I definitely see where you’re coming from.
I think Calipari’s scheme is more of a dribble-drive iso, but with 5 burger boys at least, so that there are more threats to cover. He has so many blue-chip players that he can run a “create a shot” offense.
I think the FSU game is a good one to examine, because it’s well into the season, Pastner had settled on his starters and his plans, and the players were used to the scheme. When I watched the GT-FSU game, I saw two teams running a similar offense at a very high level, but not in execution. FSU had more “full team” motion—not like a Purdue or another motion team—but more screens better executed and multiple players moving to free each other up. When I first turned on the game (23” TV), I got the teams mixed up because the uniform colors were so similar.
We’re in blue. We played a good game, but we used such a short bench that we were fading going into the second half. Their defense was better than our defense. Also, FSU was giving more players time, and using the system more, whereas we were trying to feed key players. FSU’s sixth man had 11 points, and their points were more evenly distributed. Devoe had a third of our points.
We seem to go about 6 1/2 players deep. That’s hard to sustain unless you have 4-5 players with iron constitutions.
One frustration for me is that we often lack players in a position to make an offensive rebound. I think that’s a drawback to the way we execute our scheme, or maybe even part of our scheme. FSU would have three around the basket, and we’d have one on the wrong side of the basket.
At the time, I thought it was FSU’s defensive plan to take Wright away from the offense. For whatever reason, he’s not in a pivotal feed-in/feed-out role like in some center-led 4-out offenses.
I think this game shows a good compare and contrast of similar offensive schemes. FSU’s defense, when you see it, is more full-court pressure.