Basketball Articles
Scouting Memphis
Posted by Trips Right on March 29th, 2008 under Basketball
Starting Personnel
Derrick Rose 6-3 PG. 14.3 ppg 4.3 rpg 4.5 apg. Big physical lottery pick caliber lead guard that can get a shot for himself or a teammate virtually anytime and anywhere. His strength allows him to ward off smaller defenders for midrange looks. His quickness allows him to get by bigger defenders. One weakness is he disappears at times given the abundance of talent around him. It’s important to note that he struggled in the two “showcase” matchups vs. Arizona and USC. Finished with just 12 points and 6 turnovers against the Wildcats. Against USC and a triangle and two, he was held to 9 points on 3-9 shooting with 5 turnovers.
Chris Douglass Roberts 6-7 Guard 17.5 ppg 4.5 rpg. The best pure scorer in America. He’s long and quick and can get to the cup against bigger defenders. Has an unmatched midrange game, and shoots an ungodly 41% from 3. He’s the Tigers’ go to guy. Sometimes dominates the basketball which gets his team out of rhythm. Defensively he’s a nightmare getting into passing lanes for deflections and steals.
The top scoring backcourt in the nation.
Antonio Anderson 6-6 Guard 8 ppg 3.7 rpg 3.5 apg. He’s Justin Mason wearing blue. Defensive stopper and stat sheet stuffer. A bit bigger so he can guard perimeter shooters and hybrid forwards alike. Weakness like many of the Tigers is FT shooting. Shoots just under 60%.
Robert Dozier 6-9 Forward 9.4 ppg 6.8 68% FT shooter. He’s Jay Bilas’ wet dream. Long with sick athleticism. He’ll play in the league if he can get stronger. Blocks two shots a game and hits the occasional deep bomb. Can be bodied a bit and is prone to foul trouble if you attack him.
Joey Dorsey 6-9 F-C 7 ppg 9.5 ppg 37% FT. He’s the unselfish finisher in Calipari’s Dribble Drive Motion (DDM) offense. He’ll dominate the weak block looking for dishes and weakside rebounds off of penetration. He doesn’t post much at all. Horrible foul shooter. Defensively he’s a shotblocking force inside but is also prone to foul trouble if attacked because he doesn’t have elite size. He’s fouled out 5 times on the year.
The Bench
Shawn Taggert- another long athletic forward that spells Dorsey or Dozier. He’s tougher than HenryJames because he has a tattoo on his larynx and doesn’t listen to Nickelback.
Doneal Mack – big guard that can shoot it. 37% from deep.
Willie Kemp – another perimeter specialist to shoot teams out of zones designed to stop the DDM. 38% from deep.
Andre Allen – water bug guard used to come in to spell Rose.
Attacking the Tigers
The Tigers will put an ultra-athletic, long team on the floor, so passing the basketball becomes problematic. Teams must do a good job of meeting the basketball and using the proper spacing to keep these racehorses out of passing lanes and on to easy dunks. Memphis’ wing denial and fierce pressure is similar to that of Kansas, but they bring more length and less discipline to the table than the Jayhawks. They’ll gamble on you so you have to take care of the basketball and attack accordingly. Their interior isn’t nearly as physical as Kansas’ but they are more athletic, so penetrators/cutters must take the ball right at the shotblocker and attack the rim. Weak minded layups and floaters will likely be sent into the third row. Go to dunk the ball or don’t go. So how do we attack Memphis’ pressure?
Backcuts
Texas can take advantage of the respect Memphis will have for Atchley and James’ perimeter skills by vacating the paint or lifting Memphis’ big men, and then backcutting the Tigers’ overplaying wings for easy layups. Essentially you take Dozier and Dorsey to the perimeter just before you attack backdoor.
Dribble Penetration
It sounds like an oversimplification, but DJ using a high ball screen vs. Rose or even Mason taking Anderson off of the bounce will exploit the lack of dribble penetration help the Tigers lend. Penetration lanes should be available because of the heavy pressure Memphis puts on the wings.
