Why do we write? Is it to share knowledge and ideas? Is it to be remembered for a longer period of time? Is it to validate and test our own ideas or to shape/steer the dialogue… or both? Is it to create something that we care about or find enjoyable… or think is important? Is it just nice to have a place to put and organize all of our thoughts?
Perhaps it’s all of those things; but this piece feels like a celebration, for just a moment, of something that went well and that suggests that things may continue to go well. We just beat a team that was previously 13-2 and was receiving votes for the top 25 in both the AP and Coaches Poll 84-60 one game after stomping N.C. State on the road. Our defense, a concern early in the season, typically ranked in the 70s in efficiency, has climbed to a top 30 unit. We’re ranked nationally and have moved into the top 20 in virtually every metrics site’s ranking – including being as high as 8th on Haslametrics.com – right above Gonzaga and UCONN (this is an outlier, though).
The offense continues to put up points in an increasing variety of ways despite a key player not yet back from injury and despite off nights from any of our other guys in any given game. Our highest-profile transfer, Malik Thomas, has responded to his decreased minutes as well as we could have imagined, locking in on defense and playing better with more energy, adjusting his offensive game to become more effective but within our offensive system, and continuing to stay engaged and energetic. In fact, all of our guys appear to have bought in and are working hard to execute on both ends with great energy. Our Coach, along with driving much of these improvements mid-season, responded to his worst game of the season @VT by immediately making the exact changes we talked about in each of the subsequent to contests, to great effect.
And, the team has room to continue to get better!
Now, I can hear the curmudgeons now, saying that there’s nothing to celebrate because we haven’t actually accomplished anything and it’s early, yet. Boo! Boo feeling the need to temper positive observations now to protect ourselves against possible disappointment later. Any season that doesn’t end in a national championship ultimately leaves some level of disappointment. Progress isn’t necessarily linear and there will be times where we don’t look as good as we have recently. Who knows where it will all end?
Pause this moment in time right now, and I am encouraged to see the progress and the mindset of the team, that our Coaching Staff has been making the progress with the group that they have been, that the new personalities appear to be gelling, that we’re having these kinds of games where we look the part, and that the ceiling of the group appears to be high – regardless of whether that’s where it actually ends up or not.
So, for this one, I’m almost exclusively going to be focused on the positives and the improvements made, just general reviews of both the offense and defense showcasing some stuff that’s been neat to see and/or that’s made strides.
Offense
We’ll start with the offense since we’ll be spending a little more time with the defense next. The three core things I want to talk about and pay attention to throughout these are as follows:
Ball movement: Odom has said multiple times in press conferences that this could be the best passing team he’s ever coached. I think we’re starting to see that play out; with the team getting more and more comfortable in the offense, there are still times where things stall, but those occasions are much fewer and far between.
Designed Plays: There have been some designs that are pretty sweet – and we’ll look at some of those.
Playing In the Paint More: The biggest struggle at VT is that we had issues getting the ball inside when we weren’t hitting our outside shots. We didn’t shoot it amazingly in this one – just 31% (although that’s a bit misleading because most of our guys shot 50% and then Sam Lewis was 0-7 and Tillis 0-2 – so Cal couldn’t cheat in the same way VT did), but we still scored 84 points because we were much more efficient at scoring in the paint.
So, I’ll call this stuff out, but be thinking about those areas while checking out these Cuts. In this first one, below, I mean… that’s classic, crisp stuff right there. I like how, early on, we set up a familiar look where Mallory gets momentum and passes the ball ahead/runs off of the man and can take a hand off. Lewis fakes the hand off, though, and turns back toward the center of the court, taking a ball screen from Ugo. Both defenders come with Lewis, who passes over to Onyenso, drawing help from the corner and starting Cal’s scramble. His kick out to Gertrude in the corner is met by a pass to Tillis before Eli even lands, which is then swung back to Lewis. It all happens so quickly, Sam then has a great opportunity to attack the scrambling defender with a drive down the lane and a nice layup.
