Ahhhhh! An actual televised scrimmage! Something I can Cut up without bootleg vibes! We’re doing it!!!!!
Ahem.
There would have been even more to review if Mark Byington hadn’t gone full villain mode by blacking out the scrimmage in Nashville, including the WWE miced up during the game move. Coach Odom had a few comments after the game about the spectacle and the format. Given the speculation around our coaching search this past offseason and potential candidates; I’m all about this manufactured (fake for now, but could be fun if the games ever counted and happened regularly) rivalry longer term; but, I digress… and so early in the piece, too!
After listening on the radio like it was the 30s, gathered around the fireplace, and after cobbling together trusted eyewitness accounts from Nashville, I was able to get down and see the home scrimmage vs. Villanova in person. Then, thankfully, had access to the video of the game itself to sanity check. It was like a real in-season game! Always good, because there are tons of things you catch on film that you didn’t catch live; but there’s also a valuable perspective seeing the players live that doesn’t always show up as clearly on film.
For example, I didn’t think the film did justice to how physical the Villanova game was. Both teams played through a lot of contact and the refs let them play, for the most part, especially in contrast to the Vandy game. That’s something that’s good for our guys to get a feel for (and certainly benefits us longer term).
In past seasons our scrimmages against other teams were secret and kept under wraps; leaving even fewer eyewitness accounts and fans relying mostly on box scores or leaks to assign any kind of meaning. Out best look at the team itself often came from the Blue/White inter-squad scrimmages. So, while you always have to take preseason contests with a big grain of salt – both because it’s so early and there’s so much growth to happen, but also because coaches tend to try out a bunch of different things to see how they look in games that don’t count. That being said, it does feel like we can take a little more from these contests than we would in prior years because of the visibility and format (certainly the home game format) AND because it’s our first glimpse into how things look in a competitive environment under Coach Odom.
So, to recap, I’m going to start out this piece by talking about thematic questions about the team that we can put some credence in and that I don’t think are overreactions – i.e. “What’s real?” Then I’ll follow with a look at the positional groupings and providing any updates to my playing time/rotations hopes piece. Let’s get after it!
Focus On Transition Offense
Not that we really doubted; but fans used to hearing talk of increasing transition opportunities only to virtually see no change may be heartened to know that this isn’t hype; it’s a core element of the offense that the team will be looking to aggressively pursue. That’s not the case here. The team was consistent with what we saw on tape from past Odom teams; looking to get the ball up the floor quickly to attack when the opportunity was there. This will be a staple of what we do this season and it will come out of more traditional opportunities, like the below, from forced steals. Note that when Elijah Gertrude gets the nice steal, it’s a 3-on-2 break going the other way with Malk Thomas and Chance Mallory.
Normally, on a traditional 3-on-2 fast break, the guard in the center would push the ball up the middle of the floor, the other two players would run their lanes, and the ball handler would force one of the two defenders to commit before passing to the open man for a basket around the rim. In this case, though, Gertrude got the ball ahead to Thomas to put more pressure on the defense to get back. He filled middle, and Mallory actually ran to the corner three. Thomas, always slippery, just goes ahead and splits the two defenders on his own, drawing the trip to the lane in addition to the made layup.
It’s a pretty good look at their mentality around the transition points; because at the point Thomas had the ball, he no longer had the numbers without waiting for his teammates to get back into the picture, but it didn’t matter because he was talented enough to make a play splitting the defenders while running at full speed. Also, guys are often not going to be running the floor to the rim; we’re going to see them running to either get a kick out three or an open look from deep while pushing the ball ahead. If Thomas felt like he couldn’t generate the shot here, you probably would have seen the kick out to Mallory for that three-point attempt.
We’re not going to just see it after steals, though. Here’s a great look at this generating advantage for us after a missed shot and a defensive rebound. In this clip below, De Ridder secures the rebound and, as he does, you can see Thomas and White taking off. Villanova is in fine shape on the catch; they have defensive balance near both Thomas and White, and three guys who crashed the glass roughly at parity with Mallory, Onyenso, and TDR. De Ridder doesn’t even get a quick outlet off, he pivots, waits for the Wildcat defenders to clear for a moment, and then outlets the ball to Mallory across the court. By the time Mallory catches the ball and starts running, the only Villanova defender behind him is the one nearest to De Ridder, and he’s well ahead of him on the play. The intention and angles matter, though, and Mallory passes the ball aggressively up to White on the wing who turns and makes an easy pass to Thomas in the corner for the wide open three-pointer.