Guard exchanges
If we’re having trouble reversing the basketball via the pass because of overplays, guard exchanges or dribble handoffs will work well to flip the floor and catch Dorsey or Dozier out of position. Our guards need to remember to keep the dribble alive and not make a forced pass because Memphis does such a good job of getting into passing lanes.
Bennett’s defense is tailormade for Memphis’ DDM
Defending Memphis
As mentioned before, the Tigers run what’s called the Dribble Drive Motion (DDM) offense. It’s an offense that John Calipari calls Princeton on steroids. First let me try to explain the crux of any motion offense, just in case you’re like Sailer Ripley and not only do you hate Bob Knight, but you’ve spent your entire basketball life trying to gain street cred after calling a charge in your local pickup game. The traditional motion offense gives its players a variety of screens from pass and pick away on the perimeter, to down screens on the wings, to cross screens from post to post. Each player using these types of screens and the many variations of screening and cutting in general, must read his defender to decide what is the appopriate action. My defender is trailing me, so I curl around the screen. My defender goes underneath the screen so I fade for a perimeter shot. My defender is trying to fight through the screen so I catch and shoot or pump fake and go. My defender is overplaying the screen, so I test step and backdoor. And each screener has a read, with dives, slips, screens and rescreens etc. In a nutshell, you have a lot of moving parts unlike set plays.
Now the dribble drive motion takes the passing element of the motion offense and minimizes it as a means to move the basketball. Instead the emphasis is placed on driving or penetrating the basketball to move the defense and hopefully execute your offense with an open shot. That’s not to say passing is non-existent, it’s just not the focal point to get defenses to move. A typical Memphis possession will have an initial penetration which makes the defense help and recover followed by a pass to the recovering defender’s man. Then penetration from that player and a pass to the next recovering defender’s man who will be a bit more out of position than the first. Rinse. Repeat. Until you’ve loosened the D for an easy layup, an easy dish, or an easy kick for an open 3. It’s like chewing food, the more you penetrate, the more you break down the defense. The key is you’ve got to have 3 or 4 skilled players that can penetrate, pass, and shoot. Here’s a great preview with some more information on the DDM. So how do you defend it?
Stay in front of the ball
It’s a lot like a phalanx. Once the first man gets beat, it’s probably all she wrote. As long as you can effectively prevent penetration, you can avoid breaking down by having to help and recover. The good news is Texas does an excellent job of on ball defense 1 through 4.
Switch Screens
There really isn’t much difference between Texas’ 3 guards, so it makes sense to limit damage created by having to hedge ball screens or exchanges by just switching every guard to guard screen. Sure, you might get a Douglass Roberts on AJ Abrams, but that’s certainly something that can be managed unlike a dunk or a Brook Lopez 4 footer.
Play soft on the Wings
Texas should take a page out of Tony Bennett’s pack-line defense and play our wings soft to dissuade dribble penetration from the point. It’ll also help any recovery back to the wing after penetration because it’s a shorter distance to just recover than having to help then recover. The tradeoff is you’ll give up some open wing jumpers, put I’ll take that tradeoff with certain Tiger players.
Keep your bigs on the glass
Memphis’ DDM also gets bigs out of position helping and this results in Dorsey with an easy finish from a dish or an offensive board. Maintaining our perimeter shell will help Connor and James rebound defensively.
Offensive foul.
Zone
It seems like a no-brainer, but the downside is rebounding against an athletic team like Memphis considering there aren’t any blockout assignments. They can slash and get to longer rebounds making it tough to close out possessions even if you force a miss. I’d suspect wholesale personnel changes if we do decide to zone, going more for a larger back line.
Prediction
I think Texas has a shooter’s chance in this game. We’ll have to hit better than 40% from deep, and focus on resting our backcourt throughout the game, because Memphis’ perimeter is Kansas-deep. The frequent tournament time-out structure will help, but I’m very worried about tired legs from DJ and AJ at the end. Our one ace in the hole is Memphis’ foul shooting. If we can take advantage of their undisciplined play and maintain contact in the last 5 minutes we can exploit their weakness at the line. I’m a bit concerned that their talent will simply overwhelm us if we get down at any point in the contest. Hopefully the crowd can help in that respect. Still, I’ll try to stay objective and call it 78 to 73 Memphis in a very entertaining game. Then I’ll go home and kick my dog for jinxing Dogus Balbay’s knee. We could use him tomorrow.
