Creighton offense

[NotAnAlum]

It would have been great if we had found a way to win the game last night .  That said you really have to appreciate the way they run their offense.  Each time they come down the court it becomes almost immediately clear what this possession is going to be "about".  If Watson can initiate the offense by driving in well beyond the 3 pt line he does so but he keeps his dribble alive and he is always looking to pass.  If he can't drive it in initially they start that weave with each guy trying to drive it down the lane.  However unlike MU the drive is really not about getting to the rack.  Its about drawing in the defense to set them up for the 3.  At the same time the guy is driving into the lane another guys is replacing him at the top of the key while another guy goes to the base line corner.  This gets the other guys open for step in 3s all over the court wherever the guy with the ball has a lane to pass it.  The final option is if they can see their big has position they can throw it to him for a 2 footer.  But the pass is coming from inside the 3 point line with the defense scrambling so its so much easier to make. 
Creighton missed a HUGE number of bunnies and wide open 3s last night.  If they had shot even a reasonable % of these shots we would have lost by 20 which is likely to happen in Omaha.  Of course a lot of this is having an experienced point guard and experienced coach.  I guess I'm just envious to watch an offense that is so well executed compared ours which seems like lets just let the guy with the ball wing it and hope that he has the natural talent to make something happen.

[Dawson Rental]

It would have been great if we had found a way to win the game last night .  That said you really have to appreciate the way they run their offense.  Each time they come down the court it becomes almost immediately clear what this possession is going to be "about".  If Watson can initiate the offense by driving in well beyond the 3 pt line he does so but he keeps his dribble alive and he is always looking to pass.  If he can't drive it in initially they start that weave with each guy trying to drive it down the lane.  However unlike MU the drive is really not about getting to the rack.  Its about drawing in the defense to set them up for the 3.  At the same time the guy is driving into the lane another guys is replacing him at the top of the key while another guy goes to the base line corner.  This gets the other guys open for step in 3s all over the court wherever the guy with the ball has a lane to pass it.  The final option is if they can see their big has position they can throw it to him for a 2 footer.  But the pass is coming from inside the 3 point line with the defense scrambling so its so much easier to make. 
Creighton missed a HUGE number of bunnies and wide open 3s last night.  If they had shot even a reasonable % of these shots we would have lost by 20 which is likely to happen in Omaha.  Of course a lot of this is having an experienced point guard and experienced coach.  I guess I'm just envious to watch an offense that is so well executed compared ours which seems like lets just let the guy with the ball wing it and hope that he has the natural talent to make something happen.

I believe that what you are saying when you credit Creighton with having a better offense due to having "an experienced point guard and experienced coach" you are making the point that these are things that MU currently lacks.

I do not agree with the characterization of Wojciechowski has an inexperienced coach.  I think that it is way off base.  He was an assistant coach for 15 years to Mike Krzyzewski who will finish his career as one of the top collegiate coaches of all time.  The last six of those he was the Associate Head Coach.  Duke won two national championships during those years.  He was also spent 7 years as an assistant coach of the firckin' USA Basketball Men's National Team, you know the team made up of NBA all-stars which plays in the  Olympics, FIBA Basketball World Cup, the FIBA Americas Championship, and the Pan American Games.

What do people think that Wojo spends his time on the bench thinking; "Darn, I wish I had spent some of my time coaching at Duke and with the USA Basketball Men's National Team wondering what I would do as a head coach instead of always just thinking, What do I do as an assistant?"

If anything, Wojo was over prepared to be a head coach because he chose to wait to take a head coaching job until he was asked to head a program he felt he could take to the top.  He had a front row seat to see how one of the best in the game performed as a head coach in both the collegiate and international arenas.  With that kind of experience, what sort of situations do you feel he is unprepared for?

The only inexperienced head coaches that I am aware of at Marquette occupy MUScoop and they show their ignorance when they feel that they can accurately second guess Wojciechowski.  They are fans, they can do it if they want, but IMO they are delusional to think that they can speak with any authority.  Don't buy their narrative however superior they act or intimidating they get.

