#ballscreen

[faulentzer]

The headline of the day!😂

[hooperfiko]

Are you looking to improve your shooting skills in basketball? Then you should definitely try the "Wing Screen" shooting drill. This drill focuses on shooting off ball screens or performing a change of direction dribble. Dribble Towards the Wing: Start by dribbling the ball towards the wing, maintaining control over the ball and your body posture. Utilize the Chair as a Screen: Imagine the chair in front of you as a screen. Use an explosive dribble towards the hoop as if the chair is setting a pick. This will create separation between you and the defender. Pull Up for a Jump Shot: As you approach the hoop, pull up for a jump shot. Focus on your shooting form and release the ball with proper technique.

Get Your Own Rebound: After taking the shot, quickly retrieve your own rebound. This will help you work on your rebounding skills and prepare for the next repetition. Dribble Back to Half Court: Once you have the rebound, dribble back to half court to reset and start the drill again. Maintain control over the ball and stay focused on the task at hand. Missed Shots: In case you miss the shot, secure the rebound and make a layup before returning to half court. This will help you practice finishing at the rim and improve your scoring ability. Add Dribble Moves: For an extra challenge, you can incorporate dribble moves while running back to half court.

This will enhance your ball-handling skills and add an element of complexity to the drill. Adjust the Distance: Depending on your skill level and age, you can adjust the distance from the goal. For younger players, it may be beneficial to move the chairs closer to the hoop. Advanced players can experiment with increasing the distance to further challenge themselves. So, grab your basketball and start practicing the Wing Screen drill today to enhance your shooting skills on the court. Remember, repetition and dedication are the keys to improvement. Good luck! Do you have any questions or suggestions for this drill? Please Let me know by leaving your comments.

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[homebrew4you]

Ballscreener (Transmission64 2022) (Commodore 64) (C64) (4k Intro)

Ballscreener (Transmission64 2022) (Commodore 64) (C64) (4k Intro) ... Read the full article

[veatoj]

#basketballbeauties #icanbball #grind #rehab #crushthegym #stepbackjack #staysafestayactive #pointgawd #basketballtrainingsystems #bobbyjacksonbasketballacademy #skillsanddrills #youthtraining #onlinetraining #sacramentokings #ballscreen #handoff #handlelife #warmup #warmupexercise #aaugirlsbasketball #bball #hertimetoplay #highschoolbasketball #fallseason #wheelchairbasketball #goatboxingpromotions #overseasfit #overseasdrip #overseasbasketball #murph https://www.instagram.com/p/CJCR8PkhGoR/?igshid=14fbzu3dk1bqm

[shervonfakhimi]

The Comeback Nuggets

Before I get the ball rolling on this article, I just want to make a couple of things clear:

No, this is not going to be about how the Los Angeles Clippers gagged away a 3-1 lead after being the supposed title favorites in the eyes of many (not mine!), blowing leads of 18, 19, and 12 in Games 5-7, respectively.

No, this is not going to be about how the stars of the Clippers (Kawhi Leonard and Paul George) did their best to imitate the Clone Troopers in ‘Star Wars’ by shooting nothing but clankers with their livelihood on the line, going 0-11 from the field in the 4th quarter for a whopping 0 points.

No, this is not going to be about how the head coach of the Clippers has blown a 3-1 lead now for the third time, with three more blown 3-2 series leads attached to that resume.

I’ll let someone pettier than I to hash on with these topics. You can’t blow a 3-1 lead to yourself; someone else has to snag victory from the jaws of defeat. And, for the second time in this bubble postseason, the Denver Nuggets were the ones to send the Clippers packing, becoming the first team to ever win two playoff series in a single postseason after going down 3-1. 

