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Inside Towson's Conceptual Offense · A Quick Timeout

0:05
SPEAKER_00: A couple years back,
0:06
I had the privilege of hearing Coach Pat Scarry speak at the
0:09
Wooten Coaching Clinic
0:10
SPEAKER_00: about his team's offensive system.
0:12
As I was listening to that presentation,
0:14
I thought he would be great to have on the podcast.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, today is that day.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Coach Scarry is the head coach for the Towson Tigers.
0:21
He has completely turned around that program and does a great
0:24
job there in the
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Colonial Athletic Association.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Coach, thanks so much for coming on the podcast.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you having me on.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if it's a privilege for you,
0:34
SPEAKER_01: but maybe more of a sentencing,
0:36
SPEAKER_01: but I appreciate you having me on.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Let me jump right into things offensively.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about the evolution of your offensive philosophy?
0:46
And then in particular,
0:47
can you talk through and describe your flow offense?
0:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that opportunity.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, a few years back we had –
0:58
we had a group that really led our league and field goal
1:02
defense and rebound
1:05
SPEAKER_01: margin,
1:05
but we went six and 12 in the conference and lost a lot of
1:09
really close games.
1:11
SPEAKER_01: And we just felt like,
1:12
SPEAKER_01: you know,
1:13
SPEAKER_01: the guys are playing hard,
1:15
SPEAKER_01: but we needed to make some,
1:17
we needed to make some real big changes offensively and kind of
1:21
did a study deep
1:22
dive until a lot of stuff to like Rick Barnes was running at
1:26
Tennessee and,
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Bob McKillop at Davidson and Matt Matheny was in our league at Elon,
1:32
SPEAKER_01: and they had a really hard team to guard offensively.
1:37
And even a little bit of a couple of wrinkles that Frank Martin
1:40
had had at South Carolina.
1:41
SPEAKER_01: And we just try to kind of morph it and put it together.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: And we've had the year before COVID, we had really...
1:50
SPEAKER_01: the coastal, the CAA is a really good offensive league.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: We had a really good efficiency that year.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: And the first couple of years out of COVID as well,
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SPEAKER_01: we were all top three in the conference and offensive efficiency.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of the impetus behind it.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: And for us, Tony, it was really about, we call it flow.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: How do we have a little bit better flow?
2:12
SPEAKER_01: How do we have everybody touch the ball?
2:15
SPEAKER_01: early in the offense.
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I didn't want to come down on the floor and just set a drag
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ball screen every time.
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I feel like guards,
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if you tell them they can drag,
2:26
they pretty much will drag.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: And then we wanted to make sure we had absolutes and spacing.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: That was really a big thing for us.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of how we got there.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: Now, the first year we did it, we weren't overly skilled at the
2:42
four and five spot but we we were guys took care of the ball
2:46
there that was
2:47
important and at those forward spots and then we had for a
2:50
couple years a kid cam
2:51
holden was just a great player and really unique talent and
2:54
that he was like a
2:56
SPEAKER_01: point forward so we kind of tweaked it a little bit
2:58
SPEAKER_00: A few of those things I want to touch on that you just mentioned.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: The first one is you kind of alluded to,
3:04
if it were like building blocks of your offense in regards to
3:07
spacing and that kind
3:08
SPEAKER_00: of thing.
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And one of the questions that I frequently get from coaches is
3:12
when you play with
3:14
SPEAKER_00: essentially building blocks,
3:16
SPEAKER_00: it's not a coach directed offense per se,
3:19
SPEAKER_00: as in you're not coming down and joy sticking things.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: The question I get is, how do you go about teaching that
3:27
especially to guys when they first enter your program so that
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they're able to
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understand kind of big picture as well as what they're supposed
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to do in an
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SPEAKER_00: individual action.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: I think for us,
3:39
SPEAKER_01: a big thing was one,
3:42
SPEAKER_01: making sure our terminology,
3:44
SPEAKER_01: so our language was really consistent.
3:48
I think that's always important at any level so that guys
3:51
really understand what
3:52
SPEAKER_01: you're trying to get across,
3:53
SPEAKER_01: especially when you have like new staff members,
3:56
SPEAKER_01: make sure they adjust to that.
