Arkansas Late Game Plays to Beat Tennessee

It's such a great time of year. Conference tournaments are coming down to crunch time and selection Sunday is a few hours away. It's days like this where basketball fans can eat, drink and sleep basketball 24/7.

I watched several games but this was probably the best in terms of back and forth action. It was truly one of those games where both teams deserved to win. Both knocked down shots, both played hard defense, but unfortunately only 1 team gets to move on. I'm talking about Tennessee vs Arkansas.

Both teams have great guards, gamebreakers really. Tennessee has Chris Lofton and Arkansas has Patrick Beverley. But in the end, this game came down to the big boys down low. And Arkansas had the slight edge there late in the game. Here are 3 big offensive plays at the end of the game that gave the Razorbacks the win,



Nothing crazy about the plays but they show that you don't always have to run a 1-4 low or side isolation for your guard to make a play to win the game, you can still run an off-ball screen and roll or backscreen to free up your bigs. Here are a couple of big plays Arkansas used.

UCLA Screen:

It's amazing how after so many decades, this play still works to perfection. I think just about every school or team in the world has a UCLA backdoor screen play somewhere in their playbook. The play is really just a give and go with a UCLA screen that Arkansas uses to get a nice alley-oop dunk for Weems,


Off-ball Screen and Slip:

Another smart play that Arkansas uses at the end of the game. When you run screens for guards at the end of games, most people assume that the ball is going to the guard. Also, because as a coach, the tendency is to coach your players to switch all picks, it's easy for the screener to slip the screen and go right to the basket. That is exactly what Arkansas does here. Charles Thomas actually blows the layup but Darian Townes comes to the rescue with the tip-in,


Summary:

It's been an up and down season all year long for Arkansas. They started out in the pre-season coaches poll and after some huge wins here in March the Razorbacks definitely look like they'll be dancing next week. John Pelphrey has done a solid job in his first year and the Razorbacks look like they're back on track to returning to the national stage.

For a brand new DVD from one of college basketball's greatest coaches, take a look at Pat Summitt's DVD on Mastering Special Situations. The Lady Vols are getting ready for another final four run. Talk about your late game situations over at the X's and O's Basketball Forum with other great coaches from around the world.