How UConn Dominated Their Way to a Final 4
Plus a set play from each of the other teams remaining.
And then there were four.
The Final Four is set — with UConn matching up against Miami and Florida Atlantic taking on San Diego State.
UConn has been the most dominant team in the tournament. Through four games, the Huskies have a total margin of victory of 90 points.
Over on the YouTube channel, I broke down the film from those four games.
The video is eight minutes long and contains analysis of Dan Hurley’s offensive scheme and UConn’s three stars: Jordan Hawkins, Andre Jackson, and Adama Sanogo.
Some stats cited throughout the video:
UConn’s +90 margin of victory is tied for the eighth best margin through four tourney games since the field expanded
UConn is top 10 in the country in both assist rate and points per game via off-ball screens
Jordan Hawkins has scored 151 points via off-ball screens (second in the country)
Andre Jackson has 31 assists in the tournament. 27 out of 31 have been for either a UConn dunk or three-pointer
Adama Sanogo is 11th in the country in points scored off of post-ups. He shoots 57% on those attempts
My focus over the past few days has been on UConn, but I wanted to give a little love to the other three remaining teams.
So, I went back and selected my favorite set play from each team’s respective Elite Eight game.
Those three sets are in GIF form below.
Miami — Iverson Side Roll Replace
Way back during the first week of the 2022-23 season, I wrote about side roll replace action that was being run by Creighton and Illinois.
Below is an example of Miami running their own version of the concept.
With #15 Norchad Omier rolling to the basket, #11 Jordan Miller replaced out to the wing. Both Texas defenders went towards Miller, so Omier broke free for a dunk at the rim.
Florida Atlantic — Overload Post Pin
Vladislav Goldin had a great game for FAU in the Elite Eight against Kansas State. The 7-footer finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Head coach Dusty May was able to take advantage of Kansas State’s post fronts twice during the game for easy baskets to Goldin. An example of one of those plays is below.
It’s a relatively simple set. All four FAU players besides Golden overloaded towards the right wing.
Kansas State fell for the overload. #35 Nae'Qwan Tomlin was too busy pointing out a potential switch instead of providing weak side help on the post-up.
San Diego State — Zoom Duck
There was really only one set to choose from for San Diego State.
Against Creighton, the Aztecs ran the same play over and over again: Zoom action out on the perimeter while a big man ducked in on the inside.
The Creighton defense is known for sagging into the paint. They let Ryan Kalkbrenner roam freely around the basket instead of getting overextended out on the perimeter.
So as a response, it’s almost like Brian Dutcher and SDSU just conceded that the paint was going to be crowded all game long — whether they liked it or not — and tried to outmuscle the Bluejays with physical duck-ins instead.
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