I wrote about this last game, but I absolutely love that Lewis is getting more aggressive about attacking the lane off the bounce. He can be very effective as a slasher – but it was the great ball movement that created such a clean opportunity to attack.
This next clip, below, is a great example of generic system concepts, continually working toward those, and continuing to pressure a defense to have answers, even when things get a little off schedule. Here, the guys just keep working into ball screens action, kicking the ball, and resetting. Chance and De Ridder share the ball early with some light probing drives, TDR eventually exchanging the ball with Hall. Notice they’re forcing the defense to react to the dribble and then moving the ball. Hall probably has a return pass to De Ridder here as he draws both to the middle of the court. He doesn’t see it but, no matter, he resets with a pass to Grünloh, touch pass out to Sam and now a screen there. Cal is blitzing the ball handler with two players and rotating behind, you’ll notice on these. Lewis is disrupted and the pass to Mallory gets deflected. But here’s the savvy of Mallory; when he sprints to collect it, he’s able to react to the pursuit of the defender, drive and draw, and now kick across to Hall, who hits a timely three after a nice shot fake.
So many times, Mallory is able to punish a defense when something happens off schedule, like he does here, but it’s worth noting that the team continually getting into their screening actions and moving the ball/resetting kept Cal working and eventually created the opportunity through good court vision by Chance. It’s also worth noting that Hall has a habit of making some very helpful shots at potential inflection points in the game. He hit this one to take the lead right after Cal took their first lead since 3-2. This play wasn’t any kind of set or design; it’s basically just continuity ball screening action but with the determination to keep resetting and probing and not over-dribbling when the lane wasn’t there for it.
This one, below, is later in the game and it’s worth calling out Martin Carrère being on the floor. He appeared to be playing, primarily due to Devin Tillis banging his knee twice in this game (hopefully not a set back on his knee recovery – I imagine it was just knocking needs on his bad one). They’ve consistently used him, when he has played, as another primary ball handler; he ran point at times in this game, which is a fun an exciting idea of what he could develop into given more time. That being said, here he has some nice interplay with TDR to get him the ball down in the post, TDR passes across to Lewis, whose drive then draws defenders and sets him up to feed Onyenso for the easy and-1:
This is great to see and is exactly what I was talking about with regard to the VT game and needing to find more ways to get the ball inside. This play constantly attacks the lane, first getting TDR – who is a good passer – the ball deep, and then having Lewis continue the advantage by attacking as well while looking for his size on the interior as a better conversion point. Good for Ugo making the clean catch low, too, as that’s often been a struggle for him.
And then, the last primary focus on flow and organic ball movement, here’s a look at a really pretty fast break with such consistent pressure on the defense. Mallory, outlet to Tillis to increase the pressure, pass to Thomas who fakes the pass to the corner to create a driving lane, and then the drive and pretty dish to Ugo.
This is a play that I believe Thomas would have likely shot earlier in the year; and he is good at creating contact on the break, but he’s now being more aware of the extra pass.
Alright, let’s take a look at a few nice designs, too. This is a play that should be familiar to all of the sickos (and, let’s face it, if you’re reading this site often… that’s you!) by now. One of our guards, usually Thomas, sets the cross screen for TDR and then cuts up through the lane for a pin-down by Grünloh. We’ll make either of these passes, sometimes feeding TDR and sometimes looking for Thomas. One quibble I have looking at the season-long lens is that sometimes it appears that we’re trying to get one look over another from this set rather than just reading what’s open and doing that. For example, there was a time or two in the VT game where TDR was open on this action but we didn’t throw him the ball because we were laser-focused on the pin down. TDR should be the first read, and he gets the ball here in the post. This is not a good matchup for Cal and they send the double team, which TDR recognizes and passes out of really quickly for the clean Grünloh layup.
This is also what I wanted more of from the VT game – get our bigs, but especially TDR as the best at passing out of the post or making an offensive move, the ball deeper. Look to get some shots closer to the rim, especially when your outside shots aren’t falling. We did a much better job of that in this game and, sure enough, being more involved in the offense and Johann had the confidence to hit a three later on.
