12-04-2022, 04:40 PM
Chalk Talk and Behind the Bench
For those of you who could not attend the before-and-after meetings, they were very informative. I would say that due to astute questions that were asked of Katy and Tara, we got some deep insight into the new offense. In fact, I told Katy that it was the best chalk talk I have attended, since it actually helped fans understand basketball strategy.
The decision was made to leave the Princeton and go to the "flow offense." The reason for the change is that the Princeton is intricate and takes a lot of time to learn, but our perimeter players were young and inexperienced. We needed an offense that was simpler and could be run right away. This in my view is probably the reason that we can use a freshman point guard.
What is the flow offense? I am going to spend some time watching videos and studying this, but as Katy described it, it usually uses two bigs. We try to work it inside, and if that is not feasible, the bigs begin to set screens for our perimeter players. It "flows" from a screen on one side to a screen on the other, etc. until someone gets open.
Katy also explained how our offense and the plays get called. The main call is the formation our players are going to take up on offense. It could be "2 in 3 out," "1 in 4 out," or even "5 out." There are individual plays that can be called from the formations, and Tara communicates those plays to the point guard. As Katy said, "Tara will call plays all game long." However, most of the time the point guard is looking for plays at the start of set, and there is a kind of default about looking inside and then setting up the mirror image flow. For example, when it became clear that Gonzaga was zoning us and shutting down entrance passes, we went to a "1 in 4 out" to maximize our shooters on the perimeter, and that was the dominant formation we saw today. However, the "2 in 3 out" is what we usually want to run, since our greatest strength is in posts.
Other tidbits from the chalk talk, Katy was effusive in her praise of Lepolo, "she has eyes in the back of her head." "If anyone is open on the court she will find them." When someone asked about the occasions when Brink got to the low post, turned, had her hands up and screamed for the ball--but Lepolo did not get her the ball--Katy said "it could have been a decoy, or possibly just inexperience."
For those of you who could not attend the before-and-after meetings, they were very informative. I would say that due to astute questions that were asked of Katy and Tara, we got some deep insight into the new offense. In fact, I told Katy that it was the best chalk talk I have attended, since it actually helped fans understand basketball strategy.
The decision was made to leave the Princeton and go to the "flow offense." The reason for the change is that the Princeton is intricate and takes a lot of time to learn, but our perimeter players were young and inexperienced. We needed an offense that was simpler and could be run right away. This in my view is probably the reason that we can use a freshman point guard.
What is the flow offense? I am going to spend some time watching videos and studying this, but as Katy described it, it usually uses two bigs. We try to work it inside, and if that is not feasible, the bigs begin to set screens for our perimeter players. It "flows" from a screen on one side to a screen on the other, etc. until someone gets open.
Katy also explained how our offense and the plays get called. The main call is the formation our players are going to take up on offense. It could be "2 in 3 out," "1 in 4 out," or even "5 out." There are individual plays that can be called from the formations, and Tara communicates those plays to the point guard. As Katy said, "Tara will call plays all game long." However, most of the time the point guard is looking for plays at the start of set, and there is a kind of default about looking inside and then setting up the mirror image flow. For example, when it became clear that Gonzaga was zoning us and shutting down entrance passes, we went to a "1 in 4 out" to maximize our shooters on the perimeter, and that was the dominant formation we saw today. However, the "2 in 3 out" is what we usually want to run, since our greatest strength is in posts.
Other tidbits from the chalk talk, Katy was effusive in her praise of Lepolo, "she has eyes in the back of her head." "If anyone is open on the court she will find them." When someone asked about the occasions when Brink got to the low post, turned, had her hands up and screamed for the ball--but Lepolo did not get her the ball--Katy said "it could have been a decoy, or possibly just inexperience."