It’s so simple, but the simple act of hustling – running the floor with purpose to a specific spot – made all of the difference here. When Thomas and White ran out, Thomas had Acaden Lewis (#55) from Villanova nearest to him with balance. Lewis was guarding Mallory in the halfcourt set; so he keeps his eye on the ball handler, expecting to pick him up, and shading the lane in the meantime. He doesn’t identify Thomas as his responsibility or track him all the way across the court to the corner. The action would have required good identification of his responsibility and cross-court communication with his teammate; all possible, but something that puts a lot of pressure on a defense to always be alert and to always get their assignments correct. Villanova doesn’t here and it costs them an easy three-point look.
But sometimes it’s even just playing fast after the opposition’s makes! Here the Wildcats get an easy basket around the rim after a pick and roll action. We inbound the ball to Elijah Gertrude who doesn’t do anything crazy here with the pace. He jogs the ball up the floor with intention, takes a high ball screen from Grünloh (or, really just uses the optics of it to get past his man and get going down hill), and then just takes what the defending Center gives him as he stays lower in the paint by hitting the runner in the lane.
First of all, it’s so awesome to see Eli involved in a lot of these plays, especially as a ball handler. He took a couple of open threes without conscience throughout the game as well, primarily out of break looks and, although he didn’t make any of them – I absolutely love that he feels empowered to hunt his offense when the situation is there.
But, secondarily, this really isn’t a “fast break,” but it is still transition offense in the sense that we get into meaningful action while the defense is still getting itself gathered. There’s no hesitation around waiting to run offense – it’s simply being willing to attack the defender almost as soon as we cross halfcourt and then taking the opportunity that’s created from that action.
Hopefully, these three clips can show slightly different angles around the same concept — that we’re always going to be asking the defense the same question: “Are you ready?” And if the answer is “no,” then we’re going to try to take advantage across all three levels.
Here’s one more look, below, that I think highlights the mindset pretty well. This comes about halfway through the second half. The game has been led by around 5-10 points through most of the contest, but it’s starting to get a little more hotly contested and Villanova has just picked up in full court pressure, fronting their men and trying to deny an entry pass. Their first effort led to a deflection out of bounds; and so this was our adjustment. Jacari White fakes like he’s going to break toward the ball, slams on the breaks and goes long. Dallin Hall hits him over the top with the one-handed pass. There is nothing but attack on White’s mind from that point. No thought of slowing the ball down and running some offense with a 6-point lead. No, he flies right at the hoop such that the last defender has to step up, and then simply throws the ball up toward the rim for a monstrous alley-oop by Ugonna Onyenso!
This wasn’t just trying to break the press; it was using the opponent’s aggression against them and designing an opportunity to hunt easy points.
Full-Court Pressure
The team picked up full court basically all game, both games. Now, mind you, they mostly tried to make a play on the inbound pass and then just force the opponent to work bringing the ball up the floor when they couldn’t. But, man, sometimes that initial pressure was very disruptive; especially with De Ridder on the ball and with Eli on the floor.
This was probably the most electric sequence of the night, and it came simply at first from De Ridder not giving up on the play when he didn’t get the initial offensive rebound. Instead, he’s just such a train that, in going for the ball, the incidental contact knocks the Villanova player off balance; and he makes the mistake of saving the ball to De Ridder; who gets an easy dunk. Not done there, though, he pressures the ball again, and this time Eli flies into the play and makes the steal, passes to Dallin, who had been fronting his man, who finds a trailing Tillis with a cross-court pass and a nice three-ball.
And then, they were right back into it prior to Kevin Willard calling a timeout.
You can’t really see it with the camera work during this clip – but one thing that really stood out live was how menacing De Ridder was trying to bother the inbound passer. He was looming and quick, and made some of the passing angles really difficult, as you can see from the Eli steal (which was a possibility because of the TDR pressure), but there were many other near-steals throughout the evening on that pass.
Most of the time, it looked more like this:
Making an effort to make the inbound pass difficult, forcing the ball to that coffin corner, and then more-or-less backing off and forcing the ball handler to be aware; but using it more to make them have to work. Malik Thomas makes an attempt to cut off his man’s dribble as he nears half court – trying to make something happen, which I like; because occasionally you create free points.
