Breakdown of UConn's Offensive Dominance in March Madness 

Absolutely agree.

@@TheFilmRoom1 Did they run a similar offense against zone or did most teams not even attempt zone because of how well UConn can space the floor?

@@jmlui when teams went zone (which some did) they wouldn’t run super complex offenses against them, but they did do a great job of spacing and quick ball movement (which lead to one 3s for their good shooters), and driving gaps, which lead to dunks for Donovan, and kick out 3s. People didn’t play zone long, because they torched it.

The key, training plays, training plays, training plays and more training plays

He’s done a phenomenal job.

@TheFilmRoom1 Also shoutout to you and all your vids. Stellar work and insight every time bro. ✌️

@@nickcarnelli7120 I appreciate it Nick. Thank you!

Appreciate your thoughts. It’s truly impressive to see how he’s taken these new players and gotten them to buy in so quickly. Thanks for the kind words as always, the encouragement means a lot.

Luke Murray had a huge part in that as well - he's known for watching plays for non-American teams (Euro, Asian, you name it) and building strats from that.

@@LadyTerelle you can definitely see it.

Exactly right! And thank you for the kind words 🤝

Its wild, for most of the tourney they didn’t even shoot well, they can shoot really well but they had some bad % games. As a result games were close until that point in the 2nd half where the other team just gets exhausted from all of this meticulous movement. Once they get those few stops it’s like you see them hunt for more. The Illinois 30-0 run was insanity.

@@wesmohn8700 exactly right. And I didn’t even talk about their offensive rebounding, which is one of their greatest strengths. This team was simply tougher than everyone they played.

@@wesmohn8700 exactly right!

Agreed!

100%. The right “UConn guy” is hardworking, high-IQ, & unselfish. They may not have a 30ppg player but over the entire season, all five starters AVERAGED double digit pts. That’s a crazy stat and shows how balanced a team this is.

You’re very welcome. Thanks for the kind words

Haha I appreciate that. Thank you very much

Couldn’t agree more. Great observation

Creighton was the only team that beat a fully healthy UConn team. Castle was out vs Kansas and I’m pretty sure clingan got injured during the seton hall loss.

This is such a great question! And I know I won’t be able to give an answer worthy of the question through the comment section, but I’ll tag a video as well. Essentially, everyone in college basketball has a “flow” that they get into if there’s no set play called, which can be everything from random Ballscreens, to Euro, to Princeton concepts, or probably the most common is 4-1 dribble drive motion trying to create advantages. The best teams are the ones who can make the smoothest transition from a set play to their “flow”. So if UConn runs a play to get a shot on their stagger twirl, and the shot isn’t open they’re very good at getting right into a step up ballscreen and playing from there almost like it was a part of the play. UConn runs the unique ball screen continuity/zoom/princeton “flow” that takes a TON of chemistry (which you build from just playing a lot of 5v5 together & having smart players. So to answer your question, I’d be willing to be Hurley only scripts maybe the first 2-3 plays of the game, then calls/draws something during timeouts, and everything else is then running an action he calls live (like the gut zoom to horns flare - which is just a play call that he makes) and after the set is over, it’s just them playing together & using those concepts I just talked about. That’s what separates offensive teams and UConn is elite at it. I’ll drop the Instagram vid 👇🏾 to give you a little more context. Thanks for the question!

instagram.com/reel/C4nceorulZZ/?igsh=MWM4cWo2dzBpaTA0MQ==

@@TheFilmRoom1 excellent, that makes sense. Thank you!

Just saw this on Twitter. I think with my explanation and this video it will make more sense. I actually do/did the same thing as a head coach with our players. x.com/patlenehan14/status/1781349182655103095?s=46&t=y3OZU8Rp17zJheXEzW3LPQ

@@TheFilmRoom1 Yup I saw that earlier as well. Hurley kinda of answered my original question in that JJ interview too. Super interesting stuff. Him and Luke Murray are geniuses

Thanks Josh! Really appreciate that. Hope you’re able to get to some games next season.

Something to be a proud alum about for sure!

Part of it is just by design. So the action at the end of the video where they ran shuffle stagger twirl, to another stagger twirl is just the play design. But after that, they’re just playing basketball together with (what I assume is) some principles and a few rules - but tons of freedom.

@TheFilmRoom1 thanks for your reply. Does the coach call the play every time? Or the PG some too?

@@1000hills from what I’ve seen, Hurley calls most of their sets. And in the video (04:38) (06:12) (08:25) you’ll see in each clip that Coach is calling out plays and then the PG either echos it to the other players, or he just starts running it. There may be some situations where the PG has the freedom to get them into some “flow” type action, but anytime these sets are run, from what I’ve seen Coach Hurley is the one calling them.

@TheFilmRoom1 Thanks so much! I'm getting back into coaching, and the game has changed a lot since my playing days. Your videos really help me understand the modern game. Appreciate it.

Really happy to hear that, and I’m glad you’re trying to keep up with the times! Best of luck. Let me know if I can help or add value to your program.

instagram.com/reel/C2ug-AEOZEd/?igsh=MTRkMzZwYm8wbW1sdg==

That would be a great video. I’ll put it on the list. Can’t promise I’ll get to it, but I’ll do my best.

Your too kind. I appreciate you 🤝

That’s a great question, and without being in their practices I can’t give you a definitive answer. But I can tell you it’s a combo of very clear & detailed teaching of their system, high iQ players, and a lot of reps together both 5 on 0 and 5v5.

Thats another credit to Hurley and his staff.

Couldn’t agree more.

My bad. Thanks for the correction

Yeah they “only” won by 23 😂

@@ryanharrison4058 where did you read only? Don't be dumb.

Hahaha I can hear the sarcasm. You will see little to none of that.

Players make or miss open and covered shots, they clearly were into these specific actions and combos/outcomes

Because not every team or player is going to make every shot

lol. Thinkin’ the same thing.

Waaaah waaaah 😢

Try 1 year. In 1 year you’ll have two dozen teams trying to imitate it.

They can certainly attempt. It’s just much easier to attempt and fail than succeed in this area of basketball.

Couldn’t agree more

He probably mixed up that UConn before Alabama had at least a 30 point lead in every game. But yeah it’s like 23

Think what he meant is that at some point in every game besides maybe the final four there was a 30 point lead at some point.

My mistake. Thanks for the correction.

Thanks. Just made a mistake

Just made a mistake. Thanks!