Another dominant win over a fringe bubble team who, previously, had been undefeated in Q1 games. This one against the 8th highest scoring player in the country, the 6’2″ Ebuka Okorie. In holding him to 14 points on 5-20 shooting, we kept him 8-points under his season average; and he’s exactly the kind of guard who was giving us issues early in the season. This game was kind of wild because we closed it scoring just 2-points across the final 7:30 of regulation… and still won by 15.
It speaks to a few things – firstly, our defense was really good and continues to improve. It was literally just a couple of games or so that I said if our defense could continue to climb to around the top 30-40 efficiency rankings, we’d be in great shape with our offense. Well, on Kenpom, we’re up to 22nd in defensive efficiency (just 4 slots ahead of our offense now!), on Barttorvik, we’re up to 23rd in defensive efficiency, and on evanmiya, we’re up to 20th in defensive efficiency. This while still being rated higher in offensive metrics across all three sites. Turns out, we’re just playing well on both sides of the ball! But, secondly, we did take our foot off of the gas considerably with some sloppy play and even sloppier shooting to close the game. I believe that a good deal of that was mental; but it’s also the first game all season where we’ve only played 8 players throughout. With our playstyle, there’s a good chance there was some fatigue and loss of legs in this one, as well. Jacari White would be welcomed back, especially with Devin Tillis seemingly playing more gingerly after his multiple knee collisions the other night. So, we’ll talk about both sides of the ball again, still focusing most on our defense since that’s the unit du jour.
But first, a few thoughts and words about our….
Offense
We’re going to just traipse through a few fleeting thoughts in this one, and I say fleeting but, you know, but our standards here. We’ll start off with the areas we could stand to improve and then progressively get more positive as the piece goes on – because that’s absolutely where we should be right now.
Closing Out The Game
I mentioned earlier that we only scored 2-points for the final 7:30 of the game. That’s a long time. Of course, our performance prior had been so dominant that it hardly mattered, but it is something to keep in mind because it could become a problem while trying to wrap things up with a smaller lead or against a better team. I thought that three main things happened:
We lost our mental concentration – so many careless turnovers cropped up during this run with our guys seemingly getting a little frivolous in junk time. It felt, a little, like there was some attempted stat-padding going on which led to some poor offense during this stretch.
Fatigue – I mentioned earlier that this was the first game all season where we only played 8 players. Previously, we’d always at least used 9 – with Jacari White being the staple of the rotation prior to his injury and Elijah Gertrude and even Martin Carrère getting us to higher numbers in White’s absence. Given our full court pressure all game and the effort we were putting us in on both ends – it would be surprising if this fatigue didn’t hurt us some. This is especially true because the shooting legs left during this stretch, as well. We were shooting 35% from deep in the game and then hit this stretch; mostly where Malik Thomas started bombing and missing (see point above); but also some Devin Tillis misses who hasn’t seemed right with his knee lately. Hopefully it’s just soreness. Speaking of Devin, we played just 8 guys AND Tillis played just 13 of those minutes; this coming off of just 16 against Cal where he appeared to hurt himself again, having played at least 20 minutes or more (including the too many 39 against VT) in 6 of the previous 7 contests before that. Don’t let my kids read that last sentence. So, not only was the rotation shorter than normal, but Tillis’s role in it was more limited as well. Probably couldn’t have hurt to give Eli or Martin a little run later on in this one.
