I got to hear Brad speak at a Nike coaches clinic this weekend. He was excellent and shared several of the things that are his focus as an offensive coach.
1. Play fast. He said he gives his player the freedom to try to score within the first 7 seconds of the shot clock. They have a ball screen system and he believes the defense can't get set if you truly play fast (and he contends most players don't really want to play fast when they realize how hard you must work to do it) you will get great shots.
2. Get to the third side to score. If they can't get a shot in that first 7 seconds (he said that is the players' time), then its "his time". He talked about how after the defense is set, the offense scores 30% of the time on the first side of the floor. The 2nd side it increases only to 34%. The 3rd side it bumps up to 60%. His offensive system is pretty simple, operating off of ball screens and spacing, and clearly it worked as he had the most efficient offense in the country.
3. Offensive rebound. His goal is 40% of the missed shots. He talked a lot about getting opposite of the rim; he has his staff chart all missed shots and the misses go to the opposite side of the rim 76% (or more) of the time per season he's been a head coach.
4. Free throws. Not only getting there, but making them. He contends that guys just don't shoot them enough, so he has them shoot them. At least 100 a day before practice during the season and in the offseason at least 500 FTs per day. OSU went from 73% to 79% this year. His SFA teams increased from 71% to 75% during his 3 seasons there.
5. Never shoot over a close out. His guys are always instructed to drive if they are ever getting closed out on by a defender.
6. When you scout, find the worst defender and try to exploit them as much as possible. He said most teams focus on the best defenders, but he has always focused on finding the worst one.
He had several other things, but I thought the tenants of his offense was the most interesting.
I missed Bob Huggins speak, but I heard the main point of his trapping full court defense is force opponent's to their weak hand. Seems very middle school or high school, but it still works at that level. Underwood also mentioned that when they go against ball screens, they always try to force opponent's left. He pointed out that even Evans only finished 28% of the time with his left, so if a pro can't finish most other college players can't either. Underwood is a huge advanced stats and analytics guy.
Finally, I head Bob Knight. He was typical Knight, talking about ball fakes and spacing and a lot of the stuff he talked about a lot as a commentator. However, the sad thing is he is clearly in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer's as he would often get off track and look at his sheet and then repeat verbatim a point he had made earlier in his talk.
In any case, listening to Underwood only made me more ticked that we didn't try to sign him when Frank left or last year. The guys is simply a winner and he will be successful at Illinois. I will be shocked if he isn't. He also sounds a lot like Frank in talking about accountability, helping guys become men, etc. when he talks. Its so refreshing to hear a coach talk like that after putting up with oscar and excuses the last 5 years.
