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Subject: UConn men's offense, Princeton women's defense Author: An Observer [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 13:00:59 04/11/24 Thu The UConn men's team doesn't do anything different from what other teams do on offense. The difference is that, when their first set of screens doesn't generate a good shot, they immediately go to a second set of screens to try again. If that doesn't work, it's a third set of screens. Every possession is just one set of screens after another. They do the same thing that everyone else does; the Huskies just do more of it, again and again on the same possession, until they get the shot they want. UConn does what everyone does; they just do it better. I'm not expert enough to analyze Princeton's women's defense, but they too seem to do what other teams do. They just do it better, they do it relentlessly, and they do it for the entire 30 seconds of the opponent's possession. They also seem to communicate as other defenses do, just more of it. Of course, it helps to have a rebounder like Mitchell to clean things up, just like it helps to have the well-rounded ball-handlers, passers and shooters which the UConn men have. But overall, there's something to admire about teams which simply execute the same principles better than anybody else does. There's nothing proprietary about what the UConn men do on offense. But nobody else comes close to actually doing it as well. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> Subject: Re: UConn men's offense, Princeton women's defense Author: IvySportsJunkie [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 13:34:17 04/11/24 Thu The Atlantic article titled “How UConn built the Most Complex and Efficient Offense in College Basketball” does a very good job of explaining this complex UConn offense. It points out how UConn Head Coach Dan Hurley and Assistant Coach Luke Murray carefully studied European teams, stealing different concepts and packages that they could use. Their offense’s goal is to put stress on the defense, stacking multiple actions that create indecision for the defense. Most set plays are choreographed. While the Huskies sometimes looked patterned, their offense is like a choose-your-own-adventure story. “If you make a decision to reject the screen, now that sets off a chain of events with two or three other off-ball scenarios,” Murray explains. “That’s something that we really work on hard, because good defensive teams a lot of times can do a good job at taking teams out of set plays. But I think the randomness of the way that we cut, the randomness of the way that we screen and the versatility of our guys as passers and movers and screeners and shooters really makes it hard.” “I’ve been studying the top offenses in the country in-depth for the past five years, and UConn’s combination of off-ball screening and ball movement within their sets and the number of sets that they run makes it the most complex offense that I’ve seen in that time,” says Jordan Sperber, a former video coordinator at New Mexico State, who has become the X’s-and-O’s czar of college basketball, documenting it all in his weekly Hoops Vision newsletter. Sperber made a UConn offense video last month titled “Why This Offense is Basketball Poetry.” [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: UConn men's offense, Princeton women's defense Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 14:58:49 04/11/24 Thu I just googled Luke Murray. He is Bill Murray's son. Yes, that Bill Murray. Luke went to St. Luke's School in New Canaan, where he played football and basketball. He has worked for Danny Hurley on three separate, non-continuous stints. Murray has been the "offensive coordinator" on the Huskies coaching staff for the past two national championship seasons. [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: Re: UConn men's offense, Princeton women's defense Author: IvySportsJunkie [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 15:11:35 04/11/24 Thu AO that is very interesting. It makes sense that Luke would take after his very disciplined dad. When asked how he is able to successfully develop his unique film characters, Bill replied that “I hate to give away my secrets for I do almost nothing. Being slightly lazy seem to work for me.” [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> Subject: Re: UConn men's offense, Princeton women's defense Author: SpuytenDuyvil76 [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 17:37:00 04/11/24 Thu It's hard to live up to a famous dad! [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> Subject: If You Love X's and O's, You Gotta Like UConn Author: An Observer [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 20:45:42 04/12/24 Fri It's rare to read a multi-page feature story about an assistant coach in any sport which is more laudatory than this one about UConn offensive coordinator Luke Murray, just published yesterday. What I love about all the recent stories regarding Murray is that, while we all agree the usual formula for winning championships is to have the better athletes, at the margin X's and O's still make a difference. There are only five of your guys on the court at one time, so by definition, X's and O's in basketball are less intricate than in football, but some coaches still do it better than the rest. https://www.ctinsider.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball/article/huskies-luke-murray-ncaa-championship-19394023.php [ Post a Reply to This Message ]