3:57
So that's something we spent a lot of time on and then really
4:01
building it up from
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SPEAKER_01: like the type of skill,
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SPEAKER_01: guard forward skill,
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combo work we have these things we call tiger bites where we'll
4:11
work in two three
4:13
minute little sections of versus different ball screen reads or
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different reads off
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of the staggers or off of post feeds and what we're supposed to
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do in the hopes
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that we're forming habits like the right kind of habits so when
4:28
the games hit you
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SPEAKER_01: know there's something that they got if we can follow our training
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And we've drilled it and taught it the right way that guys can
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fall back on
4:37
SPEAKER_01: spacing,
4:38
SPEAKER_01: a protection plan,
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SPEAKER_01: things that we try to emphasize every day.
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SPEAKER_01: So if you don't turn the ball over and hopefully get pretty good shots.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Is the terminology connected to the action?
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So like you call something or say something and they know
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that's what they're
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SPEAKER_00: supposed to do individually?
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: And,
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SPEAKER_01: and,
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SPEAKER_01: and then it's the same thing with like,
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SPEAKER_01: you know,
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SPEAKER_01: for us,
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SPEAKER_01: you know,
5:00
SPEAKER_01: like what's your philosophy on,
5:01
SPEAKER_01: on a miss,
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SPEAKER_01: like we're going to run,
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we call flow game and then it'll depend if the five is the rim
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runner or five is
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SPEAKER_01: the trailer.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, what we, what we get into there.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: And then usually on a free throw dead ball after timeout,
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SPEAKER_01: we can run flow game,
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SPEAKER_01: but a lot of times we'll run
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we call a special and a lot of that's based on scouting or
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stuff we think we're
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pretty good at or we might have an advantage but like we'll
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have you know a series
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of horns you know that's what everyone knows horns and then
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it's into horns
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rip and uh which uh guys know what a rip action is or it could
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be horns chase you
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know horns rip chase or horns get which is a ball screen horns
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flip you know so a
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whole bunch of things like that trying to build that family of
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of plays but almost
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like some you know scripted actions before guys may you know uh
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and then within
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those script actions you're trusting that guys there's spacing
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guys can follow
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SPEAKER_01: their protection plans and make
6:04
make good decisions when you're early in this season do you
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spend a lot of time
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breaking it down in like three on three segments or do you go
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right to five on five
6:15
SPEAKER_00: and play out of that
6:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, both.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: Like, we'll come back in the summer.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: This is a good time for us.
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SPEAKER_01: We'll come back in 10 days or so, 12 days.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: I guess around there, two weeks, whatever, to start workouts.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: And so we – because we have so many guys back,
6:30
SPEAKER_01: we know we've got to get a little bit better offensively.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: So,
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SPEAKER_01: like,
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SPEAKER_01: we've spent some time as a staff talking about,
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SPEAKER_01: you know,
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SPEAKER_01: ball handling,
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SPEAKER_01: passing,
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SPEAKER_01: catching stuff that we want to work on and some guard forward work.
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SPEAKER_01: Then we call the Tiger Bites some combo work.
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And then some,
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we call it dry run,
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five on O,
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how we're going to implement that.
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SPEAKER_01: And then we have these bunch of like advantage,
6:54
SPEAKER_01: disadvantage games,
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SPEAKER_01: usually that are like three on three,
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SPEAKER_01: four on four stuff,
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where we're trying to have like spacing based on what should
7:03
kind of unravel in our
7:04
SPEAKER_01: offense,
7:05
SPEAKER_01: reveal itself in the offense.
7:07
And then guys playing off of that look like against defense
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where there's like six
7:11
SPEAKER_01: to eight seconds,
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SPEAKER_01: you know,
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SPEAKER_01: and
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Balls in,
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maybe this stagger screen that already happened,
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off the catch and out.
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SPEAKER_01: This is the spacing.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: We make a play, you know, and see what happens from there.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Can you explain the Tiger Bites?
7:26
Yeah,
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so just like,
7:28
more like people would say,
7:29
combination work,
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combo work.
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What we just tried to do last year,
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I thought it helped us later in the season.
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SPEAKER_01: was maybe we were going only a couple things,
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SPEAKER_01: but going longer stretches where then we got into,
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SPEAKER_01: like,
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SPEAKER_01: things that two,
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SPEAKER_01: three-minute spurts,
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SPEAKER_01: but more of them,
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SPEAKER_01: almost like you'd think back in camp,
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SPEAKER_01: like station work.
