Basic basketball missing.....

[axaguy]

One thing that has been glaringly wrong for the longest time with all Wojo's teams is an inability how to react to and operate when faced with a full court press.... Obviously Wojo and his assistants are clueless on teaching the basic premises. Any good book on basic basketball should be read....

The press is broken by PASSING the ball out of it via breaking a big open down the middle of the floor and running wings off of it. NEVER, NEVER pass inbounds to a player heading into a corner for the obvious double team (like last night) nor try to clear out for someone to dribble out if it either. Both are recipes for disaster.
Passing, cutting and screening while spacing the floor beats a press. Bob Knight where are you?
Second issue is way over dribbling on offense. I don't care who's hot, we often over dribble and think one guy is going to get it done.... Offense works best when floor is spaced, there's movement, cutting and screening as well as effort to PASS inside. Passing overall is much better than over handling the ball resulting in turnovers.
Anyway, my soap box.
Was very impressed by offensive rebounds especially a few times on missed free throws... Gotta get the ball down low, but, again for open opportunities elsewhere not forcing by overteamed bigs...
Hey, John did quite nicely offensively last night, too. Didn't over play or over handle the ball.
Done....

[🏀]

Yes, Wojo and the entire coaching staff are not familiar with the basic premises of passing. It's not a lack of execution, it's Wojo doesn't know how to pass.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

duanewade?

[lurch91]

This is what gets posted after a win? By 5 points? On the road? Against the #9 in the country?

Not saying the game was perfect, but we were better than the other team.

[The Sultan]

The press is broken by PASSING the ball out of it via breaking a big open down the middle of the floor and running wings off of it. NEVER, NEVER pass inbounds to a player heading into a corner for the obvious double team (like last night) nor try to clear out for someone to dribble out if it either.

Sorry the bolded is completely untrue.  I'm no John Wooden or Bobby Knight, but the standard break of a man press is to clear out, make the double team commit, and attack it.

[Its DJOver]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o8M3OPJTC8

Most famous press break in program history, I see both passes into the corner, and what I'm sure what some would consider "over dribbling".  Clearly KO needs to learn a thing or two.

[MU82]

Also hated that one time, Wojo took TWO sips from his massive cup during a break. TWO sips! What a pig!

[Skatastrophy]

But seriously, we need to practice a couple of inbounds set plays. We nearly threw that game away.

[mileskishnish72]

But seriously, we need to practice a couple of inbounds set plays.

Agree. On the other hand, we didn't give up any open bunnies on their BOOB's, which is refreshing.

[StillAWarrior]

But seriously, we need to practice a couple of inbounds set plays. We nearly threw that game away.

Agreed. I think that what the team should do is, on days when there is not a game, they should get together at the Al and practice things. I'm fully in agreement that inbounds plays should be on the list. And offensive sets, feeding the post, end of game situations, press break, playing against a zone, playing a zone, etc. Hell, pretty much everything. But not free throws...they no matta.

[CTWarrior]

The original post has a point about one thing, we do seem to get caught in the corner on inbounds plays against a press pretty often during Wojo's tenure.  Shouldn't have to wait until a loss to post about things that need work.  I think we avoid the big guy coming down to catch the pass and spread the floor because our bigs have usually been pretty bad FT shooters.

[TallTitan34]

At least we didn't do this:
https://twitter.com/MUOverload/status/1338547468129226752?s=20

[bilsu]

I think most of MU's turnovers come in the half court. I do not think Wojo's teams have had much trouble against bringing the ball up against the press. Of course we do not play Louisville anymore, which could be a nightmare.

[Slick]

Compared to Creighton, our out of bounds plays are fine. Has anyone noticed when CU has the ball under their own basket, about 80% of the time, they throw the ball to half court rather than running an actual play?

[Galway Eagle]

Compared to Creighton, our out of bounds plays are fine. Has anyone noticed when CU has the ball under their own basket, about 80% of the time, they throw the ball to half court rather than running an actual play?

Pretty sure I recall that pretty much being what buzz used to to do. It was like three picks set but 90% of the time the PF or C would pop out to the top of the key or farther and we'd just lob it to them.

[avid1010]

i think there is a huge misunderstanding by some of what it means to be a coach.  these guys all know how to break a press.  wojo was a f-ing pg and assistant coach at duke...he knows how to break a press.  he knows what he should in nearly every situation, and if he doesn't, he has people to figure it out for him.  we're talking very specific situations where data analysis is valuable in decision making (e.g. fouling when up 3 with X amount of seconds left, based upon rebounding edge, etc.)

that said, all coaches have the knowledge...i think the questions are: 1) can they teach it to kids and get them to execute? 2) can they recruit players that can do what they ask/want to do (style of play) at the BEAST level?  3) can they apply their own knowledge on the fly (in-game adjustments)

i think wojo has the players (e.g. suddenly they can play defense).  i think he's average at teaching and getting his players to apply (style and execution).  i think he's been pretty poor with in-game adjustments.  to summarize...good recruiter, average coach, poor in-game coach.

good game plan against CU and he recruited the right guys.  they were ok against the zone, but i thought he should have called a timeout the minute they saw zone to review their game plan against the zone...instead, we had two bad possessions, then called a timeout, then got it going.  i think we've seen enough from this team to realize they needed that timeout the second CU showed zone...MU is relatively young and inexperienced at important positions.  in a case like that, an immediate timeout and re-teach could have saved MU a net of ~4-12 points.  moves like that can get a team a couple extra wins a year...

[BallBoy]

Rule 1 of breaking the press - get the ball inbounded <5 seconds.
Rule 2 attack the press

Sometimes rule one necessitates a pass to the corner. Not ideal but better to pass to the corner than take a five second count.

There are two things MU can do to do better.
1. Start their movement faster. It seems that after the inbounder is handed the ball it takes .5-1 second to initiate the play without much urgency
2. MU seems to start too close to half court which takes 1-2 players out of position for an inbounds pass
3.  Passing to the corner is not the end of the world. Stopping there is.

[MU82]

i think there is a huge misunderstanding by some of what it means to be a coach.  these guys all know how to break a press.  wojo was a f-ing pg and assistant coach at duke...he knows how to break a press.  he knows what he should in nearly every situation, and if he doesn't, he has people to figure it out for him.  we're talking very specific situations where data analysis is valuable in decision making (e.g. fouling when up 3 with X amount of seconds left, based upon rebounding edge, etc.)

that said, all coaches have the knowledge...i think the questions are: 1) can they teach it to kids and get them to execute? 2) can they recruit players that can do what they ask/want to do (style of play) at the BEAST level?  3) can they apply their own knowledge on the fly (in-game adjustments)

i think wojo has the players (e.g. suddenly they can play defense).  i think he's average at teaching and getting his players to apply (style and execution).  i think he's been pretty poor with in-game adjustments.  to summarize...good recruiter, average coach, poor in-game coach.

good game plan against CU and he recruited the right guys.  they were ok against the zone, but i thought he should have called a timeout the minute they saw zone to review their game plan against the zone...instead, we had two bad possessions, then called a timeout, then got it going.  i think we've seen enough from this team to realize they needed that timeout the second CU showed zone...MU is relatively young and inexperienced at important positions.  in a case like that, an immediate timeout and re-teach could have saved MU a net of ~4-12 points.  moves like that can get a team a couple extra wins a year...

I won't argue with this at all.

I will say that, as a coach (albeit at a much lower level), one of my favorite things is springing a different defense or a press on the opponent, forcing them to call time-out, and then, during the time-out, changing to something else. So they just spent a minute explaining how to attack X and then they take the floor and we put Y on 'em. I love that!