Q: John Beilein Wizardry and Ball Talk

Submitted by RealJabrill on

I can't let basketball season go just yet ... Not until we know what we're looking at for next year.  So, I thought of a good exercise for the die hard bball fans.

Can anyone tell how John Beilein's offense works.  Is it something that is built year to year based on personnel or is he a "system man" that simply has devised a complex and effective offense.  Clearly, its both.  But it seems like he is more inclined to let the kids with great talent just play.  

So, does he call a lot of sets during the game?  And, if so how many would you say that he uses regularly?  And, why is it so hard to figure out?  Does he change them game to game and season to season?

I'm pretty convinced he can get an outside shooter open at will with his plays, but cold shooting often hurts our team's chances.

Between his offensive sets, and Levert and Albrechts creativity along with Zak and Derricks sharpshooting, we could be good next season.  

UMfan21

April 18th, 2014 at 12:41 AM ^

Beilein adjusts his schemes to his personnel which makes him dangerous.  We've seen it change a few times since he arrived at Michigan:

When he first arrived and we didn't have much talent he used the 1-3-1 defense to try and let the defense create offense.  Manny Harris ran the point of the defense and due to his length and athletic ability it really disrupted passing lanes and opened things up.  Those early teams didn't have many shooters though, so half court offense was kind of brutal.

Once Zak and Stu arrived, we had shooters.  That forced defenses to extend, which opened the back door "Princeton" offense to an extent.  There were old articles about Beilein's X's and O's but really it's based on floor spacing and all five players reading what their defenders are doing.  If a defender is over aggressive, the offensive player is to take a step towards the ball then cut hard backdoor. 

By Darius Morris' 2nd year we were heavy on the pick and roll.  DMo to Morgan was a staple play.  Not too much unlike what we did this year, except the Pg was initiating the Pick and Roll not a SG like Stauskas.  Also, DMo was more of a slasher, not a shooter like Walton or Burke.  So on the PnR, if the defense played the roll man, DMo was going to take it to the hoop or dish to someone in the corner.  He was not going to pull up for a jumper.



When Burke came in, he was less effective in the pick and roll game maybe due to his height.  This is when a lot of ball screens started entering the offense.  There was also more hand-offs  coming off screens.  Less people rolling to the basket, and more jump shots which was ok because we had good shooters.  With Burke the team really started to push the tempo and become efficient in the fast break.  It was all about scoring more than the opponent.



This year with Walton a frosh, the ball screens just expanded.  Now we have Pg ball screens, side ball screens, off ball screens, etc.  Basically with so many shooters, the bigs could screen anyone to free someone up.  It was truly devestating to opponents and glorious to watch.



During this whole time some things stayed a constant theme under Beilein so I guess this is how I'd classify him:

-Floor spacing.  When you have shooters, you have 4 guys around the perimeter and one big.  stretch the defense.  If they don't close out, shoot over them.  If they close out too hard, go back door.

-Ball screen. It's really the staple.  We've seen teams play the roll man and leave the jumper open (Wisconsin), or vice versa.  Some teams just don't know how to defend it and they get shredded.

-Work with what the defense gives you.  Each man reads his defender and reacts.  All five guys need to be in synch to know what the other is doing.   Very few of those lobs to GRIII or backdoor cuts are designed plays, they are players reacting to their defender.



-Don't turn the ball over. 

-Premium on getting back on defense rather than O rebounding.  He has confidence that his shooters will make shots.  He will conceed a missed shot as long as the opponent has to work on the other end for points because he knows in the end his team wil outshoot most other teams.



I'm not basketball expert but that's how I see it.  Beilein has been very adaptive, even gutting his coaching staff a few years ago.  I expect the current trend to continue though tweaks will always be made to peronnel (ie Donnal as a shooter will open things up that GRIII didn't get, charges being called differently will change his opinion on having a shot blocker vs. taking charges).