Obviously, as a Laker fan, it brought me great joy to see who many regards as the stiffest competition in the conference to bow out early in the playoff proceedings, but as a fan of the league itself as well, it was cool to see the hipster Nuggets work their way into the mainstream spotlight by knocking who many considered the favorite to win it all and reconsider the actual effect and impact of certain popular NBA trends of previous years. The Nuggets win was a big-time score for continuity, as the Nuggets currently have seven playoff contributors who have played together for at least three consecutive seasons, starting with the 2017-18 season (and that doesn’t even count Will Barton since he has yet to play for the Nuggets in the playoffs). To put that in context, the Nuggets missed out on the playoffs that season after they lost the last game of the season to… Jimmy Butler’s Minnesota Timberwolves. Butler has now played for two more teams since and is now thriving for the Eastern Conference Finals-bound Miami Heat. LeBron James beat an upstart Boston Celtics team featuring Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart, sans an injured Kyrie Irving to get back to the NBA Finals. Tatum, Brown, and Smart are the only Celtics from that team that are on this year’s iteration of the team, while LeBron is a Laker alongside Anthony Davis, who won his lone series as a Pelican in the 2018 playoffs. The only 2017-18 Lakers that are on 2020’s team? Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso. Only four members of the 2017-18 Miami Heat are still on the squad: Game 1 Eastern Conference Finals hero Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic, Kelly Olynyk, and Heat Culture OG Udonis Haslem. Amongst the 2020 conference finalists, the Nuggets are anomalies. 

The Nuggets also got here riding the back of an actual center. Nikola Jokic and his transcendent skillset make him anything but a traditional center, but in a league where wings and perimeter playmakers are the ones everyone around the league is fawning over and building around (and rightfully so), Jokic still is a seven-foot brute force. Teams have not had as much success building around big men as in years prior. The last time an NBA team that featured a center to make an All-NBA team (Jokic made this year’s All-NBA 2nd team) reached the conference finals, let alone the NBA Finals, was the 2012-13 season with Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs. Coincidentally, Jokic’s foe in the Western Conference Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers, feature Anthony Davis, who made First Team All-NBA as a center, but still. The Nuggets are zagging while most of the rest of the league is zigging, and that helped them pull off one of the bigger upsets we’ve seen in NBA history.

For a team lauded with so much depth and versatility, the Clippers had no match for Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray’s duet, and that led to their demise. Clippers’ big men Ivica Zubac and Montrezl Harrell were thrown into the fire and could not put it out. Zubac at least could bang with Jokic, but could not stop fouling him and stay with Jokic’s herky-jerky shiftiness. Montrezl Harrell had to deal with personal tumult and was late to the bubble, but the Clippers got killed by his ineffectiveness. For the playoffs, the Clippers were -68 and outsocred by 11.6 points per 100 possessions when Harrell was on the floor, per NBA.com. Meanwhile, the Clippers had a Net Rating of +17.7 when Zubac was on the floor. 

When a big would guard Jokic, Jokic would pop to the three-point and drop bombs on the Clippers almost every time when the Clippers took away air space for the guards initiating the two-man game. When the Clippers would make the next rotation to try to take the Jokic threes away, that in turn led to open threes for other guys to drill, spearheaded by great unselfishness and movement with Jokic leading the way, as evidenced by this Jerami Grant corner three. Jokic shot 35% on threes during that series against the Clippers but missed all four of his threes in Game 7 when it did not end up dictating the outcome of that game and missed both of his threes in the Clippers’ Game 1 rout. Not those threes don’t matter because they do, but in the other five games of the series, Jokic shot just below 47% from deep on 6.4 attempts per game.

But it takes two to tango, and Jamal Murray took his turns at terrorizing the Clippers’ frontcourt as well. Getting dealt the waves of arms from the likes of Patrick Beverley, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard did not do many favors for Murray’s efficiency, but he did his work against the Clippers’ bigs. When he was able to get a big switched onto him, Murray made quick work of said big man. When Murray was able to get daylight in the pick and roll against a dropping big, he fired those shots quicker than Han Solo sitting in a booth at the Mos Eisley Cantina sitting across from Greedo (Murray shot 46.5% from three in the seven-game series against the Clippers, and is now shooting an astronomical 49.1% from deep on just below eight attempts per game). Jamal Murray made his name in the Nuggets’ first round series against the Utah Jazz with three straight games of 42+ points, including two fifty pieces, but, as someone who hasn’t always seen the light when it comes to Jamal Murray, he has clearly leveled up and his play against the Clippers was the last evidence I needed to see to believe it. Want a stat to believe it? Jamal Murray has run 9.6 pick and rolls per game in the playoffs, generating 1.10 points per possession, per NBA.com. The only players to generate more points per possession while running at least three pick and rolls in the playoffs? Donovan Mitchell and Lou Williams. Not too shabby.

