The Benson Blog - Will it Work?

In 2017 I was invited to Houston to compete for a spot on the Team USA Roster. This was the first year that the NBA decided to withhold the top level talent from qualifying tournaments, so it was 33 year old me coming in from Korea and a bunch of G-League All Stars. 

Jeff Van Gundy was the coach and Pop was the “supervisor” or something. NBA head coaches from various teams filled out the rest of the staff, so it was safe to say that we had the absolute brightest minds in basketball working with us. I didn’t make the final roster (it’s in the book), but I was right there. Competing. Old. 

Old is the key word. I had been playing under FIBA rules for a decade, and most of these guys had only been in the G-League, playing under NBA rules. Van Gundy’s game plan had to match the talent, both his and theirs. So when that plan was rolled out, I was a little confused. It might work. But I knew wholeheartedly that the tactics he was implementing were rarely considered in the FIBA system. My disconnect showed. 

On one particular play (there were many), he stopped practice to call me out. I was doing two things wrong: 

I was holding and hitting my screens way too hard and long. No, for real, I was destroying these guards. They literally weren’t used to getting hit like that. But JVG didn’t like that. He wanted brush screens and rim runs. 

Defensively, I was hitting every cutter who ran through the lane. Once again, the guards were not used to this. They were getting ruined. I wasn’t supposed to do that. I was supposed to zone up and let them run by me so I could react quicker. 

Like I said, I didn’t make the roster, and they did win. So maybe this long, cold intro should be taken with a grain of salt. But, I’ve always thought about that moment. How backwards it was trying to use NBA tactics in a FIBA game. I still think the only reason it worked is because Team USA is so talented. 

DOPE ROD. WAY TO WASTE MY TIME HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE GOLDEN BEARS, BRO?

Good question. 

I just watched the Cal-SMU game and I found myself writing the same notes over and over. 

Pick and roll defense is nothing. 

Drop defense on pick and roll.

No help on pick. 

No movement on offense.

5-out, no motion offense. 

1-on-1 again on offense. 

It culminated with a backdoor lob for a dunk that SMU ran towards the end of the first half. I ran it back like 10 times before I had an epiphany: we literally run basic G-League style offense and defense.

I then asked myself two questions:  “Why?” and  “Is that Bad?”

So let me explain what I mean by G-League style, if you couldn’t tell by my Van Gundy story. There are certain playing styles that basically only exist in the NBA because the NBA is the only league in the world (I think) that has a defensive 3 in the key. Between that, and the desire for spacing to shoot 3’s, the NBA has some hard and fast rules. Brush screens are prioritized over long screens so the big can become a rim runner and open shooters in the corner. A primary ballhandler at that level can usually beat his man 1 v 1 anyways, so with enough spacing, a team may not need a screen at all. On the flip side, defenders don’t have time for long hedges because the brush screen is too fast, so a lot of bigs (think Javale McGee) will drop back to defend the paint. These 7’2” monsters have 8 foot wingspans and can single handedly disrupt the entire painted area if they have the footspeed to match. The ultra fast guards can effectively chase around the brush screen with ease and hopefully catch up to their counterparts with enough time to contest the shot. 

All of that works because of the rules and the talent, so it’s interesting to watch the Cal Bears play with those exact same principles in the NCAA. It truly reminds me of that time I had with Team USA. Now, this is not an indictment, per se, but it is a big phat question mark because if it doesn’t change, we may find our ceiling sooner than later.

Defensively, our bigs drop back on all big and roll screens. It’s not inherently a bad tactic, but at the collegiate level, our bigs aren’t NBA giants who can defend square acres with the wave of a hand. They’re good college bigs.  This leads them to play in no man's land so often that I find myself watching the game with the scowl of an upset grandmother.

I covered this in one of my video breakdowns so you can see it play out, but what I didn’t mention is that this puts so much extra pressure on the guards. They gotta chase, get through, and close, all with little or no help. It’s tiring as hell and can take away from offensive output as well. Ever wonder why so many other teams get 8 foot shots off the pick and roll, if not all the way to the rim? This is why.

On offense, I make the same exact grandma scowl whenever I see Dort or Sissoko floating around the top of the key. In a real sense, nobody has to guard them there and can instead zone up right in the middle. The hope (as we did in FIBA) is that our big man can screen someone else open, but how often is that happening?  At the NBA level, the defense can't help nearly as much, and the big man can shoot threes, creating even more space. If he can’t, he’s usually on the floor with a Chris Paul type who will tell him exactly when to move and to where and the floor spacing allows it to work. When we do it, those factors don’t exist and we get hella turnovers. We’re one of the worst assist teams in the country, and at times it can be hard to watch. 

To me, all of these are symptoms of our pro offense. It’s gonna kinda always be like this unless we get a big talent upgrade (like Team USA), because the rules and personnel will be at odds with strategy. Zone stuff always works in college when a team’s good at it. Flex and movement always works when a team's good at it. I used to get like 3 alley oop lobs a game when I was in school from our zone offense alone. There are some things that just work within the framework of the NCAA.

Ok, Rod. Breathe. 

I asked if it was a bad thing, and I’m still unsure. In fact, it may not be. These kids are essentially getting a pro level education while in college. Playing the way we do forces the very best out of the individual player. It may not always translate to wins and losses but the player development can’t be ignored. We hoped Andrej would be good, but this good? We wished Wilkinson would make the rotation, but to become it? Pretty much all of our guys have seen their talent grow dramatically while at Cal. I watched Jaylon Tyson dominate the summer league last year, after dominating the Pac-12, after coming in with little more than hope and skill. The machine works. 

Further, players know that. If we continue to be a school that turns paupers into princes, maybe it doesn’t matter if we win right now. Eventually we’ll end up with top recruit after top recruit because the word will spread that we’re an NBA pipeline and the coach will rarely make you play zone. And honestly, kids love that. We may just see a continued talent upgrade until we effectively have a college G-League team. And that team would likely do very well. 

IDK maybe this is all just me overthinking, or maybe it’s me remembering that Van Gundy did manage to play his style and still win. He wanted to win the FIBA cup, of course, but his bigger goal was to further develop the G-League All Stars into NBA talent. Maybe we can win college games and do the same thing.