Breakdown of UConn's Offensive Dominance in March Madness

Yukon just won its second consecutive National Championship and did so in incredible fashion. They won all six of their tournament games by an average of 33 points per game. There's no arguing that his offense is probably one of the best we've seen in decades. and we're going to break it down in this video and to do that we'll look at some of their usual actions, why their offense is so innovative and how they control the pace, but before we look at that, here's a word from our sponsoring coaches if you're looking for a new customizable board, Hoops King is the place for you.

Their website is easy to navigate and you can customize your board down to the most personal details and having a two-sided feature will allow you to keep track of everything you need for game time and you can select your line options so that, Whether you're in high school or the NBA, there's a board just for you, which is one of the reasons the Los Angeles Lakers buy their boards from Hoops King and I can personally guarantee that the logo you customize on the site website will look exactly the same in person, if not better, and they guarantee fast delivery, so you'll have your new board within 10 days of ordering.

The link to their website is in the description or just type in Hoopsking.com. If you watched Yukon in the tournament, they spread defenses and their offense looks extremely complicated, but the truth is that they have three main actions in their offense: Zoom action and pin Downs. so let's look at all three and see how coach Hurley uses them in his system to keep teams guessing and constantly moving so the first one is a staggered screen some people might call it double stagger and this is where usually , two players will set up a staggered screen against each other for someone to come out and try to gain an advantage.

The goal is always to get this defender hanging on one of these two screens and if not open. On the catch they like to flip it right into a ball screen with their fiveman and go downhill and they use these wobblers in many different situations. Here they are going to start with a stagger screen on a fake ball screen so they can run this Baseline Runner with a stagger and the purpose is to get Kingan's man to 3/4 on the top so they can throw him over the top for a post and what you'll see in this video is they like to run these actions once or twice each game to see if they can create easy baskets, like they did against Purdue, and they also run these stagger out of bounds plays. baseline, which creates a lot of confusion for the defense and others.

The place where you see these staggers is outside of what's known as a random stagger, so the diagonal back screen sends the guard into the block and then they'll turn it into a stagger for the guy in the corner and in this particular one. The next main concept they do is what is known as a Zoom action and I think they make the most of this concept. A zoom is every time the guy receiving the ball is. It's going to come off a down screen and a dribble handoff so when you hear Zoom think down screen to dho and this is a popular action that a lot of people are running and Yukon does it very well because they know how to make reads. and the zoom action can be executed from the wing or it can be executed through the middle third of the court as seen here and that is generally known as Gut Zoom.

What I want you to understand is what makes this action so difficult to defend. The reason it's difficult is that most defenders are going to chase this guy off the handoff so he can't shoot, but as soon as he does it, it puts a lot of stress on this help defender where he has to do it. protects the big roll to the rim and the ball so you just see a guard go downhill for a layup and then in this clip you'll see Zach Edy try to stay in front of the ball and allow a lob for a dunk now, The third concept that you'll see a lot in their offense is pin downs or what some people might call down screens and they really like to run them for their shooting camera.

Spencer, a lot of people run pin downs in his offense now and they don't always get open looks, but the way Dan Hurley has designed his offense has created so many open looks and I want to show you how he does it to begin with. Cam Spencer rarely comes out of a pin early. During the play, he will run all over the court before he gets to the pin down that he is trying to take advantage of and if someone chases him because they don't want him to throw, he is very good at curling to get the lead and then play that big and they also run a lot pin Downs for his stretch four Alex Caraban, who can also go out and knock down shots even if they are contested, so we started talking about how innovative Coach Hurley is in his Offense, we'll stick with this pin Downs concept because everyone runs, so what makes Yukon unique is that Dan Hurley runs Cam Spencer off a pin down and then they'll double him up a second time or double up. huddle around the same player to create that advantage.