So if both Jokic and Murray are killing it from deep, in order to prevent threes, you’re supposed to switch ballscreens, right? Well as we saw earlier, Murray is going to roast any big the Clippers have that switches onto him. So how can the Clippers switch? By putting Kawhi Leonard on Nikola Jokic and Paul George on Jamal Murray. That should work, right? Nope, wrong again. Put a wing on Jokic and Big Honey gets to work on the block. Maybe the Clippers probably should have just lived with Jokic posting them up to death; after-all, in the regular season, Jokic post-ups generated the same amount of points as a Marvin Williams spot-up jump shot, but scoring is so hard to come by in the playoffs and the Nuggets likely knew they could get Jokic on the block pulverizing the Clippers *any* time they wanted, and because Jokic is one of the few efficient post-scorers in the league (remember, these Nuggets are anomalies), they could live with post-ups taking them home. So the Clippers would counter by doubling Jokic, feeding directly into his prowess as the greatest passing big man in NBA history. The Clippers could have played smaller more to get more offense on the floor if their game plan was just to double Jokic anyway, but that isn’t stopping the fact that they had no answer for Nikola Jokic.

That wasn’t the only weakness the Nuggets exploited. Playing through a big man was one way to take out Kawhi and George’s on-ball defensive sturdiness, but the constant movement and cutting from the Nuggets was another way. The Clippers rotation features a couple of defensive liabilities in Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell and the Nuggets made sure to make the Clipper pay for playing them. Watch Jamal Murray set a screen on Lou Williams, hiding on a lesser offensive player (Torrey Craig). Williams isn’t paying attention, gets caught on the screen and Craig gets a layup. Typically, teams will seek a lesser defender out and make him defend the offense’s best player and iso him to oblivion. The Nuggets did that too, but emphasized movement and cutting and executed it to perfection. Kawhi and George are great off-ball defenders as well, but it is easier to score on them with someone delivering you the ball in front of the rim as opposed to asking them to do it by themselves. This play is a good example. Denver runs Murray off a pin-down screen with George trailing him. Murray then gets the ball from Jokic in a dribble-handoff with a head of steam, then rejects the screen with a gorgeous spin move to eschew Paul George and get to the rim for a dunk.

Watching the Clippers play offense was a polar opposite. They never had an offensive identity. Trading for Marcus Morris Sr. was a move many (not me) lauded, but one I found puzzling. Why get *another* ball-stopper on a team full of ball-stoppers? Kawhi has grown a bit as a playmaker, but wasn’t good enough against the Nuggets. Many Nuggets would stunt and rotate off Clipper shooters to get Kawhi playing in more traffic, and it worked. That the Clippers could not hunt Michael Porter Jr. after he looked lost against the Jazz Round 1 was pretty damning. The best pick and roll playmakers can read the floor and manipulate defenders into thinking something is going to happen, only to get what they originally wanted. Kawhi couldn’t throughout the duration, like here when Porter Jr. rotates perfectly to stall a Clippers possession then pack Harrell at the rim after a Clipper offensive rebound.

