Calipari's dribble drive offense
1. Give ball to Rose, Wall (most recent NBA ready guard who is forced to play one year of college ball)
2. Have him dribble and drive
I've seen numerous references lately to Calipari's "dribble drive" offense as if it is something unique.
Can any of the X and O gurus enlighten us on (i) how his offense works and (ii) what is special about it, as distinguished from, say, D'Antoni's offense or the offense Coach K has run when he's got multiple players who can beat people off the dribble (see, e.g., Duke's offense from the mid 80's, early 90's and 1998-2002)?
Calipari's dribble drive offense
1. Give ball to Rose, Wall (most recent NBA ready guard who is forced to play one year of college ball)
2. Have him dribble and drive
It's basically a "4-out" offense with 4 perimeter players who can attack the defense by driving in on the dribble.
Good article 2 years ago in Sports Illustrated on it
As with most offenses, it works best if the players are talented, in this case good dribbling and penetration skills being required....a high-scoring scheme featuring four perimeter players and a host of innovations. Unlike Knight's classic motion offense (which is based on screens) or Pete Carril's Princeton-style offense (which is based on cuts), Walberg's attack was founded on dribble penetration. To Calipari, at least, it embodied two wholly unconventional notions. One, there were no screens, the better to create spacing for drives. Two, the post man ran to the weak side of the lane (instead of the ball side), leaving the ball handler an open driving path to the basket.
I honestly see the "dribble-drive" offense as a recruiting tool more than an offense. Cal gets to tell his recruits who are usually ridiculously athletic and talented that the dribble-drive offense he runs let them play on the perimeter, clears out the middle, and lets them basically play one-on-one with their defender.
That being said, I found a nice blog entry from coachingbetterbball that explains the "offense" a little more.
http://coachingbetterbball.blogspot...tion-drop.html
Thanks for the link.
What a bunch of hooey.
Other than focusing on recruiting a Center who can beat people off the dribble (which I don't recall Cousins doing much of, actually), there's nothing more to this "offense" than saying it's nice to have lots of players who can handle and take people off the dribble!
Duh.
I have to disagree with those calling the dribble drive simply a "recruiting tool" or some invention of Coach Cal to lure recruits who don't want to pass or play in a structured setting. While there are times, and certain players, who turn the offense into a pure iso with four other guys standing around, a real dribble drive entails four perimeter players with the ability to attack and get into the lane, and an interior player, who usually has some ability to step out or is a threat in the pick and roll. ideally, you have a point guard who can break opposing defenders down on the dribble and get into the paint (i.e. Wall, Evans, Rose) where they either attack the hoop or dish, the idea being that the player who they dish to has the ability to shoot or attack. as they drive and kick, the perimeter players rotate, and the cycle continues. it's more of a set, which allows the players a certain amount of freedom and creativity off the dribble, than an offense (such as the princeton), which dictates more defined movements both on and off the ball. it's that promise of freedom to attack off the dribble which I think recruits find so appealing, not that you can't attack off the dribble at Duke or anywhere else.
But what do you do when the "freedom" encouraged by the dribble-drive offense comes face to face with another talented team that runs a strong zone? West Virginia anyone?
as with any offense, there are limitations. while not at a d1 college level, I ran a dribble-drive in high school, and teams would often come at us with an extended 1-3-1 or a physical 2-3, much like what you saw with WVU. In that situation, you want to 1) drive and kick to your shooters to extend and open up the zone and 2) attack gaps in the zone (corners in the 1-3-1, high post in the 2-3) either through dribble penetration or feeding an interior player stepping out (think the way Channing Frye was used by the Suns). Against a physical WVU team that cut off penetration, Wall and Co. needed to hit some shots, which they failed at miserably.
Absolutely. It's a huge recruiting tool for guards because they get to dribble, drive, and shoot - skills that they think NBA scouts want to see (which, let's face it, is completely true). It's a huge recruiting tool for big men because they don't have to screen and can instead focus their energy on padding stats (rebounding, easy buckets from a rare assist, etc) which they think the NBA wants to see (and, again, completely true).
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Winston Churchill
President of the "Nolan Smith Should Have His Jersey in The Rafters" Club
Interestingly, Calipari admits [?] UK didn't use dribble-drive so much last season.
From Andy Katz's 8/2 blog on ESPN website: “Teaching the dribble drive goes against everything these guys have learned,’’ said Calipari, who didn’t run it as much last season with the quick-footed John Wall pushing the offense from one end to another. “When they’re driving they have to look at a few things. It’s not just beating your man. That’s a given. What am I doing? Am I scoring and if not where are they coming from and how is the shifting defense going to affect me?’’
Well, I'm far from a "guru" but I've watched about 30 years of college basketball.
As far as being a "recruiting tool," it allows players to create their shots, either off the dribble or by creating space for a shot or a spectacular pass. When you have a team of gifted athletes, they can showcase their talents, put up big numbers, etc.
It's the wave of the future! A patient motion offense built around finding the open player and creating mismatches combined with solid team defense doesn't win champions! Right?
I think that the real attraction for guards to come to Kentucky is Rod Stricklin. The guy was a genuis on the court and I'm sure has tons to show players that they can try to incorporate in how they play. I'm also sure that he has tons of stories, keys to what to look for, when and why he would chose to pull up, go, etc.
The main thing is that he can walk through what he used to do at a blur and provide a walking, talking model, how he created illusion, what it felt like to only seem like I was doing X, from which players can then begin the experimentation that is self learning.
The secondary thing is he can talk situationally and why certain things that seemed like they would actually didn't work, etc.
I also think that there was/is way more to Callipari's approach to offense than anything said so far. Much, much more.