Scouting Report: Florida A&M Rattlers

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It is game day in Lexington once again. The #19 Kentucky Wildcats (7-3), who have played just one home game since November 29th, are back at Rupp Arena to host the Florida A&M Rattlers (2-7) at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the SEC Network. This game is a part of the Unity Series that features the Wildcats playing HBCUs each season. On Monday, the two programs got together to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati as part of the off-court educational experiences associated with the Unity Series.

There is no getting around the fact that the Florida A&M Rattlers are not very good. They have not defeated a Division I opponent this season, rank 357th out of 363 teams on KenPom, and are losing by an average margin of just under 20 points per game. Their closest contest of the season came on Saturday in a 61-55 loss at Louisville. While this matchup may not provide many real takeaways for Coach Calipari and his staff, it is the final tuneup before SEC play begins next week.

As always, we’ve got a full scouting report to get you prepared for Wednesday night’s matchup. We will dive into the personnel, break down their offensive and defensive scheme, and go over the keys to the game. Now, let’s dive on in and get to know the Florida A&M Rattlers.

Florida A&M Rattlers Personnel

Starters

#23 Jordan Tillmon: 6’2″ 180 lbs, Junior Guard

10.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.9 apg

Lefty. Will share primary ball-handling duties with #1 Smith. Most aggressive offensive player. Non-shooter. Just 6-28 from 3-point range. Back up and guard against the left-hand drives. No left-hand drives!!! Closeout short to stay between him and the basket. Go UNDER the ballscreens and handoffs. You can go up through downscreens and hop under the flares. Just give a contest if he shoots a mid-range jumper, but we aren’t worried about him shooting 3s. Would rather play off him and clog up the lane. Likes to use the right-to-left crossover to attack. Get over and cut off the left hand. Make him score over you. No left-hand drives. No layups!

#1 Byron Smith: 6’2″ 185 lbs, Junior Guard

8.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.0 apg

Will share primary ball-handling duties with #23 Tillmon. Willing shooter, but just 10-40 from 3-point range. Treat him as a non-shooter to start. We will adjust if he makes a couple. Back up and guard against the right-hand drives. No right-hand drives!!! Closeout short to stay between him and the basket. Go UNDER the ballscreens and handoffs. You can go up through downscreens and hop under the flares. Just give a contest when he shoots from the perimeter. Would rather play off him and clog up the lane. Not thinking about passing when he drives it. 18 assists to 26 turnovers. You can take it off of him when he is driving it right. No right-hand drives. No layups!

#2 Jordan Chatman: 6’5″ 208 lbs, Sophomore Guard

8.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 0.4 apg

Strong, athletic wing. Non-shooter. Just 1-6 from 3-point range this year. Back up and guard against the right-hand drives. No right-hand drives!!! Closeout short to stay between him and the basket. Be very willing to help off of him when he is on the perimeter. Be aware of him cutting to the basket, but you can play off of him and help clog things up in the lane. Looking to tight curl downscreens to play inside. Go up through the downscreens and be willing to switch when he curls into your chest. Stay between him and the basket. Not thinking about passing when he is driving it right. 3 assists to 17 turnovers. You can take it off of him when he is driving it right. No right-hand drives. No layups!

#5 Jaylen Bates: 6’7″ 215 lbs, Junior Forward

9.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 0.6 apg

Athletic face-up 4-man. Looking to pick-and-pop a lot of ballscreens. Capable shooter. 8-21 from 3-point range this season. Not hunting 3s, but probably their best shooting threat. Be there to give a hard contest to the obvious catch-and-shoot 3s. No 3s on the pick-and-pop! Will look to drive it right when he pops into space as well. No right-hand drives. Will shoot stepbacks and pull-ups off the dribble. Give all jumpers a hard contest. Not really thinking about passing so you can take it off of him. 5 assists to 15 turnovers. Be more aggressive helping when he is driving it right. Be tight enough to take away the obvious catch-and-shoot 3s. No right-hand drives.

#10 Chase Barrs: 6’9″ 210 lbs, Senior Forward

5.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 0.8 apg

Strong, physical big. Exclusively looking to score at the rim. Will ballscreen and roll to the basket. Give ground and stay between him and the basket on the roll. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Be physical on his left shoulder and make him score over you. He will face-up and drive it right some from the mid-post area. No right-hand drives. Not worried about him taking the face-up jumper so do not get driven on, especially to his right hand. Will crash the offensive glass. Box out.

Bench

#4 Hantz Louis-Jeune: 6’6″ 180 lbs, Junior Guard

6.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.4 apg

Extremely athletic wing. Very long. Dangerous as the point person in their 1-2-2 press. You can’t throw lazy passes around him. Offensively, he is a capable shooter but still more aggressive as a driver. 7-15 from 3-point range. Just be there to give it a contest. No right-hand drives!!! More worried about staying between him and the basket. Get over and cut off the right hand. They will throw it ahead to him in transition. Good cutter off of the ball. Need to at least be aware of him cutting to the rim as you help and clog up the lane. No right-hand drives. No layups!

#0 Dimingus Stevens: 6’6″ 180 lbs, Junior Guard

6.0 ppg, 0.5 rpg, 0.0 apg

Capable shooter. 7 3-point attempts in two games this season. Looking to squeeze them off. Runs off of a lot of screening action in the halfcourt. You need to chase him off of downscreens. Give help at the point of the screen and be willing to switch if there is too much space. You are switching to be there on the catch and give a hard contest to all jump shots. Don’t help off of him as much as you do with everyone else. Will drive it right when he puts it on the floor. No right-hand drives. Make him score contested jump shots going to his left.

