"Crunch Time" Debut, Jenny Boucek, and March Madness
The Heat Is On
Welcome to our “Sunday Mornin’ Newsletter”, where we consolidate and explore basketball’s best ideas, strategies, and coaches from around the world.
Today’s edition will cover:
“Crunch Time” - The 1st episode in a brand new “film room series” breaking down the last 4 minutes of a game with a coach from that game. Today’s first release is with a favorite past podcast guest… Josh Loeffler.
Jenny Boucek Podcast Highlights and Insights
March Madness Approaching
Best Sets of the Week
Teams to Watch/Interesting Reads
Let’s dive in…
Today we released the 1st episode of a project we’ve been excited about rolling out for a couple of months… “Crunch Time”. This “film room series” focuses on breaking down the last 4-5 minutes of a close game with the coach from that game, and explore their decisions, strategies, mistakes, learnings, and thoughts in late-game situations. The film is included in this breakdown.
Today’s episode is Part 1 of 2 with one of our favorite past podcast guests, the Head Coach of Johns Hopkins, Josh Loeffler. The three of us went back and broke down the film of their come-from-behind overtime win against Washington College. In Part 2, we’ll cover their dramatic buzzer-beating Conference Championship win over Swarthmore. That will be released in a couple weeks, so stay tuned. It’s intense.
Below are some of the key learnings, discussions, and tactics we covered in Part 1 of the full “Crunch Time” episode…
Making Adjustments
Trailing by 9 with under 4:30 to play in Johns Hopkins’ matchup with Washington College, Josh Loeffler had some crucial decisions to make on both the offensive and defensive end of the floor. As we discuss in the full episode, Washington was playing well and presented certain scheme/matchup issues for Johns Hopkins.
One of the main topics we discussed is making both minor and major adjustments in Crunch Time. Down the stretch, Loeffler decided to go to a smaller lineup and put his All-American guard, Conner Delaney, at the Elbow position within their Princeton-style offense (normally where a “Big” plays), and surround him with shooters. This adjustment presented a few advantages for Johns Hopkins…
#1— Great Passer at the Elbow
First, putting a great passing guard at the Elbow position maximizes his ability to find cutters and shooters…
#2— Guard in Attacking Position
Second, the defender guarding Delaney at the Elbow is more than likely not used to navigating through DHO’s and Zoom action like a traditional Big Man is at that spot. This unfamiliarity opens up chances for guards like Delaney to “keep” the DHO and attack the rim…
#3— Guard as a Screener
Third, putting Delaney as the screener in some of Johns Hopkins favorite sets also has advantages… 1) His gravity as a great player makes his defender cautious to help off of him, thus making him a valuable screener for others, and 2) Again, puts his defender in a unique defensive situation he’s not used to guarding, making communication trickier than normal…
The other adjustment Loeffler talks about making comes on the defensive side of the ball, and leads into the next segment on “Calculated Risks”. As we’ll talk about below, the adjustment to turn up the pressure, “run and jump”, and “foul poor free throw shooters” all come with a variety of risks and rewards that coaches are actively thinking about in Crunch Time.
Calculated Risks
From the under 4 minute mark until the end of the game, Johns Hopkins found themselves trailing by various amounts (9, 7, 4, 2). Coach Loeffler talks about the types of “calculated risks” he had to/was willing to take down the stretch. Here’s a few of the risks we discussed:
#1—Run and Jump
As seen below, down 7 with about 4 minutes to play, Johns Hopkins begins utilizing the “Run and Jump” to try and 1) Create a quick turnover, 2) Speed up Washington’s offensive possessions to create more possessions in the game, and 3) Disrupt any flow the offense may have had up until that point. The obvious risk here is that if the “run and jump” isn’t successful it gives the offense a numbers advantage and the potential for easy layups (which does happen in this game too), but as Coach Loeffler discusses, when trailing by multiple possessions and time being so valuable down the stretch, this is a risk he’s willing to take to get back into the game.
* Offensive Side Note: The clip above shows the value of keeping your “trail-man” behind the ball in the backcourt, especially in late game situations, as a pressure-release should someone “run and jump” like Hopkins does. The GIF above shows a well-timed “run and jump” once the “trail-man” clears out and the offense isn’t prepared for the trap.
#2— Fouling Poor Free Throw Shooters
Another interesting discussion with Coach Loeffler was about the risk/reward of fouling poor free throw shooters with more than 2 minutes remaining on the clock. The GIF below shows how Johns Hopkins was unsuccessful in trying to foul a poor free throw shooter with just over 2 minutes to go. Coach Loeffler spoke about his risk/reward strategy on this concept. Again, it revolves around the time on the clock and the FT% of the player they’re trying to foul. This concept is very common under 1 minute to play, but Loeffler discusses why he’s a fan in certain situations with more time on the clock as well.
