Florida’s defense this season hasn’t been what we’ve come to expect from Mike White team’s make no mistake about it. While the team has improved on their own end over the last couple of weeks, punctuated by a suffocating performance against a sneakily good scoring Georgia team, they are still only 54th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric, a far cry from the top-25 rankings the team has achieved in White’s first four seasons.
When you look at this team’s defense and how they are different to the past seasons where the Gators were excellent defensively there are a few things that stand out. First, this year’s iteration of the Gators doesn’t force many turnovers, something that has been at the core of Florida’s defense. They’re also fouling a ton, something that hasn’t been an issue in the past but has created problems in 2020. Another problem has been the team’s struggles to hold down a star player of an opposing team and on a few occasions they have largely let an individual matchup decide the ball game.
There have been multiple issues, which is what leads to a less than stellar defensive ranking, but bigger than anything mentioned in the previous paragraph is what has foundation of a lot of their defensive problems.
Pick and roll defense.
When Florida’s defense has been picked apart this season it has largely been due to breakdowns in pick and roll defense. Aggressive schemes that worked in prior seasons with Kevarrius Hayes didn’t translate to the less dynamic Kerry Blackshear Jr. and the rest of the team wasn’t picking up the concepts well enough to cover up for mistakes defending the primary actions. While these problems were reoccurring for most of the first months of the season a change in scheme over the past few weeks from an aggressive hedging screen to mixing in more conservative drop coverages has seemingly had a positive effect, but how exactly can we be sure?
To find out, I watched every pick and roll the Gators have defended in conference play, as well as the game against Baylor in the Big 12-SEC Challenge. I logged how the Gators defended each action as well as the result of the play, which will hopefully illuminate how the Gators should best defend pick and rolls.
The reason pick and roll defense is so important is that it is far and away the most prevalent action in modern basketball, and quite frankly it isn’t even close. There are all kinds of different offenses being run in college hoops these days, but many of them are just different actions to get proper spacing to run pick and roll.
As an example of how prevalent pick and rolls are in modern basketball, take this on for size.
The Gators have defended 2287 possessions this season.
758 of them included a pick and roll.
That’s 33% of the shots Florida faced, and that isn’t an uncommon amount of pick and rolls to see in modern basketball as many teams take about a third of their shots from a pick and roll action. That means that if your pick and roll defense isn’t stout, you’re going to be in trouble one out of every three times your opponent comes down the floor.
How to defend pick and rolls is one of the most challenging problems coaches face in basketball, as it’s a simple action yet it’s one of the most difficult plays to guard. There are countless numbers of ways to defend pick and rolls, but in Florida’s case the ways they defended them can be broken down into five categories, which are as follows:
Hedge And Recover
This is what Florida has played for most of the season and while they have started to mix in more alternative coverages you’ll still see a healthy diet of the hedge and recover. A hedge refers to the player guarding the screener sprinting out to the level of the ball and forcing the ball handler away from the hoop. After he pushes the ball handler away from the hoop for a few dribbles he bails and sprints to recover to his man.
Pros: Hedging ball screens is a good way to keep elite scoring ball handlers away from the hoop and nowadays in basketball the guards are the kings of the offense and a lot of pick and rolls are set so that the ball handler can get all the way to the hoop. It’s also a good defense to try to force turnovers as the ball handler has to make a pass over the big man who is now actively turning him away from the hoop.
Cons: This defense requires a fleet-footed big man who can hedge quickly to keep up to a guard without letting him turn the corner and then recover all the way to his man. Because the player guarding the screener is now engaging the ball handler this defense is vulnerable to the ball getting swung and then entered into the roll man and it forces a third defender to rotate over. When hedging ball screens a pick and roll defense goes from only having two players engaged in the action to all five and that gives the potential for chaos.
Drop
This is the defense you see most often in the NBA. When a screen is set, the player guarding the screen setter “drops” down towards the paint, ideally to the “nail” which is the center of the free throw line. The player guarding the ball handler goes over the top of the screen and trails him towards the “nail” defender, doing so to ensure he doesn’t get an easy three-point shot since his teammate has dropped and isn’t in a position to help contest the shot.
Pros: This is a conservative defense that isn’t prone to breakdowns because it often keeps the pick and roll action to a 2-on-2 scenario where tertiary defenders don’t need to come in and help. Because the dropping defender is ideally taking away the rim entirely and the player guarding the ball is going over top of the screen to eliminate threes the only available shot is a midrange pull up, which is a shot every defense is willing to give up.
Cons: Drop coverage is susceptible to giving up pick and pop threes as the player guarding the screener is falling back towards the paint. Also, if the ball handler gets hung up on the screen the ball handler has a lot of room to get to full speed before taking on the dropping defender in space and that’s a difficult match from big men.
