The Auburn Flex (HV Weekly: 1/14/22)
A breakdown of Bruce Pearl's offensive scheme.
Welcome back to the Hoop Vision Weekly!
It was another fun week of hoops. There are no longer any unbeaten teams remaining, COVID cancellations are on the decline, and we are starting to gear up for an exciting February and March.
In this week’s edition of The Starting Five newsletter, we broke down Miami’s 5-out offense in their upset win at Cameron Indoor Stadium. We also compared and contrasted the help principles of two of the best defenses — Texas Tech and San Diego State — in the country.
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The Auburn Flex
After Tuesday’s road win in Tuscaloosa, Auburn is the latest team to enter the “best team in the country” debate — a consideration that is seemingly given to every top 10 team that plays well in a big game.
So far this season, the Tigers only loss came in double overtime to UConn. And freshman superstar Jabari Smith has played himself into the discussion for the top pick in the NBA draft.
Yet despite the wealth of talent on Auburn’s roster, it’s business as usual for Bruce Pearl: The flex offense — kind of.
Pearl has used a version of the flex for most of his coaching career. But that version has significantly differed from the two most popular flex schemes: Al Skinner’s tight flex and Gary Williams’ continuity duck-in.
More specifically, Pearl’s version has better spacing and three-point shooting opportunities — making it a more relevant offense for the modern game.
Over on Twitter, I broke down some of the key elements to the flex.
As the video mentions, Auburn has many different counters and options out of their 2-guard formation. That variety prevents defenses from locking in on any one particular action.
But one thing the video didn’t cover is what happens if the flex isn’t open. Traditionally, flex teams have been continuity based — running the same basic pattern over and over again. Pearl’s version, however, is different.
A continuity offense?
In Auburn’s system, the Tigers don’t generally stay in the flex for the duration of the possession. If the first flex screen isn’t open, they move on to other actions.
However, there have been a handful of instances this season where Auburn has remained in the flex — like a continuity-based offense — and scored.
Here’s one of those examples from the second half against UConn.
#0 KD Johnson cuts to the hoop on the first flex screen and then sets a screen of his own for #5 Chris Moore. After that, #10 Jabari Smith sets a pin down for Johnson — who uses it to get to the basket.
That style of continuity is more in line with flex coaches from the past. On the contrary, Pearl’s style tends to be more free-flowing.
Instead of running a pattern, the Tigers often flow into two-man game on the weak side after the flex cut.
Two-man game
After setting the flex screen, the Auburn screener’s default action is to pop to the three-point line. Even if the three-point shot isn’t open — or if that player is not a shooter — the Tigers will pass the ball to the popper anyways.
Take a look below.
When #2 Jaylin Williams receives the ball off of the pop, Auburn enters into two-man game with Williams and #1 Wendell Green.
In the case above, Williams set the step-up ball screen for Green to get into the paint.
Here’s another example of the two-man game.
This time, Green used step-up screen to then pass back for the pick and pop three.
Think about the action from the defense’s perspective.
The Nebraska defender is forced to go immediately from giving help on the flex screen to guarding the two-man game. In this case, forcing the defense to guard consecutive actions led to the open three.
A bonus set
While watching Auburn, an interesting play from early in the season stood out.
After the initial flex action, Williams set a flare screen for Green. Watch the play below.
#12 Zep Japser’s penetration into the paint gets the defense ball-watching, leading to the wide open three in the corner off of the flare.
It’s a great counter set from Auburn, but I’m not entirely sure if it was on purpose or not. This is the only time I’ve seen them run it — breaking out a new wrinkle in a 17-point game against Louisiana Monroe is a bit strange.
But regardless of if the set was intentional or improvised, it’s an interesting counter to the normal flex action.
For more on the history, X’s and O’s, and stats of the flex offense, check out our 22-minute YouTube video on the scheme. Teams in this video include: Maryland, Boston College, Drake, Providence, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Milwaukee, Kennesaw State, Gonzaga, Siena, Loyola Maryland, Central Michigan, and more.
Links from around the internet
Geoff Grammer of the Albuquerque Journal wrote about the experiences of Chris Jans and Richard Pitino watching their teams play from home. Ohio State tweeted out a similarly-themed video of Chris Holtmann
Travis Brown of The Eagle wrote about Texas A&M’s use of analytics
Gonzaga has run the same BLOB play for over a decade. Tommy Lloyd and Arizona now run it too
Texas Tech’s defense (switches, stunts, and scrambles) on the last possession of the game against Baylor