They haven’t shown it yet, but I would like to see them spring a trap there on the inbound pass on occasion. The ball is inbounded there a lot; but we’ve virtually always dropped out during standard play. Throwing that wrinkle in on occasion is likely going to happen as some point. At the very least, though, we’re always making an effort to slow down the amount of time it takes to get the opposition into their halfcourt offense, and that should be something we see often.
Outside Shooting
This team can really shoot the basketball! At one point in the first half, we were shooting 57% from deep on 14 attempts (finished at 38% for the game on 26). Both of our Centers each made one, including the first of the game from Johann Grünloh
AND one from Ugonna Onyenso, who hasn’t made one in his NCAA career, but took two and apparently has the green light:
Guys were hitting them off of the break and off of set halfcourt offense… but two of the bigger shots of the game in relation to when they came on the scoreboard and where the momentum was were from Jacari White and Chance Mallory simply deciding that they needed to make something happen at the end of a shot clock… here from Jacari (after passing up an easier look) when Villanova had pulled within 1 point:
And here, from Chance, right after Villanova took one of their few leads:
The shooting across the board was a highlight – but these two came at clutch moments from something they created themselves off of their dribble. In Hall’s case, when the broader offense had stalled out.
Most every team has bad shooting nights where you have to find other ways to win (or you just often lose by a lot otherwise). This team has so many great shooters that it feels like those nights will be few and far in-between. If a couple of guys are slumping, others won’t be. Heck, Sam Lewis was one of the best spot-up shooters in college basketball last year and airballed his early attempt in this one (more on him later) – and we were shooting at a devastating pace early on. But, more so, the high quality of their shot making, I believe, will often serve as a floor – like a get out of jail free card of sorts when the other team is playing great defense. As we know as Virginia fans, it can be incredibly deflating when you play great defense for 30 seconds and then the other team just rains in a difficult three at the end of a shot clock or over a good contest.
I expect we’ll give a lot of opponents that same feeling this season.
This Team Needs Time To Gel
Really on both sides of the ball. There were a lot of offensive moments where just getting to play with each other more will help – but they’re a more talented offensive team so they’ll likely be able to compensate for that individually some; especially early in the season. Defensively, there are still a lot of breakdowns from miscommunication and still learning where their responsibilities are at any given moment. There were a lot of glaring but simpler ones like over helping on ball screens and not rotating to the corner for the three.
Here’s one where you see Malik Thomas guarding Acaden Lewis (#55). Thomas gets displaced on the ball screen, but Grünloh is there playing drop coverage, and Malik does a nice job of fighting back into the play for the shot contest. The rebound, though, gets away from Johann as he doesn’t get depth enough. White has pinched down to try to help with the rebound, so Hall leaves his own man to rotate over and pick up White’s cover (#0 Christian Jeffrey). This creates some rotational confusion as De Ridder leaves his own man to cover for Hall, but Thomas, leaves his own man, Lewis, alone under the hoop to cover for De Ridder. White is late to leave to recover but when he does, is correctly scrambling and looking to the perimeter to find his the rotation. He doesn’t expect that the man closest to the hoop would have been the one lost, and there’s a nice baseline pass from Villanova to find the open man and draw the foul on Grünloh.
This is a play that went wrong in a lot of places, but mostly with Thomas. Upon seeing Hall switched to his man, White should have been much quicker to identify that he needed to rotate. De Ridder probably commits too hard to his rotation with Hall’s initial man still far beyond the three-point line. He could have shaded more toward the center of the lane and reacted to a pass. Thomas, though, absolutely shouldn’t have left his man all alone under the basket to pick up the far wing three-point mark. You stay attached to your own man, leaving position to close out if there’s a skip pass, and trusting you’ll get a rotation back to your man under the hoop when you do. This stuff just needs reps and will come more naturally; although Thomas should probably be more aware of his responsibility there.
In this next one below, there’s just too little urgency to switch back to the right men after recovering in transition. Mallory picks up ball, where Grünloh takes Malik Thomas’s man (#4 Tyler Perkins). You can see Thomas jogging pretty casually back into the play to take Grünloh’s cover. In doing so, he can’t proactively switch assignments back to Perkins and he’s out of position when Villanova reverses the ball screen on the wing. Grünloh, not used to playing in space in the corner, is too far extended and not quick enough to be able to react and slow down the drive.