UMfan21

April 18th, 2014 at 12:46 AM ^

I've said it before, but Beilein's offensive strategy is really simlar to RichRod's offense in many ways.  It's about stretching the defense by spreading them out.  Then reading what they give you and taking advantage.  Advantage can come from leverage (close out/backdoor) or it can come from a numbers game (ball screens often create a 2on1 situation if not defended perfectly).  Every once in awhile the defense gets lulled to sleep and the GRIII lob becomes the equivalent of "QB Oh Noes"

LSAClassOf2000

April 18th, 2014 at 6:53 AM ^

Actually, you wouldn't be the first person to bring up the Rodriguez thing here, and indeed, in a sense, what Beilein does is sort of like "spread basketball" in my opinion, for the reasons that you mentioned above. Not only does he adjust the schemes to fit his personnel, it seems like he will adjust it to fit the opponent's personnel inasmuch as possible too. It's why they've been able to maintain nearly the same average offensive efficiency all year, I would think - because they can essentially morph into something which maximizes their strengths while simultaneously attacking the other team. In other words, Beilein's teams are very good at imposing their will. 

BlastDouble

April 18th, 2014 at 7:36 AM ^

You hit the nail on the head. I am a coach myself, so I am obsessed with Beilein and his psychological approach to preparing his team, so I have been googling some stuff. If you guys are really interested you can find some clinic notes that other coaches have taken during Beilein lectures. Also, there are some plays from when we had stu and zak that are online, exact5ly what you said, read and react, swing the ball around and create space and wait for a defensive collapse then BANG....3 pointer! I'll try to find the link and post it on here.

Hugh White

April 18th, 2014 at 8:22 AM ^

The Princeton style within Belein's arsenal that you mention is dependent in part upon having a big man who can pass. We saw some of it last year with McGary, playing high, with the ball in his hands, like the centers of another era -- truly playing in the center of the half-court. Yet another personnel-based strategy decision.

Prince Lover

April 18th, 2014 at 12:55 AM ^

Both. He has a system he likes to use, lots of off the ball screens and cuts. But he will adapt to his personnel if his players can be better utilized. I remember an interview with Novak during Trey's freshman year. He discussed how during his(Novak's) 1st couple years, he never heard Beilein stress ball screens. But once Trey was on campus, that all changed and Beilein was all about ball screens.
Again, I'm not pretending I know the answer, but remembering that interview was telling.

GoBluePhil

April 18th, 2014 at 9:17 AM ^

The two things that make his offense hard to defend are these two types of plays. You'll notice in the half court sets that there are two players standing on the wings that appear to do nothing. The 4 or the 5 will be very high in the post. From this set the guards move the ball around the perimeter I till they create a seam. When the guard with the ball sees the opening in the defense the guard attacks at that point. This attack point puts the defense into a reaction mode. If the defense continues to pay more attention to the wings the pick and roll comes more into play. If the defense plays help defense on the guard the ball is passed to the short side wing or if the guard gets deep enough into the lane the pass is made to the far side wing. Of course the guard has options to dribble dive and pull up or get to the rack. It's not as complicated as some make it. But the ball handling guard is the trigger man in the offense and he has to make several reads during ball movement. The guards interchange with each other and the attack point can come from either side of the floor. That's the best I can do to explain it. Of course you have the top side 3 point shot that is a Beilien special.

Sweet Life

April 18th, 2014 at 2:11 PM ^

This is a great discussion of Beilein's offensive strategy.  I don't have any X's and O's stuff to add, but I do think it is important to acknowledge how important the unselfish team culture that Beilein, his staff, and his players have created is in making this offense work.  For as long as I have been a Michigan basketball fan, a common question has been: who will put the team on his back late in a tight game.  I don't worry so much about that anymore.

champswest

April 18th, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^

Players can read the defense and adjust their movement and other players can also read that and know what their teammate is going to do.  That makes it hard to defend because if the defense reacts differently to a play, our guys react to the change and run the play differently.