Film Room: Kentucky Basketball Mid-Season Improvements

There can be a lot of nuance to the wins and losses of a college basketball season. Box scores and analytics don’t always tell the full story. However, for the average fan, true film study is well beyond what even the most passionate are willing to do for their favorite team. That is where the KSR Film Room and myself, KSR’s resident basketball-nerd, can come in handy. I’ve done the leg work for you breaking down every game of the Kentucky Basketball season to provide a glimpse into the fine line between winning and losing.

It would be foolish to say that the Wildcats have turned a corner. Despite the stark contrast in execution between the home loss to South Carolina and the road win at Tennessee there isn’t enough evidence to consider the season saved. If nothing else, the first 20 minutes of the Georgia game should have driven that point home. However, it is clear that Kentucky’s stock price is trending in the right direction. There are glimmers of hope, flashes of potential, and most importantly a couple of SEC wins that show tangible improvement.

To help demonstrate the differences between the Kentucky Basketball team that was 10-6 overall and 1-3 in the SEC with no NCAA Tournament resume and the Kentucky Basketball team that is now 12-6 overall and 3-3 in the SEC with a Top 5 road win I’ve gone back through film breakdowns of every game this season to find some valuable clips. We will take a look at both ends of the floor and highlight the improvements that have led to success. Let’s step on inside the KSR Film Room and take a closer look.

Defensive Activity Level – Difference Between Stunting & Helping

Back in Spokane, the Wildcats allowed Gonzaga’s two best three-point shooters to go 7-12 from beyond the arc. As a team, the Bulldogs were an incredible 24-36 from two-point range as well. That is evidence enough that Kentucky didn’t do a good enough job of taking ANYTHING away. The Cats’ defense was too flat-footed, too slow to react, and often committed too early on Drew Timme in the post.

It is really hard to help this much off of #45 Rasir Bolton before Timme even takes a dribble. Cason Wallace should be two steps closer to Bolton and simply “stunt” at Timme before he dribbles. Quick little single steps towards him and recovering back to Bolton will at least make Timme know you are there. Instead, Wallace is stuck in no man’s land. He isn’t REALLY helping on Timme in the post but he also definitely isn’t taking away the three. However, in the last couple of games, Kentucky has played with a much higher activity level.

Effort and activity level can make or break a defensive possession. Compared to Cason Wallace standing flat-footed halfway between Bolton and Timme against Gonzaga, take a look at how active the Wildcats are in this possession against Tennessee. There was a three-way switch at the beginning of the possession that kept a guy on a guy. Then, you have Adou Thiero fighting like crazy fronting the post to keep the ball from going inside. However, the end of this possession is where the improvement is really shown. The way that both Lance Ware and Oscar Tshiebwe closed out to shooters with urgency is what can win this Kentucky Basketball team games going forward.

Recent Willingness to Switch Has Improved Ballscreen Defense

UCLA dominated Kentucky in ballscreen situations back on December 17. That was likely the start of coaches picking on Oscar Tshiebwe with getting him involved in ballscreeens. After losses to Alabama and South Carolina, both coaches identified attacking Tshiebwe in ballscreens based on film preparation. The big man just wasn’t focused enough on getting the ball stopped and played with very heavy feet. However, recently, he has been more willing to simply switch the ballscreens and stay between the ball and the basket.

Tshiebwe was so active on this possession helping to cut off Santiago Vescovi drives. His footwork is clearly different and it allows him to stop the ball while still recovering to his man. Coach Calipari and his staff have clearly instilled some urgency in this Kentucky Basketball team after an ugly loss to South Carolina. If that can continue we may look back to the Tennessee game as the turning point that saved the season.

