Personnel

Starters

#0 Jacob Gilyard:  5’9” 160 lbs, Senior Point Guard

12.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 5.7 apg

Point Guard. Very quick. Excellent playmaker. He is going to relentlessly attack off of the dribble. Will push it hard in transition too. Need help getting him corralled. Need to be active in the gaps stunting at him when he is dribbling it. SHOOTER! NO 3’s!!! Have to be there to take away the catch-and-shoot 3’s and be there to contest the ones off the dribble. Break his rhythm when he is bouncing it so he can’t dribble into a 3. Over half of his shots are from 3 for his career and he is shooting 37%. Once you take away the 3 he is going to want to drive it right. He can go either way but is better getting to the rim going right. The deeper he drives it the more he is going to look to pass. Do not over help when he drives it. We need to be good on the ball. Stay between him and the basket and make him finish over you. Get over the ballscreens. Chase him off of downscreens and get over the flares. Stunt off of him when he doesn’t have the ball but do not commit. You want your man to have the ball so you don’t need to completely take him away. As the ball is driven at you, tighten up and be ready for the backcut. Do not get backcut. Limit him to no more than one made 3-pointer. No easy transition buckets or assists.

#1 Blake Francis:  6’0” 175 lbs, Graduate Student Guard

17.7 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.0 apg

Lefty. Elite scorer. Always thinking about scoring. You have to be ready to guard him at all times. Extremely quick. Have to be ready for him to attack the rim. SHOOTER! NO 3’s!!! Half of his shots last season were 3’s. Once you take away the 3 you have to be ready for him to drive it left. No straight line left-hand drives. Dangerous going either way though. Need to bounce back when you take away the 3 and try and stay between him and the basket. Just don’t get smoked. We need to be in the gaps and stunt at him to deter the drive. Corral him in transition as well. Just get the ball stopped. Help when he drives because he is thinking more about scoring than passing it. Loves to split the ballscreens. Do not let him split you. Get over the ballscreens. Chase him off down screens and get over the flares. Stunt off of him when he doesn’t have it, but do not over commit. You want your man to have the ball, but he has a quick trigger so you MUST be able to give a good closeout and take away the catch-and-shoot 3. Limit him to no more than two made 3’s. As the ball is driven at you, tighten up to him and be ready for the backcut. Do not get backcut. More shots than points for him.

#3 Tyler Burton:  6’7” 215 lbs, Sophomore Forward

4.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 0.3 apg

Versatile forward. Willing shooter. Four of his eight shots were 3’s against Morehead State. Play him as straight up as possible. Be there to give a hard contest to his catch-and-shoot opportunities. He will make the obvious ones that he knows he is supposed to shoot. Once you take away the catch-and-shoot 3’s he will want to drive it right. NO RIGHT HANDS DRIVES! No straight-line drives. You have to closeout to him under control and let your high hands contest the shot. If you don’t chop your feet and break down he will smoke you on the closeout. Bounce back once he doesn’t shoot it. You can help off of him when he doesn’t have the ball but you have to remain aware of where he is and then close out under control. Help when he drives it. Not thinking about passing. Do not get back cut. Will crash the offensive boards. BOX OUT!!!

#4 Nathan Cayo:  6’7” 225 lbs, Senior Forward

8.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.9 apg

Super athletic 4-man. Will face you up and drive it right. NO RIGHT-HAND DRIVES!!! Really likes to drive it right from the elbow or after facing up in the post. When he catches it in the post he is going to want to score over his left shoulder with his right hand. No left shoulder baskets!!! You really need to play on his left shoulder and make him finish back into you with his right. He will go to his right shoulder just to set up coming back to his left shoulder to finish with his right hand. Make him finish with you between him and the basket. Contest if he shoots a face-up or turnaround jumper. When he faces up you need to bounce back and throw a hand up to contest the shot. More worried about him driving it than shooting it. Help off of him when he is away from the basket. Scored 23 points on 10/10 shooting against Morehead State in the season opener. Active offensive rebounder. BOX OUT!

#33 Grant Golden:  6’10” 255 lbs, Graduate Student Forward

13.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.4 apg

Versatile big man. Will initiate a lot of offense from the top of the key and/or the high post area. Excellent passer. Can attack off the dribble some. Not super quick, but moves well and is a good athlete. No right-hand drives!!! Must be ready to guard the right-hand drive. When he catches it in the post he prefers to score with his right hand over his left shoulder. Likes to crab to the midline to set up his moves. Stay on his left shoulder. Will attempt to quick spin to the baseline. Do not give up the drop step to the baseline. Does like to shoot the little fade-away to his right shoulder. Just give it a hard contest. Closeout short when he catches it on the perimeter. Once you feel like he isn’t going to immediately drive it you should pressure him as much as you can without getting beat to his right off the dribble. Pressure him so he can’t pick us apart passing. Make him score with you between him and the basket. When he catches it in the post, we need to give some hard stunts and try and dig the ball out of the post but we cannot overcommit. Do not over help when he has the ball in the post. Must be good 1-on-1. Likes to slip ballscreens. No right-hand drives. No quick spins to the baseline.

Bench

#22 Andre Gustavson:  6’4″ 195 lbs, Junior Guard

4.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 0.7 apg

Backup Guard. More of a driver than a shooter. NO RIGHT-HAND DRIVES!!! We want to closeout a step short of him and stay between him and the basket. No straight line drives. Give it a good contest if he does shoot it. Will get out and run in transition. Likes to drive it when it is thrown ahead in transition. Much more efficient from 2 than from 3. Make him score over you. Stuff the gap when he has it. Not thinking about passing. Bring help when he drives it and make him give it up. Do not get backcut. No layups!