This next one, below, is sweet. I wish Sam had converted the dunk, but he still got a trip to the charity stripe. It starts like many of our offensive sets do – with our bigs together at the elbows (sometimes they move up higher). Lewis starts to Iverson cut across the lane with Thomas cutting through the lane behind everything. This is just a timing decoy, though, as Tillis shows right after setting his screen, takes the pass from Mallory and, rather than cutting all the way to the wing (normally this Iverson cut results in the guard getting the ball), Lewis curls around Ugo’s screen for a clean backdoor cut and layup.
It’s always exciting to get an open cutter with no one between him and the basket; but the complete design of this play is a thing of beauty. It plays on familiarity (the guard typically getting the ball off of the Iverson cut) and subverts it, it draws on the strength of Tillis as a passer, and it even uses Thomas’s cut/action to occupy the help defense so that there’s no one there to help.
Gorgeous.
Okay, the final offensive look is below and it’s very similar to the play above – but different enough still to confuse. This is the first half and Carrère is in there in a five-point game, which is interesting. Also really interesting, he’s in there instead of either of our PGs. Check the play out, though. Lewis cuts off of a pin down screen from TDR; not the standard Iverson cut across… more angled up like he’s setting up to make himself available. Grünloh is in the corner, but as soon as TDR takes the pass, he cuts hard to the opposite elbow. De Ridder finds him and then Lewis gets a running start from a distance and cuts off of him back door.
It’s smart having this be Lewis and I really like them using him as this back door cutting option because he can finish over that attempted help from Cal’s 6’10” Lee Dort (#34). Any of our other guards and that’s probably a much more difficult finish.
While the offense has been cooking most of the season, the big question has remained around how we respond and what we do when we’re not shooting well. This was a borderline example of that – there really would have been no concerns continuing to find open looks for most of our roster that was out there – but it was still nice to see them proactively being more intentional about both playing toward points in the paint and designing those looks. The more comfortable we are going to that bag, the fewer Butler and VT situations we’ll encounter.
Defense
Alright, now let’s get into the defense. I’ve mentioned for a while now that, really since they had some time, likely, to work on this in more depth during the exam break, the team’s defense has been much improved since the Maryland game. That hasn’t always shown up on the scoreboard because of the difficult shot-making the Terps had at the end of the game, and the three OT against Tech (and insane foul rate) ballooned that score… but the signs were there, and now we’re starting to see it. The core things that I want to talk about in this section that are the largest reason for the defensive improvement are as follows:
Vulnerable Players Are Improving: I showed in the N.C. State piece how Dallin Hall’s rotations and ability to read what the defense needs were very positive in that game. He’s been locked in, especially with help defense, and his overall defense which was a struggle earlier in the year, has been much improved. Nowhere has this greater, though, than with Malik Thomas. His footspeed is still not a plus, but his bigger issue was the mental side of this game, staying engaged throughout a possession, and his technique. He’s dramatically worked on both of those sides of his game. In fact, I’d say that the way Malik Thomas has responded to getting less playing time due to his defense is exactly the way you’d want a player to respond. He didn’t sulk, he didn’t stop cheering his teammates on, he worked to figure it out and stayed aggressive! You can tell he’s feeling more comfortable now.
Straight-up Effort And Grind: There just seems to be an improved intensity across the board on the defensive side. Perhaps they’re building off of the momentum of the other improvements; perhaps they’ve been challenged/coached up… but it’s there.
Proactive Rotations/Better Communication: Prior to the season, I talked a lot about how previous Odom-coached defenses, especially VCU, would often freelance within the confines of the scheme in order to try to make something more proactive happen. Calculated gambling, if you will, or more aggressive helping – knowing where they had the luxury of leaving their man and feeling confident that their rim protection and other teammates would read and cover for them. This is starting to happen for us now, more and more.