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But strictly on just some things out of our offense with both
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backcourt guys and
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SPEAKER_01: frontcourt guys together.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Can you describe,
8:01
SPEAKER_00: if somebody hasn't watched you all play,
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SPEAKER_00: can you describe the shape of your offense?
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SPEAKER_00: You've mentioned even a little bit like five out.
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Sometimes your bigs are in like that pinch post and then they
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go low as well.
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Can you talk about those different shapes and then also what
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triggers what shape
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SPEAKER_00: you're taking at a particular time?
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So we'll try to come down the court with,
8:23
like I said,
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a five-man as a rim runner.
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SPEAKER_01: And that'll trigger one thing,
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SPEAKER_01: or if the five man was a trailer,
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SPEAKER_01: that would kind of trigger the action,
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SPEAKER_01: you know,
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SPEAKER_01: something differently.
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SPEAKER_01: Same thing if we played through the post early to the five man,
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SPEAKER_01: what we're doing off of that,
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SPEAKER_01: or if we played off of a staggered screen,
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SPEAKER_01: whether the five was a rim runner or trail,
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SPEAKER_01: we have a couple of different wrinkles off of that.
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SPEAKER_01: But then we like to say when it dies,
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SPEAKER_01: you know, or the play after the play, we get into what we call side.
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SPEAKER_01: Our guys know whether or not we can correctly execute it.
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It's a different thing at times,
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but we've got to get to,
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you know,
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absolutes and spacing.
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SPEAKER_01: And a couple of things for us, we've tried to avoid a lot of that.
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SPEAKER_01: We're not perfect at it,
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SPEAKER_01: but we've tried to avoid,
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SPEAKER_01: you know,
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SPEAKER_01: a guy dribbling and just waving for a ball screen,
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SPEAKER_01: hopefully have a good balance of,
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SPEAKER_01: we call it ricochet actions where we're
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SPEAKER_01: we're throwing to the five and playing off of some of that.
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SPEAKER_01: And a big kind of red flag for us is to avoid consecutive ball screens.
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So if I came off a side ball screen and the guy rolled and I
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kicked it to the next
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SPEAKER_01: guy,
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SPEAKER_01: we don't want to be bringing the same guy into a consecutive ball screen.
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SPEAKER_01: We just feel like it kind of slows us down.
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SPEAKER_01: That's happened at times.
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SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you have talented guys and,
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getting them to trust the next action or that the ball will
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come back to them.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: That's a whole different kind of, kind of battle.
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SPEAKER_00: Learn more at huddle.com slash a quick timeout.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: You've done a great job setting this up.
10:49
And I think I was fortunate to pick some clips that are going
10:52
to show some of these things.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And so for this next part,
10:56
SPEAKER_00: those of you that are just listening to the podcast,
10:58
I'm going to bring up some film and Coach Gary is going to go
11:00
through some of the
11:01
SPEAKER_00: things that he just talked about and point out some of these things.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And then I'll ask some questions as well.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: So if you're just listening, you can head over to YouTube.
11:09
It'll be down in the description notes,
11:11
a link to that,
11:12
that you can watch this.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: So
11:13
SPEAKER_00: Let me go ahead and pull this up here, coach.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: It will show for those that are watching.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: You won't have to rewind.
11:19
It'll show once and then we'll come back and it'll show it
11:22
again in slow motion here.
11:23
This first one,
11:24
I haven't haven't set coach up for this by sending it ahead.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: So we'll give him a chance to see it.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: But these are things that he already just described.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, this first one here is a horns.
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SPEAKER_00: And the thing that I want to
11:38
ask you about before we show it is that it starts one way and
11:43
then i think correct
11:45
me if i'm wrong but i think you don't get anything out of it
11:48
but the guys just
11:49
naturally flow into some of those concepts that you talked
11:52
about so can you
11:54
describe what is happening and then how that happens yeah this
11:58
is our horns rip
12:00
SPEAKER_01: action so what will happen on that um
12:05
lousy screen and Tony that's what happened on that but um so
12:10
initially what happens
12:11
on that action is out of our horns look we will hit one of the
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forwards at the
12:19
elbow that'll trigger a backdoor on the strong side corner and
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then we call a butt
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screen where the point will come down it wasn't a great screen
12:26
and the other
12:27
SPEAKER_01: forward will you know curl off his behind to the rim and
12:31
And then that'll trigger on the throwback to the point guard a
12:34
triple screen along
12:35
SPEAKER_01: the baseline.
