Hoops Picture Pages: Soft Hedge

Enjoyed reading this.  These are the types of things that I will tell myself generally when watching, "They're not letting anyone get in the lane." but I don't have enough basketball IQ to identify the exact pieces causing that play-in play-out.

I wish the clip was longer on the front end, as well, so we could see how Hardaway gets into something of a weird position ... essentially an arm's length away from Burke as he comes off the screen. Like you say, the spacing isn't ideal. On the one hand, it kind of gums things up, as Burke has less room to work. On the other, the attention Burke draws opens THJ up as all the defense washes toward the ball side. He has an open 3 or, with more time on the clock, the opportunity to drive, draw, and dish to GRIII on the weak side. I guess if you're picking your poison against this team, you go with THJ, but he's still plenty capable. It also shows how the fear of Burke opens up M's other scoring options.

More broadly, I don't see the kind of defense Nebraska played, where they extensively sag into the lane and try to create congestion, working reliably against a team that shoots the ball as well as Michigan. If it did "work" (in quotes b/c Michigan still won by 15), it worked b/c M had their worst game shooting the 3 all year, many of those open looks

Why I love this site.  I am an uneducated fan and could not put my finger on why Burke seemed to have so much trouble getting the basket.  Now that I see this it's much clearer.  I think a few times Burke still tried to get to the basket, but because the defenders hung back (Udel and Talley in this case) they were able to swarm him more than Burke is usually swarmed, thereby making his layup more of circus attempt.

And please continue to do them. I'm trying to get a better understanding of basketball strategy, and this definitely helps.

This is definitely a nice feature to have.  Thanks, Ace.

I agree that this isn't a magic cure to stop Michigan's pick and roll offense, and in fact I don't think other teams will try to utilize this strategy.  In the first video, it actually looks like more of a mistake as McGary's man is caught out of position after Hardaway's down screen.  Hardaway gets bumped off his cut back to the wing and actually ends up too far to the middle of the court rather than set up on the wing, but it ends up working out as he takes what is essentially a long handoff from Burke and gets into the lane.

This is basically how teams try to play someone like Rondo, who isn't a great outside shooter and who's offense predicates on penetration.  It tends not to work because Rondo is exceptionally quick and all this strategy does is give him a couple steps to get into the defender who is now on his heels.  If teams continue to do this, Burke can do that to some extent and should be able to hit that pull-up with consistency.

The best a defense can do with Burke is take advantage of his small size and hedge hard to get a temporary trap or get him off the 3 point line.  It hasn't been working as well this year because Burke has gotten even better than last year at keeping his dribble in this situation and more importantly maintaining his depth on the court (which keeps the passing lanes more in play).  Michigan also has guys who can handle it a bit better than last year and can better take advantage decisively off the first pass.  Last year, Burke would get rid of it in these situations and often M wasn't able to take advantage of the recovering defense.

It's going to be an exciting year and everyone should step back and appreciate the best player in college basketball right now being our point guard.

Players are almost always taught to go over a screen no matter whether the other defender is hard or soft hedging. I'd say the danger in soft hedging is that with a good screen, you are actually more likely to give up an open 3. I believe the Nebraska coach was quoted saying as much and was basically gambling that Burke wouldn't be hot from 3.

Part of the reason #15 (guarding Burke) fights over the screen well is that Burks didn't do enough to set it up.  In a perfect world, Burke & McGary should rub shoulders when Burke passes the screen, not allowing any room for the defender to fight through.  It's basically impossible to get this to happen, but there are a few feet between Burke & McGary when Burke goes around the screen.  If Burke takes another dribble toward the hoop before he dribbles left around the screen, #15 will have a harder time fighting over McGary.

Setting up the screen falls more to Burke than the screener because the screener can't be moving as long (or else it's a foul).  So the dribbler needs to be work toward the hoop (in this case) before taking a sharp angle past the shoulder of the screener to optimize the chances for the dribbler to get a shot off.

That being said, Burke getting a shot off is only one option - on this play, Burke seems to be thinking #1 look for Stauskas's cut and #2 wait for the re-screen.

Just my two cents, I love how the offense has many layers and Burke et al work through them and find great shots.

