The Godfather (HV Weekly 10/30/20)

Creighton preview + new Solving Basketball episode with Reggie Witherspoon.

Oct 30, 2020

Welcome back to the Hoop Vision Weekly!

It’s the last week of October and scheduling is still a mess, but we are excited to finally be entering a month with college basketball games.

Earlier this week, we added white dri-fit shirts to the Hoop Vision Store. (The dri-fit material of the shirt is especially nice.) Also, a reminder that we have three “Watch Smarter” videos for sale at the store as well.

In today’s edition:

Creighton HV+ preseason preview
Brand new episode of Solving Basketball with Reggie Witherspoon
A timeline of the Continuity Ball Screen offense

Creighton Preview

Creighton was the team of choice for our preseason preview this week. First, we started with a key action used by Greg McDermott for Mitch Ballock — one of the best shooters in the country.

Jordan Sperber @hoopvision68

Creighton veers

Ballock actually led the Bluejays in minutes last season, but he played the role of a specialist — draining 93 threes and just 30 twos.

There has only been one other Big East player to produce those shooting splits since Creighton joined the conference…

Big East players with 90+ threes and 30 or fewer twos (data via CBB Reference)

2019-20 Mitch Ballock, Creighton — 93 threes // 30 twos
2013-14 Ethan Wragge, Creighton — 110 threes // 2 twos

We released a five-minute voiceover video — exclusively for Hoop Vision PLUS subscribers — examining Ballock’s skill set and how Creighton uses him within the larger picture of Creighton’s offense.

All five of our preseason previews can be found at the links below.

Part one: Villanova. Part two: Illinois. Part three: Louisville. Part four: Richmond. Part five: Creighton.

Become a Hoop Vision PLUS member today for access to our entire catalogue of content — and for upcoming analysis throughout the 2020-21 season.

New episode of Solving Basketball

Canisius head coach Reggie Witherspoon — aka the “godfather” of Continuity Ball Screen — joined me for episode 36 of Solving Basketball.

We discussed Witherspoon’s offensive scheme that has now been incorporated into so many different programs around the country.

The origins of the offense
Specific X’s & O’s details and teaching points
How the offense has evolved over the years
Why it’s become so popular in college, high school, and AAU

After our Zoom call ended, I added in some annotated clips of Canisius, Buffalo, Dayton, Stanford, Virginia, and BYU for the video version of the episode. So for the full experience, I’d recommend watching on YouTube.

Audio-only version also available on Spotify, Apple, and all other podcast apps

Timeline of the offense

1997 to 1999: Head coach at Erie Community College

“We were doing some things continuity wise and a lot of dribble handoffs.”

Witherspoon played for John Beilein at Erie Community College in 1980, and then eventually followed his coach down a very similar career path. While experimenting with continuity and dribble handoffs, Witherspoon’s team went 24-5 during the 1998-99 season.

1999: Named interim head coach in the middle of the season at Buffalo

“We kind of tweaked it. We had a very difficult time [early on] at Buffalo at just getting good shots.”

The offense started to take form at Buffalo, but Witherspoon inherited a very difficult situation. He was named interim head coach in the middle of the season — just three days before a game against North Carolina. Then once he was given the full-time job, the program was hit with NCAA sanctions.

The struggles of trying to create open shots for those early Buffalo teams led to some of the innovations out of the Continuity Ball Screen offense.

2003 to 2006: More options added to the tandem side

“They were able to not get overloaded mentally with options and still have quick enough feet.”

The players during this time period (2003 to 2006) were some of Witherspoon’s best in terms of basketball IQ. Calvin Cage — who played at Buffalo from 2003 to 2006 — is currently an assistant coach on Witherspoon’s Canisius staff. Turner Battle — who played at Buffalo from 2002 to 2005 — is currently an assistant coach at ETSU.

With a couple future coaches on the roster, it enabled Witherspoon to add more options and reads into the scheme.

2011: Still switching sides of the court

During the 2011 season, Buffalo was still primarily running the “traditional” version of the offense. The top guard on the tandem side would cut backdoor and then proceed out to the other side.

2012: Added the flare screen

Around the 2012 season, Buffalo and Witherspoon added the flare screen on the tandem side (another option instead of cutting backdoor). It was an especially valuable action for sharpshooting guard Zach Filzen.

2013: Added the UCLA screen

Around the 2013 season, Buffalo and Witherspoon added the UCLA screen immediately after the flare screen — making the offense very similar to the current iteration used at Canisius.