Hook ‘EM
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Activity
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players? ago
Wholesome goodness. Thanks for posting.
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Farmer Ted commented on the blog post ”Bo Made Me Cry.” 17 seconds ago
Good read, Mike. There’s a lot of truth in there. I do believe that one of the reasons that Florida’s recruiting class was rated so highly is that 100% of their signees were offered scholarships by Florida. If Florida loses interest in a kid, his stock drops a bit. That’s defensible
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Ag_in_TX wrote a new blog post: Did Rick Barnes use a plant last night to distract KU players? 9 minutes ago
If you watched the game, and if you have one drop of testosterone in your bloodstream, you couldn’t have missed her. The redhead with huge tracts of land – right behind the KU bench – who stood for every time out and stared at the KU players.
She stuck out like a sore thumb. Never
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Darius Pourceau commented on the blog post Recruiting the Trenches 12 minutes ago
Welcome to the site guys! Aaron Rodgers is the man.
http://bornhogwild.fantake.com/
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Art Vandelay commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 13 minutes ago
Bob, essentially what you are saying is that we are not a well coached basketball team. I agree.
Jordan Hamilton is a selfish and lazy player. He is a terrible fit to play for Barnes. Not sure if either one will be around next season at this rate.
We went scoreless for 10:54 during
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Trips Right commented on the blog post 2011 Texas Football Recruiting 24 minutes ago
Well done. The Barney Frank line blindsided me like a strain of juarez clap. Funny stuff.
I’d like for us to go out of state for a QB and at least 1 maybe two CB’s. Is Quandre tall enough to play corner or angry enough to play safety?
Rumor around the campfire is
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skymonkeyhorn commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 37 minutes ago
I feel our pain…
Was Barnes wearing a helmet last night. I did not notice as I was in awe of the blood being spilled
on the floor for almost 11 minutes without a point.
Coach Knight was reading this blogs out loud for TV.
The most insightful was that Barnes needs to go to the 7-8 -
James commented on the blog post 2011 Texas Football Recruiting 39 minutes ago
Barney Frank and Mormon quips in the same post. My Tuesday is complete.
Texas HS football is going through a phase (era?) where the best athlete talent is being put on offense. DBs aren’t being developed in vast quantities. Why wouldn’t you go after a couple OOS DBs?
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 41 minutes ago
ponderos, shouldn’t you be supersizing something somewhere?
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 43 minutes ago
Gillispie’s a mid-major clown because of his off the court indiscretions. Seriously, The University of Texas is much too high profile to risk its brand and image with this moron. And anyone that mentions Augie Garrido should be permabanned the intertubes. The situations aren’t remotely similar.
If you want to go down the
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Trips Right commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 50 minutes ago
Leonidas, none of those points came against Dex. Boxscores aren’t reality, they’re like porn movies. If porn was real everyone would be a plummer.
As for Pittman on offense, Aldrich wasn’t playing him straight up, he was getting a double virtually everytime down. That’s not Aldrich’s fault but it’s reality.
Pittman rarely
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Mister Mike commented on the blog post Nebraska Fits the Profile of the 2010 National Champion 55 minutes ago
Good line. What is the thinking on his ability vs. the injury?
It’s funny you should ask. I’m working on putting something together right now that will be discussing this very topic. I know you’re waiting with bated breath for it too. Admit it.
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Bob in Houston commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
Should be “complementary” scorers. Oh well.
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Bob in Houston commented on the blog post Texas Hoops vs. Kansas: Post-Mortem 1 hour, 21 minutes ago
OK, I was there. Not the best seat in the house, but not a bad one either.
