With a new head coach you’re going to see a drastic difference in style of play from the previous regime and that has been exactly the case with Todd Golden coming to Gainesville.
Also putting his stamp on Florida basketball is assistant coach Kevin Hovde who serves as offensive coordinator, a role he had while at San Francisco before spending last season at Richmond.
Offenses in basketball are fluid and dynamic and few teams are committed to one style and while the Gators will mix in a few elements of Princeton offense (something we saw Mike White experiment with), some floppy initiators (shooters running off baseline screens), and duck in ball screens (currently extremely popular in west coast basketball), there is one style of offense that Florida uses on a bulk of possessions and one that has definition their attack early this season.
Continuity ball screen.
Even if you’re not an X’s and O’s junkie that name might sound familiar to you as it has been extremely popular in college basketball over the last decade and a half. Gonzaga popularized it, and Virginia shifted to using it during their National Championship run in 2019.
It isn’t quite as common as it was just a few years ago but you’ll still see loads of teams utilizing it, particularly at the mid-major level. It has trickled down to other levels as well, to the point where you’d be hard pressed to walk into a high school basketball tournament and not see at least one team running continuity ball screen.
The key concept of continuity ball screen is well-described in its name–it’s an offense of repeated pick and rolls that flow into each other, making the opponent have to guard multiple actions on each possession.
In the most basic continuity ball screen the offense will start with 5 players around the perimeter. One player (a big) will be at the point, with a player at each wing, and a player at each corner. The big, who has the ball, will dribble towards one side of the floor, “pushing” the wing through–meaning the player at the wing will cut and head to the opposite corner. The big will then pass the ball to that corner and those players will run an “empty side” ball screen–empty side meaning there is no one else on that side of the floor.
If there isn’t a shot available, the ball is reversed back to the second big man at the point, who will then dribble to that side of the floor, pushing the wing through (as we saw with the first action), and pitching it to the guard in the corner to run another empty side ball screen.
That’s why it’s called continuity ball screen–this offense runs perpetually with the same actions.
- Push the wing through
- Pitch and chase empty side ball screen
- Reverse the ball
- Push the wing through
- Empty side ball screen
- Repeat
Florida adds variation to this offense by using different entries to initiate the continuity ball screen including horns alignments and initial handoffs. This moves the defense and disguises the initial action and can also make sure that the Gators can control which combination of players gets the initial ball screen.
However the Gators choose to initiate it, the tell-tale sign that continuity ball screen is happening is when you see the wing getting pushed through to the opposite side of the floor so an empty side ball screen can occur. Let’s take everything we’ve just learned and watch a bit of video which should help these concepts make sense. Watch for how the Gators use different entries before pushing the wing through, running an empty side ball screen, and then reversing for another empty side ball screen.
A look at Florida’s continuity ball screen offense. They’ll use a number of different entries to initiate the action before getting into the main movements: push the wing through ➡️ empty side ball screen ➡️ reversal ➡️ push the wing through ➡️ empty side ball screen ➡️ repeat. pic.twitter.com/69mqVrn37h
— Eric Fawcett (@EricFawcett_) December 17, 2022
Something that the Gators will do a bit differently from other teams is not just have the wing push through, but pin down for the guard that’s going to receive the ball, loosening up his defender. It’s a subtle change, but it’s something that can help against aggressive defenders. Another subtle wrinkle the Gators will incorporate is a duck in from the second big while the side pick and roll is occurring. Traditionally, the player would simply go from under the hoop and sprint out to the point area of the floor and be available for the ball reversal, but by using him to occasionally duck in there is an opportunity for an easy bucket with the primary help defender being taken out of the play.
Another option that Florida’s guards are always looking for is the rejection of the screen, which means to not use the ball screen but instead go the other way which in the context of the side ball screen means to drive to the baseline. With the corner unoccupied there isn’t a defender to dig down on baseline drives and it can mean an open lane to the hoop as you saw with a couple of clips in that video.
Something the Gators have been looking for more recently is the “slot drive” by Colin Castleton when he’s the reverse man at the point position. When the initial side ball screen doesn’t generate a shot and the ball is reversed to Castleton the Gators are in 5-out spacing, meaning if he can beat his man off the dribble–using down one of the slots (outside of the key), he can get all the way to the hoop.