#3 Full Court Pressure— Forcing the Pass “Over the Top”
With under 2 minutes to play Johns Hopkins still found themselves down anywhere from 4 to 7 points, and thus went from a “run and jump” in the full court, to a full “face denial” press. Loeffler talks about the risk/reward of forcing the offense to throw the ball “over the top”, even if it means they get a quick score. In this first example, Washington successfully throws the ball over the top and gets a quick basket to put them back up 7, but, as Loeffler explains in the episode, this is an decent risk and outcome for Johns Hopkins because only 3 seconds comes off the clock when Washington scores, instead of 10 to 12 seconds coming off the clock if Johns Hopkins attempted to get one trap before fouling and potentially be down the same amount with less time on the game clock. In the actual game, Johns Hopkins quickly takes the ball out of bounds and hits a quick three on the other end, putting them down only 4 with less than 15 seconds coming off the entire game clock during the whole scenario…
After a quick three and timeout, Johns Hopkins again forces a pass over the top of the press… this time there’s a foul on Delaney as he goes for a steal (seen below). This risk plays out in the best possible way for Johns Hopkins as the player who was fouled went to the line and missed both free throws. Johns Hopkins got the ball back, down 4, (with no time coming off the game clock), pushed the ball up the floor for a quick layup and cut the lead to 2 with about a minute to play.
*Zooming Out: In the episode Coach Loeffler further expands on practicing these scenarios as well as some of the numbers he looks at when taking these risks in late game situations.
The Art of the Timeout
Like all end of game “Crunch Time” situations, there are plenty of Timeouts to go around. In the episode we also discuss Coach Loeffler and his staff are discussing in these timeouts as well as his overall “timeout philosophy” including:
Calling a timeout after an offensive score to set your defense
Making a defensive substitution in a timeout
Communicating the offensive play call after the next defensive possession
Changing the look of a press coming out of a timeout
And more
We hope you enjoy the first episode and Part 1 of this series, here it is in full:
Jenny Boucek on SGP
We were thrilled this week to be able to steal some time from Dallas Maverick Assistant Coach, Jenny Boucek, for a conversation on the Slappin’ Glass Podcast. A terrific teacher and student of the game, Coach Boucek showed why she’s one of the best coaches in the world. In just under an hour, Coach Boucek masterfully broke down a ton of interesting and thought-provoking concepts including:
The onboarding process when joining a new coaching staff
The element of Joy in both coaching and playing
Luka Doncic’ genius and learning to coach it
Off-Ball Cutting Concepts during the PNR
Why sometimes it’s better NOT to cut during the PNR
The “Short Roll” and why it’s so hard to guard
The best investment in her career
And and dynamic “Start, Sub, or Sit?!”
Thank you all for the continued support of the podcast. If you could take a second to leave us a rating and review we’d really appreciate it! Thank you!
March Madness Approaches
With Selection Sunday taking place today, we’re looking forward to an always entertaining March Madness here in the U.S. We have some fun content and collaborations planned during the tournament. We’ve been looking hard this week at the Top 5 to 10 teams in college basketball and what they do well, as well as how they stack up against each other. Here’s an interesting graph we put together through our InStat account comparing the Top 5 teams as we head into the weekend (this may have changed by the time you’re reading this).
Some thing we’re thinking about…
Gonzaga is really good
Michigan is fun to watch
Luke Garza’s Gravity… (can a team win the tournament playing through a Big?)
Great Guard Play and getting to the Final Four
Baylor can really shoot the ball… 43% from three!
Which teams will be able to win/execute in the half court?
Looking forward to a fun few weeks.
Best Sets of the Week
Some of the best we saw in the week that was. Including FC Barcelona, Baskonia (Spain), Brose Bamberg (Germany), VMI (NCAA), Fenerbahce (Turkey) & Zaragoza (Spain).
Teams to Watch/Interesting Reads
Some teams we enjoyed watching this week:
Iowa (NCAA D1)
Point Loma Nazarene (NCAA D2)
FC Barcelona (Spain/Euroleague)
UMass Lowell (NCAA D1)
A few interesting reads:
Thank you for reading! If you’re enjoying this newsletter we always appreciate a share to others you think might find value in it. You can do that here…
Have a great week coaching,
Dan and Pat
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