Watch the Tape: Auburn Tigers

BRamseyKSR

Beating the Auburn Tigers on the road is a very difficult task. We knew it was going to be an uphill battle from the tip. However, losing TyTy Washington with 8:20 to play in the first half made it nearly impossible for the Wildcats to find success. The loss of Kentucky’s best player was frustrating, but Coach Bruce Pearl and the Tigers deserve a ton of credit for how they played on Saturday afternoon.

Walker Kessler was dominant, scoring 19 points on 8-10 shooting while both K.D. Johnson and Jabari Smith hit some huge shots down the stretch to secure the win. Kentucky will have to turn around and play a very good Mississippi State team on Tuesday. Currently, TyTy Washington is listed as day-to-day while Tolu Smith is considered week-to-week and unlikely to play for the Bulldogs.

In this edition of Watch the Tape we are going to primarily focus on the defensive side of the ball. Kentucky was excellent in the first half forcing eight turnovers and were able to play in transition off of those takeaways. However, they were only able to get Auburn to turn it over four times in the second half. We will do a deep-dive on the Wildcats issues guarding the ballscreens as well. Let’s step on into the film room together and look at what happened against the Auburn Tigers.

Creating Turnovers Leads to Transition Offense

You couldn’t have asked for a much better start by Kentucky. The Wildcats led by as many as 10 points on two different occasions prior to the second media time. Then, after TyTy Washington’s floater and subsequent ankle injury, the lead was 25-16 with 8:20 to play in the half.

The ‘Cats were playing elite defense up to that point and caused the Auburn Tigers to turn the ball over eight times in the first half. Their aggressive play was leading to scoring opportunities in transition which is the strength of this team. That early aggressiveness seemed to die down as the game went on.

Kentucky set the tone defensively from the very first possession of the game. Jabari Smith got free at the top of the key, but TyTy Washington was right there to steal the ball on the first dribble. The forced turnover led to an alley-oop dunk for Oscar Tshiebwe at the other end for an exciting start for the ‘Cats. That sort of aggressive play defensively needs to be a staple for this team.

We will soon touch on Kentucky’s struggles with guarding the Auburn Tigers ballscreens, but early in the game they made enough plays defensively to combat any issues.

Kellan Grady did a great job of continuing to recover to his man after getting screened. As soon as #22 Flanigan spun, Grady was there to steal the basketball. He was then rewarded for his hustle with a three-pointer on the other end. Plays like this can win you basketball games.

The Wildcats did have some success with “ICING” the ballscreens early in the game. Oscar Tshiebwe did a good job of being further back off the screening action which allowed him to get his hands on the pass.

Later in the game, as we will see, he simply was playing too high up on the screening actions. But once again, the steal above led to a layup on the other end. That was two straight possessions with a steal and transition basket. Seven points off three turnovers for the Wildcats before the first media timeout.

We saw it quite a bit in the non-conference, but Coach Calipari probably needs to go back to fullcourt pressing a little more in SEC play. Even just this token pressure got Jabari Smith sped up which led to him falling over, losing the ball, and a Kellan Grady slam. This group can be a very good pressing team.

Issues with Ballscreen Defense

It wouldn’t take a “Basketball Benny” to notice that the Wildcats had some issues guarding the Auburn Tigers on the ballscreen. Namely, 7’1″ Walker Kessler was able to get dunk-after-dunk on the roll. So, what happened? We will address that question right now.

This will be the theme of this section, but Oscar Tshiebwe plays too high on the ballscreen. If Kentucky is going to “shadow” the ballscreens he needs to get further back and give more ground.

He needs to keep moving his feet and give more ground back towards the basket and then recover to the roll man once the on-ball defender is back in front of his man. Tshiebwe just has his feet in cement here. Kellan Grady did a great job of fighting over top of the ballscreen; Tshiebwe could have almost immediately recovered to Kessler.

Kellan Grady just needed to call out the switch on this one. Once he gets screened by Jabari Smith there is too much space between him and his defender. However, Oscar Tshiebwe still needs to give more ground as Allen Flanigan comes off. His first steps should be back towards the basket and not sideways with the defender.

In this style of ballscreen defense, Tshiebwe’s responsibility is to give just enough help on the ball for Grady to recover. He is not active enough with his feet and too high up on the action. Tshiebwe should be back at the SEC logo in the paint, not at the elbow.

Davion Mintz ices the ballscreen and forces the ball-hander to his left towards Tshiebwe. Since there is no screen, Mintz is pretty much still on his man. There is no need for Tshiebwe to help this much and he should already be recovering to Kessler on the roll.

Instead of bending down to swipe at the ball, he should have his hands up to deter the pass. This also was a very lazy effort to defend Kessler by Tshiebwe. Jacob Toppin made a huge hustle play at the alley-oop, but Tshiebwe didn’t stay in the play. Disappointing to see.

For an example of what ballscreen defense should look like, Lance Ware does a great job on this possession. He is just so much more active as a defender. Ware continues to give ground back towards the basket and has his hands up to get the block. Obviously, Oscar Tshiebwe can do a lot of things that Lance Ware can’t, but Ware can continue to earn minutes with defense like this.

Guarding the Three-Point Line

Holding Auburn to 6-16 from the three-point line is pretty darn good. If you told Coach Calipari that before the game, he probably would have signed up for it. However, there were still some miscues and scouting report specific mistakes that led to a couple of easy threes for the Auburn Tigers

This is Auburn’s favorite halfcourt action. We went over it at length in the scouting report and talked about how you have to make Jabari Smith dribble to the basket. Once he puts it on the floor we can come help. We specifically talked about how Smith loves to jab step, stare you down, and shoot the three. In this clip, you can see that Keion Brooks gave up a three just like that. Get closer to him and make him dribble!!!

We talk a lot about tightening up to your man as the ball is driven towards you. When you are guarding a shooter such as Wendall Green Jr. you want to be there to take him away from three.

Also, late in the shot clock, everyone should be tightening up your man anyway. Keion Brooks is guarding Zep Jasper who isn’t much of a shooting threat. Brooks is on his hip on the baseline drive and pretty much has Jasper behind the backboard. There is no reason for Oscar Tshiebwe to help on this drive. We aren’t that concerned about Jasper scoring the basketball. Tshiebwe helping triggers Sahvir Wheeler to help down on Walker Kessler which leaves Green Jr. open on the wing. Even with Tshiebwe’s mistake, Wheeler can’t leave his man.