This is going to be the struggle of playing as we do, and Thomas has consistently been getting the most minutes of the group (leading the way with 29:17 on Friday). You’re going to be gassed and are still going to have to have the urgency to defend – but it’s also the lack of urgency in communication. Johann and Malik should be talking there and trying to proactively initiate the hand off rather than Malik trying to defend a big from the screening position and not taking the right positioning to do so.
Everyone talks openly about having a core team that’s had at least a year prior to play together is a huge advantage in the current college environment. Florida and Houston just paved the way with this last season. It’s one of the reasons (along with not knowing how to evaluate our international players) that projections on us seem on the lower end of our outcomes range (IMO). But this is the kind of stuff that is referencing. The guys are going to be learning what Odom expects and how to play with each other constantly from here throughout the entire season; and these kinds of plays will be some of the lumps that come with that.
Perimeter Defense Concerns
If there’s a single concern on this roster right now that looks like it could linger, it is around the perimeter defense and keeping the opposing team out of the lane. There are moments where we look aggressive and capable; but it’s not just communication break downs. Too often there are just missteps that allow for easy drives into the lane. You see it with Sam Lewis here even though the team defense is able to force the miss and collect the ball, he steps the complete wrong direction on the initial drive, offering a clear lane.
Here, below, we see it from Jacarai; knees wobbling a little and opening to allow for the drive to the center of the paint and an easy bucket.
Here’s one from Thomas where he also just kind of gets beaten on the first step and is in recovery mode throughout the drive. He works to fight back in the play, but his scramble is exploited by the pump fake and he goes flying out of the picture. Also a look at the communication and system knowledge again, as well, as Grünloh is right there to help, and TDR is also there to pick up his man. This should have been Johann aggressively rotating to deny or block the shot there, TDR pinching on his man, both trying to obscure the pass to the corner, and then both TDR and/or Lewis getting prepared to rotate there if the vision permitted, with Thomas looking to either help on the glass or keeping eyes on who he could close out to.
With good rotations and knowledge of team defense, this could have resulted in a Sam Lewis steal opportunity here (I can see Reece baiting this pass on repeat in my mind).
This has been true (giving up angles to quickness), at one point or another, for all of our perimeter defenders – many more than just these two examples and really across all of them (Eli a little less than the others). Just giving a false step here or there. Some struggles with lateral quickness. It’s resulted in too many easy paint touches and finishes.
This has also extended to our pick and roll defense. Our on ball defenders are too often getting caught on the screen and then struggling to get back into the play. Here you see Dallin Hall make a bad decision on the screener. Acaden Lewis is still pretty far beyond the three-point line, and Hall could have pretty safely gone under the screen here between Duke Brennan (#24) and Ugo to shut down the drive on the other side. His angle is also encouraging of that. Instead, he takes the long way around, tries to fight over, and puts himself in clear trailing position. This gives Villanova an easy 2-on-1 against Onyenso which they execute well (also low recognition from De Ridder to help here and pinch down, too).
It would also be fair to argue here, if our goal was to fight over this screen, that Hall had too much depth on Lewis initially. He’s probably giving space to account for Lewis’s quickness, but the fact that he’s down almost by the three-point line if you pause at two seconds into the clip, means that he’s always going to have a hard time getting into Lewis’s body and fighting for that space going over the screen. The angle and the proximity just isn’t there. So, he’s going to have to either commit to playing closer on the ball or is going to have to be comfortable ducking under there (which I believe would have been fine).
Here’s White just getting caught on the screen enough that he concedes the comfortable midrange jumper.
The midrange jumper isn’t the worst shot to concede and out drop coverage is allowing for that rather than something simple at the rim – but getting so stuck on this screen is the issue such that Jacari can’t really make the shooter aware of his presence.
And there is also the miscommunication element cropping up in these as well; which is more fixable and ties into the previous topic, but is worth calling out here. In this look below, Chance, Dallin, and Eli all do a pretty nice job of staying closely attached to their ball handlers and navigating the Villanova weave. Then they set up a ball screen, which Chance successfully navigates over twice, with Ugo playing extreme drop coverage. It’s where TDR’s man comes up as that second screener that creates some confusion. Thijs cheats off of his man to stop the dribble penetration, despite that screen not really threatening Chance. This leaves his man wide-open for three on the return pass when Mallory continues to chase his man.