#22 Saiyd Burnside: 6’9″ 210 lbs, Redshirt Freshman Forward

2.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.0 apg

Backup forward. Just looking to score around the basket. Will ballscreen and roll. Give ground on the roll to stay between him and the basket. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Be physical and make him score back into you with his right hand. No drop steps. Make him score over you around the basket. Box out.

#34 Richard Mathews: 6’3″ 180 lbs, Sophomore Guard

1.5 ppg, 0.5 rpg, 0.2 apg

Backup guard. Play him straight up. Half of his shots have been 3s, but just 1-5. Right-hand driver. No right-hand drives! Be there to contest the jump shots, but be more concerned about staying between him and the basket. You can help off of him and help to clog up the lane. Make him shoot contested jump shots going left.

#14 Tarig Eisa: 6’8″ 210 lbs, Junior Forward

1.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 0.3 apg

Backup forward. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Will step out to 3-point range, but is just 1-9 on the season. Do not go out to the perimeter to guard him. Just stay in and help clog up the lane. He will face up and drive it right some from the mid-post area. No right-hand drives. Stay down on shot fakes. Be physical on his left shoulder and make him score it back into you with his right hand. Always looking to come back right. Crashes the offensive glass. Box out.

Florida A&M Rattlers Offense

When you look at the metrics, you could make a case for the Florida A&M Rattlers having the worst offense in Division I basketball. Those numbers are confirmed after watching them on film. They struggled to create open looks, have no real “shooters”, and a lack of interior size makes them ineffective around the basket. Just take a look at some of their offensive numbers (out of 363 teams) via KenPom:

362nd – Adjusted Offensive Efficiency (85.3)
362nd – Effective FG% (40.6%)
363rd – Turnover% (26.7%)
327th – 3pt% (28.9%)

Coach Robert McCullum does actually have some unique actions that the Rattlers will run in the halfcourt. They rely on a large playbook of set plays, but they simply don’t seem to have the personnel to execute them consistently. At least not against the competition they have played so far this season. Let’s take a look at some of their favorite halfcourt actions that you can expect to see in this one.

Here is the first look at a halfcourt set you can expect to see from the Florida A&M Rattlers. It is a bit of a unique entry, but otherwise, this play is just a traditional diagonal screen-the-screnner. After the downscreen for #23 Tillmon — their best playmaker — they get into a middle ballscreen and are just in Motion from there. When the ball gets swung to #4 Louis-Jeune there is no reason to be that far out on him. We are more concerned about protecting the paint.

This gut cut to weak side screening action is their most ran halfcourt set from the games we’ve watched on film. The play starts with a dribble entry to trigger the initial gut cut before the Rattlers get into their screen action on the weak side. Due to their lack of shooters, they really try to tight-curl the downscreen. We shouldn’t be chasing them off of these screens. Go up through, or if it is set this close to the basket, just switch it.

Off of the same action as seen in the previous clip, Florida A&M will also flare on the weak side. They aren’t hunting 3s off of the flare, but they will try to attack your closeout. We want to go underneath the flare screens to stay between them and the basket. Again, we are not worried about them shooting jump shots. Keep them out of the paint.

Florida A&M will run some ballscreen/handoff continuity in the halfcourt when they are not calling out set plays. One thing we absolutely should not give up against these guys is a back door cut. We are trying to stay between them and the basket at all times. There is NOBODY that we absolutely cannot allow to shoot a 3. Therefore, there is no reason to be out so aggressively that you get back cut on. #2 is 1-6 from 3 on the season and this Louisville defender is chasing him out beyond the arc like it is J.J. Redick.

Florida A&M Rattlers

For as bad as the metrics are on the offensive end, the Florida A&M Rattlers aren’t all that much better defensively. They are one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the country, allow opponents to make nearly 60% of their 2-point attempts, and commit a lot of fouls due to their aggressive style. This is definitely a high-risk, high-reward defense that hasn’t seen much reward. The Rattlers do force turnovers at a relatively high rate with their 1-2-2 fullcourt trapping press. They are very aggressive trying to get their hands on the ball until it gets into the scoring area. In the halfcourt, they are going to fall back into a man-to-man base defense.

You cannot be lazy with your passes when moving the ball side to side. They are going to jump around and try to get deflections on every pass. Pass fakes and driving the ball hard in a straight line will be key to breaking the press and being able to exploit it by scoring on the back end.

Keys to the Game

Win the turnover battle. The Rattlers turn it over at a higher rate than anyone in the country, but they also force quite a few turnovers with their press. We need to force 15+ turnovers while committing 12 or fewer.
Dominate the glass. 30%+ offensive rebounding percentage and 77%+ defensive rebounding percentage are the goals tonight. We should have our way with them around the basket.
Clog up the lane. Florida A&M shoots just 26.8% from beyond the arc. We are not worried about them shooting from the perimeter. Try to get them to take 20 or more 3-point attempts by packing it in.
Play with confidence. Going against a trapping press can speed the game up. That is okay. Layups and rhythm 3s after you break the press are good shots every time. Come out with the mindset of scoring 90 points tonight.