Yes, the Clippers choked this series away, but that doesn’t do the Nuggets service for what they did. Nikola Jokic outplayed a two-time Finals MVP. Jamal Murray outplayed Paul George. Michael Malone ran circles around Doc Rivers in the coaching department (Malone deserves a lot more credit in the discourse). Some will chalk it up to the randomness of the bubble with no home-court advantage, which surely there is something to say about that, though the Clippers don’t have a home-court advantage and the Nuggets were without the Mile-High altitude they feast upon. Maybe the Clippers were the better team all along; they did have double digit leads in three consecutive elimination games. But the Nuggets have shown resilience far before the landed in Disney-World. This iteration of Nuggets literally knows nothing but seven-game playoff series. This wasn’t a fluke. The Nuggets were better than the Clippers, and deserved every ounce of their two comeback series wins in their route to the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers will have their hands full as well. They will have to earn everything. After all, that’s all the Nuggets have done in this postseason.

[auburnfamilynews]

Streaking the Lawn joins us today to talk Virginia Basketball!

Auburn is going to the Final Four! I think by now, it has finally began to sink in for me as the Tigers head to Minneapolis this afternoon to get ready for Saturday’s matchup with the Virginia Cavaliers.

In order to learn more about Virginia, I reached out to Virginia’s SB Nation site, Streaking the Lawn, to give us a Virginia perspective for Saturday’s game. My thanks to Paul Wiley for taking the time to answer my questions! His answers are in bold below.

1. First of all, just talk about the excitement level around the program that’s about to appear in their 1st Final Four since 1984?

“Delirium? Pandemonium? For a fanbase that’s been treated to a lot of firsts or first-in-a-whiles under Tony Bennett—first ACC Tournament title since 1976 in 2014; first #1 seed since the Sampson Era—this is the first-in-a-while we’ve all been waiting for. The litany of NCAA Tournament stumbles on the heels of such dominant regular-season success has made the Final Four seem darn near unattainable, at least in the eyes of most punditry we’ve had to endure. I was up until about 3 AM after the Elite Eight win, just too jazzed to go to sleep, and I know from Twitter that I wasn’t the only one. And if you’re a visual learner, here’s your photo evidence: a crowd-surfing bride outside one of the main sports bars on the Corner, UVA’s main drag of bars and restaurants.”

Finally have service and I’m here to show you a crowd surfing bride pic.twitter.com/yrX0u26Kag

— Ava Wallace (@avarwallace) March 31, 2019

2. Auburn and Virginia are both similar in the number of guys in their rotation and that their team is made up of mostly upperclassmen. I can only speak for Auburn but I would imagine a lot of the Virginia guys weren’t as highly recruited as some guys that went and played at the “blue-blood” programs. Just talk about the coaching job that Tony Bennett has done in Charlottesville to get this program to where it is now?

“There is certainly a sentiment among much of the UVA fanbase that the one-and-done types wouldn’t work at Virginia. Bennett and players alike have said that the Pack Line defense takes at least a year to understand, and Bennett doesn’t give minutes to guys until he trusts them on defense. But Bennett doesn’t hide that fact or apologize for it, which is part of what has helped him find the right guys even if they aren’t considered blue-chip recruits. He has sold a clear vision for the program—its underlying schematic principles as well as its foundational moral principles—to both the fanbase and to recruits. That vision is a reflection of his personality. And that is ultimately what has driven the success: there is no gap between who Bennett is and what Bennett says, and that has made it easier to buy in completely.”

3. Virginia plays a brand of basketball that most people don’t like or use but Virginia makes it work. What’s different about this year’s team compared to previous year’s teams that have struggled once they reach the NCAA Tournament?

“The talent level. Previous teams were filled more with the overlooked guys that Bennett coached up into All-ACC caliber performers. But the players that are leading this program are from the high-water mark of Bennett’s recruiting classes: Kyle Guy was the program’s first McDonald’s All-American since 2008, and his 2015 classmates Ty Jerome, De’Andre Hunter, and Jay Huff were all top-100 recruits; they powered UVA’s class to 7th in the national rankings that year. The year before, Mamadi Diakite was a national top-40 recruit. They have all now had multiple years to develop under strength coach Mike Curtis, and to absorb the offensive and defensive systems until they’re second-nature. Because of that higher talent level, Bennett has also deployed more diverse looks on both ends of the court—it’s not all blocker-mover on offense, and the defense is more willing and able to switch on ballscreens instead of hedge-and-recover.”