But the biggest thing that’s probably worth noting is that, when we are trying to slow down the game and kill the clock, our offense changes and we’re not as effective. Under normal game situations, we’re shooting the first good look that we generate and we’re trying to generate good looks as soon as we get the ball across half court. We’re continually pressuring, probing, passing, driving, etc., with virtually no conscience. In these situations, we stall and then put the ball in someone’s hands and expect them to go and make a play – which isn’t necessarily our strength (individual basketball). I’ll show one example:
We’re not trying to score until about 8 seconds left in the shot clock here so the rest is just window dressing. Then, when we do, there’s pretty much zero urgency. Ugo sets a screen for Hall who makes no real attempt to drive to the hoop, hits Ugo with the pop to the three-point line, who just kind of hands it to Thomas who jacks it up with less than two seconds left:
That’s very effective at squeezing the most time out of the clock, which was certainly their goal this late… but extended to earlier and later possessions as well. Yes, the urgency wasn’t there but, also, we’re just not the best at standing around for 22 seconds and then trying to make something happen fast. These are the kinds of shots that make your offensive efficiency and shooting numbers drop – and there were a lot of them during that stretch.
Again, not the end of the world, but I think that if we’re trying to kill clock in closer games; we should probably be running our standard offense hard the majority of the time and then just taking the most open thing we get, even if it’s with 5-10 seconds to go. I just don’t want us to get into bad habits and have it bite us.
Playing Through The Post
We don’t have a reluctance to play through the post in our offensive system and Odom’s offenses traditionally have those plays baked into them. However, we primarily do it with our Power Forwards. I’ve written previously how I don’t love so many touches from Tillis in the mid-post, as they’re slow developing and he often doesn’t have the advantage at this level over whoever he’s backing down, isn’t quick enough to get a shot off fast, and the rim protection he runs into can be dicey for him. We also do it with De Ridder some, too, though, and increasingly in more recent games. Normally, this comes from the outside-in or the mid-post where TDR uses his combination of strength, size, and quickness, to take advantage of his matchup. Here are a couple of nice examples in this one, here with him just absolutely wearing down his man and eventually drawing the foul:
And here, he bullies his way in from the wing, standing up to the defender’s contact and actually creating space through his own superior strength prior to finishing with the baby hook at the rim:
This is some bully-ball and he’s going to have the advantage in some way over most players guarding him. What we don’t often do… and actually pass up quite a bit, is look to get our Centers the ball in the post very often. We more typically pass them the ball while they’re already moving toward the basket rather than getting them the ball at a standstill like this, above, and letting them make a move.
It makes sense, to me, from the mid-post, as neither really have the quickness/handle/strength combo to take advantage of it. When both attempt to put the ball on the floor that far away, they’re often pushed off of their line/spot. BUT, when they catch the ball deeper, they have been effective at either drawing contact or finishing around the rim – so I’d love to see us be mindful of our post up depth but then go ahead and get the ball to them.
It’s not like neither have moves, although Grünloh fails to convert this one, that’s a high percentage attempt there:
They will often draw fouls from their defender attempting to deny if they can seal and get a look there – here’s one with Hall getting the ball deep and then using the angle to try to feed Johann, who draws the foul on the floor in the process:
I’m not sitting here telling you that back-to-the-basket offense should be a primary focus of ours through our Centers (I do like it through TDR) – but I think we’ve been scared off of throwing some of these passes because of a few turnovers and because of some of those mid-post rather than low-post looks. I think it’s important to keep our Centers, especially Grünloh engaged on the offensive side of the ball – and he’s more active and even shoots better from outside when he’s been able to get into some kind of flow. Also, I think it helps to force the foul trouble issue some. Just a small thing – but even swapping a couple of the Tillis mid-post looks for a few more deep-post entries to these guys could be some added juice.
Improved 2-Point Scoring (Continued)
We talked about this some last game, but the trend continues. Ever since we shot 22% on 45 threes against Virginia Tech, our ability to score from closer to the hoop and our willingness to do so was a question. We shot just 22 threes in this one – and 17 prior to our 7:30 offensive hibernation; so not only were we shooting 35% from deep at that point (did drop to 27% after we were chucking), but we also weren’t relying on it despite having been shooting pretty well.
