Illinois 1-4 Low 3-pointer play

Caught this from the highlights tonight. This play is from the Illinois/Oklahoma St. game tonight at the Maui Invitational. I think against a M2M team that isn't switching, it can really create some problems as you'll see. Watch the video and then you can read my thoughts below.



That's why video is such a cool thing. If I just diagrammed this play, you would probably say, it looks good on paper but in real life, the defense will just play over top of the screen and you'd never get that open 3-pointer. But as you can see in the video, it does work. It works so well in fact that X2 and X3 get crossed up at the mesh point (the point where O2 and O3 meet) and bump into each other. Then they get screened out by the forwards.

X4 actually does a heads up play and switches to try to closeout on O2 the shooter but its obviously too late here.

If you want to learn more about the Illinois 5 man motion offense, take a look at Bruce Weber's DVD on his motion offense. Hope you enjoy your turkey tomorrow and afterwards check out the X's and O's Basketball forum to talk hoops.