Blitzing/Trapping/Doubling
Blitzing screens is fairly similar to the hedging defense, except instead of the player who was guarding the screener hedging the ball handler for a few dribbles before turning back and recovering to his man, he is actively trying to force the ball out of the guard’s hands and isn’t leaving him until that happens. This creates a double team scenario, and it’s not until the ball leaves that players’ hands that that big man recovers to his check.
Pros: This is an extreme way of ensuring a skilled guard doesn’t beat you as it actively forces the ball out of their hands, and because it’s an active double team scenario it can also force errant passes and turnovers.
Cons: If the double team isn’t successful in forcing a difficult pass and the ball gets out clean the offense has a 4-on-3 advantage and it’s incredibly difficult for defenses to recover. As well, since this defense has a big man sprinting out to try and double team a guard, a tough speed matchup for most bigs, it’s common for them to pick up blocking fouls.
Switching
Something you see more and more in basketball these days is simply switching ball screens. You can do this passively by letting the ball handler use the screen and letting the offensive players flow towards the new defender that will be taking them, or the defense can actively jump towards their new checks if the switch is communicated clearly.
Pros: By switching you take away the possibility for a major breakdown as you don’t create a situation where players have to fight through a screen or help on the action before recovering. It’s also the easiest and least physically demanding way to guard a screen.
Cons: If you switch often it’s likely you’re going to get caught in a mismatch at times, whether it’s a big man that now needs to guard someone smaller on the perimeter or a guard that now needs to battle a big man on the block.
Hug And Under
In this defense the player guarding the screener “hugs” his man, staying as close as possible to him with his chest directly behind the screener’s back, aligning the two bodies as perfectly as possible. He does this to eliminate any interference to his own player whose job it is to not slip underneath the screen to stop dribble penetration from the guard. The “hug” defender sticks to his man, whether he tries to roll or to pop to the three-point line.
Pros: This is a good defense to combat actions that are used to free up the screen setter, whether as a roll man or a pick and pop threat. The screen defender is sticking to the screen setter no matter what, so that player is never going to get open for any easy looks.
Cons: While this defense takes away the screener, it opens up offense for the ball handler. There is a chance he makes an explosive move towards the rim and gets all the way inside, and there is also the chance for him to hide behind the screen and instantly pull up from three since his defender is going under.
Now that you know all the ways Florida defended screens, here is how they did.
Hedging
Hedge and recover is the most common way the Gators have defended screen and rolls and in the sample size of SEC play plus the Baylor game they are giving up 0.99 points per possession.
As a reference point, the Gators are giving up 0.87 points per possession on the season, so their hedging defensive numbers are not great.
This matches the eye test. Some of the most memorable defensive breakdowns in Florida’s season have come on blown hedging defensive schemes so it’s not a surprise to see that it hasn’t been the most fruitful way to guard pick and rolls. This is where Kevarrius Hayes is sorely missed as he was a master of hedging out, deterring a ball handler, and then sprinting back to his own man. The Gators don’t have a big man as dynamic as Hayes defensively and trying to play the same schemes that Hayes excelled in with Kerry Blackshear Jr. and Omar Payne simply hasn’t had the same effect.
Drop Coverage
More recently the Gators have gone to drop coverage more often as a more conservative way to defend screening actions, and it makes because the Gators are giving up only 0.73 points per possession when doing so. Obviously this is a much improved number to what is happening when the Gators hedge, and it’s clear why they have started to drop pick and rolls more and more.
Kerry Blackshear’s lack of athleticism has been exposed at times when he’s been asked to hedge and recover, but in drop coverage he isn’t asked to be as dynamic and it’s had good results. Florida still hedges a bit more than they play drop coverage but more and more they have started to get more comfortable in drop and it has really helped their defense. Expect them to play the drop more often moving forward.
Blitzing
This likely won’t come as a surprise to you but this aggressive brand of pick and roll defense hasn’t had positive results as the Gators have given up 1.16 points per possession when blitzing. Whenever they have played this aggressively they’ve put themselves into rotation and into difficult defensive scenarios, many of which they weren’t able to recover from. As the staff has started to realize that this isn’t a group well suited to aggressive pick and roll defense they have blitzed less, something that should be considered a wise choice.
