Watch the Tape: Missouri Tigers

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watch-the-tape-missouri-tigers-2 — Kentucky Sports Radio | Dr. Michael Huang

Never take winning for granted. Just ask #1 Purdue and #2 Houston how hard it is to win conference games. Those two teams went on the road to Nebraska and Iowa State respectively on Tuesday night and returned home with a loss. Meanwhile, sandwiched between an emotional win in Gainesville and a trip to College Station, the #6 Kentucky Wildcats hosted the Missouri Tigers at Rupp Arena. It felt like a potential trap game and for periods of the contest that rang true. The Tigers went on a 10-0 run to nearly erase Kentucky’s early 35-21 advantage. Then, to begin the second half, Missouri cut it to three before the Wildcats steadily built the lead back up on their way to a 90-77 win. Kentucky is now 2-0 in the SEC while Missouri fell to 0-2.

It doesn’t seem possible to overuse the word balance when it comes to this team. Once again, the ‘Cats put five scorers in double-figures on Tuesday night. Rob Dillingham led all scorers with 23 points on impressive 6-7/3-3/8-10 shooting splits in just 19 minutes of action. Tre Mitchell, who sat for all of 22 seconds, finished with a double-double of 20 points and 14 rebounds. DJ Wagner and Antonio Reeves added 16 and 14 points respectively while Aaron Bradshaw chipped in 10 points. It was a night where Kentucky never fully seemed to click offensively, and shot just 7-23 from three-point range, but still managed to score 90 points. It is hard to lose when you can light up the scoreboard in that fashion.

As always, we’ve been hard at work in the KSR Film Room breaking down Kentucky’s latest contest. Coach Calipari and company began the game with a new half court action that we will discuss in-depth, there was a clear plan for attacking Missouri’s ballscreen coverage, and the defense once again experienced highs and lows. Let’s take a closer look at all of it as we dive into the ‘Cats 90-77 SEC victory over the Missouri Tigers.

New Offensive Wrinkle Works to Perfection

The sign of a really effective offensive action is the ability to run it multiple times with different, positive, results. Quick-hitters are great for the end of a game or coming out of a timeout, but to really earn a place in the playbook you need to have multiple reads within the same play. That is what we saw with Kentucky’s new ballscreen to staggered double set. In fact, to begin the game, the Wildcats scored off of the same play in three different ways. We will take a look at each of those possessions below.

Everything about this set is really, really good. The structure, the spacing, and the execution are high-level and it led to Kentucky’s hot start. It begins with what looks like a staggered middle ballscreen, but Tre Mitchell slips out towards the weak side as DJ Wagner turns the corner off of Aaron Bradshaw’s screen. This initial action led to Mitchell and Bradshaw’s defenders switching, and then switching again, to cut off Wagner’s drive. That confusion opened up Mitchell in the corner as Justin Edwards came off of the staggered screen. You essentially had Missouri trying to execute a four-way switch across two different actions and it led to three points for the Wildcats.

Same play, different result. This time, Tre Mitchell’s defender stays right at the free throw line and Aaron Bradshaw’s man is sagged all the way in at the SEC logo. This leaves one defender to guard the staggered screen for Justin Edwards in the corner. However, the very soft drop coverage allows DJ Wagner to attack downhill to the rim. He scored in a very similar way against Florida throughout the second half as well. When you give him a head of steam towards the basket it is really, really hard to stop him. Wagner would have had Mitchell open in the corner again too if he hadn’t driven to the basket.

Kentucky ran back the same action for a third time in the opening segment of the game here. Missouri continues to fight over the top of the ballscreen, but there is no resistance at all from Bradshaw’s defender. There are two Tigers’ defenders sagged all the way back between the SEC logo and the free throw line which allows DJ Wagner to rise and fire off of the ballscreen. It is unfortunate that his foot was on the line, but you’ll take the two points. Again, Tre Mitchell likely would have been open in the corner as Missouri continued to essentially ignore the staggered screen being set in the corner. At some point Kentucky will be able to score off of that action in a future game as well. Three possessions, three different ways to score it, and seven total points. Hard to beat that level of offensive execution.

Kentucky’s Decision to Exploit Missouri’s Ballscreen Coverage

There certainly haven’t been many issues for Kentucky this season when it comes to scoring the basketball. The Wildcats are up to second in the country averaging 90.7 points per game. If you prefer some analytics, they are scoring 1.067 points per possession which is sixth best nationally. When it comes to scoring off of ballscreens, Kentucky rates out even better at fourth nationally with 1.026 points per possession. Against the Missouri Tigers, the ‘Cats posted 1.2 points per possession in ballscreen situations and 1.6 points per possession in isolation. No wonder Coach Dennis Gates called Rob Dillingham the best isolation player in the country in his postgame press conference. Let’s take a look at how Kentucky exploited Missouri on Tuesday night.