Trips hit part of what struck me over and over. KU had offensive options/outlets when Texas forced them into trouble (which happened quite a bit, as the stats showed that Texas did bring defense last night), and the
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Mister Mike wrote a new blog post: ”Bo Made Me Cry.” 2 hours ago
At least, that’s the line I would expect to hear from Rivals or Scouts if they were in a relationship with Bo Pelini and ended up going to Dr. Phil to try and work out their differences. Of course, that would never happen because Bo would’ve just laughed, packed her shit up, and thrown it
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HenryJames commented on the blog post Scholarship Numbers & Junior Days 2 hours, 12 minutes ago
CTJ,
Rivals doesn’t think there are any elite players in Texas this year. Do you think we’ll have to go out of state to compensate?
Thanks!
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D W commented on the blog post Another night, another would-be hero 3 hours, 5 minutes ago
Hamilton is so stupid on the court it makes my teeth hurt.
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Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post Top 8 Teams in College Hoops 5 hours, 56 minutes ago
Yeah, I think we can scratch Texas out of there. Who takes place 8?
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Sailor Ripley commented on the blog post Looking at Texas 6 hours, 9 minutes ago
You guys have a basketball team. Is it Indianapolis this year?
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Scipio Tex wrote a new blog post: 2011 Texas Football Recruiting 6 hours, 16 minutes ago
Junior Days are right around the corner, so I thought we’d break down needs, talk recruits, and find a ray of gridiron sunshine in the long and cursed offseason.
CTJ gives us his thoughts too. Had I realized, I might have saved myself the typing.
Unlike last year where DFW held an
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admin commented on the blog post Making a Case for a 1 Seed: Villanova Tops the ’Neers 6 hours, 29 minutes ago
Enjoyed watching these guys tonight. I was blown away to see Huggy was 5X coach of the year. He seems like a tourney flame out more often than not. That Kenyon Marting leg break didn’t do him any favors.
How do you see them progresing in the tourney?
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admin commented on the blog post Making a Case for a 1 Seed: Villanova Tops the ’Neers 6 hours, 29 minutes ago
Enjoyed watching these guys tonight. I was blown away to see Huggy was 5X coach of the year. He seems like a tourney flame out more often than not. That Kenyon Martin leg break didn’t do him any favors.
How do you see them progresing in the tourney?
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admin commented on the blog post Duke Basketball: The Devil You Know? 6 hours, 30 minutes ago
Avery Bradley, who shot 77% from the foul line in high school and is now shooting 47% at Texas would probably be shooting closer to his high school average if he played at Duke.
Sweet Jesus that’s ridonkulous.
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admin commented on the blog post Duke Basketball: The Devil You Know? 6 hours, 30 minutes ago
Avery Bradley, who shot 77% from the foul line in high school and is now shooting 47% at Texas would probably be shooting closer to his high school average if he played at Duke.
Sweet Jesus that’s ridonkulous.
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Jeff Julian wrote a new blog post: Recruiting the Trenches 7 hours, 7 minutes ago
Importance of Recruiting Rankings by Position.
Now that the recruiting season is over and most Cal fans are waxing poetic (along with some Texas fans) about how great these 17-18 year olds will be, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at recruiting rankings as a potential measurement for future success.
For the purposes
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admin wrote a new blog post: Welcome 7 hours, 11 minutes ago
HenryJames will soon be here to captivate you with his wit and extensive knowledge of the most storied franchise in professional sports history, the New York Yankees.
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admin commented on the blog post Nebraska Fits the Profile of the 2010 National Champion 7 hours, 24 minutes ago
Interesting but call me skeptical now. We’ve got experience at QB but not positive experience.
Good line. What is the thinking on his ability vs. the injury?
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admin commented on the blog post Nebraska Fits the Profile of the 2010 National Champion 7 hours, 24 minutes ago
Interesting but call me skeptical now. We’ve got experience at QB but not positive experience.
Good line. What is the thinking on his ability vs. the injury?
