The challenge for young point guards

Pistons President Joe Dumars recently compared young NFL quarterbacks with young NBA point guards:

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What happens is an NFL quarterback or an NBA point guard, initially, you’re not given as much responsibility when you hit the court. Usually in football the playbook is real thin for that guy, usually in basketball you’re limiting the number of plays he’s calling. You’re calling three or four plays and that’s it.

But you can only stay with three or four plays for so long. When his role increases, then the playbook has to increase, responsibility has to increase. You go from calling three or four plays when you’re a young guy to after a while, now you’re calling 10, 12 15, 20 different sets. That’s where you see some of the hesitancy come in. You’re not just reacting any more. You haven’t had enough time out there.

[If] you’re a five-, six-year vet, those 15 or 20 plays don’t even bother you. You know them like the back of your hand. When you’re a guy who hasn’t played 100 games yet, you start calling 15 or 20 plays, you have to start thinking about them. You almost have to envision them – OK, yeah, I know what the play is now.

But when you’re doing that, you’re hesitant out there. You’re processing it and thinking it, but you’re in front of 20,000 people processing it and you look hesitant. So that’s what happens a lot of times with young point guards.

How the nation's best-shooting team does it

Last year, 56-year-old Stew Morrill's Utah State team led the nation in FG and FT shooting, and they're the best-shooting FG team so far again this year. [Here are the team's stats.]

According to this article on ESPN, "Morrill's program is one of just five to win three-quarters of its games [they're 12-1 this season] since the turn of the century, and that has been thanks in large part to its consistently superb shooting."

What's his secret?

"We've had a lot of kids who can really shoot the ball. We've been blessed with a lot of skilled kids, and Utah's a great basketball state. I don't know if people really realize that. We always take extra shots in practice; we work on our free throws all the time. But there's a lot more to it than that."

By "a lot more to it" Coach Morrill (pictured above) is referring to a "2-inch thick playbook that's as thick as any NFL team's. And those binders are chock-full of ways to get the open looks and easy shots for which Utah State has become known across the West."

Says one Utah State player (who's shooting better than 71% from the floor):

"Learning this system is almost like taking a class. We have to remember a lot of plays. For example, we have this one play where everything goes on timing. I make my move when one guy gets to a certain point on the floor and not a second before or after, and if I don't set my screen at the exact moment, the whole thing is busted and everybody gets lost."

As the article describes, "during games... associate head coach Tim Duryea and basketball operations director Lance Beckert... hold a thick set of indexed flip cards. Either set, red or blue, represents the actual plays being run at any given time, and the 'hot' set can change at a timeout's notice. The Aggies on the floor always know what to execute, but opposing teams trying to steal signals are lost in an endless blur of 'Cross Iso,' '24,' 'Monster Right' or any of the hundreds of possible flip-card combinations."

Says Coach Duryea:

"I don't think anyone else uses two sets. We use it in practice from day one, so it becomes a way of life when it comes to playing offense at Utah State. The assistants that have held the cards in the past have a running joke that on nights when we aren't shooting so well, those cards get a whole lot heavier."

There are two keys to running Coach Morrill's system. First, as one player puts it, "We have really, really smart guys; there isn't anyone on our team who's under a 3.0."

Second, "in Morrill's complex system, which focuses on inside-out play, four-year players often have a marked advantage, which is enhanced by the general advanced maturity and intelligence of the squad as a whole. The Aggies' average age is 21, and only one player was born in the 1990s." [Here's the roster.]

According to one player, "Freshmen almost never start with this system. I took a redshirt, and that helped me a lot. When you come in as a freshman, you have time to learn how things work. The two-year players, on the other hand, have to understand everything right away."

Coaching Better Basketball

For coaches: Some good video here of various NBA, WNBA, and European League sets and plays. For additional information, visit the Coaching Better Basketball blog.