This is just a breakdown in recognizing the scheme rules AND also in communication. De Ridder likely anticipated the ball screen here and the defensive rules were that they were switching 1-4 and dropping when the screener was the 5. The screen didn’t take place, though. Additionally, if he and Chance had effectively communicated the switch, the fact that the screen didn’t happen wouldn’t have mattered because Chance would have simply dropped his man off and recovered to the shooter earlier. Without feeling the screen, though, Chance has no line of sight into what De Ridder was doing without better vocals there.
I do think this is going to improve from how it looks now to where it ends. Yes, the communication piece we established and will help on the clip above; but being comfortable in the defensive system and learning how they have to play, where they can be aggressive, where they can rely on teammates, where they can take chances… that’s all going to improve to some degree. There are flashes on this team where the perimeter defense does look good – where they funnel a defender into a shot blocker, where they play physical on the ball, where their size looms over players who get into the lane, where they get a really nice contest on a jump shot. This is where Elijah Gertrude really has a chance to make a mark for himself and carve out a role this season – and this is also where Sam Lewis has the potential to show the most improvement over what he’s put on tape early on. We’ll talk about that in more detail in the next section.
That being said, with this core group who are likely to see a good deal of burn (Thomas, Hall, Mallory, White sometimes, Lewis sometimes… certainly Carrere if he ever plays) there’s always going to be a level of vulnerability to good and quick guard play. While there should be some things that mitigate it and we should get better at covering for it, I imagine this will be our biggest Achilles’ heel this year. There are going to be at least a handful of games against talented and athletic backcourts where if we don’t just outscore our opponents, we won’t win.
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Positional Groupings
Center: Probably the stance that took the most pushback from my initial projection piece was putting Ugonna Onyenso in the starting five and projecting him to be in, more or less, an even timeshare with Johann Grünloh. That one appears to be wrong… and yet, I still feel good about it. The reason being, that Ugo looks really good! He hit a three-pointer in each of the scrimmages and shot without hesitation; going 1-2 from deep in the Villanova game when the Wildcats backed completely off of him. He’s been a devastating alley-oop threat and quality finisher at the rim, he’s actually had some nice passes and shown some skill with the ball, and he’s definitely been our best rim protector; blocking more shots in his just under 15 minutes than Johann did in his just under 25 minutes. He even scored almost as much (.46 points per minute played vs. .48) on a per minute basis as Grünloh did against the Wildcats. Like, one of the biggest arguments against Ugo was that he’d clog up the offense because teams could cheat off of him. I spent time making the case that Odom’s offense doesn’t need the 5 to be able to shoot… but if he’s consistently doing this:
Then it renders that argument null; and teams will quickly learn that they can’t cheat off of him (And it’s a nice-looking shot with confidence despite the complete disrespect – and he chatted with the Villanova bench afterward about it…). I’m not sure I’m willing to call it reliable just yet – but he’s 2-for-2 in games with makes from out there and the rumblings from practices were consistent with this.
The thing I under-estimated, though, is how much more assertive and formidable Grünloh looks than he did in his European tape. He’s not just functioning well as a pick and pop guy and a finisher around the rim; he’s handling the ball well, driving off of the shot fake decently, has been very active on the offensive glass (his rebounding has been the biggest surprise in that he’s had a very good nose for the ball and hasn’t been outmuscled down low as often as he was in the German pros (it’s still happening some)).
This clip, below, best showcases the promise Grünloh brings on that side and what makes him uniquely talented in this way on the roster. The nice game feel on the back door to Chance and then the fluidity of movement on the cut toward the rim with the finesse finish….
That and the fact that he isn’t looking like a liability on defense could nudge him up there in playing time. Early returns have been closer to 25-15 in favor of Johann rather than 20-20. That being said, Ugo is the better defender, and significantly so, I believe, in his ability to get to shots and, perhaps even more importantly, not fouling while defending. It wasn’t an issue in the Villanova game, but the Vanderbilt guards put a lot of pressure on our interior defenders and drew a lot of trips to the line off of Grünloh (and also De Ridder).
That and/or just really needing to squeak as much defense out of a lineup as possible could tip the scales back closer to parity.
Either way, it’s a very good question to be asking as both of these guys look very promising this season and this is likely our strongest position in terms of the quality of its starter and depth.
Power Forward
I saw some interesting thoughts from a few fans who went to or watched the Villanova game who expressed that they were a bit underwhelmed by what they saw from Thijs De Ridder. I couldn’t disagree more.
