General20
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I'm a little late in this, but I noticed something in this Virginia Tech game I found interesting and wanted to discuss. SU made a small adjustment, that it seems to me lead to a drastic change in their offense.
As usual, Mintz takes the ball up. As happens often, Brown sets a screen just above the 3 point line in the middle of the court. This is where things changed. Instead of actually trying to block Mintz's man, Brown slips the screen quickly and rolls to the hoop. Mintz then passes the ball quickly to Brown instead of trying to utilize the screen in any way.
This leads to a situation where Brown has the ball around the free throw line with a bit of breathing room and we have fantastic spacing with 4 guys spread out in a rainbow shape all beyond the 3 point arc. At this point Brown needs to make a quick decision based on how the D reacts. Take the ball to the hoop himself, pass to a guy cutting towards the basket, or pass to an open shooter. Brown is amazing a making this decision, and amazing at executing the pass.
Dont get me wrong, this isn't the first time SU has set up this way. They do it most games, maybe 3 or 4 times a game. What changed was in this game they did it over and over again. I'd bet they did it 10 straight times or more in the first half (not counting transition), and it worked amazingly well. To me we want Judah handling the ball because he is our best ball handler, and we want Brown or Copeland initiating the offense a little closer to the basket, because they are our best passers, and this accomplishes both things.
Virginia Tech didn't just sit back and allow SU to pick them apart this way, they threw at least 4 distinct defenses at Syracuse to try to slow the play down. None of them worked. Syracuse was able to adjust each time. If you search for the condensed game on youtube, you can fast forward to 2:12 and see Virginia Tech try to guard this by blitzing Judah and forming a wall in front of him, making it hard for him to see Brown. In this situation Judah passes to Starling who quickly hits Brown for an open layup. On the very next play they show Virginia Tech trying to change things up again, by pinching their two wing defenders in to help cover Brown. Judah instead passes to an open Bell in the corner who drives in for a layup when his man runs at him to close out. My point is, Syracuse seems to have been working hard on this play, and seems to know how to adjust as the defense adjusts.
This is genius development to me. A small tweak that changes everything, and gets all our players in the place where they are best suited to do damage. Now here comes the weird part I can't figure out. After scoring 45 points in the first half on 61% shooting, going to this play over and over again. They stopped using it in the second half. They only tried it maybe 4 times all half. Its not like their offense fell apart in the second half. Syracuse still scored 39 points on 52% shooting, which is really good. Its just that Virginia Tech didn't seem to do anything to stop them running that play over and over, so why stop? The only thing I can think of is maybe Brown gets tired having so much responsibility every play. Or maybe the difference was Taylor played almost all of the first half, and sat almost all the second half with Copeland mostly playing in his place. Copeland had a great game, and perhaps Red just wanted to utilize him more?
How often they run this play moving forward is something I'm going to be keeping a close eye on, and I'd be curious to hear everyone else's ideas on why they stopped going to it as much in the second half.
As usual, Mintz takes the ball up. As happens often, Brown sets a screen just above the 3 point line in the middle of the court. This is where things changed. Instead of actually trying to block Mintz's man, Brown slips the screen quickly and rolls to the hoop. Mintz then passes the ball quickly to Brown instead of trying to utilize the screen in any way.
This leads to a situation where Brown has the ball around the free throw line with a bit of breathing room and we have fantastic spacing with 4 guys spread out in a rainbow shape all beyond the 3 point arc. At this point Brown needs to make a quick decision based on how the D reacts. Take the ball to the hoop himself, pass to a guy cutting towards the basket, or pass to an open shooter. Brown is amazing a making this decision, and amazing at executing the pass.
Dont get me wrong, this isn't the first time SU has set up this way. They do it most games, maybe 3 or 4 times a game. What changed was in this game they did it over and over again. I'd bet they did it 10 straight times or more in the first half (not counting transition), and it worked amazingly well. To me we want Judah handling the ball because he is our best ball handler, and we want Brown or Copeland initiating the offense a little closer to the basket, because they are our best passers, and this accomplishes both things.
Virginia Tech didn't just sit back and allow SU to pick them apart this way, they threw at least 4 distinct defenses at Syracuse to try to slow the play down. None of them worked. Syracuse was able to adjust each time. If you search for the condensed game on youtube, you can fast forward to 2:12 and see Virginia Tech try to guard this by blitzing Judah and forming a wall in front of him, making it hard for him to see Brown. In this situation Judah passes to Starling who quickly hits Brown for an open layup. On the very next play they show Virginia Tech trying to change things up again, by pinching their two wing defenders in to help cover Brown. Judah instead passes to an open Bell in the corner who drives in for a layup when his man runs at him to close out. My point is, Syracuse seems to have been working hard on this play, and seems to know how to adjust as the defense adjusts.
This is genius development to me. A small tweak that changes everything, and gets all our players in the place where they are best suited to do damage. Now here comes the weird part I can't figure out. After scoring 45 points in the first half on 61% shooting, going to this play over and over again. They stopped using it in the second half. They only tried it maybe 4 times all half. Its not like their offense fell apart in the second half. Syracuse still scored 39 points on 52% shooting, which is really good. Its just that Virginia Tech didn't seem to do anything to stop them running that play over and over, so why stop? The only thing I can think of is maybe Brown gets tired having so much responsibility every play. Or maybe the difference was Taylor played almost all of the first half, and sat almost all the second half with Copeland mostly playing in his place. Copeland had a great game, and perhaps Red just wanted to utilize him more?
How often they run this play moving forward is something I'm going to be keeping a close eye on, and I'd be curious to hear everyone else's ideas on why they stopped going to it as much in the second half.
