Half Court Offense

[RealHog]

Quick question. Does Mike ever run amy half court set/plays ever? I don't ever see anything but simple screens. Surely he has some plays he has taught this bunch. You have to have a half court offense.

[Biggus Piggus]

It is called a motion offense. Like Eddie Sutton ran. Drrrrr.

[The_Iceman]

Not many teams run set plays anymore.

[Breems]

The same one's he's had for the past 15 years.

[ChicoHog]

I'm probably in the minority here but I like the motion offense. At least compared to most of the dribble drive stuff that is prevalent now.  It's our trapping, fouling, high risk-high reward defense that drives me nuts. 

[RealHog]

I'm not necessarily dissing it, just wondering. I have just recently in the last year started really understanding how Bball offenses can be run. Admittedly this is primarily from watching Pro teams with very intricate offenses ran by pros, but I have noticed other College coaches draw up plays on TOs or when the offense is sputtering. I think our primary problem on strict motion will be no true ball handler and poor passing. With Hannah's and Macons shooting ability, plays that get them openings would be amazing to see. Right now we have some sub par passing sometimes that I think is mainly sure to the lack of chemistry due to so many new faces. I just worry that against discipled teams with good team D will make our offense revert to a Iso ball with bad looks. I'm pulling for CMA, but I hope he or an asst have some half court plays ready in case we need them.

[rzrbackramsfan]

Well CMA will draw up some really nice critical game situation plays but that's not what they really work on in practice.  Time is a finite factor and they work on different things.

I feel like all our guards highlighted by Macon and beards have passed well.

[ShadowHawg]

I'm not necessarily dissing it, just wondering. I have just recently in the last year started really understanding how Bball offenses can be run. Admittedly this is primarily from watching Pro teams with very intricate offenses ran by pros, but I have noticed other College coaches draw up plays on TOs or when the offense is sputtering. I think our primary problem on strict motion will be no true ball handler and poor passing. With Hannah's and Macons shooting ability, plays that get them openings would be amazing to see. Right now we have some sub par passing sometimes that I think is mainly sure to the lack of chemistry due to so many new faces. I just worry that against discipled teams with good team D will make our offense revert to a Iso ball with bad looks. I'm pulling for CMA, but I hope he or an asst have some half court plays ready in case we need them.

So how do you recognize a play? At the collegiate level plays can be set up for the 4th pass, etc. What looks like a player just taking a random 3 can actually have been set up in the TO. I have seen some former coaches draw up these kinds of plays when explaining what just happened and to the an untrained eye you would have never guessed that it was actually a set play.

I saw one at the first game this season that a lot of people wouldn't recognize. An inbounds play where the ball swung all the way around to the opposite side of the court and then back where they had isolated Moses on the block against his man. He scored easily. It developed so slowly that most people would have thought it was just an individual making a play, but that was how it was designed to look.

A lot of coaches teach players subtle hand signals where they can set up a play themselves as well. They go largely unnoticed, which is why the work. It can be something like a player touches his face, etc.

All coaches have plays.

[RazorAg]

Quick question. Does Mike ever run amy half court set/plays ever? I don't ever see anything but simple screens. Surely he has some plays he has taught this bunch. You have to have a half court offense.

He typically runs them off of side out dead balls or to begin halves. Otherwise, he goes with his man or zone base offense, which has been more liberal this year with more ball screens present.

[azhog10]

Quick question. Does Mike ever run amy half court set/plays ever? I don't ever see anything but simple screens. Surely he has some plays he has taught this bunch. You have to have a half court offense.

I watched the first half and saw two or three different "sets" or "looks" out of a timeout. Most of what we run is motion however. It's the same motion Matt Zimmerman coached when I played for him. I'm not a huge fan of it, but they believe strongly in a more read and react type of motion offense which is really a true motion. You just don't see it much these days.

Also, we try to score most of our points off transition. Obviously if we never ran our motion offense CMA would be happy bc that means we are pushing in transition and getting quick scores.

I do think we have to work on finding better looks. Not a fan of the mid range game. I think we have the shooters and drivers that we should either be getting a shot at the rim, or a three. But Arkansas has made a living out of good mid range shooters in the past. I still think as a coaching staff we have to continue to coach and teach handling all kinds of screens. Even with us being a team that switches almost all screens we still struggle. Hopefully this continues to be preached. I noticed in a timeout after Macon went on his scoring spree in the first half CMA was getting on him about his defense as they went back to the huddle. So clearly the staff is putting an emphasis on defense, but philosophy may be the problem.

[Biggus Piggus]

Arkansas scored very well in the paint against Fort Wayne. SIU set out to take that away, and the Razorbacks also took some crap shots in slop time. But my goodness, this team can be very good on the offensive end at times.

[Danny J]

Arkansas scored very well in the paint against Fort Wayne. SIU set out to take that away, and the Razorbacks also took some crap shots in slop time. But my goodness, this team can be very good on the offensive end at times.

Yep...so many options and when this tteam comes together I don't think offense will be an issue.

[Hollywood_HOGan45]

Here we go.... this has only been asked 100x per day during every season mike has been here.

At least wait for mike to lose a game...

[labb]

Offense will not be and has not been our problem. Problem is on the Defense side and must get a lot better.

[HognitiveDissonance]

Set plays are effective, but I wouldn't call them a pre-requisite for winning, either.
Ball movement is more critical. Can't have a guy catch it and hold...or dribble the air out of the ball.
Just move the ball side to side, quickly.
I see some set plays on out-of-bounds plays.
If you have a good lowpost player, then playing the inside/out game is very effective. Make the defense collapse. I think they should drop it down to Kingsley often and let him go to work, or kick it out.

I primarily think the style of play, from the 'Four Corners' to the old Loyola Marymount run 'n gun style, is not as important as other factors.
1)Talent
2)Teamwork, no egos
3)Motivation

If you have those three, you can and will win with any style.