Time to blow up Kentucky offense and start over? Dribble drive is the same offense Mike White prefers. Many claim it is utilized by coaches that can’t teach offense.
I find that compared to other teams, our guys tend to stand around stagnant on offense a lot more. Maybe it’s just me watching our own team more critically, but it definitely seems as though we lack off ball movement.
It’s horrible. If Kentucky can’t do it with so many 5* every year, it makes zero sense to do it when you don’t have a huge talent advantage. We rarely take advantage of “matchups” with it anyway, we don’t get good spacing, only guy I can think of is KJ since he’s such a matchup nightmare. But I don’t think that is so much the DDO as just realizing what a unique player he is. Whites offense probably does give him more opportunities to shine taking his guy off the dribble (effectively a small ball 4 exploiting the other teams 4 that literally cannot guard him), but it hasn’t worked for our other guards much at all, and none of it seems very purposeful to me. Just lots of standing around and dribbling (often with no purpose or even dribbling into trouble).
The dribble drive and it’s actions are initiated by exactly that... a dribble drive. From there, the players “read and react” to what the defense does. Our “standing around” is often the result of the offense not being initiated... a dribble drive not moving the defense. We have .... over the last couple seasons... incorporated many motion and ball screen sets. They are still predicated on driving the ball. I personally prefer offense by imitated with pass and off ball movement. I’m not a big fan of the ddo or it’s subsets.
Its success depends on the basketball moving, whether that be by dribbling or passing. I don't know if you can even qualify this offense as a DDO, it pretends to be the DDO. We're seeing the dribbler make a halfass move to the basket, pick up his dribble in a panic, and then hope for someone to make themselves open. So not only is the offense stagnant with no chance of scoring, the defense isn't having to work and the offense is stuck trying to convert passes instead of buckets. And when we're facing athletic teams, the dribbler often gets his pocket picked or makes a pass that's not there. This is when the offense truly smells of used diaper. We just don't have the talent for this offense. That's on White.
i see this happen to Noah Locke a lot. Makes a hard drive and only gets about three feet into the paint then picks up his dribble and turns backward looking for a teammate to bail him out.
Happens to every one of our guards, none of them fit this offense. Our guards will get play-on bumped and it disrupts them enough into picking up their dribble. We need kids coming in like Reeves who can provide a mix of athleticism and strength. You need grown ass kids not 5 foot nothing shrimps, no offense to any current player. Keyontae was best suited for this offense because he didn't make a move unless it was there and had the body control and strength to carve his way through the defense and create easy layups or fouls. The offense looks like a million bucks when you get just a few of those guys. So hopefully we get Keyontae back next year (I don't think he can go pro - needs to prove to scouts he can actually play) and with Reeves at the 2 you're a PG away from the offense making sense.
Locke should never... literally never... drive the ball. He has no height, speed or vision. He pounds the ball on the floor with his head down, only to get turned back or settle for a fade-away mid-range jumper. He should head fake and re-establish for a shot from the arc. If it’s not there, pass and move.... TO ANOTHER SPOT ON THE ARC.
After the loss of Key.... probably the best and most important player as it relates to driving the ball.... White talked about “tweaking”. He has said it’s very hard to have a large scale change while preparing for each individual opponent. I am sure that is true, but if he is convinced the remaining personnel won’t be able to execute sans keyontae, it would seem fixing your own team would be more important than scouting the other.
Yeah as a former player, I’m watching like c’mon man you have to get to the rim. My old a** doesn’t pick up my dribble like that to this day. You have to finish the drive. I don’t even think it’s about height. Look at the best point guards in the NBA. Curry, Kyrie, Lilliard, Trae Young, Schröeder, Lowry, CP3, VanVleet... all relatively short but can get to the rack easy. Curry does it while seeing a double or triple team on every possession. They need to practice more and just be aggressive. My philosophy was always I don’t care if you’re 6’10” and it’s me and you 1-on-1 on a fast break... I’m taking the ball to the hoop right through your chest. Either that, or I’m going to speed by you.
The sheer brilliance of a dribble drive offense without a dribble drive. Who could have imagined it I would prefer that we started our dribble drive a little earlier in the shot clock. I don't actually have a preference for how the offense is initiated, other than that the offense should be initiated quickly.
You do realize this is why most fans on this board are dissatisfied with our coach? An offensive system that does not fit our personnel and/or can only be overcome with a considerable talent disparity which we will likely never have against good teams.
I’m not sure if this is a rhetorical question, but yes... I do realize. Suffice to say, it hasn’t been lost on me that our offensive deficiencies have been a source of fan frustration.
Yeah- we have moved off the traditional ddo in past couple years. In fact, the dribble drive offense has been modified by most teams who use it. We are running several different sets, but with ddo principals.
DD requires a fast, tough, smart PG (cheese). Beat UT tonite b/c their pg is slow and injured. When you create defenses collapsing from DD beating his man the O is great. Why white has insisted on this offense in years we don’t have the pg to run it is a very fair question.
It’s not even just the PG, Locke and Lewis aren’t great taking people off the dribble either (Lewis is obviously cat quick and athletic, but his handles are suspect). KJ has been able to shine in this offense because he’s often matched up against an opposing 3 or 4 that can’t guard him, and he can routinely take a lot of those guys to create a shot or even get all the way to the rim. Mann and Appleby can sometimes do that, sometimes not. They are both pretty effective at creating, but to rely on DDO to work all the time it seems like you would ALWAYS need to have these matchup advantages to pressure defenses.
I think Appleby is working himself into being our starting PG. Glover also looked very good tonight. I like Trey at the 2 spot better anyway.
I 100% agree. Appleby seems like the more natural pg. As you mentioned, Glover gave some nice minutes. Probably the most under control game I've seen him play as a Gator. Glover played 15 minutes w/ only 1 TO, 10 pts on 4/7 shooting. I do like Mann as kind of a combo guard and Scottie can play the 3 when he comes back. As we both mentioned prior to the game, great opportunity for Payne and he delivered. Best game he played since Auburn last year. I thought he gave some good minutes vs Miss St. but he got in foul trouble and only played 8 minutes. Need a solid 15 minutes from him going forward when Castleton is back. Payne played a season high 27 minutes vs Tenn w/ 0 TO's, 9 pts on 4/5 shooting, 9 reb & 5 blocks. Great game from him.
