West Virginia's Open Post Motion Offense

From before Christmas as well, went through recordings and took some more clips from the West Virginia win over Radford. I really like the open post motion offense. Lots of options, the spacing is great, and with all the motion, you really make the defense work every single possession.

I wrote up about West Virginia's open post offense under Bob Huggins during last year's March Madness run. But that was just 2 sequences. I want to include those basic options and 2 more as well, the screen and slip and the backpick option. Take a look at several great sequences from the first half,




Curl and Pop Options:

These are the most common motion reads out of the open post motion offense. After reversing the ball, O2 comes to set an area screen for O5. If X5 trails, then O3 finds O5 on the curl to the basket for the dunk or layin,

On the pop, it's the exact same play. Except the motion read this time is if X5 goes under the screen. In which case, O5 pops out to receive the pass for a 3-pointer (which WVU hit a ton of on this night),


Screen and Slip:

Another great motion read is the screen and slip. After the ball reversal, O4 goes to set a soft area screen (almost like a cut and replace with O3). Most times, due to multiple iterations and motion from side to side, the defense simply gets complacent, and O4 can pull a slip here and get an easy basket,


Backscreen for Backdoor Cut:

Everyone loves a backdoor cut. This can even be run as a continuation from the last screen and slip option. O4 is now on the low block after basket cutting. The ball is reversed to O2 on the other side. O4 comes up to set a backpick and O1 goes underneath and backdoor and receives the pass from O2 for the layin,


Summary:

We all know how tough the Big East is this season. The Mountaineers aren't even ranked and they'll likely be fighting for that last spot in March along with Cincinnati. Combine that with the three freshmen that Coach Bob Huggins is trying to indoctrinate, and it looks like 08-09 will be more rebuilding than Championship contender. Still, I like the open post motion offense (if you couldn't tell) and I think it's just a matter of time before WVU is back to the sweet sixteen and possibly better.

If you like Bob Huggins and West Virgina (I love Morgantown by the way, great college town), definitely check out Bob Huggins' DVD on the Open Post Offense. I was able to get some great clips on Bob Huggins' Dive and Fill zone offense so watch out for that in a future post. Discuss this and the rest of your favorite basketball topics at the X's and O's Basketball Forum.