12:36
Now,
12:36
guys,
12:37
you hope we try to use the words a lot,
12:39
scoring cuts and scoring screens.
12:42
So changing your cuts like that time the guy rescreened his own
12:46
guy and we brought
12:47
SPEAKER_01: the other guy off and stagger.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: And then at the end,
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we didn't get anything because we didn't have great screens and
12:53
Charleston did a
12:53
SPEAKER_01: good job defensively.
12:55
SPEAKER_01: We get into, we call our side action, right?
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Where you can see, right?
13:00
SPEAKER_01: We rescreen.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: We don't screen great there.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: We're running the action.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: It kind of dies.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: And now we get decent spacing now, right?
13:11
SPEAKER_01: We're play off the five.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: And then now we get to, we call it three side.
13:15
drive and kick right um when you get to for us we get to that
13:19
three side we either
13:20
want to ideally 45 cut and hold the corner or flare slip once
13:27
it gets to that empty
13:28
ball screen there on the side you've got some continuity ball
13:31
screen stuff that i
13:32
think you've you've added in no let's say we yeah we got better
13:35
at that during the
13:36
year we added a really good coach john oslander to our staff
13:40
and he really helped
13:41
SPEAKER_01: with um
13:42
SPEAKER_01: our implementation and teaching of ball screen and spacing.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: And guys really got it late in the year.
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It's something I'm excited about with so many of them coming
13:55
back,
13:55
moving forward.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Similar,
13:57
SPEAKER_00: we had this year an older group,
13:59
and it was really cool to see those last about five games that
14:02
they were starting
14:03
SPEAKER_00: to string those things together where we started with,
14:07
SPEAKER_00: we had a couple horn sets and some other things we'd run,
14:10
SPEAKER_00: and then wouldn't get anything out of it,
14:12
SPEAKER_00: but it didn't like kill the play.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like that kind of took our offense to the next level.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask this in regards to that.
14:20
I feel like if you coach this way,
14:22
what happens is there's no real ceiling.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: The guys just keep improving.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: They advance as far as they understand.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that kind of coaching this way now?
14:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think so.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: I agree with the ceiling part.
14:36
They should keep improving if you're kind of drilling the right
14:40
habits and
14:42
SPEAKER_01: They understand spacing and protection plans.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the hope.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think it's like anything.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes plays and sets look pretty good,
14:54
SPEAKER_01: but if your habits and skill sets aren't great,
14:58
SPEAKER_01: and obviously your talent is obviously a baseline in any of this,
15:01
SPEAKER_01: then maybe the plays don't look as good.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: I also noticed Horns was not just your two fours just sitting there,
15:10
SPEAKER_00: kind of the elbows extended.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: You guys like stack them,
15:13
and then I'm assuming that kind of opens up a little bit easier
15:16
pass into those
15:17
SPEAKER_00: guys.
15:18
That's something we changed in season because most of teams did
15:22
a really good job
15:22
SPEAKER_01: scouting us,
15:23
SPEAKER_01: and they were sitting on –
15:25
SPEAKER_01: They were sitting on those, making those catches difficult.
15:28
So we have a whole stack series and we just started running
15:32
some of our horns
15:33
SPEAKER_01: actions out of the stack.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: And our kids did a pretty good job of adjusting to that.
15:38
One thing that I heard you talk about at the clinic,
15:40
and this is the next clip here.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not just this, but using flare screens.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Can you talk about your,
15:46
SPEAKER_00: I guess,
15:46
SPEAKER_00: philosophy on that,
15:48
SPEAKER_00: but then also just how those are guarded or not guarded well,
15:51
SPEAKER_00: even at the college level?
15:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, once again, scoring cuts, scoring screens.
15:57
If you can run up,
15:59
pop your feet,
16:00
and set a good blind flare screen,
16:02
you can get a guy open.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: You know, how often that happens, you know, remains to be seen.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to look at here, so.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: Yep, so this is a little action we ran out of our stack.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: Little series called Pop, where we bring the player off of the stack,
16:24
SPEAKER_01: We ball screen and pop.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: That was the trigger.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: And now we have a five with a catch, right?
