Johns Hopkins Head Coach, Josh Loeffler, and Swarthmore Head Coach, Landry Kosmalski run two of the best programs in college basketball, continually ranking in the Top 10 Nationally in NCAA DIII over the past few seasons. Both are tremendous coaches, come from legendary coaching trees (Loeffler with Fran O’Hanlon at Lafayette, and Kosmalski with Bob McKillop at Davidson), and, perhaps most importantly, both are past podcast guests. ???? ( Loeffler Pod | Kosmalski Pod)
In this weekend’s newest “Crunch Time” film session we revisit the last 5 minutes of the thrilling 2020 Centennial Conference Championship game between Johns Hopkins and Swarthmore with Coach Loeffler. At the time, Swarthmore was the #1 ranked team in NCAA DIII with Johns Hopkins right on their heels at #8.
One of the areas of coaching that most interests us is the “when” of making decisions of all kinds. Tons of great playbooks, podcasts, PDF’s, and videos abound about what or how to run sets, drills, meetings, defenses, etc., which are all extremely useful…but the secret sauce is in the WHEN. When will you run the counter you’ve got in your back pocket? When will you jump your team in a timeout? When will you start “mismatch hunting” down the stretch? Whento give suggestions as an assistant? When do you peel-switch on a slot drive? And on and on. These “Crunch Time” film sessions are one of our favorite projects to work on because they’re packed with opportunities to dive into both the hows and the whens of late-game decision making, strategy, and keeping a steady pulse down the stretch.
Here are a few interesting discussions we get into during the newest “Crunch Time” film session with Coach Loeffler:
Late-Game Mistakes & “Shot Spectrum”
*Spoiler Alert – The game ends with a classic buzzer-beater.
A couple of interrelated concepts Coach Loeffler discusses in the film session are 1) Learning from earlier Late-Game Mistakes and 2) teaching your team about “Shot Spectrum”, including teaching your best players about the types of shots they can get down the stretch and when to shoot them. Before the last shot of the Johns Hopkins v. Swarthmore ending we flashback to talk about the growth of a team and player in understanding these concepts.
Coach Loeffler talks about an earlier matchup in the 2018-19′ season in which the game was tied and they had possession to take the last shot. Whether it was due to youth, nerves, or the shock that Loeffler was coaching in a bowling shirt, Johns Hopkins takes a shot with a lot of time still on the game clock…
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The opponent, Whitworth, rebounds the missed shot with about 9 seconds left on the game clock, and the worst ensues for Johns Hopkins…
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Zooming In: Going back to the earlier point about the when of coaching, this difficult loss led to a lot of growth for Loeffler and Johns Hopkins in the way of teaching players time management and poise in end of game scenarios. In the case above, it was not a question of whether the location or type of shot was in question, just when it was taken.
Flash forward to 2020 (the season of the Swarthmore game), and Loeffler now has one of the best guards in the nation on his roster in DIII All-American, Conner Delaney. Delaney can score at all levels and has the ability to get to any spot on the floor with his skill, athleticism, and IQ. Since everyone in the gym understands that Delaney will have the ball in his hands down the stretch, Loeffler talks about the growth and maturity of Delaney understanding space, timing, getting to spots, and “Shot Spectrum” when it comes to taking a last second shot. As Loeffler says during the “Crunch Time” episode … “One of the things we talk with our guys about, is in late-games, and especially in tie-games, the shot spectrum that you’re looking for changes completely. The idea of threes or layups no longer matters. All that matters now is a make.” – Josh Loeffler
An added layer of teaching “Shot Spectrum” is a player understanding how long it takes for them to get to a spot on the floor to take a makeable game-winner that fits their skill-set. This is where Loeffler discusses further about when he’d like Delaney to begin operating so he has enough time to get the shot off, while at the same time not leaving much time for a desperation heave the other way.
As fate would have it, Johns Hopkins had a similar late-clock situation the night before their Swarthmore championshipmatchup when they faced Haverford in the Semi-Finals, where Delaney had the ball with the opportunity to take the last shot of the 1st Half. In the play Delaney is able to isolate at the top of the key and sink a comfortable jumper as the clock runs out for the half…
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Zooming In: The details to point out, and which we discuss with Loeffler, are both the alignment of the isolation, as well the space Delaney creates before getting his shot off. First, Loeffler discusses why he elects to get into a 1-4 Flat look rather than set a ballscreen, saying that he feared a potential trap in a ballscreen and instead elected to give Delaney space to operate without a screen. And second, if time permits, teaching Delaney to space almost to half courtwith the ball before attacking to get downhill momentum going into his move.
This end-of-clock situation in the Semi’s proved fruitful, as the next night in the Conference final, after a thrilling back and forth game this exact scenario plays out again, with Delaney having the ball in his hands with the game tied and the title on the line. Here’s the result…
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“Crunch Time” with Josh Loeffler
Beyond the situations highlighted above, the “Crunch Time” episode with Coach Loeffler is chalk-full of late-game strategic insights discussing:
- Mismatching Hunting and Handling Veer Switches
- Defensive Ballscreen Depth and “Plugging”
- Defensive Free Throw Rebounding and Substitutions
- Watching Opponent’s Timeouts
- And much more.
You can watch a portion of the “Crunch Time” Session for free here…