4. After what happened last year, Virginia didn’t exactly start off the tournament well this year either against a #16 seed. What were your thoughts at halftime against Gardner-Webb?

“(Expletive deleted, expletive deleted, expletive deleted). Seriously: I was about two minutes from getting thrown out of a bar in Las Vegas because I was NOT hiding my displeasure very well. The Gardner-Webb guards were slipping ballscreens really easily, and it was super frustrating to see UVA not adjust. The offense had the same sort of tight or nervy look that they did the year before, too. But the difference this year is that they had options. Inserting Diakite and Key allowed the defense to start switching, which stopped Gardner-Webb’s dribble penetration. The offense was able to change up their sets, and Diakite’s second-half awakening restored order to the basketball universe.”

5. I’m excited for this matchup mostly because of the different styles we will see on the court Saturday. Auburn scores around 80 points a game and loves to play fast while Virginia is tops in the country allowing only 55.4 points a game. Auburn has faced excellent defensive teams this year and had mixed success against them. What is one of the biggest factors into how successful Virginia’s defense is against their opponents?

“The biggest factor is mentality. Every player who comes to Virginia knows he is going to be expected to play full-throttle defense every possession. If you listen to Jerome or Guy or any of them talk, you’ll hear them say how much they pride themselves on playing stifling defense. That means they fly back down the court to stop the transition game, and they rotate fast behind the on-ball defender. Before Rick Pitino’s ignominious departure from Louisville, he described UVA’s defense as being like five fingers coming together to make a fist. Each player knows his assignment and the responsibilities of the other guys on the court. Add in the length and athleticism of this year’s squad and you get a daunting defensive unit.”

6. Kyle Guy is your leading scorer (15.4 ppg) and he certainly had a rough 3 games in this tournament prior to the Purdue game. Just talk about his importance to this team.

“In years past, if Guy wasn’t shooting well, his contributions were somewhat limited. But he has rounded out his game this year with more ability to drive and finish through contact, and he is a sneaky good rebounding guard to boot. Even when he isn’t hot, he’s enough of a threat to go Human Torch at any moment—and stays so active with cuts and running around ball screens—that he requires a dedicated defender at all times. That allows the offense to run games to create space and get open shots for others. From a more meta perspective, Kyle also has been the most public about how he’s dealt with last year’s UMBC disaster, which has provided some cover to other guys who may not have been ready to deal with it under the same intense spotlight. It’s given him another dimension of on-court leadership as a result: watch who recalibrates Diakite if things start to get screwy.”

7. Virginia has a sophomore forward that looks to be a potential lottery pick (as was Chuma Okeke before his injury) in De’Andre Hunter. How has his game improved from Year 1 to Year 2?

“On offense, his outside shooting. As a first-year, Hunter shot a respectable 37 percent from deep. This season, he has nearly doubled his number of attempts and upped that to 42 percent, making him a legit outside threat. At the other end of the court, he has adopted the mindset of being UVA’s shutdown guy for any player 1 through 4 (and even some smaller post players). It’s the reason he was named both ACC and NABC’s national Defensive Player of the Year.”

8. You guys, like Auburn, played North Carolina, a team that has a tempo similar to Auburn’s. What was the key in that game, a 69-61 Virginia win on February 11th, to slowing down the Tar Heels and do you think Virginia could employ a similar strategy to try and slow down Auburn?

“Limiting turnovers and shooting well from three. Missed shots against teams like UNC and Auburn turn into transition opportunities in a hurry, especially missed shots from three that turn into long rebounds. Carolina just murdered Virginia on the boards—16 offensive rebounds, fully 40 percent of their offensive misses—but UVA did not hand them extra possessions by turning the ball over a ton; even the 10 giveaways that Virginia surrendered were uncharacteristically high, but low enough to survive. If the Hoos commit themselves to stopping the transition game, that should give them a decent chance to control the pace and style of play.”