16:32
SPEAKER_01: We have a guy in the 45 spot and in the baseline.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: And from there, right, they're kind of reading it.
16:39
We could 45 cut,
16:41
hold the corner,
16:42
flare,
16:43
slip,
16:43
which they did a really good job there.
16:45
Or we have terminology we would call Chicago action where the
16:48
five man has the ball.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: He brings it on a flip, which for us is a dribble handoff.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: And we have that down screen first and then the dribble handoff.
16:58
So we started getting some mileage out of the pop stuff really
17:02
as a way to just
17:04
SPEAKER_01: kind of get into our eventually our side action,
17:09
SPEAKER_01: but just kind of get the ball reversed initially.
17:12
It's cool because you're stringing together things that are
17:14
pretty hard to guard,
17:15
SPEAKER_00: whether that's the flare or I noticed even the tournament this year,
17:19
it seemed like everybody was running some sort of empty side
17:22
ball screen and you
17:23
SPEAKER_00: could see it even there.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: There's no help there.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: And if they do help,
17:26
SPEAKER_00: you've got the three guys,
17:28
SPEAKER_00: those trips over on the other side that you could kick to.
17:31
I'm assuming those guys just kind of stay spaced over there on
17:34
that side to force
17:35
either help to come in an open three or no help and one-on-one
17:39
at the basket.
17:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one, the spacing piece is key.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: And I thought our kids did a really good job of holding corners.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: You know,
17:48
SPEAKER_01: we will put some markings on the floor in practice,
17:51
SPEAKER_01: especially with the corners,
17:53
SPEAKER_01: right?
17:54
SPEAKER_01: You know,
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Rick Majerus,
17:56
SPEAKER_01: the great Rick Majerus used to say,
17:58
SPEAKER_01: offense is spacing and spacing is offense,
18:01
SPEAKER_01: right?
18:02
SPEAKER_01: So really holding those corners is key, right?
18:10
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we stacked it again.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: And so this is a little wrinkle we put in with ball screen.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: So we're out of the stack, the guy's peeling off of it.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: Then we set a get, which is a ball screen.
18:25
And what we're doing now is we're running the opposite corner
18:30
guy along the
18:31
SPEAKER_01: baseline,
18:32
SPEAKER_01: what we call an exit screen.
18:34
SPEAKER_01: It's a way we're trying to absorb the tag.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: And you can see here Thompson,
18:39
SPEAKER_01: a really good player for us,
18:41
SPEAKER_01: sets the screen for Williamson,
18:43
SPEAKER_01: and it opens up on the big guy a little bit of a two-on-one.
18:48
We really like that one if teams tried to get out and switch or
18:52
hedge because as
18:54
SPEAKER_01: the ball is going away from you,
18:56
SPEAKER_01: it's a really high tag on the other side.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Would you say that's one area that maybe offenses in general,
19:03
SPEAKER_00: maybe you've been doing it forever,
19:05
SPEAKER_00: but coupling actions to eliminate help?
19:09
Like you guys with the exit screen,
19:11
you're not just standing and spacing anymore.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: We spend a ton of time defensively.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: We had the best defense in our league.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: We spend a ton of time really working against those multiple actions,
19:25
SPEAKER_01: knowing that we're going to need multiple efforts.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: That stuff's hard to guard.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: All right, here's the next one here.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: All right, this fourth one here.
19:33
This is an ATO and I think this is one of your specials and the
19:39
idea of disguising
19:41
SPEAKER_00: specials through similar alignments.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Can you talk a little bit about that as we watch this one?
19:48
SPEAKER_01: Yep, absolutely.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: So that's a little play we put in during the year.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: We saw something from Michigan State with Tom Izzo.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: We just called it floppy.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: And initially it was to bring
20:11
SPEAKER_01: The guy off of the screen,
20:12
SPEAKER_01: maybe he ghosted,
20:14
SPEAKER_01: ricocheted,
20:15
SPEAKER_01: and then we bring him off a wall on the other side.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: He can play off that, really just turns into like floppy, single, double.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: Now we added what we called floppy five.