Alright so, again, in looking at these clips below, please keep the above in mind. The first thing I want to highlight is a pretty nice defensive adjustment that we clearly made that was designed to send more proactive help. Cal had clearly scouted us and had a solid strategy early in the game where they’d run some weave actions into a ball screen, but then they’d send a third man to screen our Center so that they couldn’t get to where they needed to be in their drop coverage. This freed up some easy curls and open drives to the lane as well as some open backdoor cuts because our Centers weren’t there to man the middle. Here’s a great example of this early on, below. Watch how when Dai Dai Ames (#7 – remember him?) gets the ball, Ugo is in nice sagging position off of Dort (#34) – but Justin Pippin (#10), who was the initial ball handler, sets a screen on Ugo, preventing him from reacting to the drive.
Thomas is right there too… but he’s used to needing to stay plastered to his man and for our Centers to deal with these kinds of drivers. This happened several times early in the game.
But now, look at this! We’re not even at halftime yet, so it’s not like they went back and looked at the tape at all or had a chance to talk it over – they were spotting the cause of this real-time and then designed a solution. Watch us defend this action not once, but twice, in the clip below and with two different players. There goes Ames on the same action, and this time it’s Semetri Carr (#3) setting the screen, but this time Thomas is clued in and peels off of Carr to stop Ames dead in the lane. Mallory, Ames’s initial defender, identifies and recovers to Carr and Ugo plasters back to Dort. Alright, they set it up again going the other direction, this time with a clear moving screen by John Camden (#2) on Ugo to try to free Carr. This time it’s Tillis who peels off of that secondary screener and stops the driver, with Mallory immediately identifying and recovering to Camden, and Ugo dropping with Dort again.
Those aren’t just alert rotations from our guys, those are coached rotations from our guys. We designed a plan and then executed with over 7 minutes still to go in the first half. Really impressive, to coordinate so cleanly on the fly the switches from 3rd party screeners.
Alright, here’s a clip, below, where Cal doesn’t really do much. It’s a lot of isolation ball with one ball screen that Sam Lewis does well to navigate and then close out on the shooter. But, everyone is locked in and getting up into the space of their men, Thomas almost gets a steal (and allows too much separation after that but then recovers well), and Hall is there for a great contest on the shot at the end:
That isn’t as impressive as the switching and may not look like much, but recall how badly some of our guards were getting beaten off of the dribble from a standstill earlier in the season and then watch this.
Okay, let’s stay with Thomas for a bit. Here he is actually getting beaten again trying to get over a rejected ball screen, but this time (and we’ve seen this in other recent games), he sticks with the play, chases it down from behind, and rips it right off of Ames’s hands. Great break out the other way and finish from Lewis as well:
Here’s some quality individual defense from Thomas in this one; strong on the ball throughout. One of his biggest flaws as an on-ball defender is that he often seems to lose patience and lose his fundamentals by reaching or trying to get at the ball. Here he’s adjusted so that he’s playing farther back, holding up to contact but staying reactive… and gets a quality shot contest at the end, forcing a bad miss. Kudos to Ugo shutting down the would-be two-on-one at the beginning of this play with his sag defense, as well:
Here’s a look at a baseline out of bounds play from Cal; check out how Thomas is either very aware or very well informed through a scout, and watches the set up and then takes an extreme angle to shut off any passes to the strong-side corner. It completely disrupts the play because Sam Lewis is trailing and gets fully de-cleated on the screen. Thomas’s defense allows Sam time to fully get up off of the ground, and then TDR plays some killer defense on the drive, speeding Cal up and forcing a turnover. Good eyes by Hall to see the loose ball right away, too, that can be harder than it would seem; trying to see both your man and the ball away from you.
But it keeps getting better – another baseline out of bounds play but watch all of the rotations from Thomas and Hall. Thomas shades the corner again, then stays at home to support Lewis on the baseline drive – note Hall dropping down to cover the pass to two. The ball gets disrupted and rolls out to the three-point line, but then he and Thomas proactively switch and interchange, and look at the suffocation from Malik at the end of the play, both dislodging the ball and then the great contest.
