Let’s talk about the Back Cuts…..

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

The reason physical teams give us trouble is because they pressure the perimeter and make it difficult to move the ball for good perimeter shots.

Same was the case last night, but in a great 2nd half adjustment Pope demanded aggressive cuts behind the pressure, and Kriisa, Garrison, Williams, and Jax all made REALLY nice passes to find the cutter.

This offense is going to be even better once everyone buys in.

 

[jeffky]

Mr Robinson got tired of Gonzaga in his neighborhood last night so he decided to take over HUGE HUGE WIN

 

[travisbickle]

The reason physical teams give us trouble is because they pressure the perimeter and make it difficult to move the ball for good perimeter shots.

Same was the case last night, but in a great 2nd half adjustment Pope demanded aggressive cuts behind the pressure, and Kriisa, Garrison, Williams, and Jax all made REALLY nice passes to find the cutter.

This offense is going to be even better once everyone buys in.

Pope made the comment recently that their offense really punishes teams that like to pressure like that and I think we’re seeing the first inklings of that recognition from the players on how to take advantage of teams pushing out like that. Exciting to see the team grow so quickly.

 

[megablue]

The reason physical teams give us trouble is because they pressure the perimeter and make it difficult to move the ball for good perimeter shots.

Same was the case last night, but in a great 2nd half adjustment Pope demanded aggressive cuts behind the pressure, and Kriisa, Garrison, Williams, and Jax all made REALLY nice passes to find the cutter.

This offense is going to be even better once everyone buys in.

Basic fundamental strategy against teams denying the pass ... but the key is recognition and to MOOOOOOOOOOOOVE !!!!
I love back cuts ...

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Meanwhile, Cal under pressure screams at his players to “GO MAKE A PLAY!!!”

 

[StubbornPenny]

But did they GOOOOOO or RUNNNNNN???

 

[bigblueinsanity]

The reason physical teams give us trouble is because they pressure the perimeter and make it difficult to move the ball for good perimeter shots.

Same was the case last night, but in a great 2nd half adjustment Pope demanded aggressive cuts behind the pressure, and Kriisa, Garrison, Williams, and Jax all made REALLY nice passes to find the cutter.

This offense is going to be even better once everyone buys in.

Difference was gonzaga was dumb enough to pressure up on our 5s. Obviously the way to play us is to lay off Williams and Garrison. No clue why they played us wrong but glad they did.

 

[megablue]

Difference was gonzaga was dumb enough to pressure up on our 5s. Obviously the way to play us is to lay off Williams and Garrison. No clue why they played us wrong but glad they did.

1000% this ^^^ ... pressure up top plays right into our hands.

 

[HerrosHeroes]

Basic fundamental strategy against teams denying the pass ... but the key is recognition and to MOOOOOOOOOOOOVE !!!!
I love back cuts ...

Im more of a violent cut kinda guy.

 

[jeffky]

This half I believe we will look back on the season and say this is where we took a huge step forward

 

[blugrazz]

It's a fundamental of Pope's offense but none existent up till last night. I suspect Pope was debating on how much of his offense he rolls out to basically seniors coming from all different places. The Clemson game and lack of a true scoring #5 probably made his mind up.

It's a thing of beauty when you are knocking down 3s and shooting layups. It's like basically owning the offensive line of scrimmage in football. The odds are in your favor over the course of the game. Part of the reason we won despite poor 3pt pct and 3rd string PG.

 

[the nail at the foul line]

It is so nice to have a coach that can make adjustments. Tired of that our game plan was then they...

 

[catben]

Difference was gonzaga was dumb enough to pressure up on our 5s. Obviously the way to play us is to lay off Williams and Garrison. No clue why they played us wrong but glad they did.

Could have been because Garrison made his first 3 last night. But Williams is no threat from out there.

I also noticed that Williams was passing the ball quicker and wasn't trying to dribble his way open. looks like they've worked on that.

Williams really turned it on the last half of the 2nd half and OT on BOTH ends and Garrison played great too!!

 

[North Carolina Blue Wildcat]

Violent and Nascar like according to Dykes🥴

 

[jeffky]

It's nice to see our guys finally know they can score alot of easy baskets from the weak side of the defense

 

[deep3]

The reason physical teams give us trouble is because they pressure the perimeter and make it difficult to move the ball for good perimeter shots.