Some of this was still designed stuff; like this backdoor play for Lewis which was similar but not identical to how we set it up against Cal (bonus content – watch how Sam Lewis comes off of his man on the press and steals the ball, finding TDR on a nice cut – this was the sequence that allowed us to seize some of the early momentum):
These are good examples of some easy baskets we’ve been able to get through design (three like it in two games) and through some subtle shifts in system (most of the time our press doesn’t leave the pressure on the inbounder).
Thijs De Ridder is starting to assert himself more consistently throughout the game, though, which is huge due to his considerable physicality AND skill. Across his last five games, he’s averaged 19.4ppg (three points higher than his season average); and scored 22 in this one. He scored so many while only taking two threes (and making one). We’ve seen some of his physical interior bruising above; but he’s also been making hay off of the bounce, especially in this 4-5 ball screening action with a Center.
In this action, below, we see him draw the switch and get covered by Stanford’s Center, the 6’10” Oscar Giltay (#15). Now, Giltay has an inch on TDR; but he doesn’t move like him with the same explosion or quickness… and he’s actually listed as 3lbs lighter despite the athleticism difference. TDR takes advantage of the footspeed advantage and blows by him for the quick finish.
This is why I keep showcasing this 4-5 ball screen with De Ridder as a ball handler because not many PFs can stay in front of him anyway and, if he can draw the switch with the defender (or keep the Center tied up on the screener) then it’s even better.
He’s also been very effective as a screener himself, again, due to his strength, but also as a roller to the rim. Here, below, as a roller to the rim he finishes with finesse instead of power, with a nice little floater over both outstretched bigs.
This level of confidence and aggression is exactly what we need from De Ridder the rest of the way and it’s great to see us finding more organic and intentional ways to get him involved.
Finally in this section, offensive rebounding continues to be a huge boon for us. Opposing coaches talk about how we’ll send 5 to the glass all of the time in their postgame press conferences. We’re able to do it because we matchup to the nearest and get back well in transition. Here’s a quick look at that where Stanford had a 4-on-2 but we spaced the defense well and Grünloh’s and TDR’s hustle and seamless matching up ended up negating the advantage entirely. Like, really think about how smooth that is and how both of our bigs are busting it to get back.
That also shows how tiring it can be playing this style – to the late-game fatigue point!
So, yes, we’ll send five to the glass at times and will pick up on makes because the team is very well conditioned to picking up closest in these transition moments and identifying who they need to be covering. Perhaps we’ll focus on that one game. In the meantime, the benefit is stuff like this:
Where we have not one, but two guys (Malik and TDR) who could have gotten credit for the tip in on this miss with Grünloh being the one to shoot helping to clear the open space in the paint.
And here, below, where the same is true for Johann and Sam:
I absolutely LOVE watching a team that puts such a priority on crashing the glass – because it’s relentless effort and awareness that makes you successful at it; and we are great, but also because there’s clearly a prioritized strategy around when and how to go to the glass.
Anyway, four games ago I was lamenting our unwillingness to take the ball inside and now 52 of our 70 points came from inside the three-point line. A cool adjustment that does show the ability to change it up.
Alright, let’s get into the heart of this game with the…
Defense
This is the most exciting part of this game, for me. There, generally, were just a lot of good things that happened and even some of Stanford’s early success came from some pretty difficult shot making. I want to specifically highlight the job we did on Okorie and the fact that we forced so many shot clock violations. I’ll focus on four of those because they’re good lenses into the totality of the defense but let’s first talk about:
Limiting Okorie
Okorie (#1 for the Cardinal) isn’t just the opposition’s best scorer as a guard; he’s 8th in the country in scoring, goes about 43% from the field, and draws 8.3 free throw attempts per game. He’s quick, is a great finisher around the rim, and isn’t the best outside shooter at 31% (hurt by going 0-6 in our game), but is good enough to keep you honest. He was coming into this one hot, having just put up 31 at Virginia Tech.
