I know what you mean. Anybody who fakes screening for Abrams and back cuts will be wide open until the weak side defender comes over (presumably leaving somebody like Connor wide open for a relaxed 3).

There was a little progress in this area vs. ISU. They would set up a double screen for Abrams on one side and Gary on the opposite side. When Abrams took off to run around the double screen, that left Gary alone and the ball was passed to him a few times.

The good news is that Damion looked a lot better vs ISU. He is getting more comfortable with taking a couple of dribbles into a jump stop and finishing with a flush (just like Gary except that Gary usually finishes with a layup).

Dex is drawing an automatic double team put finishing well against good D. Gary is drawing a double team. Any screen for Abrams gets hedged.

All of these guys can distort a D and make it vulnerable to some crisp passing.

You can divide the horns into 3 groups.

Abrams and Gary can draw a double team but are not likely to pass.

Connor, Mason, Ward, and Balbay will make the pass but can’t draw the double team.

The only guys who can draw a double team who will also make the pass are Damion and Dexter. That is why it makes sense to me to post these guys up at the high post and run some give and go with them.

Also, Dex is turning into such a monster on the low post that there has to be a focus on getting the ball into him when he is in the game. It would probably be better if Damion or Connor makes the entry pass.

I’m pretty optimistic. Barnes has some guys with a lot of skill and he finally seems to realize that a balanced offense is a good thing. My hope is that he will have some fun with it.

One thing that I don’t understand is why Damion and Gary played so few minutes vs ISU.

It’s probably the second-most popular play in basketball, after the give and go… and RB’s guards either can’t or won’t make the pass.

I’m beginning to think it’s “can’t.”

This discussion is about what Barnes should do, not what he will actually do.

The easiest way to get good looks for Abrams is to make the D pay for overplaying him. Once the horns start generating easy looks for Damion, Dex, Gary, and Connor when the D overplays Abrams, the D will have much less incentive to overplay Abrams.

The beauty of the counter measures approach is that these plays tend to look like plays aimed at getting a shot for Abrams so it is quite easy to learn and run these plays. Why not take advantage of the D over playing Abrams to easily get good shots for everybody else?

Abrams is by far the best 3 point shooter on the team but if you are willing to settle for a 2 pointer (which is fine most of the time), Dex, Gary, Damion, and Connor are all great options.

Focusing the offense strictly on Abrams when the other players are so talented makes no sense. Abrams is not even even the best choice to generate his own shot. Gary is probably best at getting his own shot. If covered by a bigger guy, Gary can shoot the ball outside. If the bigger guy tries to take that away, Gary is quite good at driving to the hoop and finishing. If Gary is defended by a smaller, quicker guy, Gary can post him up on the low post very efficiently.

Simple screen and roll with Abrams being the dribbler and one of Dex/Damion/Gary setting the pick and then rolling to the bucket. The D will certainly over hedge the screen and the screen will either be wide open or will be covered by a third defender (leaving some horn open).

I assume that Abrams can get the ball easily enough when he is out of shooting range and can then dribble to a good position for the screen.

Problem: Abrams has to make the pass.

All of Trips plans are based on a level of offensive execution that I have not seen in the Barnes era. I agree with everything he has said, but I am not sure how efficiently we can do it.

The deep pins GJ and Dexter are getting are good sign that I may be wrong, and we can actually improve. The fact that we completely abandoned them for a long stretch in the 2nd half point to a fundamental lack of understanding by our players on how to counter the way teams are playing AJ.

Since I don’t expect a fundamental improvement, I would settle for manufacturing good shots for AJ. We did a lot of good things on offense against Arkansas. If we get AJ a few more good looks from range, then we might win going away.

I enjoy watching this team play, specifically the development of Sexy Dexy. I had high hopes for Damion, but it just doesn’t seem to be coming together for him at the three. He is either going to leave this year for the NBA as an undersized four, or a three with limited NBA potential…another year may/may not help. AJ is a great Longhorn, and when he is hot, damn he’s fun to watch. I’m ready for Mason to get off the point so I can watch him play defense. I wish we could see the defensive effort we displayed against ‘Nova every night…that was really fun to watch.

Overall, I still think we are no better than a Sweet 16 team at this point. If we can lose no more than 3 games in conference, then maybe Elite 8.

Hook ‘em!

The main point of Trips’ post is that the horns can generate easy shots for the other horns (i.e. not Abrams) by taking advantage of the fact that the opposition is selling out to stop Abrams.