Switching
Most of the switching ball screen defense has come from the wings and guards, especially Keyontae Johnson and Scottie Lewis who feel comfortable guarding everyone on the floor. Switching has been extremely effective this season as the Gators are only allowing 0.69 points per possession, an incredible number that suggest they should potentially be switching more often, and with different personnel. Blackshear has only switched on 16 pick and rolls this year and given up 9 points (0.56 PPP), and Payne has only switched 9 pick and rolls and given up 2 points (0.22 PPP) and while that’s a tiny sample size it’s potentially worth suggesting the bigs should have more of an opportunity to switch. While most of the switching is currently done when Johnson or Lewis’ man is setting the screen I would watch for Blackshear and Payne to get in on the action more often moving forward.
Hug And Under
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure this style of defense is always intentional and there are times the screen setter doesn’t know exactly what they are supposed to do and because of it they just stay glued to their man and it’s made for some mixed results. At times it has worked, but ultimately they have allowed 0.97 points per possession when going hug and under. This isn’t a defense that’s going to be in too many game plans going forward but it’s worth noting that even this style of defending was better than the hedge and recover defense.
Now that you’ve seen what the Gators have done as a team in each setting, let’s get into how a couple of individual players have defended in screen and roll.
Kerry Blackshear Jr.
Blackshear has taken some heat for his pick and roll defense at times this year and in all fairness, a lot of it can be chalked up to the scheme he was being asked to play. He really struggled in hedge and recover defense and in those actions he was allowing 1.01 points per possession, but he has done much better in drop coverage only allowing 0.76 points per possession. The staff was a bit slow to adjust to the fact the hedge and recover defense wasn’t working for Blackshear but now that he has the free reign to play drop a little bit more the results have been fantastic. Playing drop coverage plays into Blackshear’s strengths while hedging exposed a lot of his weaknesses, and it’s pretty clear that drop coverage is the better option for him moving forward.
Omar Payne
A common topic of discussion recently around Florida basketball has been Payne falling out of the lineup, and a big reason why that happened is likely his pick and roll defense. Payne is a freshman still learning how to handle one of the most difficult plays in basketball defensive and it has seen him struggle at times in SEC play. Like Blackshear, he has struggled in the hedge and recover scheme and has given up 1.04 points per possession in that style of D. Also like Blackshear, he is much better in drop coverage, and he’s even more suited than Blackshear in that style of play due to the fact he has the length and athleticism to guard the entire paint when he drops back there. In drop coverage he’s only giving up 0.7 points per possession, though unfortunately he hasn’t gotten the chance to do it a lot because the staff has still asked him to hedge and recover a ton. This has resulted in some breakdowns that have sent Payne to the bench, and it may not be entirely fair. If he was asked to play drop coverage more often the results would have been much more positive than when he was asked to hedge, and the resulting points allowed have taken him out of the regular lineup. Payne can be an impactful defender when used properly and if they use him as a drop defender more often the results could be very positive.
Jason Jitoboh
One of the reasons Payne’s minutes have dropped is because Jitoboh has commanded time on the floor, and a big part of it has been his pick and roll defense. Jitoboh is the size of the barn, and most players of that stature really struggle in pick and roll defense and for that reason I expected the freshman to struggle.
However, that simply hasn’t been the case.
Overall, Jitboh is allowing only 0.85 points per possession on screen and roll defense, a better number than Blackshear or Payne. A big part of that has been the fact that he has been excellent at the hedge and recover defense, only allowing 0.71 points per possession, way better than any other Florida big man. Watching the film, a big reason why he is so effective in the hedge and recover defense is that he has hedged more aggressive than Blackshear or Payne, getting higher overtop of the screen and forcing the ball handler back towards the center line before having to make a U-turn back towards the rim. Jitoboh’s size definitely helps as his wide frame forces the ball handler to take a major detour, but he also has shockingly light feet for a man of his size and it has made him an excellent pick and roll defender.
Dontay Bassett
Bassett’s unfortunate run of injuries means he hasn’t gotten to play a ton this year but when he has gotten in he has played really solid pick and roll defense and has looked particularly comfortable in drop coverage, using strong defensive slides to stay with smaller guards as they attack him in the paint. Another benefit of Bassett playing drop coverage is that he remains near the paint where he can use his charge-taking abilities and protect the rim that way. Because he is a smaller frame the hedging defense hasn’t worked quite as well as, say, when Jitoboh hedges, and he’s another big that is likely better off playing drop coverage.
Takeaways
In this particular case the data matches the eye test and that says that the Gators should be playing drop coverage a lot more than the hedging ball screen defense. Florida’s coaching staff has had great success in the last four seasons hedging ball screens but their current crop of big man just isn’t suited for that style of defending and the numbers have shown that the more conservative drop defense is the way to go with their current group. Diversifying coverages and mixing in different pick and roll defenses could be a good way to confuse opponents and keep them from getting comfortable but when push comes to shove and the Gators need a key stop, the numbers show what their best option to defend is.