Spread tactics are pro-style tactics now in football and basketball alike
The spread pick'n'roll is increasingly dominating the college basketball game as it does the NBA.
Like most everyone else, I took some big Ls on my bracket out of the gate on Thursday. I know you don’t care about my bracket so I won’t drone on about it, but I am in bad shape.
For instance, I picked BYU to advance all the way to the Sweet 16. Why did I pick BYU to advance so deep as a 6-seed? I’d actually caught them in the regular season a couple of times and was struck by how adeptly they run the spread pick’n’roll offense which defines the NBA game.
The nature of the spread pick’n’roll is that it emphasizes the two most efficient shots in basketball, lay-ups and three-pointers. You put four (or even five) guys on the floor who can shoot threes, spread out the defense to the three-point line, and run high screens on the perimeter to open up the chance to drive and kick. BYU has a bunch of tall guards who can shoot and one big man in particular who can shoot or go to the rim and/or pass. It’s hard to stop that style when it’s working well and having offense that can be there for you against intense, tournament defense is usually the defining feature of winning teams.
Unfortunately I didn’t realize BYU’s skilled big man was fasting for Ramadan. I mean…really, who would have guessed a BYU kid was observing Ramadan??? Yes I know his name is Khalifa. Anyways, he went 0-6 and had to be benched and the Cougars lost. Classic bad beat.
For those who were curious, here were my Final Four picks:
1-seed UConn
2-seed Arizona
3-seed Kentucky
3-seed Creighton
I picked UConn to beat Arizona and Kentucky en route to a consecutive championship. Obviously that Kentucky pick is looking pretty dumb as well.
My method, detailed Monday, is to just try and find the teams who have multiple perimeter offensive facilitators measured by assists per game stats. It’s generally pretty mixed across the bracket but since I started doing it I’ve been getting the champion right which tends to deliver me victory over everyone else in my pool.
Kentucky had a number of clearly talented guards. I was concerned about the fact that many of them were freshmen, but I picked them anyways. It didn’t take too long for me watching them vacillate between carving Oakland apart and wasting possessions with unthinkably dumb shots before I knew I’d screwed up. The problem with my method, you see, is that I don’t actually watch college basketball to offer a quality control check on my superficial reading of stats. Last year I had UCLA in the Final 4 without realizing their best player was injured. Oh well.
Let’s not talk more about my bracket though, which btw is usually blasted on day one but can still prove robust provided my championship pick is right. Let’s talk about the larger tactical trend of spread tactics in the two big college sports.
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