20:25
As that action's happened,
20:26
now the one will just throw it to the five and come get it.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: Some people call it that blind pig.
20:32
It's just like we call it a ricochet where he can get downhill
20:37
for a layup,
20:37
SPEAKER_01: or if he didn't get to the layup,
20:39
SPEAKER_01: pop to the corner, and then the five will play with him, two-man game.
20:42
In this scenario,
20:44
we're able to get a pretty good scoring cut and get downhill.
20:48
So do most of your specials stay in the same alignments as a
20:52
lot of your half-court stuff?
20:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so anything we will put in, like –
20:58
SPEAKER_01: we put in this floppy, right?
20:59
SPEAKER_01: Then we went into, hey, let's add this floppy five.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Let's add floppy rip, you know, our guys.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: And then within that terminology, floppy get, a get is a ball screen.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: So as we're developing stuff,
21:12
SPEAKER_01: sometimes we'll play around with,
21:13
SPEAKER_01: hey,
21:14
SPEAKER_01: we could,
21:15
SPEAKER_01: you see something and we could add that.
21:18
And then we'll just use the terminology so it hopefully helps
21:20
our guys understand
21:22
SPEAKER_01: what's happening.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: They know what a rip is,
21:23
SPEAKER_01: they know what a get is,
21:24
SPEAKER_01: they know what a flip is,
21:26
SPEAKER_01: you know,
21:26
SPEAKER_01: those type of things.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: This is the last one.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: I've got a follow-up question after we watch it here.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: That is a – my son was just talking to me about this.
21:43
SPEAKER_01: This was a – what you call better to be lucky than good.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: I remember when he threw that thing.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: That is the longest shot I've ever seen in an actual game.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: Now, this kid, Sahada, is, I think, the best worker we've ever had.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: But I remember walking off the phone,
22:02
SPEAKER_01: like,
22:02
SPEAKER_01: he shot the thing with,
22:03
SPEAKER_01: like,
22:04
SPEAKER_01: 30 seconds left in the half.
22:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: That's what that would fall under right there as a team.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: He's talented, so I'm not surprised he made it.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I was going to ask you, what do you do to teach that?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: But just 100% luck, I guess, is what it is.
22:24
Jokes aside,
22:25
shot selection seems to be magnified in these kinds of
22:28
offenses.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: How do you all teach shot selection?
22:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's a great question.
22:35
What we do starting in the summer,
22:37
hopefully we have more slash continued success with it,
22:41
is
22:42
SPEAKER_01: You know,
22:42
SPEAKER_01: for Tony Miller,
22:43
SPEAKER_01: we'll track all your shots from what we call zero to five feet,
22:48
SPEAKER_01: five to 10 twos,
22:50
SPEAKER_01: and then threes.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: And as we build that library summer,
22:54
SPEAKER_01: fall,
22:54
SPEAKER_01: we're trying to show you both individually and we'll do it with the team,
23:00
what percent of your shots were from those areas and what
23:04
percent did you shoot
23:06
SPEAKER_01: from those areas?
23:07
SPEAKER_01: Because ultimately that reveals what's your point of shot.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: And we're trying to tell guys like,
23:11
SPEAKER_01: you know,
23:12
obviously we want to get more threes and more zero to five foot
23:16
shots because those
23:17
SPEAKER_01: lead to free throws.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: And once in a while there's outliers.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: I've had a couple of good players that had outliers,
23:25
SPEAKER_01: but like with our group coming back,
23:27
SPEAKER_01: the,
23:28
SPEAKER_01: their points per shot from twos were really bad.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: So we're trying to limit the amount of those.
23:36
SPEAKER_01: And we're also trying to do,
23:37
SPEAKER_01: you know,
23:38
SPEAKER_01: one of my former assistants,
23:39
SPEAKER_01: Luke Murray,
23:39
SPEAKER_01: has done an unbelievable job at UConn,
23:43
SPEAKER_01: is can we get more zero-to-five foot shots?
23:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a big difference between zero-to-five and five-to-ten.
23:51
He had showed me some stats on the kid Sunogo they had a couple
23:55
years ago.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: And from, like, zero-to-five, I want to say he was at, like,
23:59
SPEAKER_01: 77% or something outrageous.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: But if he went 5 to 10, he sliced in half.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Can we do a better job of that?
