KenPom ranks UVA Basketball 183rd nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency this season, after an offseason that was supposed to be about fixing what was wrong on the offensive end, which ranked 200th nationally last season.
We heard all spring, into the summer and then the fall, about how the adjustments, overseen by Tony Bennett when he was still the head coach, with Ron Sanchez as the point person leading the effort, were about getting more easy shots in transition, speeding things up in halfcourt sets, getting more shots at the rim, more good looks from three.
The word that got back to me, consistently, was, man, wait until you see this new offense; we’re getting up and down the court, creating shots in the paint, at the rim, on the perimeter.
The only thing that I see different, with nine games of evidence, is, halfcourt sets with guards setting screens for bigs, in addition to the sets with the bigs setting screens for the guards.
Seriously, that’s it.
The pace is similar to last year – 61.7 possessions per game this season, vs. 60.1 possessions per game last season.
The tempo ranks next-to-last in D1.
Last year, it was dead last.
The increase is due more to opponents having quicker offensive possessions – 18.1 seconds, on average, this season, vs. 19.3 seconds last season.
The average UVA offensive possession this season is 20.5 seconds; last year, it was 19.7 seconds.
We’re going in the wrong direction there.
The scoring in transition is still almost nonexistent – 3.3 points per game, which is actually down from last year’s 6.9 points per game in transition.
The basic calculus of how you should get your offense is off – not enough shots at the rim, too many midrange jumpers.
The only thing working is the shooting from three, which, at 39.1 percent for the season, ranks 27th nationally.
If anything, you’d want more of the threes, more shots at the rim (UVA currently averages 14.0 shots at the rim per game, last in D1), less of the midrange.
My bright idea for a fix: scrapping everything they’re doing now, cold turkey.
Build a new offense around high-screen-and-rolls and getting the ball into the post to Elijah Saunders.
Dai Dai Ames would be my primary initiator in the high-screen-and-rolls, with Saunders and TJ Power either rolling or popping out to the three-point line, based on reading the defensive coverage, or Blake Buchanan cutting hard to the basket, using his athleticism, and Andrew Rohde and Isaac McKneely spacing the floor and available for kickouts.
In the post sets, feed Saunders – I don’t know that Buchanan or Power work as post-up guys, but use Buchanan on cuts in the lane if the opponent goes with a post double, and station Power on the three-point line in Saunders’s field of vision so that he’s there if the double comes from his man.
And again, Rohde and McKneely are on the three-point line for spacing.
The other tweak: push tempo.
Virginia is getting 94 percent of its offense in halfcourt sets, tops in D1, which is a factor in the lack of opportunities at the rim.
The current approach has a team that has great difficulty touching the paint and creating open shots in a system bogged down by endless screens that achieve next to nothing running 55+ offensive sets per game against a set defense.
This makes absolutely no sense.
Scrap it, all of it.
I know it’s not going to happen; the Tony Bennett approach to things, which lives on through Ron Sanchez, is, if something isn’t working, just do it harder.
Which is akin to the classic definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, but that much is already obvious.
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Chris Graham
