Great analysis, Sean. It will be very interesting to see if length is something UK actually deploys going forward. We always talk about it with these Kentucky teams and paint touches/points is a central part of a Cal offensive scheme.
Any metrics that you pay attention to regarding ball movement? I know you don’t pay attention to assist rate, given that it only tells you how effective a team is at actually scoring once passed to, but it felt like dribbling became a central part of UK’s offense in the 2nd half. Heard a lot of people talking about no assists in the second half (and that is unsurprising given the fact that the shots weren’t falling), but lack of ball movement in the second half seemed to be a large factor in the stalled offense.
Great question! Yeah I don’t love assist rate, but I do wish there was better publicly available data on player touches/dribbles in a possession. That stuff needs tracking camera data unfortunately, or someone charting it actively, and that’s a bit much for me to do.
Zero assists is a bad sign, and few assist and high turnovers is a bad sign because turnovers are usually a product of more passing. Kentucky does have 2 potentially great isolation scorers in Boston and Clarke, but the general idea that the offensive execution in the second half was bad is correct.
Something I watch for is how often the ball gets into the paint on a possession, whether via dribble or pass. That usually warps the defense and creates good scoring opportunities.
Great analysis, Sean. It will be very interesting to see if length is something UK actually deploys going forward. We always talk about it with these Kentucky teams and paint touches/points is a central part of a Cal offensive scheme.
Any metrics that you pay attention to regarding ball movement? I know you don’t pay attention to assist rate, given that it only tells you how effective a team is at actually scoring once passed to, but it felt like dribbling became a central part of UK’s offense in the 2nd half. Heard a lot of people talking about no assists in the second half (and that is unsurprising given the fact that the shots weren’t falling), but lack of ball movement in the second half seemed to be a large factor in the stalled offense.
Great question! Yeah I don’t love assist rate, but I do wish there was better publicly available data on player touches/dribbles in a possession. That stuff needs tracking camera data unfortunately, or someone charting it actively, and that’s a bit much for me to do.
Zero assists is a bad sign, and few assist and high turnovers is a bad sign because turnovers are usually a product of more passing. Kentucky does have 2 potentially great isolation scorers in Boston and Clarke, but the general idea that the offensive execution in the second half was bad is correct.
Something I watch for is how often the ball gets into the paint on a possession, whether via dribble or pass. That usually warps the defense and creates good scoring opportunities.