This is exactly the kind of guard who gave us fits earlier in the season – but better. I’m thinking about us having no answer for Finley Bizjack from Butler and watching so often as our guys trailed around screens to allow quicker, skilled, guards to have their way (they also struggled mightily to contain Vanderbilt’s guards and Acaden Lewis in the preseason).
Okorie has been more prolific than all of them to date; but we really frustrated him, holding him to 5-20 from the floor. Most of his field goals were in transition, as well, meaning that he had very little success against our half-court defense. We didn’t do this by putting any one specific defensive stopper on him. We did this by switching well, communicating, and playing good help defense. Everyone did a quality job when assigned.
Here’s a good look, below, with Hall on him to start the possession. Stanford plays through the other side of their offense, but Hall makes a proactive switch in rotation, leaving Lewis to switch onto Okorie. The 6’7″ Lewis is an imposing cover on the 6’2″ guard and as the shot clock gets under 10, he settles for a step back three over the quality contest rather than trying to make something happen going down hill.
Stanford could get that shot whenever they wanted and, to be honest, would probably have been better off having him try it over Dallin than getting switched onto Lewis.
De Ridder’s ability to defend on the perimeter is huge; and we didn’t shy away from switching him on the perimeter, either. Here, TDR is disruptive by hard hedging the ball screen on Mallory and turning that into a switch. Okorie attempts to rush a pass back to the roller with Mallory recovering and throws it out of bounds. Note, also, that Onyenso is in great position to help if that pass had made it through:
Being able to switch 1-4 even on players like this is such a luxury and, what appears true more often than not is that these smaller guards steer clear of trying to test TDR because they don’t want to have to deal with his physicality and disruptiveness. It forced too quick of a decision here and a turnover.
Here, below, we see Okorie in transition and he does beat Mallory off of the bounce with a cross-over despite Chance having done a really nice job on him. But here’s that old tried-and-true… there’s Onyenso right there to make that finish a nightmare. Okorie has to basically cock the ball in his extended arm and fling it over the contest and Tillis does a nice job of securing the glass with Ugo having stepped up.
When the season started, much of the success of our defense was relying on the shot blocker to make up for a bevy of mistakes. Now it’s still there… but we don’t need it as often and because our perimeter defenders are playing better, it’s also more effective. Ugo had 5 blocks in this one but also wasn’t called on as much. His opportunities just allowed him to get there more often. Johann had 2. This wasn’t a block, though, this was just making a shot that likely would have been easy very difficult.
As the game progressed, all of these factors made Okorie frustrated and he started forcing some things both inside and out. Here he is getting even with Hall’s full court pressure only to just kind of stick his head down and try to jam it into the lane. This time Grünloh is there to force the shot into oblivion, again, without actually blocking the shot.
It really was an excellent job by all parties involved and we’ll see some more of it in the clips below even though these are specifically spotlighting Okorie himself.
I’ve been high on the progress of our defense for many games now if you’ve been reading these pieces – but the ability to make a player like this so inefficient impressed me. It seemed like this would be a vulnerability all season and now we seem very competent at making things hard for quick, skilled, scoring guards too.
Shot Clock Violations
We had 6 shot clock violations in this one which set a school record. That’s really remarkable considering who was coordinating our defense prior. It does make sense with defensive style, though. The Pack Line forced a ton of bad shots, but it would often allow some pretty contested outside shots when the shot clock ran down because it was trying to keep everything in front. Our current defense is much more aggressive and intentionally tries to milk the opposition of the first ten seconds of the possession or so. When the shot clock does start to wind down, we’re more typically doing something proactive that could distract or impede the offensive player so as to keep that shot from going up.
One of the six was just Stanford falling asleep that the clock hadn’t reset, but I’m including four of the remaining five below:
This first one comes after an inbounds play with 9 seconds left to shoot (after a previously good possession). We get a good look at the job Mallory did on Okorie here, staying up tight on him and not being afraid of the drive. Onyenso flat-hedges the ball screen, which is noteworthy, and Thomas does a nice job of shading in on the back side and then recovering back to his man. Thomas stays with the drive, Ugo gets back, and Stanford tries to slip a pass into the post, but TDR is alert and deflects the ball away. Here we get to see Mallory’s immaculate hustle, diving on the ground after the ball and bleeding out the rest of the shot clock through the chaos.
