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New Offense?

jgisland

Club Member
Club Member
It's no secret that Tad Boyle is a defensive minded coach. We hear defensive and rebounding continuously mentioned by players, coaches and recruits alike. #TadBall is #TadBall for a reason and we also see tweets like this [tweet]517504737382383616[/tweet] coming out of his coaching clinics. But it's October so we hear things like "pushing the pace and playing up-tempo". After the first practice Tad had this to say - ("It is nothing that is a major overhaul but we want to play faster, we want to attack the basket constantly and obviously we have to get the ball inside to our big guys," Boyle said. "Our philosophy on offense hasn't changed but there are some new things that we put in that I like right now. Being effective when we get in the heat of battle, that is the challenge.". This is something we’ve heard before and we’re hearing this once again. Historically CU’s been above average on offensive possession length and below average on overall possessions in the game. This is largely due to the defense that Tad employs. CU’s straight up no gamble defense makes teams run it late into the shot clock.

Avg Off Poss length
NCAA RankAvg Def Poss LengthNCAA Rank
201417.8153201417.7138
201317.9148201318.4227
201217.5110201219323
201117.172201117.6105
% of initial FGA in Transition
NCAA RankOverall TempoNCAA Rank
201430.252201466.3178
201330.337201365216
201227.186201265.7189
201167.9104



But is something new possibly on the horizon? Is Tad downplaying this new offensive approach? Josh Scott doesn't seem to think it's nothing major. "The new offense keeps people moving," said junior big man Josh Scott. "I like the new offense. I can be more of a playmaker out of it because they were putting a lot of attention on me and Askia [Booker]. If everybody moves, they can't just double team [us]." Passing out of the double team was certainly an issue last year with Scott, teams collaplsed on him and the lack of movement in the offense made it nearly impossible for him to find an open man. The lack of movement has always been an issue as CU is consistently in the bottom 1/4th in the NCAA in assists to field goal made.

Assist/FGMNCAA Rank
201448.8247
201342.3341
201250.4253
201150.1250

XJ also doesn't seem to think this is "nothing major" "We had a lot of rust, you could say, as far as knowing plays, but we're also starting a whole new offense," junior Xavier Johnson said. "I'm enjoying it a lot. "Last year, sometimes ... we were stagnant, standing a little bit too much. In this offense, there's a lot of cutting, a lot of back-door (cuts), and there's a lot of ball screens and a lot of movement, a lot of free wheel. I think if everyone gets it and we all work together as a team and play teamwork basketball, we should get a lot of (wins) this year."

And then AllBuffs very own (am I allowed to say that?) tweeting this out today..

[tweet]519158163061628930[/tweet]

All in all I've come to expect to hear things like this coming out of Tad's mouth, but with Scott an XJ both calling this a new offense and Will (who's probably been at more practices than any non-player or coach the last few years) tweeting out things like that......Maybe, just maybe we're in store for a little shake-up in the offense this year.
 
Great work pulling all that together, jg. Reptastic!

I'm right there with you. I get the strong sense that Tad is downplaying this and the players are letting their excitement leak out. If I had to guess, I believe we will see some concepts that we're used to seeing from Notre Dame and SMU based on the coaching influences.
 
Interesting stuff jgi. I know my first response was negative ("we've heard this before") but you've pulled together enough evidence to convince me something more than the usual is happening. Let's hope it's effective and that Tad trusts it come crunch time. I won't miss our "let's rest so we are ready to play defense" offense.
 
Interesting stuff jgi. I know my first response was negative ("we've heard this before") but you've pulled together enough evidence to convince me something more than the usual is happening. Let's hope it's effective and that Tad trusts it come crunch time. I won't miss our "let's rest so we are ready to play defense" offense.

I won't miss it either. But, dammit, that's also a big part of some of my most cherished memories of the Pac-12 Tourney title run and the NCAA win over UNLV that followed. I don't know if I've ever seen a CU team in any sport that had more fight in it than that one.
 
I won't miss it either. But, dammit, that's also a big part of some of my most cherished memories of the Pac-12 Tourney title run and the NCAA win over UNLV that followed. I don't know if I've ever seen a CU team in any sport that had more fight in it than that one.

I mention this every time - but that UNLV game CU had more cutting than in any other game Tad has coached. I actually just checked the box score - it seemed like Simba dropped about 5 dimes in that game to cutters, (box score reveals he had none). I'm guessing that Carlon/Ski/Dinwiddie were just getting fouled on Simba's potential dimes, but that seemed to be one of the only game CU's had real cutters.
 