De Ridder is still very much deferring to his teammates and learning how what he does fits into this style of basketball. He had two turnovers, he had a couple of defensive lapses from a mental standpoint; communicating on switches, getting beaten back door once…. That being said, you still saw the full package on display. He was quick, strong, tied for the lead on the team in rebounds (and had the most defensively – I thought he was easily our best player at holding the Wildcats off of the offensive glass with comfort), and showed great flashes when he did decide to call his own number.
Here’s something Grünloh talked about in the postgame presser – this look where De Ridder is the primary ball handler in a big-to-big ball screen situation. It puts the defense in an awkward situation because, normally, the 4 and the 5 are called on to defend the screener as opposed to the ball handler. De Ridder assisted on a lobbed tip shot in the first half off of this action, and he didn’t show up in the stat sheet here outside of a missed shot, but his mobility and ability to get a head of screen going toward the rim on the ball screen forced both defenders to eventually have to come to him to try to contest the shot, leaving Grünloh wide open for the easy put back dunk (and nice follow from him).
Additionally, we almost never called his number in this game in the post. It could be that we’re saving some of these looks for later on, it could be that they just didn’t come within the flow of the offense, it could be that he’s still deferring and getting his feet under him. Either way, when he did get the opportunity after snagging an offensive rebound, here was the output:
He’s got a full bag of offensive moves from the post and mid-post. Hook shots like this one, turn-around jumpers, show and gos, drop steps, up and unders… this stuff is coming.
How much our offense needs to rely on him remains to be seen. We certainly have a lot of options and De Ridder is used to being on teams that share the ball and distribute scoring throughout. That being said – I strongly anticipate that his usage is going to increase as the games get more difficult and more meaningful; and that’s going to be a big positive for us once he’s gotten more acclimated.
Devin Tillis, on the other hand… I’m kind of already on the “play TDR as often as you can and his endurance holds up” wagon. I anticipated coming into the season that he would offer some solid offensive contributions but that his defense would leave us vulnerable on the interior. I still hold onto that thought and believe it will be true but, interestingly, his defense has not been a pain point so far. It helps that neither Villanova nor Vanderbilt had Power Forwards who were the focus of their offense; but even still, he’s been in good rebounding position and been pretty solid on the defensive glass. He’s also had a couple of quality and anticipatory rotations where he’s challenged shots by going straight up at the rim and forced misses. There have been a few dodgy moments just conceding to size on the glass… but I think he’s shown okay on the defensive front.
It’s actually the offensive end where his contributions may not match what we’d hoped. He’s still an excellent outside shooter; and there’s still value in having a do-little-harm defender who can bury the open outside shot. The most electric moment of the night was in one of the clips I’ve already shown above. It was a quirky lineup that saw both he and De Ridder on the floor at the 3 and 4; and Tillis was the conversion point from deep after the TDR inbound pressure, the Elijah Gertrude steal, and the Dallin Hall assist. He had a couple of nice outlet passes ahead of the defense to fuel points, too – he’s a good passer in the open floor.
All of that being said; what stood out to me watching the game live even more than it showed on film… and I just have to be straightforward about it, is that he’s very slow in both his burst and in his change of direction. Like, it was really noticeable when he had the ball and the film really doesn’t do it justice. He just seemed non-threatening to beat his man. They could harass his dribble because they didn’t have to worry about him going by them:
He was stumbling quite a bit when he had the ball trying to go faster than he could. His attempts to back guys down in the mid-post like he used to do at UC Irvine was met with physicality and resistance, and bothering his handle.
OR, it was a slowly developing shot opportunity that just ran into length:
I was really close to that play and it was one of those things that just seemed doomed from the start. The defender was not quick. He barely jumped. He absolutely absorbed that hook shot.
So… yeah. The things that Tillis liked to do at the mid-major level seem overmatched at this level. It’s a small sample size, and he may kind of play his way into a little more quickness as the season progresses – but I’m telling you now that it doesn’t feel like this is the way. I don’t think we’re going to want Tillis to be initiating much offense this season off of the bounce, either through the mid or low post, or as a primary ball handler. If he’s a spot up shooter and a connector who can throw a spicy outlet pass and keep the ball moving on offense, that’s probably the role he needs to be playing this season; and ideally just to keep Thijs fresh.
