sharma who throws a really nice lob pass over the top to hit the sprinting Saunders for the layup.
It’s unlikely we take any of these opportunities last year. It should be highlighted the role that Elijah Saunders had in all of these, sprinting down the floor immediately, which is why I don’t really mind him being aggressive about leaking out. It’s also noteworthy that Saunders may well be our best FT shooter, so fouling him to stop easy buckets isn’t really the boon it might seem.
Last year we also ran more early in the non-conference schedule and that dried up a bit as competition stiffened, so we’ll see if this sustains over the season or not. I will say, though, that it’s clearly more intentional than it’s been.
Saunders As A Small Forward
One thing I’ve noticed and loved to see in this young season is our willingness to play bigger lineups. I wrote a piece this past offseason discussing how we’ve used the SF position and how we’ve trended toward playing smaller with more ball handling 1-3. Either that’s an intentional change under Sanchez or, as we’ve heard, they’re just making an effort to get as many of their best players as they can on the floor and they view the quadruple of TJ Power, Elijah Saunders, Jacob Cofie, and Blake Buchanan as core to that approach.
Personally, I love that approach of playing your most impactful guys and not being married to any specific quota of skills. I opined this offseason that we would be in a good position if we played Saunders at the SF alongside TJ Power at the PF and Blake Buchanan at the Center. This was before it became obvious that they see TJ Power as more of a SF than a PF, at least offensively, but they still appear to be open to playing Elijah Saunders on the more challenging defensive matchup, which is great.
What I didn’t expect is that we’d actually see Saunders at the SF playing alongside Jacob Cofie at the PF and Blake Buchanan so soon to start the season (although I did call it out as the lineup I hope we’d gravitate toward as the season progresses during my guest spot on the Hoos On Podcast). But, sure enough, it’s already happening and they trotted it out for 6 possessions each way on Monday. And… it didn’t go well! At least, not really, they finished -4 with the group although that included fouling a three-point shooter at the end of a stellar defensive possession which we’ll see. There are clearly some things to work on from a cohesion standpoint, especially on offense – but there was a ton of potential flashed here.
This is a look that starts with Cofie covering on the wing and he and Buchanan defending a ball screen together! Cofie scrambles over the top and runs with his man, deterring anything at the rim and forcing a kick out, which Ames closes out on. The ball swings to Saunders’s man, and he shuts down a drive to the lane with a quality slide (and with Ames pecking at the dribble). The ball has to get dumped back off to Buchanan’s man who passes out to McKneely’s who attempts to take the ball screen and elevate a rushed three with McKneely and Buchanan on either side of him. Cofie secures the easy rebound.
That’s a terrible shot and it’s smothering defense on the back of a lineup that’s clearly huge but, with their mobility 3-5, can defend with versatility.
Here’s the second defensive possession with this group that I want to highlight, below. Now, first keep in mind some of the concerns around how our defense will fare with lineups with any three of Rohde, McKneely, Murray, Sharma, and Power 1-3 on the floor. That’s a lot of potential lineup combinations that we might trot out this season and all of them will likely put a lot of pressure on the back end of our Pack Line. Now, look at this clip below.
Buchanan hedges with McKneely and deflects the ball out past half court. Cofie hedges with Saunders and together they trap and absolutely get in the space of the Coppin St. player, who has no room or visibility to pass to the slipped screen. Buchanan hedges with Ames and recovers well with Cofie playing center field under the hoop. Cofie hedges well with Ames and recovers, and then Ames just over-contests an actual step back three and gives the Eagles a bail out foul.
Now that defense right there looks like our defenses of yore. It’s mobile, athletic, long, intrusive. It destroys visibility and keeps pushing the offense away from the hoop while still providing potential rim protection from a variety of players. It’s easy to see us building a defensive identity around this core group and then supplementing from there.
For a few years, it’s felt like, while we’ve had some great defensive players, we’ve had big weaknesses within our defenses which have had to rely heavily on the system to prop up under-athletic pieces. This does not look like that. It has the makings of something smothering if we were to nurture it.
But here’s the other thing about this specific lineup – it still has 4 solid (to potentially very good) three-point shooters on the floor AND the ability to play with size mismatches. Here’s a 4-around-1 at the high post set which morphs into a more old school three-around-two multi-big look. When Cofie passes the ball from the wing, he cuts through and sets up shot on the block. Buchanan slides up from the high post to set a ball screen for Ames and rolls to the hoop. Ames does well not to rush, waits for the defense to adjust to Buchanan, and finds Cofie who has slid across the lane, for a layup attempt that draws a foul. Throughout the possession iMac and Saunders hold their men on the wing and in the corner respectively as they’re both credibly shooting threats.
There’s really just a lot to love about building an identity around this lineup and playing from there. I hope we’re not discouraged by the box score and trust our eyes and the potential of this one.
Speaking of iterations of this, TJ Power at 6’9″ absolutely fits into the mold as a SF with a shot. His limitation is going to be how his defense matures over the season. Speaking of…
TJ Power’s Defense
I focused it last game and am going to do so again because his evolution here is going to speak so much to whether or not we can just play big as a base the majority of the season or whether we’ll need to go to some more traditional lineups for us more regularly. It’s going to be a work in progress, but I do think there are some encouraging signs.
Here’s one such look, below, where he starts a possession by hedging and recovering and finishes it by discouraging a jump shot, cutting off a driving angle, and then being right there to contest a spin move with his length; forcing a bad miss.
