Breaking down the offense: Murray State at Xavier (Exh.)
Hey, we have some real basketball to talk about! This is part one of two parts breaking down the Racers' performance at Xavier
There’s a lot to talk about, so I’m going to forego a well-written an intro and just assume you’ve read the headline and know what you’re getting into here. :D
We’ll hit the defense later this week. Today, let’s look at some offense.
Quick note - there are several videos and images in this, and I’m being warned it’s ‘too long for email’ — if you’re not seeing everything, click on the story link to see them on the website.
Shot Discipline and Ball Movement
First, let’s just look the overall shot chart for the Racers. This is the official shot chart which shows makes and misses — the right side of the chart is the first half, the left side the second. (It’s the opposite of the directions Murray went on stream because the scorers table is on the other side from the camera) Black dots are makes, white dots are misses, and the number is the jersey number of the shooter.
We’ll get into some more slightly detailed shot charts ahead, but the first thing I wanted to look at was the Racers’ overall shot discipline. Head coach Ryan Miller has made it clear that he wants to see open threes and layups as much as possible, and fewer mid-range jumpers, all pretty standard for the modern game. For exhibition No. 1, this is pretty close to what you want to see on the shot chart. Maybe a few too many jumpers in the second half — you see a few misses in that 8-10 foot range for instance.
Despite a lot of misses, a lot of the Racers threes were open looks. And one of the more impressive things I saw is the Racers had multiple ways to getting those shots throughout the game when they were moving the ball.
This is just over five minutes in; Roman Domon is going to get trapped in the corner, but Brock Vice gets in a position to give Domon an outlet. Vice then passes up what would have been an open 15-footer to go cross-court to Mathis Courbon, who probably could have got a quick three over Filip Borovicanin if he wanted, but makes a pass to a even more open Brayden Shorter on the wing.
Shorter’s shot chart, specifically, is noteworthy. He was 5-14 on the day; all 14 shots were threes. Most (not all, but most) were open.
Next play is from a little later in the first half. Xavier’s Roddie Anderson III gets a little over-aggressive going for a steal (and a little under-aggressive getting back in the play…) but then watch the ball movement.
Domon again gets a quick find on the pass to Layne Taylor in the corner, who has a nice shot fake and drive before finding Shorter in the corner, quick to Corbon on the wing, who sidesteps a ‘oh-the-play-is-still-going-on-huh’ Anderson for a three. You have good ball movement and passing up tough looks that we have seen players attempt over and over again to get the even better look.
Last one, this in transition late game, and we’re about go even more in detail about the Racers transition play. (Spoiler, it was good) This doesn’t need commentary, really, it’s just pretty.
They also found Shorter wide open in transition in the same spot on the very. next. play. Shorter missed the three, but the Racers would get the rebound and to the free-throw line on that possession
Transition & Tempo
So a couple of things here are noteworthy. First, there were 77 total offensive possessions (calculated by stats, not counted) for the Racers, which is a lot but not crazy. If that were the average across a season, it would have been the third most in the nation a year ago. It worth pointing out that 75 points in 77 possessions isn’t super-efficient. (That’s just under 1.0. 1.05 points per possession is good, 1.10 is great, but also, hey, exhibition, game numero uno.)
What’s noteworthy is the Racers efficiency were when getting shots up quickly and moving in transition versus longer possessions. As a note, I’m looking only at the first shot of a possession here — shots off rebounds aren’t being counted for this.
We’re going to do this with a bit of a fancier shot chart. Here’s the key:
Blue Circles: Shots off misses or makes — without a stoppage — with the shot clock >18. (We’re calling these transition shots. Some aren’t directly in transition, they’re the result of transition movement, coming without a ‘reset’)
Red Circles: Shots where the offense resets, play is stopped, or any shots with the shot clock <18.
Half-circles are shooting fouls.
Yes, there’s a lot going on here. Graph one is the first 11-minutes of the first half, in which Murray State scored 12 points.