24:10
SPEAKER_01: That creates more efficient shots, more efficient offense.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm not hung up on if we get the shot early or late.
24:20
I'd like to play a little better pace next year's group early
24:23
in the clock.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: But I want to get more
24:27
layups because those are going to be foul shots and i want to
24:30
get more threes and
24:32
do a little bit better job of less twos every coach says this
24:36
they want to make
24:37
more free throws than the other opponent attempts i have found
24:40
that a lot of them
24:42
when i ask them okay so how do you do that their response is
24:45
something like well we
24:46
just need to be more aggressive being more aggressive doesn't
24:50
doesn't always get
24:51
SPEAKER_00: you that how do you create that
24:53
Yeah,
24:54
I mean,
24:54
one,
24:54
like,
24:54
so we track the shots,
24:56
so we have an idea where they're coming from.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: We tape off an area in practice called, we call it the red zone.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: I like football.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: On offense,
25:04
SPEAKER_01: we try to emphasize red zone first,
25:07
SPEAKER_01: defensively keep the ball out of the red zone,
25:09
SPEAKER_01: but we'll do,
25:10
SPEAKER_01: in our live play segments,
25:14
SPEAKER_01: reward more points for something in the red zone.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: and for threes.
25:21
And we also,
25:22
in everything we do,
25:23
we give an extra point for any offensive rebound.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: We've always been a very good offensive rebounding team.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: We have a philosophy where we send four to the glass.
25:33
So,
25:33
you know,
25:34
we try to just,
25:35
I mean,
25:37
again,
25:37
like you said,
25:37
everyone says it.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: We try to maybe do some scoring to help emphasize it.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna tell you we do.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: We obviously have contact.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: I like contact.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: We have limited the amount of bone-on-bone
25:49
rebounding that we do and then sometimes you know how do you
25:54
emphasize those things
25:54
sometimes those are words of encouragement getting guys to get
25:59
where they're
25:59
supposed to get when shots go up one more area that coaches who
26:05
run this type of
26:06
offense sometimes ask for suggestions but just simply limiting
26:10
turnovers I think
26:12
we're all kind of understanding that not all turnovers are
26:15
created the same but how
26:17
SPEAKER_00: do you go about helping limit those
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got to be better there, to be quite honest with you.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: We were really poor in transition last year,
26:25
SPEAKER_01: which was,
26:27
SPEAKER_01: you know,
26:27
SPEAKER_01: everyone says we want to play faster.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: I want to play faster, too.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to drive the car right off the road into the ditch either.
26:34
You know,
26:36
one,
26:37
we have a goal of turnover percentage,
26:39
you know,
26:40
that we want to hit.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Two, we will, in live play drills, any live ball turnover.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: Live ball turnovers are absolutely crushing.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: If you have any live ball turnovers, it's minus two.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: And then that guy gets,
26:53
SPEAKER_01: we have a couple of these,
26:55
SPEAKER_01: they're called mountain climbers,
26:56
SPEAKER_01: versa climbers.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: You'll hear a staff yell right away, Tony, live ball.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: And then after practice,
27:03
you start accumulating how many feet you're going to have to
27:06
climb on the mountain
27:07
SPEAKER_01: climber.
27:07
There's nothing that will destroy your defense more than a live
27:11
ball turnover.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: Ideally, you don't want any turnover.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you're going to be a hard screen or
27:16
SPEAKER_01: A 50-50 call on a drive or maybe over the back.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: So, and the other two things we emphasize, one, spacing.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, spacing eliminates turnovers.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: And for us, we drill, we call it protection plans.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: Parfait Bataille on our staff does a really good job at this,
27:30
SPEAKER_01: where when we get in trouble,
27:33
SPEAKER_01: we have things we've worked on daily,
27:35
SPEAKER_01: a Nash where we keep the dribble,
27:37
SPEAKER_01: a Barkley where we flip our hips.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: A jump stop where hopefully we play off two feet.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
27:43
SPEAKER_01: A rondo where we show and then go.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: Like those type of things.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: That's the stuff we're following our training under game duress.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: Have we done a good enough job as coaches through our skill work,
27:56
SPEAKER_01: our practice,
27:58
to make sure that guys are in a position that they will be able
28:02
to do that?
