Welcome back to the Hoop Vision Weekly!
The big day is almost here. In about 30 hours, we’ll have a bracket!
As far as Hoop Vision goes, the immediate plan is to release a post-bracket YouTube video tomorrow night, followed by The Starting Five newsletter for Hoop Vision PLUS subscribers on Monday.
But before that, we wrapped up our pre-bracket deep dives yesterday with a new video on the Houston Cougars.
Hoop Vision Deep Dives
Luka Garza and Iowa (9 mins 38 secs)
Loyola Chicago’s Defense (13 mins 5 secs)
Michigan’s Offense (11 mins 30 secs)
How Houston Wins Without Making Shots (10 mins 15 secs)
More on Houston in the next section.
How Houston Wins Without Making Shots
Houston’s style of play goes against the analytical grain in almost every single area — at least on a superficial level.
Getting to the free throw line is one of the most efficient sources of points for an offense. On defense, Houston fouls excessively.
Isolation post-ups are often (not always) one of the least efficient sources of points for an offense. On defense, Houston double teams nearly ever post-up.
On top of that, Houston can’t really shoot (133rd in eFG%) and relies fairly heavily on isolations (20th in iso usage).
And yet there are only three teams currently ranked in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency: Michigan, Illinois, and Houston.
In the 10-minute voiceover video below, I walk through Kelvin Sampson’s unique and aggressive style of play.
Video Topics Include:
Data on how the four factors contribute to winning
The “best worst” shooting teams of the kenpom era
Houston’s post traps and rotations
The exceptions to the three-point defense rule (Syracuse, Virginia, Houston)
Houston’s ball screen coverage
Memphis’s offensive adjustments against Houston
The Starting Five Recap
In this past week’s HV+ subscriber-only newsletter, we covered:
UConn set plays for James Bouknight
Purdue’s stagger lob for Zach Edey
1-3-1 zone defense in crunch time situations from Coastal Carolina and Loyola Chicago
Thoughts on Colgate’s NET ranking and the NET rankings in general
If you want to support Hoop Vision and ensure you’re receiving all of our top coverage leading up to — and throughout — March Madness, please subscribe to HV+ now!