So, Murray got off to a slow start offensively, and while, hey, the shots are all threes and inside, not a lot was going in transition, and some of these looks weren’t the greatest. When they got the ball inside, regardless of how much time was on the shot clock: good things happened: made shots or drawing fouls. But threes weren’t falling. (That one make? It’s in the first video above) There were a few turnovers in this stretch, but 4 over 11 minutes isn’t awful. Xavier went on a 10-0 run at the end of this 11-minute stretch, and had a 19-12 lead.
The last nine minutes, though, Murray’s offense gets going, including a 12-0 run of their own, and this chart looks a bit different.
It’s not that the Racers were reliant on transition play, (we saw that at times in some of Prohm’s seasons) although they did get more transition opportunities; in part, the shots on those longer possessions were more inside: five makes in the paint versus just one in the first 11 minutes. Fred King had seven of his 15 points in this stretch, and was very efficient from the floor. Additionally, that made three on the right on the chart is the second video in the section above, where the Racers drove the ball on the baseline to set up the three, getting the ball into the paint on the possession and drawing the defense before kicking it out to an open shooter.
Murray State only had three points on the fast break in the opening half. They finished the game with 17. Which means…
…the transition game really got going in the second half, especially early.
In one way, this shot chart lies. Murray State scored 17 points over these six minutes, which “4-12 FG on first shots” doesn’t explain that well. But the colors are important here: quick strikes led to four buckets and six offensive rebounds in six minutes; in part because quick shots were keeping Xavier’s forwards from being in position to block out to get them, and in part because King just decided some of those were his and he didn’t care Xavier’s opinions on the issue.
First the tip, then a rebound, then a bucket. Tre Carroll probably isn’t going to enjoy film study this week. (If you read Jeff’s recap from Cincinnati, Miller said he believes there’s even more from King to come as he gets in even better shape)
But then the offense struggled a bit again late. Here’s Miller in his post-game interview with Jeff:
“You know, at times we struggled,” Miller said, “I think when we struggled to score a little bit, we got a little stagnant in our motion, whether guys are tired or cutting in movement, or watching one guy dribble the ball too much, which means we don’t want to do that. We want to move the ball first side, second side, third side, and then when the defense breaks down, take advantage of that, and kind of got stagnant there in the second half. And that’s why they made their run.”
Just an example of that here: Murray pushes it up with tempo after a miss, but really there’s nothing happening with intention from there: Domon makes a pass that isn’t moving the defense, gets it passed right back, sorta gets a screen and then just decided, eh, why not take one from 24?
We’re only one exhibition game in, so we’re not going to draw heavy conclusions, but this team appears to want to play faster when it makes sense, it’s beneficial for them to play with tempo (this is not always the case, see 2010’s Morehead State for several seasons of examples) and if they’re not striking quick, try not to settle for too many threes.
Other offensive points of note
Murray just didn’t shoot well at times. There was a small period in both halves where the Racers were forcing deep shots, but not terribly so. (Shorter had a couple heat checks) They were good at the rim, but inaccurate in the paint otherwise: 11 of 13 inside the semi-circle, 4 of 17 in the paint outside it. Take out those rim baskets and the Racers are just 12 of 51 (23.5%) on (mostly jump) shots from further than point blank range. Ehhh, nothing to worry about yet, but something to keep a bit of an eye on. (Xavier was 10 of 53, which is worse, and we’re going to get into why soon)
The endgame was just messy, which, yeah, they tend to be more often than not early in the season. (And since we used to only get exhibitions with non D-I schools until a few years ago, usually not known until it was toooo late.) Murray made free-throws, but nearly had a five second call on a late inbounds and did turn it over in the final few seconds, giving Xavier a last heave opportunity.
Courbon, Taylor, King, Shorter, Domon: +16 scoring differential (20-4) with this lineup in the game. Also the lineup that played together the most. That’s…probably related. And a new potential starting five?
Rough game for starters Mason Miller and Dylan Anderson. Miller hit just 1-9 from the field with two points and Anderson only played 4 minutes thanks to four fouls.
I don’t do the social thing much these days, but feel free to send me an email at cbgametime@gmail.com.
Really enjoyed this! Love the replays! See things I didn't see during the actual game. GO RACERS!