9. Who is one player that Auburn fans should be aware of that tends to fly under the radar?

“Before the tournament I would have said Mamadi Diakite, but he has flourished into a starter and major contributor (even before hitting the miraculous shot to send the Purdue game to overtime). Now the most under-the-radar guy is probably Braxton Key, who transferred from Alabama and provides Virginia with some redundancy behind De’Andre Hunter. Key has great size at 6-foot-8 and enough quickness to cover most guards. He is actually leading the team in defensive rebounding rate (23.1) and 5.2 total rebounds per game. Against smaller lineups, UVA can go with Hunter, Key, and Diakite in the frontcourt and impose some size advantage without losing much athleticism. When teams go big, Key slots in well as a wing that can help shut down opposing post players. If he can establish a better outside shot, he can also give the Hoos a sneak shot in the arm coming off the bench.”

10. Lastly, who do you think wins the game and do you have a score prediction?

“Guh. That’s my overall prediction: just a night full of ulcer-inducing, chest-clutching stress. UVA’s best case is that the Tigers played out of their minds against Kentucky—a combination of playing for Okeke and the opportunity to slay a conference-rival blueblood—and Auburn finds it tough to reinvigorate that kind of mental energy after a six-day hiatus; the three-point shooting cools and Virginia can take advantage of size inside against a good-but-not-great defense. The Virginia nightmare is that the cold shooting is on the Hoos’ offensive end and Auburn runs-and-guns all over their heads. I am a big believer that March Madness runs on narrative: more often than not, the better story seems to make its way through. Auburn’s run has been a good story, but UVA’s redemption narrative is stronger. Virginia advances to Monday night, 69-61.”

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/4/3/18294080/basketball-q-a-virginia-cavaliers

[truesportsfan]

Nets completely shut down Hornets in bounce-back win

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Nets were salty after the way their game in Philadelphia ended Thursday night. They were angry at the way the refs called it down the stretch, but far more with themselves for putting the outcome in somebody else’s hands.

They made up for it Saturday against the Hornets.

After letting the 76ers off the hook two days earlier, this time when the Nets got the Hornets down they stepped on their proverbial necks in a 115-86 rout before 19,079 at the Spectrum Center.

Somehow against the Sixers, the Nets blew a 20-point cushion and a six-point lead with just over two minutes left before losing in overtime. But on Saturday, when they led by nine in the third quarter, they used withering defense to go on a 33-15 run that spanned into the fourth.

“We let a lot of teams back in to these type of games. I was expecting that it was going to be close — I know we were up [10] at half — but they’re going to come back and it’d be nip-and-tuck,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “That’s one of the few times we didn’t really let the team come back at all into the game and kept pushing and stamped them out.

“There was a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to prove something. I felt it before the game, I feel it in that locker room. We can still do something special. There’s enough talent in there to do something special, that’s for sure.”

The Nets came in ranked eighth overall in defensive rating and third in the league since the start of December. And they turned in one of their better performances, led by Caris LeVert.

Caris LeVert battles Bismark Biyombo for a loose ball during the Nets’ 115-86 win over the Hornets.Getty Images

The Nets had eight players in double-figures, led by Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot’s 21 points. Garrett Temple had his first career double-double (15 points and a career-high 11 boards). LeVert scored 17. But it was on the other end where LeVert was a menace.

LeVert’s six steals were a career-high and the most by a Net all season. Charlotte’s Devonte’ Graham had eviscerated the Nets for 40 points on Dec. 11, but this time LeVert held him to just six points, two assists and 1-of-10 shooting from the floor.

“It was just trying to make everything tough on him,” LeVert said of Graham, who was averaging 17.8 points and 7.8 assists. “I know things he likes to do, so I just tried to take him out of that, not give him easy looks.

“But it wasn’t just me. We switched a lot on ballscreens and Wilson [Chandler] moved his feet extremely well, Spencer [Dinwiddie] moved his feet, a lot of guys played great defense. It was a team effort.”