Same was the case last night, but in a great 2nd half adjustment Pope demanded aggressive cuts behind the pressure, and Kriisa, Garrison, Williams, and Jax all made REALLY nice passes to find the cutter.

This offense is going to be even better once everyone buys in.

This is a spot on analysis well done

 

[NociHTTP]

Could have been because Garrison made his first 3 last night. But Williams is no threat from out there.

I also noticed that Williams was passing the ball quicker and wasn't trying to dribble his way open. looks like they've worked on that.

Williams really turned it on the last half of the 2nd half and OT on BOTH ends and Garrison played great too!!

Garrison has nice touch from deep. That's dangerous going forward.

 

[jeffky]

Garrison has nice touch from deep. That's dangerous going forward.

The way pope knows how to work with bigs Garrison is going to be scary this kid has so much upside good kid too

 

[bigblueinsanity]

Could have been because Garrison made his first 3 last night. But Williams is no threat from out there.

I also noticed that Williams was passing the ball quicker and wasn't trying to dribble his way open. looks like they've worked on that.

Williams really turned it on the last half of the 2nd half and OT on BOTH ends and Garrison played great too!!

All true but because of how they played up on our 5. When they play off, Williams tries to handle the ball to eat up that space and ends up shooting way too much.

The other thing playing off does, is it lets their perimeter guys really press up on us since we cant backdoor. Thats why we shot poorly the last few games.

 

[catben]

All true but because of how they played up on our 5. When they play off, Williams tries to handle the ball to eat up that space and ends up shooting way too much.

The other thing playing off does, is it lets their perimeter guys really press up on us since we cant backdoor. Thats why we shot poorly the last few games.

I did notice something Coach Pope did last night when they did back off of Williams in the 2nd half, he would slide him down on the opposite block while Carr worked the other block with the ball instead of keeping him at the FT line or above. It reminded me of Joe B's "Twin Tower" sets he would use with Robey and Phillips, then Bowie and Turpin.

It made it harder for them to double Carr.

I am SOOOOOOO happy to see Coach Pope use what the opponent does against them!!! He is WONDERFUL at scheming on BOTH ends!!!

 

[jwphelps]

The reason physical teams give us trouble is because they pressure the perimeter and make it difficult to move the ball for good perimeter shots.

Same was the case last night, but in a great 2nd half adjustment Pope demanded aggressive cuts behind the pressure, and Kriisa, Garrison, Williams, and Jax all made REALLY nice passes to find the cutter.

This offense is going to be even better once everyone buys in.

good coaching makes in game adjustments, and read the game as well as any coach out there.

 

[BigBlue1992]

And cutting is such an easy thing to do. I don’t understand why so many basketball players these days don’t utilize it more. It’s very relieving that we’re able to get easy and for sure baskets when needed.

 

[ukjenning44]

We need to add more NASCAR cuts in 😂😂

 

[ukwazoo]

And cutting is such an easy thing to do. I don’t understand why so many basketball players these days don’t utilize it more. It’s very relieving that we’re able to get easy and for sure baskets when needed.

Laziness and coaching...something that has plagued us the last several years.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Laziness and coaching...something that has plagued us the last several years.

But come early to watch him warm up!!!!!

 

[kywildcat41035]

But come early to watch him warm up!!!!!

Man I'm so glad that crap is over no more using UK just for our practice facilities!

 

[Fox2monk]

I did notice something Coach Pope did last night when they did back off of Williams in the 2nd half, he would slide him down on the opposite block while Carr worked the other block with the ball instead of keeping him at the FT line or above. It reminded me of Joe B's "Twin Tower" sets he would use with Robey and Phillips, then Bowie and Turpin.

It made it harder for them to double Carr.

I am SOOOOOOO happy to see Coach Pope use what the opponent does against them!!! He is WONDERFUL at scheming on BOTH ends!!!

On defense we also stopped using drop coverage and changed how we guarded ball screens. Everytime they wanted to screen we blew up a handoff or screen to one side, rotated a big in the lane up to also force the ball to the OOB lines on each side of the court. That’s why they were so out of rhythm. Nembhard was picking us apart in the PNR in drop coverage during the first half. We forced him to pass before he could do that in the second and forced a lot of guys to shoot late in the clock and miss.