It is clear that Coach Calipari and his staff saw something when watching the Missouri Tigers on film that led to them encouraging Kentucky’s guards to shoot the pull-up off of the ballscreen. They were far more aggressive than usual when it came to simply rising up and firing right off of the screen. DJ Wagner did it in a previous clip shown above and here you see Reed Sheppard knock in a three as well. With a forward guarding Sheppard and 7’5″ Connor Vanover in the paint there was no chance the Tigers were stopping the Wildcats from scoring here. This is an easy rhythm dribble three for one of the best shooters in the country.

Rob Dillingham has certainly been Kentucky’s most aggressive jump shooter off of ballscreen this season. Per Synergy, is 5-9 from three this season off of ballscreens and 16-26 from the field overall. That translated to Tuesday night’s contest against Missouri as he knocked in a couple of tough pull-up jumpers. Again, it was clearly a part of the game plan to exploit the Tigers’ soft drop coverage. On this possession you see 7’2″ Mabor Majok playing well off of Dillingham allowing a wide-open jump shot.

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Even with the game plan being to shoot the pull-up off of the ballscreen, Coach Calipari might not have had this one in mind. However, these are the type of shots Rob Dillingham and only Rob Dillingham can make. Missouri was up much higher on this ballscreen but it still didn’t matter. There isn’t much you can do defensively when Kentucky is making shots like this.

Addressing the Defensive Issues/Concerns

Yes, the defense has issues. The Missouri Tigers were able to drive by their man on the perimeter far too often and without much resistance. Then, when penetration occurs, everyone converges on the ball and completely leaves their man. That is the biggest issue the ‘Cats are facing defensively right now. Mistakes on the perimeter are compounded by being completely lost off of the ball. Furthermore, against Missouri, the big men were pulled away from the basket which negated what is typically a strength of protecting the rim. However, there are also still stretches that bring optimism. The Tigers were held without a field goal for nearly 10 minutes at the end of the game. Also, when you go score 90 nothing else matters.

This isn’t to pick on Reed Sheppard. He has been beyond excellent this season and makes some really high level defensive plays as well. However, he is also the biggest culprit of getting lost defensively. Here you have #13 Jesus Carralero Martin driving on Ugonna Onyenso. Should we be more worried about that, or #10 Nick Honor shooting a corner 3? The former likely ends in a block or missed shift while the latter probably leads to three points. You should not help off of a shooter as good as #10 Honor. Also, you don’t need to help off of anyone when #13 Carralero Martin is driving it. If this is being taught, then we have a game planning issue. If this is player-related, then we have a concentration issue. Either way, what you see here cannot happen.

For some reason Kentucky was treating #13 Jesus Carralero Martin like he was an All-SEC level player. The Missouri Tigers found some success pulling the Wildcats’ big men away from the basket and it led to only three blocked shots. If Aaron Bradshaw and Onyenso are going to combine to play 40 minutes a game they have to be threats at the rim. That wasn’t the case on Tuesday night. Look at this closeout from Onyenso. Just let Carralero Martin drive it at you. and then block the shot! No reason to run at him on the perimeter.

Transition defense was even a bigger problem. The Missouri Tigers scored 1.308 points per possession in transition against Kentucky, per Synergy. That was a significantly higher rate than what they scored at in the half court. This clip showcases the biggest problem defensively once again. All five Wildcats are running at the ball and are completely oblivious to the other players on the floor. Protect the basket, stop the ball, begin matching up starting with the next most dangerous guy. That is the checklist of transition defense. Antonio Reeves should have been calling for the basket, or directing Aaron Bradshaw to take it, Tre Mitchell had the ball, and that would leave DJ Wagner to take #2 Bates, Justin Edwards on #5 Tonje, and then Reeves stepping out to take #35 Carter.

Here is what makes some of Kentucky’s defensive problems hard to manage. Over helping and being far too enamored with the basketball is a major issue. However, you don’t want to handcuff their aggressiveness. Forcing turnovers is something this team actually does well and needs to get back to doing more of. Therefore, if you don’t let Rob Dillingham roam around some you’ll end up not getting plays like this. He times up his double perfectly here and it leads to a steal. This is a great, aggressive play from Dillingham.

This was a pretty complete nearly 30-second defensive possession by the Wildcats. What you see primarily is not getting beat off of the dribble and therefore not having guys running at the ball from all over the floor. There are sound closeouts, effective stunting, no over helping, and then a strong contest at the end. Kentucky was able to stack some possessions like this down the stretch, but they are still too few and far between.