When opposing teams settle in defensively to the repeated action of the continuity ball screen they can get complacent, which then opens up the possibility for back door cuts which are becoming more and more available for the Gators.
Right now the Gators are 52nd in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency according to KenPom, not a bad number, but one that shows they haven’t been awfully successful. There have been some games where they have been lethal offensively, and a couple of others where their offense has sputtered. That leads to the question–is this a good offense for the Gators? Let’s talk about the pros and cons.
Let’s start with the pros.
Continuity ball screen provides quality spacing and quality ball movement. The ball seldom sticks in a player’s hands in this offense, and not only does the ball move but it goes all the way from one side of the floor to the other, often multiple times. Whenever you move a ball from one side to the other you shift the defense and put yourself in a better position to score, and if you can do that multiple times in a possession even better–and that’s what often happens with continuity ball screen.
Another pro for continuity ball screen is that empty side ball screens are the easiest ball screen to execute offensively. All the help defenders are in front of the ball handler which makes reads a lot easier than a high ball screen or a ball screen going away from a loaded side.
Perhaps the biggest pro of the continuity ball screen is that it forces the defense to guard multiple actions on one possession and when a team has to guard multiple actions there are more opportunities for a break down.
While there are positives to the continuity ball screen, there are also some negatives.
First of all, it’s not an exotic offense or anything that’s difficult to scout, and if teams don’t go into a game prepared to guard it they will be after a few possessions. This isn’t an offense that uses misdirection, it’s all about execution and making defenses guard a lot of actions.
It’s also somewhat of an equal opportunity offense. This isn’t an offense where you put the ball into the hands of your best player or two and run everything through them, it gives every perimeter player on the floor a chance to run a pick and roll and every big man a chance to set the screen every second action. In some ways it can be a good thing to have an offense where everyone is getting opportunities, but on the other hand it means putting the ball in the hands of your secondary or tertiary playmakers and living and dying with the results as opposed to force feeding your most talented scorers.
For the Gators, the question is going to be whether or not this offense gets the most out of their talent.
Point guard Trey Bonham was one of the best pick and roll ball handlers in the country last year at VMI and it’s clear he’s comfortable as an attacking guard when he gets his empty side ball screens.
Kyle Lofton was an average efficiency pick and roll ball handler last year at Saint Bonaventure and he has improved slightly in his efficiency so far this season. Some people might be surprised to hear that Myreon Jones was the most efficient pick and roll ball handler on last year’s Florida team and despite issues in other elements of the game so far this season his pick and rolls have yielded decent results.
For wings Kowacie Reeves and Will Richard, the steady diet of pick and rolls hasn’t been so effective. Both are true off-ball threats who are best used by running off of screens and being put in situations to attack off ball reversals, but that isn’t what this offense is geared towards. It will produce catch and shoot scenarios–something both players have had success with–but their ability to attack downhill isn’t fully realized in the offense. Reeves’ struggles with being a pick and roll ball handler played a role in some of his issues earlier in the season, perhaps playing somewhat of a role in his benching in Portland. Will this offense ever be the best way to utilize Reeves? We’ll have to see.
And then there is Colin Castleton, Florida’s centerpiece.
Castleton is excellent in pick and roll, and he has an opportunity to get a quick drive on the ball reversal, but is it playing to his best skill set?
He’s able to catch the ball on short rolls and get mid-post isolations that way, but this isn’t an offense that’s going to generate deep post catches that make his life easy. Right now Castleton is averaging 15 points per game, only 1 less than what he averaged last season, but he’s doing it on considerably less efficiency (50% from two as opposed to 56% last year).
It’s still early in the season and it’s still yet to be seen if this is the best offense to maximize the talent of this Florida basketball team.
It will be a unique style in the SEC, something we haven’t seen in the league for several years. With the league being the quality that it is, it will be very apparent after a few games whether or not the continuity ball screen should stick.
Players are still learning the offense and once they are comfortable it will open up more possibilities for counters, wrinkles, and different reads, so the offense isn’t a finished piece.
Right now it’s what the Gators have committed to, and now that you know a bit more about the offense you can look for different elements of it as you watch them play.