Good read.  Nebraska definitely did a good job of defending the pick n'roll.  Michigan didn't help themselves much in this game and should have scored more but that doesn't take away what Nebraska schemed.  I was also of the mindset that even though Nebraska did "shut down" this aspect of our offense that it wasn't the type of defense that would be picked up by every team from here on out and would shut us down.  It worked, in a way, but there are a at least a few options to counter what Nebraska did and future teams might try to do.

(Edit: I'd also like to add, and I was thinking this during the game, that Brandon Ubel is/was the perfect guy to defend this the way they did.  Not all teams have a guy that can do the "contain job" that he did, which is weird to say, cuz it's like, Nebraska, but, he is a decent "big man".)

Ace,  I like what you are doing here.  I want to clarify some things as I know some of the terms are being misused.

What Nebraska is doing wouldn't be called a 'soft' hedge as it isn't a hedge at all.  The defender on the player setting the pick is being told to sag into the lane and defend that along with the roll.  This is to prevent Burke from attacking the rim and  force the ballhandler to shoot or pass.

The defender on Burke is working hard and beating the pick so he disrupts any shot attempt.  That is just the defender being better than the screen.

It's easy to blame McGary for the screen this time (or always), but it is and often is the ballhandlers responsibility to get a good pick.  Burke isn't forcing his guy into the pick nor is he 'rubbing shoulders' with McGary that would really create that clean pick you need.  Burke needs to 'lead' his man into the pick and with him not getting close to McGary he allows the defender to beat that pick.  It sometimes requires Burke to fake/dribble the other way to set his man up which he isn't doing.  Burke's defender is being told to play 'over' the screen.

There are a lot of ways to beat that sagging defender, none being as obvious as hitting the outside shot.  Which Michigan was unable to do this game.  Nebraska was going to hope that Michigan wasn't shooting well and keep the possesions down to have a chance this game.  It's apparent that when Michigan is able to attack the rim they are really efficient at finishing.

Just wanted to jump down here and thank everyone for the input. I'm no basketball coach, and I learn a couple new things every time I do one of these—for instance, my assumption that the freshman McGary was at fault more than Burke for the gap above the pick appears to be wrong.

I'll do more of these as the season goes on. If anyone sees something during the game that they think deserves a closer look, hit me up on Twitter, shoot me an email, or leave a comment in my game column—I'll be on the lookout.

set the screen for Burke and then pop out for 3s.  This will put defense on a constraint between two defenders. Sag off Nik, he'll kill you at 3 point shooting.  Make defender work to guard Trey while other defender stick with Nik, Trey will kill you with drive and dish or drive and score.

to counter the soft hedge is to change who is setting the pick.  If you have Hardaway or Stauskas set the screen, instead of rolling to the basket Hardaway or Staukas roll to the 3 pt line.  The Pistons did this a ton with Lambier. 

The catch though is Lambier usually had a center guarding him so switching the pick wasn't an option for the defense.  Depending on who is guarding Hardaway or Stauskas they might decide to have the defenders switch the pick.

Chuck Daly once did a coaching clinic on methods of stopping the pick and roll; when finishing up, he ended by saying "that said, if it's done properly, none of them work" or words to that effect.  

That's why it's been a staple play since the peach basket was nailed up along with Wooden's give and go high post.  It works, but you've got to execute it.  

Several posters spoke of Burke getting a better 'rub' which I agree with.  Also, in your example, Hardaway should have moved toward the center of the floor to balance the court; if he had done so, he would have had a wide open 3 point shot at the top of the key.

Saying JB understands offense is akin to saying Paula Dean knows her way around a deep fryer.  They'll get it figured out and if ever there was a pick and roll match made in heaven, it would be McGary and Burke if they can get on the same page.

Interestingly, they went under the screen on a couple of occasions, one of which Burke knocked down a wide open 3 on.

In your first example in addition to the points made about the lack of rub on the screen, there is a good chance Hardaway did not run this right either. He is not in a good basketball position. He is "floating" 3-4 feet beond the arc in a position where he can't do anything and he is occupying the same space as Burke. Two big no no's on the play side. Hardaway should have either 1) sprinted to the top of the circle putting him in a position to either draw a defender or be in triple threat position or 2) hesitated and curled back around Burke using him and McGary as a double screen which would have given him an easy lane to drive and either finish or draw GRIII's defender which would have left GRIII wide open. All options which would have worked with the time on the clock.