Film review: FSU’s offense vs Duke

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During the 2nd half of Duke’s 74-66 win over Florida State, announcers Dan Shulman and Dick Vitale beat a steady drum about Florida State’s failure to pound the ball into the post. This is a common theme during FSU broadcasts. FSU has a big front line, therefore get them the ball. This assumes that their best scoring option is to begin the play with a post entry to one of FSU’s bigs. And after Shulman and Vitale spent an hour talking about it it inevitably became a hot topic on Nole message boards. Here’s a sampling.

we couldnt have played this game any worse scheme wise.

Their big guys have 3 fouls and we refuse to attack the basket. I just dont get it – ChiefOsceola

 

We blew the game by not pounding the paint in the second half. Simply as that! – NJNOLES

 

Thought the same. Question Hams strategy there. – DynastyNole

 

How we do not go inside the whole game is a total mystery. Missed baskets at the rim and missed free throws. Throw in the fact that Duke could not miss from three tonight and thats the ball game. We could have just pounded and used clock and won this game. This is the problem I see with this coaching staff that I cant figure out. – Noles5319

And this is a perfectly natural reaction. When two basketball “experts” say something over and over for an hour then fans start looking for it. Suddenly every time a player comes open in the paint everyone is bobbing their heads along with the announcers.

But watching the game it seemed that Shulman and Vitale were way off base. First, FSU has tremendous turnover problems (326th nationally) and much of that is due to a horrible post entry game. The guards don’t get good angles. The bigs don’t seal very well. And when they do get the ball inside FSU’s post players aren’t skilled enough to require consistent double teams. They step out of bounds. They charge. They let guards steal the dribble.

What the team does do well is figure out other ways to attack. Since going to a 3-guard lineup versus Princeton the Seminole offense has risen from 187th in the country to 110th. And they do this through better spacing, a greater variety of screens to free scorers, and attacking off the dribble. The Seminole interior players are at their best when the defense is shifting. And this happens when someone gets inside the defense off the dribble. Spread, drive, dish, dunk – the Seminole offense when it’s working. Oh, and in conference play, they’re the best 3-pt shooting team in the ACC.

To figure out if the announcers and the message board posters were on to something I was missing, I re-watched the game and charted every possession. Here they are:

1. FSU wins the tip and immediately attacks with a beautifully drawn play for the Noles. FSU uses traffic and screens to free Michael Snaer for a point-blank look, which he misses. Here’s the video. Watch Snaer. He begins at the top of the key. (0-0, Duke score will be on left)

2. Deividas Dulkys uses a hand-off screen at the top to beat his man off the dribble. Misses a short runner but Xavier Gibson is there to clean up with a big dunk. (3-2)

3. Post entry to Bernard James who has Miles Plumlee guarding him. Good position and no double-team but James immediately kicks the ball back out. He screens for Snaer who makes a 3′ runner over Miles Plumlee. (5-4)

4. Deividas Dulkys forces a long three very early in the shot clock. Air ball. (5-4)

5. Post entry to James, spins left and takes awkward looking shot. Miss. (7-4)

6. Snaer drives off of a Bernard James screen and is called for a charge. James was open for the dunk but Snaer forced the shot instead. (9-4) Dicky V: “Teddy Valentine with the call. He gets more airtime than Jay Leno.”

7. Okaro White sets a screen which frees Luke Loucks to drive baseline. Short tear drop is good. (11-6)

8. Post feed to Okaro White. Duke sticks with single coverage and gives White a ridiculous amount of time to work against Ryan Kelly. (11-8) Here’s the video:
   

9. Snaer dribble drives and hands the ball to White 10 feet from the basket. White drives to awkward position underneath the basket, picks up his dribble, and luckily the ball is knocked out of bounds by Mason Plumlee. On the inbounds pass Austin Rivers completely loses Snaer who buries a wide open three from the top. (11-11)

10. Luke Loucks drives off a Jon Kreft screen and misses a contested layup. (12-11)

11. Michael Snaer makes a poor post entry pass which is knocked out of bounds by Miles Plumlee. The inbounds play starts with a poor entry which causes Jeff Peterson to get doubled in the corner. What should be a turnover turns into a broken play instead. (12-13) Here’s the video:
    

12. Post entry to Xavier Gibson who misses a 12 foot turnaround.  Kreft taps the ball out and Jeff Peterson curls off of Gibson (who’s not screening) and misses a running 5 footer. (12-13)