The Nets led 55-45 at the break, but rather than watch film as usual, they spoke about the need to do the little things, to pay attention to detail, to pay their dues for the respect they want. Atkinson spoke, the ultra-verbal DeAndre Jordan spoke. And everybody absorbed.

“Kenny spoke and said just keep doing what we’re doing, we’re playing well, step on their necks,” Temple said. “And that’s what we were able to do in the second half, built the lead even further than it was.”

Leading 57-48, the Nets blew the game open.

It started with seven unanswered points, Taurean Prince hitting a right-wing 3-pointer and another bucket to pad the lead to 12. After LeVert elevated for a steal, Jarrett Allen’s dunk made it 64-48.

LeVert had three steals in a run that hit 33-15, his layup 30 seconds into the fourth quarter making it 90-63.

“No question for more reasons than one we had a chip on our shoulder. But the way we played that Philly game we let one get away. And we know the race we’re in we’ve got to win games like,” Temple said. “The rest of the season we have to have that same mentality for there to be a chip on our shoulder, an extra level of focus, attention to detail.”

source https://truesportsfan.com/sport-today/nets-completely-shut-down-hornets-in-bounce-back-win/

[flauntpage]

Defensive Adjustments, Rebounding, and the Big Ragu – How Villanova Won it All, Again

It’s crazy to think that this game was close at one point.

Michigan was up 21-14 and Villanova’s defense looked discombobulated. The shots weren’t falling. Not a single starter hit a three pointer until Donte DiVincenzo came off the bench to open 6 for 8 and pull the Wildcats out of an early shooting funk. The seven-point deficit became a nine-point lead as Nova went on a 23-7 run to end the first half.

That was pretty much all they needed.

It was another elite performance from an elite team. They didn’t get rattled, weathered the early storm, made the adjustments, and just put their foot down from there. This squad won every single tournament game by double-digits, and went 6-0 against the spread during the championship run, matching the achievements of the 2016 Wildcat team.

I was taking notes, expecting a closer game, but stopped writing things down when Nova went up by ten. What was the point? There really wasn’t anything to analyze in the second half.

The most significant wrinkle was actually was on the defensive end, where Nova looked out of sorts early when it came to their switching game. I know people hate Doug Gottlieb and are annoyed with his dumb tweets this morning, but just bear with me here:

Nova seems confused on switching 1-4 or 1-5… watch Brunson on two different possession.. 1st one isn’t his fault, 2nd he is lost/late pic.twitter.com/u9Ay26oc9O

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) April 3, 2018

On that second play above (Gottlieb shows each one twice), Brunson actually takes a back screen and fights through it while Omari Spellman switches instead. Brunson then tries to readjust late and is out of position, which you see better from this angle:

Good example of a slipped screen that gets ball handler down hill pic.twitter.com/lVipEXji5Q

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) April 3, 2018

With Brunson stuck in no man’s land, Michigan slips the screen and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman has an easy path to the lane.

Two more examples of the high screen action where Michigan tried to slip guys through the Villanova switches– one successful, one unsuccessful:

Michigan's "Houston" action – I think they could look to go back to the 2 player actions vs Villanova switching. (Pin/Hand Offs before ballscreens) pic.twitter.com/Y0IUIKbCgd

— Half Court Hoops (@HalfCourtHoops) April 3, 2018

And on the other end, Michigan played their extended defense with switching of their own to deny some of the easy looks that Nova often gets from the three-point line. The Wildcats started finding the second cut and making the extra pass and started to work the ball in and out a little bit instead of settling for lazy stuff on the perimeter. They also had a nice night on the glass, out-rebounding Michigan 38 to 27 and grabbing 12 on the offensive end. I think that was an underrated storyline last night– some of the second chance opportunities that Villanova created.