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Relating to this offense just in general,
28:06
SPEAKER_00: what do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started out?
28:11
SPEAKER_01: A lot.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: You know, we've evolved offensively.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, especially absolutes and spacing and the play after the play.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: I did a really poor job with that early in my career.
28:27
SPEAKER_01: And the other thing with that,
28:28
SPEAKER_01: is we had a,
28:29
SPEAKER_01: you know,
28:30
I think he's been as good a player as anyone I've seen in the
28:32
CAA since I've been
28:34
SPEAKER_01: here.
28:34
And certainly the most impactful player in Towson history was a
28:38
kid we had,
28:39
SPEAKER_01: Jarrell Benham,
28:40
who ended up playing the NBA and back-to-back player of the
28:43
year in the league.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: And he was just an unbelievable player, competitor.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: I think about the times,
28:50
especially we do some stuff off of post-ups now that we didn't
28:54
do back then,
28:55
SPEAKER_01: and we made the game harder for him.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: His numbers...
28:59
would have been even better if I were a better coach earlier on
29:02
with that.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Last one here,
29:06
SPEAKER_00: when you've alluded a little bit to this,
29:08
SPEAKER_00: but I'd like to hear it kind of in this context,
29:10
SPEAKER_00: but where do you see your offense going in the next couple of years?
29:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
29:16
SPEAKER_01: we've got to,
29:17
SPEAKER_01: you know,
29:17
we have to shoot the ball better from the three point line next
29:22
year and from the
29:22
SPEAKER_01: foul line,
29:23
SPEAKER_01: especially because we lived,
29:25
at the foul line and we were second in the country in offensive
29:28
rebounding percentage.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's been a big, big focus this spring.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: And I, and I think that will, that will reveal itself.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: Um,
29:38
SPEAKER_01: and then the,
29:39
the other two things that are constant battles we have to be
29:42
better at is making
29:44
SPEAKER_01: zero to five foot shots and lessening live ball turnovers.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: Um,
29:50
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we've got high expectations for the group next year.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: We took a dip offensively last year.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: Our defensive numbers were the best they've ever been.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: So obviously we can't buckle down that end.
30:06
SPEAKER_01: But now we also replaced 75% of our roster and offense last year.
30:12
SPEAKER_01: So I felt like we were – it took a while.
30:15
But now we've got to continue to ascend in the right direction
30:18
on that end of the floor.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Before I let you go,
30:21
SPEAKER_00: you've got a few championship production videos,
30:24
SPEAKER_00: and I think this video is a good summary of those.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Is there any one,
30:28
SPEAKER_00: you've got an open practice video,
30:31
SPEAKER_00: there's a couple practice drills,
30:32
SPEAKER_00: and then there's the one from the Wooten Clinic.
30:35
Anything come to mind as in something suggested maybe that
30:39
somebody interested in
30:40
SPEAKER_00: this would want to look at to dive a little bit deeper?
30:43
Yeah,
30:43
I think we've gotten good positive feedback on our flow game
30:47
stuff.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: I think you eventually got to put your own little twists on it.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: I think, like I said, it's been good.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: The big impetus behind that was –
30:58
We wanted everybody to touch the ball early in the hopes that
31:03
our spacing would
31:05
improve and our shot selection would because everybody touched
31:10
it versus when they
31:12
SPEAKER_01: finally got it.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: It was like, it's my turn.
31:14
So,
31:15
you know,
31:15
we stole from some other people and then try to put our own
31:18
little twist on it.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: That piece has helped us.
31:21
I hope if you watch us on offense,
31:24
you would say,
31:24
hey,
31:25
their ball movement,
31:26
you know,
31:27
SPEAKER_01: that defines them.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: So that'll be a heavy point of emphasis this summer to,
31:31
SPEAKER_01: to get,
31:32
SPEAKER_01: you know,
31:33
SPEAKER_01: we were a little bit newer,
31:34
SPEAKER_01: younger at times we had it.
31:36
We,
31:36
we just,
31:37
we've got to,
31:37
we've got to be elite with that to get where I believe we can
31:40
get.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: I'll be sure to link those down in the description as well.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: So people can check those out.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: That's coach Pat scary head coach for the Towson Tigers coach.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Great stuff.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for coming on the show.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Keep up the great work.