The Daily Mississippian men’s basketball beat writer Tyler Bischoff will break down Ole Miss basketball each Tuesday and Thursday leading up to 2013-14 season. In part one of the seven-part series, Bischoff looks at the Rebels running Marshall Henderson off baseline screens.
Ole Miss centered their offense around Marshall Henderson’s ability to shoot threes last season. Henderson ran off screens all season long in an effort to get clean looks from beyond the three-point line.
One of the most used plays by the Rebels was letting Henderson run the baseline and choose which direction to go with at least one screen on each side.
Here Henderson decides to run off of Reggie Buckner’s screen.
This play that Ole Miss ran so many times last season was a great way to get Henderson open. However, the problem is Ole Miss had no secondary option off of this play. After Henderson runs off the screen no one moves.
During the entire possession, the only person to move besides Henderson is Murphy Holloway who crashes the paint to grab a rebound.
After setting the screen, Buckner has become a spectator and doesn’t show an effort to grab an offensive board. Nick Williams has already begun to break back towards half court, which may be a coaching decision to improve transition defense. But, Derrick Millinghaus has remained at the top of the key and would be the first option for getting back on defense. He is also the only player Henderson could pass the ball to if he had not had an open shot.
Occasionally, Henderson would have another option as the screener would post up at the block after Henderson ran by as Holloway did below.
Other than that there was no secondary option on a play that Ole Miss ran over and over again. This lack of a second option meant Henderson often forced up shots because no one else was in position to make a play. Running a play with no secondary option is telling Henderson that he is expected to shoot on the possession regardless.
Ole Miss needs to continue to run these baseline screens because they were extremely effective. Henderson scored over 40 percent of his points off of screens. He also scored 1.12 points per possession off of screens. (This includes all screens, not just the baseline screens.) That was the fourth best mark in the SEC of players to have at least 20 possessions off screens. Henderson had 267 possessions off of screens while the three players ahead of him all had under 35 possessions.
Ole Miss needs to develop one of their most used sets by using weak side screening or cutting to get someone else open. LaDarius White will be expected to pick up his offensive production this year so giving him a screen to cut to the basket as a secondary option would be one way to improve this play’s versatility.
Pictures and stats thanks to Synergy Sports.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