13. Snaer takes Rivers off the dribble. Makes a short runner. (15-15)

14. Snaer drives, kicks to Jon Kreft who misses a 15 footer. Foul on Ryan Kelly. After a reset on the inbounds play Snaer makes baseball entry to Bernard James who misses from 2′. (17-15)

15. Loucks makes wild alley oop attempt and FSU is lucky to get the carom off the backboard. Post entry to James  in great position but he  loses ball when he rips across Miles Plumlee’s body, and FSU is fortunate to have it go out of bounds off of Duke. Loucks runs a curl cut off an Xavier Gibson screen and misses 8′ runner. Gibson gets the board and  misses  from 5′. (20-15)

16. Post entry to Okaro White. Gets hit on short jumper but no call. White grabs the offensive board, hit on layup attempt, free throws. He makes both. (23-17)

17. Luke Loucks makes a poor post entry which is stolen by Duke. (26-17)

18. Ian Miller takes the ball on a hand-off screen and gets isolated on Ryan Kelly. Miller shakes and nails a next-level step back three. (26-19)

19. Deividas Dulkys fumbles the ball which is picked by Okaro White. White tries to dunk over Miles Plumlee and is fouled. He makes both free throws. (26-21)

20. Ian Miller crossover leaves Tyler Thornton guarding air, but Miller misses the short runner. (26-21)

21. Austin Rivers gets hung up on screens when Ian Miller cuts diagonally through traffic. Miller misses a 10′ jumper but Okaro White is there to cleanup with a crazy tip in. (26-23)

22. Deividas Dulkys loses Andre Dawkins on a screen, and he hits a three over a late switching Ryan Kelly. (29-26)

23. Okaro White drives from corner on Josh Hairston but misses a lefty layup. Jon Kreft grabs the offensive board board and misses a contested layup, while also elbowing White in the face. (29-26)

24. Duke fouls in backcourt sending Jon Kreft to the line for a one and one. He misses the front end. (29-26)

25. Jeff Peterson makes a sloppy pass to Dulkys on the perimeter which goes out of bounds. (31-26)

26. Ian Miller curl cuts of an Xavier Gibson screen (illegal?). Miller misses a short runner, gets hit but doesn’t get the call. (33-26) (The refs, by the way, were horrible. There were several egregious missed calls affecting both teams, and Teddy Valentine stuck to his worn out shtick of blowing his whistle at all of the game’s most dramatic moments).

27. Devidias Dulkys misses a 3 from the corner. (33-26)

28. Quin Cook over-pursues Loucks on perimeter. Loucks misses a runner in the lane. (36-26)

29. Ian Miller shot fake, goes baseline by Josh Hairston, dishes to Gibson who is fouled. Makes 1 of 2. (39-27)

30. Miller baseball post entry to Xavier Gibson. He misses, but is fouled. Makes 1 of 2. (39-28)

31. Miller drives baseline, shovel pass to James, layup. (39-30)

32. Luke Loucks drives, no look pass to james, dunk. (39-32)

End of half.

Post entries: 8 (not counting entries kicked out and re-set)

Scores: 2 (Okaro White make, Okaro White free throws)

Misses: 3

Turnovers: 1

During the 2nd half Shulman and Vitale incessantly referenced the post entry success from the first half. Bernard James, who was most often targeted by the announcers as having been critical in the first half post entry game, scored twice in the 1st half, both off dribble-drives by the guards.

35. Xavier Gibson finds himself wide open, with the ball, beyond the arc. What the hell? Rise and fire! (3-pt% is now 23.5%) (42-32)

36. Deividas Dulkys sets a backscreen to free Bernard James for the alley oop. (42-34) Here’s the video:
    

37. Michael Snaer takes Tyler Thornton off the dribble. Weakside layup, good. (45-36)

38. Post entry to Bernard James who doesn’t have position, and he falls on bumbled catch but gets a lucky foul on duke. Inbounds to Snaer who misses a short jump hook. (45-36)

39. Luke Loucks and Deividas Dulkys run a beautiful two man game which sets up open three for Dulkys. He misses and all hell breaks loose. Here’s the video: (45-39)
    

40. Inbounds play to Snaer from 10′ but he tries to draw foul on Rivers and misses. (45-39) Dicky V:  “Sometimes I think that kids just play. They have no idea what is going on around them.”