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: ””, url: ”” });
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bigdukesix commented on the blog post Scholarship Numbers & Junior Days 7 hours, 35 minutes ago
I really don’t want to repeat the horrid situation of the past few years where we starved for depth and talent at DT. It’s critical not to let defensive line recruiting slip. That said, if we bring in two tackles and two ends this year that would be 21 scholarships used on the
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Arthur Goddamn Fenstemaker commented on the blog post Weekly Stats Update 7 hours, 38 minutes ago
Horn said:
March 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Just outstanding. This should be laminated and sent to Barnes.
comeonminers said:
March 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Great explanation of the the DDM here trips. should be a very entertaining game to watch.
five weeks ago i would not have given texas much of a chance but they have certainly gelled beautifully and are now playing very solid defense .. both denying the post and denying penetration. difference between stanford guards quickness and athleticism and that of memphis is pretty large however, as is their ability to knock down open three pointers. Cannot wait to watch this game , by far the most intriguing of the weekend. Cannot say enough about how rock solid your analysis of these match-ups have been. keep up the excellent columns and enhoy the game, trips.
Bob in Houston said:
March 29th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
The Balbay injury hurt this team all season.
Matt ATX said:
March 29th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for some great analysis and commentary. It’s appreciated. -M
Kafka said:
March 29th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Barnes will probably try to play zone as much as possible. Rick is great at teaching kids how to block out and rebound from a zone. The zone could work if Memphis happens to have a poor shooting night. I seriously doubt Barnes will make large personnel changes, even if if he opts for the zone. Barnes plays who he plays.
Memphis has superior depth and athleticism and Barnes wants to shorten the game as much as possible (i.e. milk the clock all game long).
Having kept the ball in Augustin’s hands most of the time almost all season long, the horns are not a good passing team. I am guessing Rick puts the ball in Augustin’s hands most of the game.
Calipari is smart enough that he will pressure Augustin and Abrams relentlessly (especially trying to deny Augustin the ball and get it out of his hands as soon as possible) when he does get the ball. Calipari will attack Augustin when the horns are on D. This will fatigue Augustin over the course of the game and may get into his head. Calipari will take his chances with Damion and Connor shooting outside and will attempt to force Mason to shoot the ball as much as possible.
Memphis probably wins but the horns can win if they are hitting their 3’s and Memphis isn’t. I suggest the horns foul memphis a bunch.
Mike Schroeppel said:
March 29th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Its hard to believe a team with only 5 turnovers against Mississippi State, and 9 turns against Michigan State, could be thought of as undisciplined.
Longhorn Road Trip » Longhorns hope to erase the chalk said:
March 30th, 2008 at 3:57 am
[...] game previews Barking Carnival Burnt Orange Nation Jim Masilak of Memphis’ Commercial Appeal Kirk Bohls of the Austin [...]
Trips Right said:
March 30th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Kafka, I just meant he’d have to get Mason off the back line of the zone and go to a more traditional look 1 through 5.
Mike, when you get to pick the context I suppose you’re right. I was typing about Memphis’ undisciplined play on the defensive end. They gamble a bunch and teams can take advantage of that. I had nothing but glowing remarks about Memphis’ offense.
Trips Right said:
March 30th, 2008 at 7:20 am
LRT, that’s a great preview especially as it relates to the DDM. Top Notch. I’ll link it.
RansomStoddard said:
March 30th, 2008 at 7:28 am
I’m thinking Memphis has not played a defense as good as Texas. Horns by 4
CBT said:
March 30th, 2008 at 10:04 am
great write up. go horns!
hiphopopotamus said:
March 30th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Posting this at halftime – that was huge for Texas to close on a mini-run to keep it manageable.
If they’re going to make it all the way back they need to figure out how to keep James/Atchley on the court and spread out Memphis’ D. And on defense, (as you mentioned above), they need to either figure out how to keep their man in front of them or rebound out of this zone they’re trying to play.
Halftime said:
March 30th, 2008 at 11:11 am
That was huge & it has to be huge. If we come back and beat this team – we are very good. Damn they are big, … and fast, … and good.
KC said:
March 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Did anyone notice how pathetic the crowd in orange was at the Memphis game?
I’m talking about the ones sitting around Memphis’s goal during the second half.
Texas was not completely demoralized and still had a chance.
