After a difficult 9-22 season, the Washington Huskies Men’s Basketball team must aim at a .500 or better season. Here are three steps to make it happen
The Washington Huskies Men’s Basketball Team had a rough season. The team couldn’t find wins, particularly later in the season when the team suffered a 13 game losing streak. After the season ended, the Washington Huskies felt the season dictated a new direction. And so, new leadership was brought by the name of former Syracuse long-time assistant Mike Hopkins.
On one hand, Hopkins hasn’t wasted time in developing a new culture, with new training techniques. In summary, he introduced the team to the boxing ring as an innovative cross training exercise. Finally, he must now chart a path to 16 wins this season. That won’t be easy. But change never is easy. Particularly when it means restoration of success. It will take effort. But not just raw exertion of energy. This team needs a plan, a path to get from point A to point B.
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And so, here are the three steps needed to do so this season:
Step One: Commit to small ball lineup
This emphasizes the current roster makeup.
Step Two: Improve Three Point Shot
Using perimeter attack to drive offense
Step Three: Upgrade Video to Full Basketball Analytics.
Incorporating latest analytics technology to improve coaching effectiveness.
Lets break down each step and discuss them in more detail.
Step One: Commit to small ball lineup
This team right now is guard-centric. If you look at the current projected roster:
No. Name POS HT WT CLASS HOMETOWN
0 Bitumba Baruti G 6-6 210 SO Lubumbashi, Congo
1 David Crisp G 6-0 185 JR Tacoma, WA
2 Dan Kingma G 5-10 155 SR Mill Creek, WA
4 Matisse Thybulle F 6-5 190 JR Issaquah, WA
5 Quin Barnard G 6-0 175 SO Bellevue, WA
– Jaylen Nowell SG 6-4 175 SO Seattle WA
– Nate Pryor PG 6-1 165 FR Seattle WA
– Michael Carter III SG 6-6 170 FR Seattle WA
15 Noah Dickerson F 6-8 225 JR Atlanta, GA
22 Dominic Green F 6-6 185 JR Renton, WA
23 Carlos Johnson G 6-4 235 SO Centralia, IL
24 Devenir Duruisseau F 6-8 240 JR Palmdale, CA
32 Greg Bowman F 6-5 200 SR Mountlake Terrace, WA
33 Sam Timmins F 6-10 275 SO Dunedin, New Zealand
You find eight back court and seven front court players.
2-3 Zone Defense
Mike Hopkins arrived from the University of Syracuse, a school that thrived on the 2-3 zone defense. The 2-3 zone is a defense that amplifies the speed of guards in a tight formation like a pentagon. Each defender positions in a lane between offensive players.
This type of defense should work well with the teams current roster, as it will rely upon the team speed to react to the ball. As the video highlights, this defense manages to negate many offensive sets the Huskies will likely face in 2017-2018.
Step Two: Improve Three Point Shot
Offensively, the team will need to promote their three-point shooting in practice. The team shot just 35.4 percent from the perimeter, while opponents shot 39.9 percent from the same distance. Guard David Crisp will need to improve his trey shot. Even playing alongside Markelle Fultz, Crisp’s 210 3PT attempts led the Huskies by a large margin.
Another player with a soft touch shot is Matisse Thybulle. His 40.5 percent accuracy from that long range was a close second behind Markelle Fultz. The struggle was that he was low volume. This season, he could become the primary perimeter go to, which would help the team spacing and offense. When teams come out to defend the perimeter, the burst of David Crisp’s drive to the basket become far more effective.
Much like the running game opening the passing game on a football field, the perimeter game opens up the paint on the basketball court.
Step Three: Upgrade Video to Full Basketball Analytics.
The final step is not likely to happen under the tenure of old-school Mike Hopkins. But it’s now a vital component of professional sports development and improvement. In the new age of one-and-dones, the ability for the coaching staff to detect immediate trends – both good and bad – has never been at a higher premium.
That ability to turn a negative pattern positive over a one-two game period versus six games (20 percent of the season) is a must in the modern NCAA basketball. And the only avenue to arrive at that destination is upscaling the video graphics department to a full scale basketball analytics operation.
What’s the difference?
On one hand, video departments use analog film footage, edited to isolate a player or play, played on a team projector. Those reviews are the simple start stop rewind version of home movies. In the end, the review only captures the eye of the camera lens. Players off camera are ignored completely, and the video analysis is very focused on the angle and film quality.
On the other hand, basketball analytics takes that film review into the 3-dimensional world of computer video graphics.
So you see, as in this video, the basic cut and pass offense is demonstrated via simple basketball analytics. Notice that all players are indicated by a numbered circle.
More Than Video Game
Basketball analytics gives a coach the ability to coach multiple players on multiple plays simultaneously. It also gives the ability to check the results of practice, both in games and in the gym. It captures the entertainment qualities of video sports games, but incorporates doctoral theses on basketball techinques at the same time.
If you really want college credits on the topic, check out this video on the subject:
Analytics are the language of the modern basketball player. Chalkboards and whiteboards were my generations solutions to graphic representations of plays and schemes. Now, analytics not only helps demonstrate plays, it records and tracks their effectiveness.
Next: Washington Huskies Recruiting 2018 Mens Basketball Behind
If the Washington Huskies Mens Basketball Team implements these three steps, the team will land at or better than .500 this season.