Now, these are some things they would do for Steph Curry. Most people don't come out of a down screen or a pin down and then curl up to the middle of the court and come out of another one, but they run this a lot for cam Spencer and it's to create these leads and these bad closeouts and Because Spencer has such a high IQ, he's not a one-click pony, he's not always going to shoot it or drive it, he's going to read the close. They go out and act accordingly and their entire team is constantly making good decisions like this here you will see this double loop in a give and take that was organic and not predetermined and another place where they come into these Pin Downs is outside the wobble screens, so in At the bottom of the screen you'll see this wobble coming right here, but Alex Caraban, instead of shooting, he's both going to curve first, which is normally known as a spin action and then the guard is going to come out of this single pin. down, gets a bad close out and goes downhill and you'll see this exact same action run against San Diego State right here for a catch and shoot three and because Dan Hurley is a mastermind, they set up this play. so it looks exactly the same as if they were going to run this TL and it actually turns into a back screen for a lob, but what separates Coach Hurley's offense from almost everyone else is that he runs multiple actions in the same set, so here it looks like they're going to run this instinctive Zoom action that we talked about before and then try to score like most people would, but right after that instinctive Zoom, they're going to eliminate this guy and then Let's use a concept known as "horns flare" that a lot of people use on their own and that's how they get this pace shot for Alex, so ultimately what happens is they just wear teams down, you're going to have to protect one action and then you'll have to defend another action and if it's not open they'll keep playing until they get a good shot and they do that throughout their offense so we talked before about this random stagger concept where you'll see the random screen here on the Stagger screen where most teams will catch it and try to score it right away, but Yukon will go straight to what is called a Spain action where the bigs will set a center screen. and then your shooter will yo-yo or replace at the same time, which is something that a lot of people execute, but they mix these actions up, so you'll see it in this play, it's the same here's your concept of random stagger and then when They catch it at the top, they get right into this Spain action and that's what makes them so hard to stop, is that they are so unpredictable that you just watched them run Shuffle stagger towards a Spain action and now when they get to that exactly the same. place that looks like Spain now they're going to do what's known as a lunge screen where they put a down screen for a guy to come up and it turns into a back ISO right in the middle of the court for Donovan Kingan, it's the the exact same setup, but they end up running something different that keeps the defense off balance, so in case you're not already overwhelmed, let me show you one more concept of them running out of this random action and keep everything in mind These clips they're just from the tournament games, so what they did against Illinois is outside of this random cut: they threw the ball at him and then they came and set this ball screen at a really low angle that's sometimes known as a tight screen, which It's also very difficult to score now if you've been on social media somewhere, this is the play that everyone is talking about and it's probably one of the most innovative plays you'll see.

They start by faking this passing screen with Cam Spencer and then he'll come out of a flare, but the fivan stands in this corner and since he's not a shooter, that means his defender will usually be in the paint, so they'll pass him the ball and they'll run this Zoom action to the corner which is actually a decoy for this guy to run from the corner for a handoff and a shot, so it starts out looking like the Horn flare and then has a fake Zoom concept that goes to the corner and finally it turns out. on an open shot or a bad close for the guy who runs all the way for this handoff and they're good enough that if they don't have a shot they're going to make a play with the bad close, but What makes this play so epic it is that they know the teams are going to look for Newton running away from this flare, so they slid the flare man to the basket and got two open dunks in the tournament thanks to this same action, so even within this complex .

Offensive players know how to make reads on this step, they don't do a good job staying in front of the ball, so it goes downhill for a layup and then watch what they do on this play as they jump the ball, the dho. it's not open, so they organically fall into a zoom concept. The camera goes downhill, there is a 45 cut and an extra pass for an open dunk and what made them special this year is their ability to control the pace of the game. Coach Hurley's ability to get this team. Working to get the best shot available is unmatched.

Look at what they force the defense to defend on a possession and I'll explain. Here's a random wobble with a turn on a screen down, a tap back to Spencer on a Veer action. he doesn't have a shot so he makes the closeout, hits the pop up post and cuts to the basket, turns into a dho and at the end of the shot clock with 3 seconds left, they give up a layup and watch this national championship possession. It starts out the same way with a staggered, random spin, they're going to go into the same touch, then they'll execute another staggered spin, the ball will eventually latch on and he'll go into a spinning Double Zoom action. on a paired side ball screen they attack the bigs and drop coverage and throw the catch move and shoot three with two left on the clock and the root of what makes all of this possible is that even with 7 seconds left On the shot clock they never panic and they never accelerate, they drive a close.

They force help to drive that closeout and end up doing an alleo dunk with a second left on the clock, but what was scary about this team is that they could use a full clock. to dunk or they could go right to an early ball screen and get the exact same look early in the clock or they could come down in transition and run a shallow double drag concept and catch and shoot three before you knew it. We were on defense, so if anyone needed an argument that playing basketball as a team wins games or championships, here it is.

If you're not subscribed to the channel, be sure to hit that button so you can get the rest of my content. Thanks for coming. see you next time at the movie theater