But whatever adjustment they made defensively, it worked. One of the moments that really jumped out to me was this play with 8:54 in the first half, when it was 21-18, a tough defensive sequence with 1-5 switching that forced a shot clock violation:

Eric Paschall switches onto Zavier Simpson and Michigan gets a mismatch with 7’1″ Jon Teske on the 6’5″ DiVincenzo. But Donte does a hell of a job fronting him, Paschall keeps the smaller Simpson in front, and Collin Gillespie then switches on Charles Matthews and pesters him all the way out to the opposite perimeter for a horrendous late-clock heave.

For me, that was the play of the game. Seriously. Say whatever you will about DiVincenzo on the offensive end, but after that moment right there, I puttered over to the fridge and said to myself, “okay, they figured out the defense, they’ve got this one in the bag.”

Not for nothing, but there was an interesting sequence that I replayed five times in a row, wondering if Nova got away with a goaltending call at the end of the half.

It was the play where DiVincenzo blocked the ball and it became wedged between the rim and the backboard:

DiVincenzo with the exclamation point block!

Wildcats take a 9-point lead to the half.pic.twitter.com/KqyAUWwmw0

— Sporting News (@sportingnews) April 3, 2018

Normally you’re flagged for goaltending when you touch a ball after it hits the backboard, because it’s considered to be part of a shot’s “downward” flight. But there’s a second parameter here that’s explained in the 2017/2018 rule book:

The rule says that if you get the ball after it hits the backboard while still below the rim, you’re good. It rarely happens, however, because the rim is located so low on the backboard in the first place.

In this case, it looks like DiVincenzo gets it when the top third of the ball is above the rim:

Anyway, it was a big play. Nova was up 6 at that point, got the block without the goaltending call, and then came down to hit a three-pointer at the other end, taking a big lead into halftime. Instead of Meeeechigan cutting the deficit to four, Villanova extended it to nine.

If we’re being honest, though, it probably wouldn’t have mattered. Wolverine fans might have a legit gripe, but once Nova shook off the slow start, the game was pretty much in the bag.

  Donte DiVincenzo

Some ridiculous notes on his performance last night:

he outscored the Michigan bench 31 to 7

he scored 31 points on just 15 shots

those 31 points are the most scored off the bench in a national title game

he was only averaging 13.4 on the season

he only scored 19 points in the entirety of the Big East tournament (8, 5, and 6)

There was a point in the first half where DiVincenzo was 6-8 from the field and 3-4 from three with 16 points and 2 rebounds. His teammates were 5-17 and 0-7 from downtown with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Truly, they weren’t getting much to fall until he came into the game.

And it’s not like he was hitting wide open stuff, a lot of his early makes were heavily contested. One or two steps, hand in the face, pull up and fire:

DiVincenzo put on a show tonight pic.twitter.com/nwNKIFNwM2

— Ball Is Life (@BallOnIy) April 3, 2018

There’s some pretty good perimeter defense in those clips.

As for Nova, they now join UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Indiana, Connecticut, and Kansas as programs to win three national championships. They are also the fourth team ever, and the first since 1968 UCLA, to win both Final Four games by at least 16 points.

And consider the fact that Brunson was held to a season-low nine points last night. That’s the best part about this team. They really didn’t even play that well and still won by 17 points.

I know Philly doesn’t seem super excited about a Nova win, but no matter where your loyalties lie, I think everyone will look back at this team as one of the best – or maybe the best – to play college ball in our region.

Defensive Adjustments, Rebounding, and the Big Ragu – How Villanova Won it All, Again published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[323sportsblog]

Play of the Day: Arizona Wildcats Ball Screen to Lob

Play of the Day: Arizona Wildcats Ball Screen to Lob

Diagram 1 5 sets a pin down screen for 2. 1 passes to 2. 4 backscreens for 1 while 3 moves to the opposite side of the floor.

Diagram 2 2 dribbles towards the opposite wing while 1 circles around for a dribble handoff. 5 moves to the top of the key while 4 moves under the basket.

Diagram 3 5 sets a ballscreen for 1 then dives to the front of the rim. 1 lobs to 5.

Click here for the video.

[veatoj]

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[veatoj]

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[veatoj]

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[veatoj]

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[veatoj]

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