I remember when I was seven or eight years old and I was digging in my back yard, I found a rock and when I split it open, it sparkled with gold flakes. I got excited and ran into the house with it, “Mom! Mom! I found gold in the back yard!”
My mother glanced at it and said, “That’s fool’s gold.”
One of my earliest memories of my mom squashing my dreams with reality.
On retrospect, the Towson game was fool’s gold. It sparkled and glittered like gold, but was really just pyrite. Towson was completely unprepared to defend the 5-out scheme, having done what preparation they could on the Sides and CBS sets we showed for the last two years. We got so many open shots it was like a shooting drill.
Fooled me. San Francisco played the role of my mom, looking at the glittering offense of the Towson game and saying, “That’s fool’s gold.” San Francisco saw the Towson game and was prepared for the 5-out set. At least, the coaches were mentally prepared for it, even if they were not able to practice against it at all. They at least could have a plan and give instructions during the game without saying to themselves, “Wtf are they doing?” for half the game. We got shit for good shots and the offense looked distressingly similar to last season’s shitshow. Except Reece Beekman. That kid looked good.
Looking down at the 25-point win over a St. Francis team that beat Pitt at Pitt in a game that wasn’t even as close as the 10-point final margin, I recognize the glint of pyrite. You’re not fooling me this time, big win over shit team completely unprepared for the offense we ran.
Let me count the ways:
[Digression, if I ever meet the man who invented the auto-list function in word processors, I am going to double-tap him in the chest, then in the head to make sure]
1) Their best player and the guy most responsible for said win over Pitt did not play.
2) Their defense in the first half was turrible. I mean, turrible. Their help defense was comical. They defended Sides as if they’d never seen it before. Given that we played 5-out our first two games, I am assuming they practiced for that offense and were unprepared for Sides. There is no way on this planet we perform in Sides within a standard deviation of that against an ACC team – any ACC team no matter how bad.
3) Some numbers: 38%. 16.7%. -7. That would be field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, and scoring margin. Not from some game last season. From the second half of this game. That’s what we did on offense after the opponent – from one of the smallest, weakest conferences in the country – had 20 minutes to sit down and talk about how to defend our offensive scheme.
4) I wish I could sit Tony down with a promise of absolute confidentiality and ask him what a ball screen did to him as a young boy that made him hate them so much. I came into this season expecting to see us run a steady diet of Continuity Ball Screen offense, since we had one of the best roll/pop men in the country in Jay Huff and a point guard who excelled at running the P&R and really struggled with his size in all other ways. Adding a shooter like Sam Hauser who could keep defenders in the corner should have done nothing but make the Pick & Roll more effective. It should be an offense that really plays to the strengths of Virginia’s three best players (Hauser was an excellent P&R ball handler at Marquette), so I expected to see us lean on it as the primary offense.
Nope. Tony spent the off-season putting in an offense that – to all appearances to date – does not include ball screens as an important part of the set. He put in an offense that effectively turns Jay Huff into a spot-up shooter and forces us to try to get dribble penetration without benefit of screens. Then after two games, one of which we struggled because the defense knew what was coming, he jettisons it for the old offense that also eschews ball screens and that basically turns Jay Huff into a post man – a role in which he has been terribly inefficient his whole career.
After a season in which the Pick & Roll was the only offense that was at all successful – we scored 0.875 PPP on P&R plays which was good for the 65% range in D-1 in a season where we were 14% overall – and with one of the best P&R player combinations IN THE FREAKING NATION, we have used ball screens on 8% of our possessions through three games.
8%
5) I was unhappy to see Tony come out in Sides. I was more unhappy to see him pound it all game long. For one, I f***ing hate that f***ing offense. It sucks and our important opponents know how to defend it. Look what a third-rate shit team like St. Francis did to it in the second half. We’re back to being a standstill jumper shooting team – AND WE F***ING SUCK AT IT.
But then there is that if he is going to spend the off-season putting in a new offense, and he is going to show it early, don’t jettison it the first time things go wrong and go back to your old security blanket. What was the f***ing point of investing practice time in it then? Practice it more. Put in a wrinkle. Demand better focus and execution in it. Go out and practice it against your third and then fourth consecutive muffin opponent [my partner asked if Towson was a “muffin” team and I just thought it was so funny and adorable that I am now calling them muffins] and groove it. Get it right.
But even more than just that, if you are going to jettison the new offense for one that is familiar, at least go back to the one THAT F***ING WORKED AND SUITS YOUR BEST PLAYERS’ STRENGTHS. If we’re going to put 5-Out on the shelf because we need to get the defense right, at least pull CBS down off the shelf.
F***ing Sides. I cannot be too critical of Tony for that.
6) Half our players were distinctly unimpressive again. Ok, a third. Kihei was bad again. Sam was underwhelming. Casey was bad. Jabri was bad. Kody was nondescript, but that’s probably good for him. Only Reece, Tomas, Justin and Kadin really impressed. Kihei made a couple great passes but I’m done with his turnovers.
I feel like this team has no idea what is coming at it in Michigan State. Mentally prepare yourselves for an epic beatdown.