How does an inexperienced coach with an (admittedly and truly) inexperienced point guard coach his team to score within three points of Creighton's offense with which you seem so impressed?

[tower912]

So Creighton is running a variation of what buss ran with the midgets.  Wojos offense reminds me of the weave that crean ran.

[Lennys Tap]

So Creighton is running a variation of what buss ran with the midgets.  Wojos offense reminds me of the weave that crean ran.

Yes and yes.

Creighton shot wide open 3s (or lay ups) all night. Fortunately they missed those wide open 3s at a very high rate. Unfortunately not at quite high enough of a rate to give us the game.

[bilsu]

I thought Creighton changed their offense at half time. They seemed to go from a more half court offense in the first half to an attacking offense in the second half. Wojo said in the post game show that MU did a worse job in the second half stopping penetration. It seemed to me that Creighton became much more aggressive in taking the ball directly to the hoop. McDermott obviously saw something and made a halftime adjustment. By Wojo's post game comment it seem like he did not even recognize that Creighton changed their offense and was willing to blame the team's defensive lapses instead of adjusting himself.

[WarriorFan]

Creighton runs the same offense that half of the NCAA runs.  Why couldn't we defend it?

They did not change the offense in the 2nd half, they changed the priorities within the offense.  More about getting to the rim from the top of the key rather than drive and kick.  An obvious change when the 3's just aren't falling.  Predictable.  It's simple... you just tell the PG "if you get past the first guy - keep going!" and the bigs seal rather than posting. 

I really hope that next year Traci can do this the way Watson did...

[KenoshaWarrior]

Where did Marcus Watson come from. Dude was solid!

[Dawson Rental]

Creighton runs the same offense that half of the NCAA runs.  Why couldn't we defend it?

They did not change the offense in the 2nd half, they changed the priorities within the offense.  More about getting to the rim from the top of the key rather than drive and kick.  An obvious change when the 3's just aren't falling.  Predictable.  It's simple... you just tell the PG "if you get past the first guy - keep going!" and the bigs seal rather than posting. 

I really hope that next year Traci can do this the way Watson did...

Including his transfer sit out year, Watson is now in his fourth year of Division I basketball, and his third year as a starter, so it'd be tough for Traci to reach that level next year.  Still Traci, hopefully, will be closer to Watson's level next year than to his performance this year.

[Dawson Rental]

Where did Marcus Watson come from. Dude was solid!

Maurice Watson, Jr. started for two years at Boston University in the America East Conference.  As a sophomore, he led Boston to the NIT and averaged 13.3 points, 7.1 assists and 2.1 steals per game.  He was almost right on his averages (one assist short) when Boston played UConn that year.  He always wanted to play in the Big East, so he transferred when he got his chance after that sophomore year.

[bilsu]

Creighton runs the same offense that half of the NCAA runs.  Why couldn't we defend it?

They did not change the offense in the 2nd half, they changed the priorities within the offense.  More about getting to the rim from the top of the key rather than drive and kick.  An obvious change when the 3's just aren't falling.  Predictable.  It's simple... you just tell the PG "if you get past the first guy - keep going!" and the bigs seal rather than posting. 

I really hope that next year Traci can do this the way Watson did...

McDermott made a change at halftime. It was obvious and Wojo blamed the players for not playing defense.

[BM1090]

McDermott made a change at halftime. It was obvious and Wojo blamed the players for not playing defense.

Wojo blamed himself. Just listen to the press conference.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Wojo blamed himself. Just listen to the press conference.

So you know, MU82 doesn't believe in teal.

[BM1090]

So you know, MU82 doesn't believe in teal.

Maybe I'm failing to make an obvious connection here, but I was responding to bilsu, not MU82.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Maybe I'm failing to make an obvious connection here, but I was responding to bilsu, not MU82.

...whoops. Don't mind me, I was just being a moron