Neither Barksdale nor Lang got any run in this one, which I would expect to be consistent with most competitive games.
Non-PG Guards
This has been an interesting mix. Coach Odom started both games with Malik Thomas at the SG and Sam Lewis at the SF; certainly giving the impression that something he’s seen in practice has merited Lewis in that role (Thomas doesn’t need much more said at this point). It’s been Jacari White off of the bench, though, who has really looked good so far. He’s been comfortable with the ball in his hands, has made some really nice outside shots, has gotten out in transition, and has looked pretty agile and capable on the defensive end.
Lewis, on the other hand, hasn’t made much of an impression early on. Watching him up close, he just seems a little uncomfortable. I mentioned that he airballed his first three-point attempt against Villanova, but he also had a travel violation where he just… seemed to forget to dribble on the move. He’s looked a little unsure of himself when putting the ball on the deck; it just seems like he’s sped up right now.
What was surprising, though, is that after starting, he only played 10 minutes in the Villanova game. He got tangled up with Malik Thomas after incorrectly switching and then stumbling on the recovery and never returned to the game after the play.
In my chat with Preston Willett on his podcast, he mentioned that Lewis was getting checked out by the team trainer and could have been kept out for precautionary reasons; which makes a lot of sense. There were plenty of other players who made mistakes in rotation and Odom let them play through it, that’s his style.
It’s unclear whether or not Coach Odom is married to this idea of Jacari White as the 6th man coming off of the bench to provide a spark. I think there’s a decent case to be made that he’s played his way into the starting lineup; at least early on. What’s still clear, though, is that Sam Lewis is a significant part of the plan, and I would caution anyone drawing conclusions otherwise for the time being. He was about the best you could be in the country on the catch and shoot last year – truly an elite spot up threat; so that’s going to come once the nerves die down. What’s more, though, is that he’s really the only true “wing” on the roster with regard to his skillset and size. And at a mobile 6’7″, you can see the vision for how he can help the team if he can adjust to the speed of the game at this level (and he did play some games against incredibly talented teams last year and, despite being on a losing team, showed that he could compete).
In that earlier clip I showed where he was beaten off of his first step, you may also noticed that he was still able to bother the play (along with Johann) and force the miss. Here’s another look at what he can provide on ball and how his size and ability to contest can be very bothersome:
I suggest patience with Sam. I’m not sure he’ll be better for the team than Jacari – and would actually expect that White will be on the floor in our most important moments – but he does provide something that none of our other guards do. He offers matchup answers and should be one of the last guys you want to see standing open on the perimeter.
The other part of my preseason hopes piece that drew some cocked eyebrows was my projection of Elijah Gertrude to get 10mpg. After the Vanderbilt game when he only played in the first half and rising discussion that he’d not seen as much court time during the offseason as his teammates due to his recovery process, I was a bit worried about this one. After the Villanova game, no longer, though.
There’s clearly a plan for Eli, and I believe there’s recognition that he fits incredibly well into their scheme; especially on the defensive side of the ball. I showed earlier the play on the fast break where he closed so much ground to intercept the recovery pass on the pick and roll AND his steal in the full court press – he may just end up being our best perimeter defender on a roster that is going to want that. He was the team leader in steals at three (no one else had more than one) in just 12 minutes and the one not featured was also a disruptive collapse down from the wing. If there’s one player on the roster whose three-point shot is a question, he’s the one; and he missed all three of his attempts pretty convincingly. BUT, he took all three without hesitation… and I love the confidence he’s playing with. He also hit a nice little floater in transition; but it’s this play, below, that grabbed my attention live on that side of the ball:
The video shows what happened… but it doesn’t do justice to how explosive this felt live. Firstly, he’s bringing the ball up the floor with both Dallin and Chance on the floor, so that’s notable that they really do want the 1-4 to just go and not worry about getting it to either PG. But when he turned the corner and took that handoff back from De Ridder, he was going fast downhill. It caught me off guard, and it caught Braden Pierce (#17) off guard at how quickly Eli got on him and into the lane. The recovery from Ugo’s represented ball screen wasn’t that far with the amount of time he had the play to develop, but Pierce had to foul Gertrude.
That kind of downhill attack mindset in the context of the spacing this team can provide is something we certainly have from a mentality standpoint with other players; but not from a pure burst perspective, and gives insight into another way Eli can use his talents to earn more playing time outside of his defensive abilities. Very much looking forward to seeing what he can do.