41. Snaer jab step 3 over Rivers and misses. (49-39)

42. Snaer drives and gets fouled. On the reset baseball entry to James who gets doubled and passes out. Snaer misses step back jumper off drive. (50-39)

43. Ian Miller leads 3 on 1 break after a Duke turnover. He misses but is fouled. He makes 1 of 2. (50-40)

44. Tyler Thornton tries to go under a double screen leaving Ian Miller wide open for an easy three. Good. (53-43)

45. Snaer entry to a cutting Loucks who gets in the air with no plan and turns it over. (53-43)

46. Jeff Peterson takes Quin Cook off the dribble from 30 feet out. Cook gets no help. Layup good. (53-45)

47. Jeff Peterson leads 3 on 2 break, misses Xavier Gibson for alley oop, leaves feet and lucky to have ball go off duke player. Inbounds, post entry to Xavier Gibson, gets hacked, no call. (53-45)

48. Dickie V waxes poetic about Pearl Washington and how he would be making post entry passes right now. Meanwhile, Ian Miller takes Andre Dawkins off the dribble and gets fouled on a runner. He makes 1 of 2. (53-46)

49. Snaer gets doubled and kicks to Okaro White for the open three. He misses and all hell breaks loose part 2 (55-46):
    

50. Jeff Peterson uses Okaro White screen to take Andre Dawkins off the dribble. Layup good. (55-48)

51. Michael Snaer beats everyone down the court for an easy layup. (55-50)

52. Okaro White drives, draws the double team, dishes to James for dunk. (55-52)

53. High screen by James frees Jeff Peterson who misses short runner. (55-52)

Dan Shulman: “They don’t even look inside for james, they’re just using him as a screener, really.”

Dick Vitale: “Absolutely, I can’t understand it.”

Dan Shulman: “It’s strange.”

Dick Vitale: “It’s strange.”

54. Dulkys shot fake and Tyler Thornton flies by, but Dulkys misses wide open three from the top of key. Okaro White gets the rebound and is fouled on putback missed dunk. Makes 1 of 2. (57-53)

55. Okaro White shot fake from 12′, tries to draw foul, misses. (57-53)

56. Michael Snaer triple teamed but still gets good shot from 7′ feet. He misses but Xavier Gibson cleans up the board and gets a layup. (58-55)

57. Baseball pass to James. And-one on NBA style continuation call. He makes the free throw. (61-58)

58. Post entry to James who fumbles and kicks it back out. Perfect lob post entry to Gibson for the open layup but he fumbles it out of bounds. (64-58)

59. Jeff Peterson lob post entry to James who is on a different page. Turnover. (66-58)

60. Jeff Peterson 1 on 1 break after a Duke turnover and gets fouled. He misses both but Bernard James gets the offensive board and resets. Okaro White screens for Peterson who gets the switch to Ryan Kelly. He drives, is fouled, and makes 1 of 2. Okaro White gets tapout after second shot. Post entry to James who scores over Mason Plumlee. (66-61)

61. Austin Rivers goes under a screen leaving a wide open three for Snaer who misses. (66-61)

62. Peterson uses shot fake to go by Ryan Kelly and is fouled on a runner. Peterson makes one of two but James keeps rebound alive and it goes out on duke. Peterson horrible inbounds pass right to Austin Rivers. (68-62)

63. Handoff and high screen for Miller who has runner but fumbles, recovers and kicks to Snaer who forces a three over Rivers. (70-62)

64. Snaer takes Rivers baseline from the corner, jump stops in lane and hits 5 footer. (71-64)

65. Snaer abuses Dawkins one on one, who gets no help, but Snaer misses short runner, grabs the offensive board and makes layup. (73-66)

66. Desperate three. Offensive board. Desperate three. Game over. (74-66)

Post entries: 5 (not counting entries kicked out and re-set)

Scores: 2 (Bernard James x2)

Misses: 1

Turnovers: 2

So for the game FSU executed 13 post entry possessions (not counting the numerous post entries that were kicked back out for the offense to reset), and they scored four times. That’s 8 points in 13 possessions, or 0.61 points per possession. When they didn’t post entry they scored 58 in 53 possessions, or 1.09 per possession. That’s a difference of 48%.

So, Dick and Dan. Are you sure that FSU was negligent in not attempting more post entries?

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