I won't miss it either. But, dammit, that's also a big part of some of my most cherished memories of the Pac-12 Tourney title run and the NCAA win over UNLV that followed. I don't know if I've ever seen a CU team in any sport that had more fight in it than that one.
Completely agreed. But I'm ready for a different kind of memory, and I doubt we ever get to a point where a team buys in to the defensive identity that completely again. Hell, even that team only really did it for that late run. #tadball is hard on the heart.
 
Great consolidation JGI. I actually caught Tad's comments and then heard/read some of the others. Did not out it together but would be ecstatic if we could see some more motion. Love the D but attacking and up tempo will increase our advantage here are home. Make it a punishing 40 minutes of hell (harkens back to the days when the Razorbacks were a good team) on both ends of the floor.

Hope to see some of it at altitude.
 
It was really kind of eye-opening how Josh lit up when talking about the new O in that rivals interview. I am excited to see what comes out of this and how it impacts our line-up combos.

But on the pace of play stuff, I'll remain semi-skeptical. Sure, we'll run off turnovers and probably urge our ballhandlers not to walk it up but I don't think it's in Tad's DNA to do anything that would make us consistently vulnerable in transition D like pressing for extended amounts of time.
 
I'm with Snow on the "I'll believe it when I see it" grouping, but damn if this doesn't get me a little excited.
 
I'm with Snow on the "I'll believe it when I see it" grouping, but damn if this doesn't get me a little excited.

20 minute scrimmage from the 1st week of practice. Score: 57-50

That's a monumental shift. Like 20 points per side above what I'd expect.
 
Tad has said he wants to run a 40min of hell type of system ever since he has been here. I think we now have the depth and the speed all along the bench to really push it. D needs to be better than it was last year, and if it is, that kind of offense would be brutal at altitude.
 
20 minute scrimmage from the 1st week of practice. Score: 57-50

That's a monumental shift. Like 20 points per side above what I'd expect.

Practice, bro. Unless otherwise proven, When games start, tadball will take over.
 
20 minute scrimmage from the 1st week of practice. Score: 57-50

That's a monumental shift. Like 20 points per side above what I'd expect.

But this opens up the can of worms - how bad was our D?
 
Are we gonna run like a Spurs type system? I'd be cool with that, they move the ball better than any basketball team at any level. They get a look damn near every possession.
 
This makes a lot of sense when you stop to think about it. Tad has implemented his defensive system. The team gets it. There's no tweaking left to do there. The system is in place. The logical progression is to put in an offensive system to complement it.

This is going to be a special year.
 
This makes a lot of sense when you stop to think about it. Tad has implemented his defensive system. The team gets it. There's no tweaking left to do there. The system is in place. The logical progression is to put in an offensive system to complement it.

This is going to be a special year.

Well you can argue the 2011 (Pac 12 tourney champs) team got it more than last year's version.
 
But this opens up the can of worms - how bad was our D?

Do you really get so nervous before the start of basketball season that you're actually worrying yourself over whether a Tad Boyle team is going to play defense? :lol:
 
Are we gonna run like a Spurs type system? I'd be cool with that, they move the ball better than any basketball team at any level. They get a look damn near every possession.

I mentioned SMU before (Larry Brown) as a likely influence on the offense. Gregg Popovich is a Brown protege.

I also brought up Notre Dame, since Sean Kearney was a long-time assistant of Mike Brey (who runs a version of Coach K's Duke offense, where Brey was a long-time assistant).

Logically, those would be the primary influences on whatever the new offense is. Previously, we were nearly identical to what Mark Turgeon does (aTm and Maryland)... and that's not a great offense.
 
Do you really get so nervous before the start of basketball season that you're actually worrying yourself over whether a Tad Boyle team is going to play defense? :lol:

Goose, I can assure you we aren't going to lose to Drexel while giving up 104 points.
 
I agree Cville, but I wonder if the new O played a role in this year's gentler OOC schedule.

I think what tini said above is correct. We're just in a difficult spot for scheduling. Boulder is very distant from everywhere and you'll lose if you play us in the Keg. Add in CU refusing to do 2 for 1 with blue bloods, and we simply are in a tough spot.
 
Goose, I can assure you we aren't going to lose to Drexel while giving up 104 points.

But that could just be because Drexel is really slow and deliberate. :lol:

I'm just saying that before we start praising the offense because of a scrimmage we need to consider the D may not have been top notch.
 
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