It’s worth mentioning that Martin Carrère got a couple of minutes but once again seemed to be on the outside of the core rotation. He did hit a nice three but gave up two easy blowby drives and logged twice as many fouls as he did minutes played. There might be a spot situation here or there, but I don’t think we’re looking at him as a significant part of the rotation.
PG
I have a feeling that this one is going to be an ongoing discussion all season, primarily because Chance Mallory is so beloved and because his game is so fun. I showed his crazy behind-the-back pull up three to re-take the lead earlier.
And this sequence, below (if you keep in mind that he can shoot the lights out), kind of tells you the rest of what you need to know about his offensive game. Super creative spin move to reject the ball screen and get Onyenso wide open from three (yes, that might be a thing!), then he skies as the smallest player on the court, by far, for the offensive rebound, then runs it back and hits Ugonna for the nice alley oop after a more traditionally executed pick and roll.
Quick. Creative. Tough. Explosive. Skilled.
There you have it. But, I still say that he and Dallin Hall are getting roughly the correct minute share for the season ahead. Chance is still very much an inexperienced player at the collegiate level and trying to get his bearings on what will work; and sometimes pressing (and correctly so) trying to figure it out: and doing too much:
Meanwhile, Hall has more experience and control of the game at the moment. He has the ability to more subtly manipulate the defense and the size/athleticism to finish comfortably around the rim (he had a couple of these looks – two he finished and another drew a trip to the FT line after a nice prison dribble):
The contrast with Hall is that he’s probably also one of our weaker spot-up shooters. He did hesitate a few times with shots that could have been there and you wondered if he was over-thinking/wondering if he could get a better look for someone else (or for himself inside).
This look, below, probably highlights the ways in which he most contrasts with Chance. Under control, probing, vision seeing the play unfold and getting the ball over to White quickly for the open look – but then after taking the kick out, didn’t seem quite as sure about his spot up attempt and wasn’t overly close.
Both bring things that the other doesn’t at this point on the offensive end – and what you’re looking for is going to vary for each.
On the defensive end, I think they both have their vulnerabilities but, again, there isn’t a lot of overlap on what those are. Dallin can defend with some real size, be physical on the ball, contest shots from his man pretty well inside; but he has also shown that quickness can give him some issues. Mallory, on the other hand, is super quick, can get into guys, can fight over screens, etc., but that size and length differential is real in some cases and there are looks of him getting posted up at Vandy and some skilled and strong guards feeling confident just elevating over him. There could be some mix and matching here, too.
One thing I have seen is a willingness (but not a proclivity) to play both at the same time. We did this toward the end of both games, both trying to catch back up to Vanderbilt and trying to protect the ball and ice the game against Villanova – and we did it in a few normal game situations as well (that Eli explosive drive had both in). While I haven’t been a big fan of this when CTB did it SO often with Clark and Beekman, and I still don’t love it here given our options (I think it’s a weaker defensive pairing); Hall’s ability to defend up in size (he may actually be best suited guarding the SF when Lewis isn’t in the game) and Mallory’s ability to shoot gives them the ability to be flexible positionally and play decently together.
All this to say, Chance Mallory likely will and should see more time than the 10mpg I projected for him previously. I expect he’ll have a significant role on the team; I just don’t think we’ll need it to be the primary starting PG or leading minutes getter this year (next year, let’s go for it!). Basically, where they are right about now looks like a good distribution of talent; maybe 23-25 Dallin and 15-17 Chance could be good as opposed to the heavier distribution of Hall minutes that was previously thought. We also probably don’t need to run a different, third PG that often due to Chance’s emergence.
In Conclusion
This team is really talented. They know how to play basketball… they’re just learning how to do that together and how to marry that with how Coach Odom wants them to play. The individual pieces look talented and confident, though. We lost a pretty closely contested “festival” I’ll call it against Vanderbilt, and won a close game against Villanova that felt more lopsided than it ended. Both of those teams will be fairly competitive (Vandy could be significantly so); but it’s very important to remember not to put so much stock in the broad outcome and rather try to think about what we’re seeing and what’s likely translatable.
Hopefully, this piece got close to that or offered some good food for thought, at least. The regular season is just four days away and I’m very optimistic that the talent is here such that we’ll take something that already looks promising and polish it into something that’s very competitive.
Onward!
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