And here’s one later in the game, below, where you see him playing with both Cofie and Saunders. Contrasted with him defending the perimeter above, they’ve got him on the much less threatening 6’8″ Peter Oduro (#12) who averages just over 5 points per game and who sticks closer to the lane. They have Saunders out on the 6’6″ Derrius Ward who is a guard and the Eagles leading scorer at 14.5 ppg. It’s a better matchup and Power doesn’t have to be as mobile on defense, hanging around his man in the lane until he can secure a solid rebound at the end of the possession.
It’s a good adjustment to keep TJ off the wings when they’re the most potent scorers but without having to take either of the other two forwards off the floor to do so.
But we also need to look at the drawbacks. This is the early part of the game, below, when most of the team was still sleepwalking a bit. Power does a solid job on the original hedge with Ames and passes his man back to him, but gets caught sleeping in the lane when his man runs off of that pin down screen. He struggles to fight through and gives up the open shot, and then relaxes after his contest, walking back into the play and almost giving up the long rebound.
Here he just kind of gets pushed off of his defensive line through the offensive player being physical. The shoulder is lowered and he’s knocked back far enough that there’s space for an easy layup. I’m reminded of the B/W scrimmage on this one when he bounced off of Cofie and gave up a dunk. He’s going to have to be able to hold up at the point of attack when the man he’s guarding has some momentum.
And here we see a miscommunication on a hedge with Elijah Saunders on a hedge here. Sometimes we switch big-to-big ball screens… but is that what this would be classified as? This is a team defensive piece where they need to talk better and figure out which of them is going to recover to Power’s man (and do so much sooner).
Team defense is always going to be a work in progress with all the new guys and that part should continue to improve. The encouraging thing from this game is that the second clip above was really the only on-on-one defensive instance where the opponent scoring on him was far easier than it should have been for physical reasons (because it’s usually easier to fix mental mistakes than to improve physically in one season). You certainly have to account for the opponent in that, but the more live reps that TJ gets at this level, the better that will be.
The question with TJ throughout the season is going to be, “Is there an effective place to put him on defense?” unless he really makes strides (and he is taking small steps). He does have a few things going for him, though, in that regard. Coupled with Saunders OR Cofie (who also appears able to defend the wing), you have the ability to stick him on the worst offensive player on the floor regardless of position. You don’t have to place him on either a guard or a forward exclusively. There isn’t that same flexibility with our other players who might most commonly fill that SF position otherwise like Ishan or Taine.
It’s also unclear that he’s not already just a better wing defender than either of those players anyway. Maybe not technically, but it’s not either of their strengths and he’s got a full 4 inches on both, allowing him more margin for error on close outs, contests, and in helping to secure the glass. It will be something to keep an eye on as the competition improves as it will next game.
I don’t mind TJ starting right now, Cofie can be a jolt of energy off of the bench, but I don’t think he’s one of our best five players at this point in time. He’s still a question mark defensively and we haven’t even discussed his 1-6 shooting (which, he’s been in a funk since the scrimmages but I think he’ll work through). Personally, I’d rather see us run with the lineup above with Saunders, Cofie, and Buchanan to start a game (benefit from that energy right away) and then you can bring Power on from the bench for any of the three of them and designate his defensive matchup for whoever on the opposition seems the least involved of the three they’re guarding. But, either way, TJ’s progression is going to be one of the key factors of the season. If he can get the offense going and improve enough that he’s physically imposing against smaller players, or adequate against like-sized ones on defense, now you’ve got redundancy and shooting across multiple big lineups. But if he can’t, now you’re going to have to start stretching your guard rotations more and I think we’ll start to run into issues with team defense against quality guard play.
In Conclusion
Every season I try to ask myself “What can this team’s identity be?” Basically, what’s our best path forward to our best lineups and to having a unique advantage over our opponents. With this team, I think we already have a glimpse into that answer:
Be the big, long, athletic team 3-5 that can protect the rim and secure the glass across all three positions and that can pressure the rim on offense. Do so without conceding outside shooting or spacing. Lean into that identity hard with your four frontcourt players who, aside from Buchanan who will always man the Center, have a ton of flexibility in how you use them. Support that philosophy with your PG who can touch the paint and defend quickness (while not conceding toughness) and your SG who has one of the purest shots in the league and won’t have to feel as much pressure with better defensive help behind him and who won’t be able to disproportionately draw bigger more physical defenders because they’re going to have their hands full with our collective size.
I’d like to see us move forward with this starting lineup for a while:
PG – Ames
SG – McKneely
SF – Saunders
PF – Cofie
C – Buchanan
Power first off the bench for any of the three forwards, Rohde as a true backup to Ames for 10-15 mins with the ability to flex off the ball for a couple more if absolutely necessary, Sharma to back up McKneely and occasionally play with him as we shift smaller. A light whisper splash of Taine once per game just to see if he’s on. If and when Bliss gets healthy, work him into the mix primarily for Rohde and Taine minutes and see what he gives you.
For what it’s worth, I do not expect we’ll see this next game. If Rohde is healthy, I think they’ll return to him as the starter and I don’t think Sharma will have supplanted Taine’s minutes just yet. But I will say that it does look like things are trending more toward that final state that I outlined above. I think Ron will be slower to make full scale changes, but it appears that his ideas are leading him in that direction.
Looking forward to see how it all unfolds against Villanova Friday night in our first true test of the season!
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