Alright now, below, look at this freelancing and aggression from Thomas, as well. It’s quality defense throughout the possession with Ugo doing a lot of work helping on the ball screen; but it’s the very end of the play that’s exciting. Thomas realizes that the driver’s back is to him AND that the shot clock is winding down… so he just leaves his man entirely and chases the play down from behind. Lewis is already playing good defense to force a fadeaway, but Thomas’s attacking contest from out of nowhere adds some extra spice and difficulty to the shot. The play ends up being a turnover from Ugo trying to save the ball; but the defensive stand was pretty.
Alright, Thomas isn’t on the floor in the clip below, but we get more proactive rotations similar to the one I showed to start this clip because, Cal tries to screen Ugo again, but cuts through he lane, and Mallory stays home to shut down the drive. Just really nice teamwork again as Chance attempts to recover to his, but TDR switches onto him after his on man gathers and passes. Out of ideas, Cal finally attempts another ball screen, but Tillis does decently to chase and Ugo is a daunting presence on the back line. When the ball gets dislodged, though, watch Chance absolutely swoop in to gather and then immediately great eyes up the floor to spot TDR who had leaked out on the disruption.
That’s just punishing basketball! Defense into offense.
Don’t worry, though, our Centers are still doing a nice job of playing that roaming sag role off of ball screens and are ever able to bother, deter, or outright block shots. Here’s a tasty look at Ugo clocking Dai Dai with Hall having to scramble/chase:
And here he is with absolutely maniacal range to both force and then block yet another midrange jumper while sagging:
Like, if that shot isn’t safe, it’s hard to feel confident coming around any screen on Cal’s end; which is why they went to the secondary screener action on the Center early.
Both Centers played good defense in this one, but Ugo felt like he was absolutely everywhere, from blocks like those, to even jumping passing lanes like this!
Shades of Kadin Shedrick in Las Vegas. It’s sweet because it leads to direct points and Ugo going full court is cool… but strategically it’s worth noting that his job typically isn’t to pressure his man receiving the ball like that, especially one who isn’t a threat to shoot or drive. His typical strategy would be to hang back a bit to prepare for any probing drives/ball screens to attack the lane. He was just so active in this one, though, that he was able to pressure this pass with plenty of comfort he could have recovered.
It’s just so soul-crushing to other teams how quickly we can turn defense into points; which also fuels our hustle on defense. That one-man Center fast break isn’t going to be typical – but plays like that outlet from Mallory to TDR are – as are plays like this from Chance:
That actually may have been the biggest momentum play of the game. We’d just been trading big baskets with Cal in a close game; just taken the lead off of a three. Cal thinks they’re going to break our press by beating Hall. Instead, Chance hustles, pecks the ball down from behind, pecks it out, and then is ready and willing to fire the soul-crushing dagger on the other end! It was 6 points in a matter of seconds which is the kind of stuff that makes a close game not in a short period of time and can dishearten an opponent.
It’s fun to talk about progress on the side of the ball, but it’s even more fun when so many guys appear bought in and absolutely working on the defensive end. As a program that has been used to CTB for the past decade and a half, it’s encouraging to see that a faster tempo and a greater focus on the offensive side of the ball doesn’t mean we’re not going to be able to play and coach good defense as well – along with some pretty intuitive adjustments and systemic enablements along the way.
In Conclusion
This was a fun one to watch and to write about. We let a few easy baskets in early in this game… and then made the appropriate adjustments and were pretty much on lock down the rest of the way; especially in the second half. Similarly, we had a let-down performance a couple of games ago, but made the corrections so quickly. It’s nice to have had the thought that we’ll just be able to outscore many teams this season if we’re on our offensive game; but it makes our team SO much better when we’re capable of winning a game by playing quality defense instead… or alongside.
Another one from the west coast coming to town today. Hopefully, we will continue to build on our momentum and put a similarly dominant performance together prior to two rough road games after. This one’s on (checks notes)… the CW. Welp, get ready for some lesser video quality.
See you soon and thanks for reading!
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