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Message: [QUOTE="Coach Orange, post: 1730793, member: 2260"] I love the mover-blocker offense, too. It's not flashy, but if you can teach fundamentals, players with less athleticism can thrive in it. Strong athletes could really star in it, but many coaches would be too afraid that the ball wouldn't end up in their hands enough to actually employ it with such talent. You're spot-on (not shockingly, given that you learned it from Coach Bennett himself--that had to be cool) about its ability to counter defensive actions. Moreover, Dick Bennett used to run variations of the offense to counter specific defensive philosophies or when he had certain types of players. For example, he had a "top/bottom" version where the one blocker (usually a player that we would now likely call a "stretch 4") only set screens above the free-throw line, and the other blocker only set screens below it. Did Tony discuss such variations? I can't recall seeing them in his time at UVA, but he may not have needed to use it much given the players he has had. What's great about Villanova's ball screens is that they are built into their motion naturally. Players know the situations in which they should look to ball screen. Coach Wright says that the "big" in the slot position should always look to set a screen for the "small" in the opposite slot. The screen is often a ball screen because the ball is often in a small's hands in that position. Should that not present a good scoring chance, they can flow right into other actions within their motion. Our players set ball screens more randomly, and they often wind up looking disjointed. As a result, as you correctly point out, there is too much standing around that occurs in our offense. That cut off a screen/replace behind action that you mention is a fundamental offensive concept, one of many our offense too often ignores. I agree that it should be used more. [/QUOTE]

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