...it's almost impossible for the defense to ever be 100% in position taking everything away. If they pressure the pass you go back door (this happens constantly and there's always some defender slow to react or caught out of position), they go under the screen you take the 3, over the screen you drive at the basket, if your defender turns his head to track the ball and loses sight of you you go back door, even if you penetrate and the defense stops you that's okay because you forced the defense to react and now there are reads off of that off of that you can make such as: pivot turn and hit the guy rotating and back-filling the spot on the perimeter you just left for an open 3, dish to an open 3 in the corner, find an open big sliding to the hoop from the short corner behind the defense, etc.

It's so difficult to defend 100% because when done properly it's got 5 guys constantly moving in concert and is almost impossible for a defense to take everything away or counter everything. The big thing is you need guys who can hit outside shots and the more you have that the tougher it is to defend. It was huge last season when Pope was able to get Dalton Nixon and Yoeli to be threats from 3 and even when Lee would rotate to the top of the key and bust a 3 (if his man sagged in the paint to help defend).

In that game vs Gonzaga if you go back and watch it we had really good 3 pt shooters who were not taking open shots within the flow of the offense when they had them, guys like AB and Harding. It was a little because players were falling back into old habits of relying only on a few guys to carry the load offensively which is counter productive. If you remember no shot was bigger (imo) than the huge 3 that Barcello hit late in the game that stopped a Gonzaga run, he had been pretty absent to that point in the offense. Their D was adjusting to the fact that we didn't get involvement from all 5 guys on the floor and so they only needed to focus on slowing down 3 guys (Toolson, Childs and Haws).

Seljaas was another that had been low-key on offense for much of the game but stepped up late and got aggressive within the flow of the offense and helped lift the team when the game got tight. We were up 70-68 with 7:41 to go and Zac made an aggressive move with the ball and got fouled making 1 of 2 FTs. Next possession he made a layup (iirc off of a backdoor cut) and then a possession later hit a mid-range jumper to put us up 75-70 with 6:32 to go. A minute later he hit 2 more FT's to put us up 79-72 and then assisted on the big 3 from Barcello with 4:42 left to put us up 82-74. He hit 2 more FT's late to put us up 89-76.

During that 5 minute run he had 9 pts and a big assist that forced Gonzaga to account for him and it opened things for other guys. Prior to that Gonzaga had put the clamps on Yoeli, TJ and Toolson and with nobody else stepping up it allowed the Zags to get back into the game. To be most effective this offense needs to have all 5 guys actively reading and reacting looking for shots within the flow. When guys start to defer their games so that a few can carry the load it hampers the offense and makes it easier to defend.