{"id":2468,"date":"2008-04-06T08:15:35","date_gmt":"2008-04-06T08:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2008\/04\/06\/down-to-two-uclamemphis-unckan\/"},"modified":"2008-04-06T08:15:35","modified_gmt":"2008-04-06T08:15:35","slug":"down-to-two-uclamemphis-unckan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2008\/04\/06\/down-to-two-uclamemphis-unckan\/","title":{"rendered":"Down to Two (UCLA-Memphis, UNC-Kansas)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, that was certainly an odd pair of national semifinal games. They were very similar in some ways– Memphis ran circles around UCLA<\/a> from start to finish, and Kansas did the same to UNC<\/a>, save for a ten- or fifteen- minute stretch in the middle of the game.<\/p>\n

I watched very little of the Memphis-UCLA game– I don’t really like either team, and it was clear from early on that Memphis wasn’t going to be seriously challenged. I had heard that UCLA this year was an improvement over the last two years in that they could actually score some points, but they really seemed to revert to the mold of those earlier teams. They seemed sort of baffled at the idea that they needed to run something on the offensive end of the court, and would pass the ball around in a daze for a few seconds before launching a terrible shot. There was no flow, no motion, no evidence that any practice time had ever been spent on how to get the ball in the basket when the other team was trying to stop them.<\/p>\n

Memphis was better than UCLA in just about every area, though perhaps “better” is an overstatement– Memphis was less bad than UCLA in just about every area. Their offensive sets and shot selection weren’t really any better (I saw a couple of jumpers go at least two feet wide of the rim), but it didn’t matter much, because they were quicker to the ball, and got lots of easy baskets.<\/p>\n

I paid more attention to the Kansas-UNC game, because I like both of those teams more than either UCLA or Memphis. Kansas also came out being quicker to the ball than their opponent, but I was impressed with their coaching. They had obviously been very well prepared regarding what North Carolina did, and how to attack it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The two most obvious examples both involve Tyler Hansbrough (I know, I know…). On the defensive end, Kansas had clearly listened to Jay Bilas last week, and knew that Hansbrough really only has one offensive move when he gets the ball away from the basket– he faces up, takes a couple of dribbles, then uses a spin dribble to try to get past his guy. Unlike a lot of teams who have appeared surprised by this play, Kansas knew it was coming, and brought a double-team when Hansbrough turned his back. When he spun back around, there was a defender waiting, and it broke the play up, every time.<\/p>\n

On offense, they clearly knew that Hansbrough has a tendency to really hedge out on screens, jumping way out in front of his man to cut off the ball-handler. This can be disconcerting if the guard isn’t expecting it, but it leaves an open path to the basket for the guy setting the screen. Kansas exploited this really well, scoring several easy baskets on quick lobs to Hansbrough’s man rolling to the basket.<\/p>\n

Those are the two that really jumped out at me seeing the highlights this morning, but it was an across the board thing. Every play that UNC runs regularly, Kansas was ready for. And they were quicker than UNC at nearly every position, so Carolina didn’t get the easy transition baskets that usually pull them through when their half-court offense sputters. The Tar Heels were reduced to shooting long jumpers, and they didn’t hit them, while Kansas got mostly layups.<\/p>\n

Monday night’s championship game ought to be a real track meet– both Memphis and Kansas really like to fast break, so I wouldn’t expect a great deal of half-court offense. It ought to be a game to warm the heart of an NBA fan.<\/p>\n

I can’t say I have any great enthusiasm for it, though. I dislike Memphis (Calipari is the poor man’s Rick Pitino, and his team is stocked with guys from… interesting high school backgrounds), but I don’t have that strong an attachment to Kansas. And I find more and more that I need a real rooting interest if I’m going to listen to two hours of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that was certainly an odd pair of national semifinal games. They were very similar in some ways– Memphis ran circles around UCLA from start to finish, and Kansas did the same to UNC, save for a ten- or fifteen- minute stretch in the middle of the game. I watched very little of the Memphis-UCLA… Continue reading Down to Two (UCLA-Memphis, UNC-Kansas)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}