#15 Matt Grace:  6’9” 230 lbs, Junior Forward

6 points, 3 rebounds Friday night

Face up 4-man. Shooter. 3 of his 4 shots have been 3’s. No 3’s. Be there to take away the catch-and-shoot 3’s. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Will set you up going left to come back and finish with his right hand. Make him score with you between him and the basket. Will play the role of #33 Golden when he comes in. Do not over help when he catches it in the post. Just stunt at him and try and dig it out. Cannot lose sight of your man. Will ballscreen and pop. Also likes to slip. Box out!

#2 Souleymane Koureissi:  6’9” 215 lbs, Junior Forward

1.4 ppg, 1.1 rpg

Backup forward. Will shoot the 3 some, but we will closeout short until he makes a couple. Just closeout short and throw a hand up to contest. No right-hand drives! Make him score with you between him and the basket. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Box out. 

#21 Isaiah Wilson: 6’0” 160 lbs, Freshman Guard

Backup Point Guard. Right-hand driver. NO RIGHT-HAND DRIVES! Very quick. Need to stay between him and the basket. You can hop under the ballscreens when he comes off. We will start off closing out short to him. Can adjust if he makes a couple. Just have a hand up to contest the obvious catch-and-shoot 3’s. Do not let him get by you off the dribble. Get him stopped in transition. You can help off of him and try to dig the ball out of the post when he doesn’t have it. Don’t get backcut. No lay-ups!

Offense

They are going to throw some unique actions at us that we haven’t seen before and probably won’t see again the rest of this season. They do still run some traditional Princeton offense and a lot of what they do has Princeton principals, but they don’t run it nearly as much as they did last season. This season, their group plays with more tempo, will set more ballscreens, and runs a lot of their offense through the post.

In this type of game knowing the personnel is much more important than memorizing and recognizing all of the specific actions. We will still go over some of the key concepts, but we aren’t going to try and memorize the Princeton or recognize their calls in this game. If you know how to closeout to your man, who we need to chase, take away the left shoulder in the post, etc., it will go a long way.

One theme that is true when guarding the Princeton and will remain true today against Richmond is that you WANT your man to have the ball. Typically we harp on taking away the catch-and-shoot 3’s, tightening up to your man as the ball is driven towards you, and being sure to hard contest every shot. However, today we want to be a little more in the gaps and maybe a step off the line to help stop penetration and force them to make an extra pass. Again, as talented as their players are offensively, your best bet for guarding your specific man is if he has the ball. We still keep our closeout concepts and want to limit catch-and-shoot 3’s, but we can be more aggressive in help and digging the ball out of the post.

Ball in Post: A lot of Richmond possessions start with Princeton pre-movement and then the ball gets fed to #33 Golden in the post. There is generally a high cross-screen that occurs as you can start to see happen here and one of the players involved in the screen will dive to the opposite block. However, #33 Golden’s first read is always to quick spin baseline for a layup. He executes that perfectly here.

Dribble At, Backdoor: One of the things that Richmond does best is move the ball quickly and with purpose. Along with the tempo comes a lot of hard “dribble ats” which are always met with a backcut. This is a game where, along with tightening up while the ball is dribbled towards you, you also have to be mentally prepared for a backcut. You need to see man and ball at all times.

Early Backdoor: Here is another way they will get a backdoor look. They will start some possessions with an early side or “drag” ballscreen, but here #0 Gilyard swings it to #33 Golden in the trail spot. He takes one dribble towards Gilyard and throws a perfect backdoor pass. Even if you feel like you have the backdoor covered you need to give an extra step because they are excellent at “throwing you open” meaning they aren’t really open at the time of the pass.

Side Ballscreen: Once again this action starts with Princeton style pre-movement but is a called side ballscreen. #15 Grace slips the ballscreen to a pop, something #33 Golden does a lot but he will slip to a short roll more often. Morehead State hard-hedges and actually does a pretty good job of corralling #1 Francis off the ballscreen. However, the defender gives up a little too much space and never breaks his rhythm allowing Francis to nail an easy 3. Once you stop the initial drive we have to try and make Francis uncomfortable. Use your length!

Defense

Richmond is a man-to-man defensive team. You will see them extend some token full-court pressure but it’s typically just to slow you down in getting into the offense. The one thing that they will do more than most teams is apply on-ball pressure with their guards. Especially #0 Gilyard is going to pick you up full-court and attempt to steal the ball at all times. There can be no lazy passes or loss of focus when dribbling against this team. We must be strong with the ball and shorten the length between our passes.

This first clip shows Morehead State throwing a lazy cross court pass towards the backend of the zone. That type of a pass simply will NEVER get there against this team.

Here is another clip of Morehead State trying to throw a pass over the top of the zone but #0 Gilyard gets his hand on it to create a turnover. We need to dribble at the man we want to pass to and use pass fakes consistently. DO NOT JUMP TO PASS.

Keys to the Game

STAY BETWEEN THEM AND THE BASKET. Richmond is excellent at cutting and moving without the ball to create layups. Everyone that they play can dribble, pass, and shoot. We cannot give up multiple easy layups on backcuts.

NO STRAIGHT LINE DRIVES. Along with not giving up easy baskets on backcuts, we must limit straight line drives. They have quick guards and versatile forwards who can provide matchup problems. Be disciplined in your closeouts and don’t get beat in a straight line for a layup.

REBOUND!!! Richmond is one of the more efficient offensive teams in the country so when we get stops we MUST end the possession with a rebound. Limiting second chance opportunities will be critical.

12 or Fewer Turnovers. Jacob Gilyard will probably be the peskiest on-ball defender we will face all season. They are long and athletic on the wings also. We cannot be lazy with our passes and must value each possession. If we can limit turnovers it will keep them out of transition and force them to get stops defensively.