 

[chroix]

On defense we also stopped using drop coverage and changed how we guarded ball screens. Everytime they wanted to screen we blew up a handoff or screen to one side, rotated a big in the lane up to also force the ball to the OOB lines on each side of the court. That’s why they were so out of rhythm. Nembhard was picking us apart in the PNR in drop coverage during the first half. We forced him to pass before he could do that in the second and forced a lot of guys to shoot late in the clock and miss.

That change shook them up bad. Combined with Carr and Garrison doing a great job of shutting down the interior and the Zags had zero answer. We got ourselves a real damn coach y'all!

 

[chroix]

Turned somebody into Nembsoft.

 

[St.PatterSoN-54-]

Turned somebody into Nembsoft.

Numb and hard. Just like I like it.

 

[WildcatNC]

Love to see the adjustments, but hopefully we can do it to stop the bleeding before we get down 20 going forward. 😄

Kind of surprising too because Zags didn't switch it up with us or anything. Should have been clear that drop coverage wasn't a good way to defend them. Was obvious that letting Niemhard carve us up in space was a bad strategy.

Can see a clear pattern of gathering data and observations in the first half, then putting a gameplan in place. Still have a lot of room to grow as a team and how we play together.

 

[IL Wildcat]

Agreed. That is currently the answer on how to defend UK. Pressure them, double the guy coming off the screen, get physical with them, don't give them any space. So, our guys need to be ready for everyone to approach us in this same (or similar) way. So, those violent back-cuts are very important for this team to find success. Perhaps now that we've seen this defensive approach, we can adjust earlier in the game. Making a few of those back-cuts for lay-ups and dunks will loosen up that pressure defense as well, which will open up the perimeter and 3-pt shots.

 

[chroix]

You know Jimmy loves the violent cuts. He’s got to love this squad.

 

[kywildcats8]

Meanwhile, Cal under pressure screams at his players to “GO MAKE A PLAY!!!”

or goooooooooooooooo

 

[JPFisher]

Difference was gonzaga was dumb enough to pressure up on our 5s. Obviously the way to play us is to lay off Williams and Garrison. No clue why they played us wrong but glad they did.

Our fours can hit threes and Williams is prone to turnovers... If I had to guess. Maybe?

 

[megablue]

Difference was gonzaga was dumb enough to pressure up on our 5s. Obviously the way to play us is to lay off Williams and Garrison. No clue why they played us wrong but glad they did.

Also, I was very surprised they did not apply tight defensive pressure on Robinson when he took the point spot. He struggles with the ball against tight defense and has stated that he does not like playing point guard. I was glad to see that they sagged some on him late in the game, but wondered if Few and staff had watched much film of our games. I would've pressured the hell out of Robinson ...

Jaxson Robinson Broke a Promise to Mark Pope and it Resulted in a Heroic Win

Jaxson Robinson vowed to never play point guard for Mark Pope again. It's a good thing that wasn't the case against Gonzaga.

www.on3.com

 

[CatFanInIlliniLand]

1000% this ^^^ ... pressure up top plays right into our hands.

Lay off Garrison and he can hit that shot enough to keep you honest

 

[Bluegrass79]

What I hate is seeing guys take good cuts towards the basket from the free throw line there and they're wide open for the pass to the basket and nobody gives it to them.
Guy at the three-point line with the ball never and I mean never makes that pass to the driver in front of them.
I seen it the Gonzaga game alot. Make that pass!!

 

[Fox2monk]

Love to see the adjustments, but hopefully we can do it to stop the bleeding before we get down 20 going forward. 😄

Kind of surprising too because Zags didn't switch it up with us or anything. Should have been clear that drop coverage wasn't a good way to defend them. Was obvious that letting Niemhard carve us up in space was a bad strategy.

Can see a clear pattern of gathering data and observations in the first half, then putting a gameplan in place. Still have a lot of room to grow as a team and how we play together.

That is true. I would like to see changes but maybe we remember this stuff later in the year and can implement it faster. He said after the game we are lucky to be such a veteran team who can do that period. Maybe that is the next step.

 

[Fox2monk]

Meanwhile, Cal under pressure screams at his players to “GO MAKE A PLAY!!!”

That is a genius coaching move!