Then whenever they sent Memphis to the line, the crowd in burnt orange just sat there picking their noses. Not yelling, not standing. Sitting. The only noise to be heard was the Texas cheerleader squad yelling like they AND the crowd AND pep band SHOULD. Didn’t even hear the pep band – and granted it was at a giant Reliant Stadium venue, I still didn’t hear them.
I’m ashamed.
jonboy said:
March 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
the one thing i noticed was how scared augustin was. he just dribbled at the top of the key until someone else took the ball. granted he was blocked on just about every drive but when we were down by 15+ throughout the second half i thought it might have been a good idea to start the offense with more than 10 seconds on the shot clock.
Trips Right said:
March 30th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Really and truly, I could see this one coming. Memphis’ perimeter size really plays well against our undersized guards when it comes to contesting shots. This caused some panic and hesitancy which led to turnovers and some runouts. 9 turnovers in the first half wasn’t Texas-like.
We made a run in the second half going to some box and 1 with Mason on CDR, who was their zone killer in the lane and high post. The junk D led to several empty possessions but we couldn’t hit shots on the other end to get closer. A missed 3 by AJ in transition to cut the game to four was our 1 last chance.
The better team won today, and I think the game is a pretty good benchmark of what and who you need to be to win it all. It really is tough to win games when you’re so perimeter dominated, have a hard time finishing at the rim, and no post game to speak of. That’s not say this team didn’t accomplish elite goals. It did. It’s just not a team that’s built to win a championship. I think if you added the junior version of Dex or the junior versions of Alexis Wangmane, Clint Chapman, and Gary Johnson to it, it might be.
We ran in to a buzzsaw today, and that buzzsaw has better players at virtually every position.
Kafka said:
March 30th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I agree with everyting you said.
The horns were overmatched and did pretty well, all things considered. Memphis was a lot bigger and more athletic (and maybe more talented, too).
You can recruit guys who are athletic and try to teach them basketball or you can can recruit guys who are excellent basketball players and try to make them more athletic. The horns need more tall fast guys. Dex, Connor, and Chapman were/are all projects from an athletic perspective. Abrams and Augustin are tiny guys. Gary Johnson is really small for a power forward.
The only horns who are really athletic and have decent size for their position are Damion and Mason (if Mason is playing guard and Damion is playing small forward).
Barnes has done a good job of developing his players (physically and skills), coaching D, and getting the most out of his guys.
The next step is to hire an offensive coordinator who can create an offense that is more balanced and generates easy shots. Barnes also needs to recruit bigger, more athletic guys. The state of Texas has a bunch of these guys, Barnes just needs to persuade some of them to go to UT.
The horns rarely full court pressed this year and didn’t fast break that much (probably because of a lack of depth, size and athleticism). Next year I hope Barnes plays more guys and plays a faster paced game.
Nordberg said:
March 31st, 2008 at 7:10 am
“The horns need more tall fast guys.”
No shit. Who doesn’t? They don’t exactly grow on fucking trees you know.
Kafka said:
March 31st, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Nordberg:
The horns are particularly short at both guard positions and at small forward (with Mason at small forward). Connor is quite light for a big time program. Even Damion James is not real big at power forward. There is no reason for the horns to be this small.
There are lots of tall fast guys in Houston and the rest of Texas. The question is why isn’t UT recruiting more of them. UT is now a fine basketball program in a great city which should be picking and choosing when it comes to recruits.
My point is to place greater stress on athleticism (as opposed to current skills level) when recruiting.
Trips Right said:
March 31st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
We’ve had plenty of misses, Kafka. Lewis, Winder and Harrison Smith come to mind. It would have been nice if Dion Dowell would have been patient.
HenryJames said:
March 31st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
There a couple of big guards playing college ball on the West Coast that we passed on.
Nordberg said:
March 31st, 2008 at 2:11 pm
We’ll “grow” a bit next year with the additions of Brown and Balbay. Plus hopefully James will spend considerably more time on the wing, where he put up Durant-ish numbers every game.
That’s the frustrating part of it for me. James excels at the 3. One way or another I hope we see him there most of the time with two other bigs.
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