Excellent video breakdown of Michigan-Purdue

Submitted by Mgrad92 on December 3rd, 2018 at 8:02 PM

I saw Brian tweet a gif from this breakdown in his Purdue game column, and I thought it was great. It turns out Jordan Sperber (@hoopvision68) posted an eight-minute breakdown to his YouTube channel. Once I got past the introduction — I already knew John Beilein teams of the past were known for good offense and weak defense — I learned a ton from this: 

MGoBoard
Basketball
Jon Teske
2018-19 Purdue #1
slice screens
basketball xs and os
John Beilein
Matt Painter

outsidethebox

December 3rd, 2018 at 9:12 PM ^

A good tutorial on the basic fundamentals of attacking a man defense. When you have kids with good basketball IQs who are so unselfish and know how to continually force the defense to make decisions/choices and then have the ability to pounce upon advantages as they  become available this is what you get-a good, efficient offense. And the good news is-they are going to get better at this...against man. As has been noted elsewhere, I believe teams are going to start zoning them. But I haven't seen many well played zones recently...and each one has weaknesses as well.  It should be interesting.

Here, what is really going to add to the intrigue for me is if someone can figure out how to crack the Michigan man defense. I love the strategy Yaklich is employing-how the off-ball defenders are hedging to help....they play it beautifully...in my book. 

Joined: 01/23/2017

MGoPoints: 18816

hoopvision68

December 3rd, 2018 at 9:23 PM ^

Hi everyone - thanks for posting the video and checking it out! I saw a big traffic spike and immediately tried to track down the source, so thank you! 

I'm covering all different teams this season, but my Michigan content has been especially well received by the fanbase and has incentivized me to continue to do more. In attempt to build up the YouTube channel, if you could please hit the "like" button on the video it would be much appreciated! And please subscribe if you're interested in national cbb content. I apologize for the shameless self-promotion, but it would be much appreciated!

Happy to answer any Michigan x's and o's related questions you might have. I have worked on D1 coaching staffs for the previous 3 seasons before this one. Thanks again!

Joined: 12/03/2018

MGoPoints: 3

B-Nut-GoBlue

December 3rd, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^

I won't state this very well but...it's almost a footwork and balance issue/thing for the mismatched man (i.e a big man usually).  As a screen happens and the big hedges he's got himself in good position via the concept of switching and taking away what the screen really wants to do (screen a person!) and so the ball-handler often doesn't have the hugest advantage out of the screen...he passes, the defender naturally resets his positioning on the guy without the ball.  Depending on what the aforementioned previous ball-handler wants to do he can in a sense get the ball back in an ever so slightly different position from where the previous episode forced him to pass, and now that big man who has again, reset his stance, is thinking about what's on his plate with this quick guard in front of him with possibly more options at his disposal from a moment ago.

Joined: 09/30/2011

MGoPoints: 43728

hoopvision68

December 3rd, 2018 at 11:32 PM ^

Yep pretty much hit it on the nail. It's harder for a guy like Haarms to guard Simpson if he doesn't have a live dribble yet (triple threat). If he does have a live dribble, Simpson probably gains an advantage by backing up and getting a running start. The other possible advantage of the boomerang is that it theoretically will help loosen up the help defenders. This probably shouldn't be the case against a good defensive team, but ball movement tends to increase the likelihood of bad positioning. Guys can fall asleep "ball-watching".

Finding creative ways to attack switches is actually one of the hardest things to do offensively. That's why we've seen the NBA (and the trickle down to the NCAA) switch so much in recent years. I think that Michigan did a pretty good job of using multiple different ways to attack Purdue... But at the end of the day there is going to be a fair amount of iso ball if a team switches like that

Joined: 12/03/2018

MGoPoints: 3

BoFan

December 4th, 2018 at 1:15 AM ^

Excellent work and post.  Thanks!

As feed back the 4 quadrant BCG graph doesn’t work as well here.  There are places in the graph where a team with great D and average O or vice versa is better than many teams that could be in the upper right quadrant.  Try using a graph that shows the diagonal lines (upper left to lower right) where teams are equal. 

Joined: 03/09/2012

MGoPoints: 19982

hoopvision68

December 4th, 2018 at 9:32 AM ^

Thanks! Those graphs were all made back in their respective years (starting in 2013). You can actually see that the quality improves as I got better at making them over the years. But yeah, it shows offensive/defensive balance moreso than team strength. Kenpom has shifted to the diagonal thing just this year. But there is some work out there that shows that balanced teams tend to do better than would be expected just given their efficiency differential. And then for unbalanced teams, offensive teams have performed better than defensive teams in the tourney. Whether or not sample size is big enough to totally move forward with those conclusions is a legit question though.

Joined: 12/03/2018

MGoPoints: 3