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Kentucky’s struggles guarding the ballscreen this season can be traced all the way back to the Michigan State game. They were insistent on going OVER ballscreens set for #11 AJ Hoggard despite his status as a very poor three-point shooter. This would often lead to too much help on the roll and opened up opportunities for the Spartans’ better shooters to make threes. That is exactly what happened on this clip shown above. When Cason Wallace went over the ballscreen it made Lance Ware step up to stop the ball. That caused a chain reaction where Sahvir Wheeler then came down to help take away the roll man, but also left #11 Tyson Walker open on the wing for a three-pointer. Recently, Kentucky has shown much more willingness to simply switch this type of ballscreen which helps limit the need to help.

Switching more ballscreens has really helped out this Kentucky Basketball team recently. It seems simple, but keeping a guy on a guy at all times really improves the functionality of team defensive concepts. In this clip Oscar Tshiebwe does an outstanding job of staying in front of Georgia’s point guard after switching onto him. He moves his feet, takes away the three-point attempt, and then blocks the shot at the end of the ball handler’s drive. Being more willing to switch reduces the amount of off-ball decision-making required by the defense.

Shifting to Cason Wallace as a 1-on-1 Playmaker

Through the vast majority of the first half of the season the Kentucky Basketball team was heavily reliant on Sahvir Wheeler to make a play at the end of the shot clock. However, defenses still don’t respect his outside shot and a lack of overall spacing on the floor made it really hard for him to get penetration. This play late in the second overtime against Michigan State simply never had a chance. When Jacob Toppin fakes the ballscreen his defender just stays to plug up the lane because there is no need to follow Toppin back to the perimeter. Wheeler ends up driving right into the help defense and is called for a travel. The Wildcats made themselves really easy to guard in these situations.

This is essentially the same exact play as the previous clip. However, this one takes place on Tuesday night against Georgia with Cason Wallace handling the ball. Oscar Tshiebwe fakes the ballscreen and Wallace attacks downhill to the rim. There are two primary differences between the Wheeler turnover and the Wallace dunk. First, look at the defender guarding the ball in the two clips. Wheeler’s defender is playing six to eight feet off of him with his feet inside the free-throw area. However, Wallace’s defender is all the way up with his feet beyond the three-point line. Secondly, Georgia is much more focused on Tshiebwe than Michigan State was on Jacob Toppin. This more recent clip created a true one-on-one scenario as opposed to Toppin essentially bringing the double team to Wheeler.

Disorganized Offense vs. Sharp, Well-Executed Offense

The Wildcats managed just 53 points in 67 possessions against UCLA. Spacing was bad, the offense was disorganized, and it led to a complete lack of execution. So many times earlier in the season Kentucky’s guys looked unsure on the floor. Whether they didn’t know the plays or didn’t get it communicated well enough they would stand around at the beginning of too many possessions. No offense was initiated until 15 seconds on the shot clock. Then, CJ Fredrick and Cason Wallace were standing in essentially the same spot on the perimeter. It is really hard to score when your overall structure looks like this.

Here is a recent example of Kentucky’s better offensive structure and execution. Instead of not initiating offense until 15 seconds on the shot clock on this possession the ‘Cats get a ball reversal already by the 20-second mark. Then, Antonio Reeves comes off of a staggered double-zoom action. Reeves had plenty of space to play in as well because CJ Fredrick was spotted up on the strong side. The Tennessee defender wasn’t willing to help off of Fredrick here due to the spacing. Much better execution.

Forcing the Ball to Oscar Tshiebwe

It makes sense that you want to get the ball to the reigning National Player of the Year. However, telegraphing your passes and forcing it inside is not the way to get Oscar Tshiebwe touches inside. There was so little space between Antonio Reeves and Tshiebwe on this pass. The careless post entry ended up as a turnover and Missouri was off to the races going the other way.

Recently, instead of passing the ball around the perimeter trying to throw it instead, Coach Calipari has dialed up some half court set plays to get Oscar Tshiebwe the ball. Running him off of cross screens like this really opens up space for him to play in off of the block. Having CJ Fredrick set the cross screen helps too because his defender won’t help off of him at all. When you look at the difference in spacing between the last clip and this one it is easy to see why Kentucky has found more success offensively in the last couple of games.