That’s a Chance Mallory-forced violation, right there, but also good alertness from Ugo, Malik, and TDR throughout.
This next one we pick up again with about 10 seconds left on the clock after an inbound and this time Okorie isn’t on the floor so the Cardinal have to look elsewhere to initiate. Thomas and Mallory proactively switch not even a ball screen, just two players interchanging, leaving Chance on the ball handler again. This time Ugo plays drop coverage on the ball screen and does an excellent job of being in shot block range on the driver (what isn’t shot block range for Ugo?) and being able to drop to his own. The bounce pass back is a challenging one due to the good angle and is bobbled – but then check out Mallory read the bobble and peel off of his man to swarm onto the ball. This distracts the Stanford player who, by the time he gathers and realizes he doesn’t have a good shot over Onyenso – it’s too late for the kick out.
Tillis is still moving gingerly there, and I don’t love that, but I do like that he crowds the lane as the shot clock gets so low. I’m giving him credit for awareness here that the kick out doesn’t have time.
Okay, here’s probably my favorite of the group. After made baskets we match up with the closest relevant position on our press. Thomas has Okorie and Chance takes Benny Gaeler (#5) bringing the ball up the floor. First, watch how effective Ugo is at negating anything Gaeler wants to do after losing Chance after the ball screen. Gaeler then waits for his big to circle back into the lane and feeds him. I feel an unnatural sense of ease whenever an opposing big just tries to shoot over Onyenso one-on-one, and he gets his shot erased. Stanford is able to scrap for the blocked shot, though, and reset to Okorie, this time with Chance on him. Watch this time as Chance does a nice job of recovering to and deterring the outside shot from Okorie, who then has to pass the ball around and the Cardinal just don’t have time to get anything off (and their attempt before the expiration has both TDR AND Thomas aware and contesting).
Okay, last one, below which is also pretty sick and arguably better than the previous. We start with Dallin on Okorie and then with a switch to Chance. Okorie attempts to take advantage of a sagging Onyenso after a ball screen but he does the Onyenso things, keeps really nice depth (not too far back) and blocks the push shot. Stanford is able to track down the ball, but then watch the rotations! Hall comes over to Okorie and Chance is now reading the play, trying to figure out where he needs to go. Tillis rotates over, then Sam, and finally Chance sees the play and continues to adjust his recovery to Sam’s open man in the corner. He just kind of flowed across the floor until he identified where he needed to be. Then you get Lewis switching a ball screen with Tillis and forcing an obscenely deep three with a great contest!
Lovely! Seriously… really lovely defense with great effort, communication, and intuition throughout by all five guys! You absolutely love to see it.
This really is a different defensive team than earlier in the year, and they keep finding ways to tighten things up, which is showing up on the floor and in the metrics. I’m apple-cidered to see where it goes from here, especially against some of the most challenging tests they’ve faced this season upcoming against Louisville and SMU.
In Conclusion
This team continues to evolve and prove that, while it can outscore you, it can do so in many different ways and it no longer needs to. The defense can step up and carry the day almost just as well (if you believe metrics) as the offense can. Of course, I still put a little more stock in the offense; especially with Jacari White now listed as probable tonight and moving forward (as long as he’s not too negatively impacted by the brace) – but the defense is credible, imposing, and coordinated now.
These next two games should go a long way toward illustrating how cemented the progress is. I’d love to give Isaac McKneely a little FOMO tonight; and to get a little revenge on SMU’s home floor. Regardless of the outcomes of these two games, though, I think we should feel confidence at the direction knowing that we will keep tweaking and improving things and we still have half a season to do that!
Let’s go Hoos!
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