MSU vs. UK - Coaching Move of the Game

Every now and then, I’ll try to post a coaching move from the game that significantly impacted the outcome. The move from last night was how John Calipari decided to defend MSU ball screens vs. Cassius Winston. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch Calipari and Izzo practices where they worked on ball screen defense. MSU’s system is way more complex with more options. MSU will practice 6 basic ways to defend the ball screen: show, switch, under, over, freeze, and jam. I’m sure they could trap it if they wanted but I’ve never seen them practice it or do it in games. When I saw Cal practice, it was switch, hedge, and double. Last night, was essentially a double. It was a double because a majority of the time the post player wouldn’t leave Winston until he gave up the ball. Not a lot of teams play in that way, as it basically leaves you 4 vs 3 behind the play. UK can get away with it because of how athletic the big is (when UM tried it, Teske simply couldn’t move well enough) and how athletic the 3 playing our 4 were. When Izzo said he was disappointed in how he and the staff coached, my hunch and like be the counters (and personnel to run those) they had or didn’t have available for that look. What worked? 1. Side ball screen look on the weak side. Allowed the screener to roll to open spaces without help being so close 2. Pick and pop. We ran a couple for wide open 3’s, taken by Hall and Bingham. They basically left the pop man a few times to double Winston and we didn’t make them pay. What didn’t work 1. Ball screen then re-ball screen. That’s what really gets guys like Teske but Richards and Montgomery could jump to help on both sides 2. Roll and replace with the skip being the best shooter. Another thing we did to McQuaid in the B1G title game vs Michigan. Some of our guys didn’t react quick enough or missed it when Cash skipped it. In this instance, I don’t think the coaching move won the game. But tip of the cap to Coach Cal for limiting the #1 piece of our half court offense and daring others to beat him.