A lot has changed over the last few weeks in the college basketball coaching landscape, with perhaps one of the biggest moves being BYU’s Mark Pope being named the new Head Coach of the Kentucky Wildcats after Coach Calipari’s departure to Arkansas. Lucky for us, we had already planned on releasing this Deep Dive into some of Coach Pope’s fundamental offensive concepts when playing with multiple bigs, which might give a glimpse into what the new Kentucky offense will look like in the future.
In our recent podcast with Converse University HC, Nick Pasqua, we dove into an interesting conversation surrounding the “5 Out” Offense. We discussed how the spacing and the ability to create gaps isn’t always guaranteed when all five players are spread around the perimeter. Real considerations need to be made on how to generate gaps and provide offensive actions with sufficient “breathing room.” Adding one or two players who are not proficient shooters only furthers to complicate this task. Especially when running Delays, these non-perimeter threats can provide the defense with ample opportunities to plug gaps or sit at the rim.
So, with the help of Coach Ben Ostrow, our goal was to glean insights into Coach Pope navigated playing the 5 Out Delays with two bigs sharing the court, finding ways to free the rim, create gravity, and maintain their offensive flow.
*Note: For those eager to explore a variety of intricacies when it comes to teaching a Modern “5 Out Offense”, in the past we have looked at several other teams running Delay {đź”’} and their variations within it. Plus, Alabama Assistant Coach, Ryan Pannone, joined us in the “Film Room” {đź”’} for a complete breakdown on the 5 Out Offense and teaching the Delay reads.
Now, let’s jump into some of Mark Pope’s concepts…
Clearing the Rim
Coach Pope manages to create gravity for their bigs and pull defenders out of the paint by altering the formation behind the Delay action. They often begin possessions in a 4-out-1-in alignment, with their 4-Man typically stationed in the weakside dunker spot. As the 5-Man dribbles into the Delay at the slot/elbow, the 4-Man lifts up behind the action to achieve their desired 5-out spacing.
 |
Zooming In: This setup has a magnet effect on the 4-Man’s defender. Starting near the basket to create the gravity, so on the flash to the slot, the defender naturally stays (somewhat) attached, thus removing the low help defender and freeing the rim and making the backcut out of the Zoom/Split action all the more dangerous .
Zooming In 2.0: Another clever spacing adjustment was maintaining the weakside wing at the 45 and off the baseline. As the defensive 4-man leaves the rim to follow the flash, theoretically, the “crack back” defender should become the first help at the rim. However, by positioning the wing at the 45, this defensive responsibility becomes a bit ambiguous, often leading to two weakside defenders hugging their matchups instead.
Attacking the Nail
Another challenge with the 5 Out spacing can be in creating a double gap off DHOs from the slot. Savvy defensive teams can plug the nail when an offensive player is stationary on the backside. This flash by the 4-man in BYU’s offense, though not directly creating a gap, is effective in pulling a defender off the nail. Rather than filling up into the gap and plugging the nail on the flash by the 4-Man, the defender more often than not stays attached and follows the 4-Man.
|
Zooming In: With the defender attached to the flash, BYU is able to break the nail for “0” Cuts ⬆️ and operate in less traffic to make reads coming off the DHO ⬇️.
|
2nd Side Flow
After the initial action on the 1st side of the offense, BYU is spaced in a way that allows them to directly flow into similar action on the 2nd side, now with the 4-man as the initiator and the 5-man lifting to the opposite slot. This ends up looking quite a bit like the concepts found in Euro Flow Motion, which we covered extensively in a two-part series {đź”’} with now St. Louis Assistant, Zak Boisvert, a couple years ago.
|
Zooming In: A sneaky part of why the “0”Cuts and “backcuts” from the Split Action are so difficult to guard are they not only put a ton of pressure on the rim for easy layups, but that the “rimcut” defender is often put right back into another Zoom/Split action on the 2nd side with little to no time for recovery. Shown above, that defender is a half step late in getting through the 2nd side action, leading to a late switch by Utah and triggering an “advantage” read by BYU to throw it back to the “shake” to either shoot (shown above), or thrown inside to the 4-man who now has a mismatch (imagine above).
Kentucky is no doubt getting one of the top offensive minds in basketball next season as Mark Pope’s creativity and understanding of spacing has been on full display in his time at BYU. For much more on Mark Pope’s Multiple Big’s Spacing, including the use of “Gaggles” to alleviate the spacing burden, please enjoy this week’s latest Deep Dive on SGTV…
