[triangle2]

One interesting change for this year's offense is the way that spacing creates opportunities for Brink at the high post to pivot and drive to the basket. This is being achieved in part due to the spacing, i.e. Jump is in the corner being guarded closely, so that defender can't sag and help without leaving her open. Iriafen is posting low on the other side. But as discussed above, teams are moving a second player into the lane to contain Brink and we're seeing lots of sagging from defenders guarding Jones, or Lepolo.

One way to deal with the sagging is to initiate with some 1-4 sets with everyone fairly high and run some screening and motion off of that. Jump can move and cut and force the defender to chase her. Brink and Iriafen can run some high-low. Seems pretty clear that other teams have just watched too much tape of Jump scorching people from the corner, so the word is out on that setup. Ironically, some of the things that seem like potential solutions are things Coach Tara has implemented in past versions of the offense, like some Princeton or triangle. Anyway, it will be fun to see how the coaches tweek things.

Remember in the tournament last year, at the end of the quarter, Stanford ran the elevator and there was an assistant coach on the other team yelling "elevator elevator!!" well before the play was even starting. So, the team ran the elevator anyway and one of the elevator posts slipped and scored. I think about this play a lot. Coach Tara doesn't really hide what she runs; she wants to execute it so that the well practiced offense defeats the defensive scheme. But sometimes it doesn't hurt to disguise the plan a little...

[triangle2]

One interesting change for this year's offense is the way that spacing creates opportunities for Brink at the high post to pivot and drive to the basket. This is being achieved in part due to the spacing, i.e. Jump is in the corner being guarded closely, so that defender can't sag and help without leaving her open. Iriafen is posting low on the other side. But as discussed above, teams are moving a second player into the lane to contain Brink and we're seeing lots of sagging from defenders guarding Jones, or Lepolo.

One way to deal with the sagging is to initiate with some 1-4 sets with everyone fairly high and run some screening and motion off of that. Jump can move and cut and force the defender to chase her. Brink and Iriafen can run some high-low. Seems pretty clear that other teams have just watched too much tape of Jump scorching people from the corner, so the word is out on that setup. Ironically, some of the things that seem like potential solutions are things Coach Tara has implemented in past versions of the offense, like some Princeton or triangle. Anyway, it will be fun to see how the coaches tweek things.

Remember in the tournament last year, at the end of the quarter, Stanford ran the elevator and there was an assistant coach on the other team yelling "elevator elevator!!" well before the play was even starting. So, the team ran the elevator anyway and one of the elevator posts slipped and scored. I think about this play a lot. Coach Tara doesn't really hide what she runs; she wants to execute it so that the well practiced offense defeats the defensive scheme. But sometimes it doesn't hurt to disguise the plan a little...