…We saw Spencer Johnson introduce a new wrinkle in his game this past year where he started to go iso in the half court offense backing his man down from the mid-range or perimeter down into the post and work to get some type of shot close to the rim (often resulted in a turn-around fade type of shot). I don’t know if he was successful enough with that shot to make it a very efficient part of our offense but it often times led to him getting fouled and going to the FT line.

It’s a growing trend in the college game for a guard who is physical and can finish through contact to do what SJ did, coined “Booty Ball” as a way to grind out offense in the half court and take advantage of a mis-match. In this case the mis-match is having an opposing guard having to play post defense, something they typically are pretty crappy at and it gives an advantage to the offensive player if they are any good at being physical and playing through contact. There were several guards in the Big12 who were very good at it, one in particular who I thought was really good at it was RayJ Dennis from Baylor.

Post possessions generally aren’t very efficient and don’t yield a very high PPP but if you can find a guard who has the right skill it can be a great way to throw a defense out of whack and grind out points in the half court if your transition offense is stalled and you’re not hitting 3pt shots. It can force teams to try and adapt including doubling down to help their guard that sucks at post defense which then opens up 3pt shooters on the perimeter.

I don’t think this was a particular strength for SJ but at times he had some success and it helped give us some offense when we weren’t getting the 3 ball to drop. SJ had pretty good court vision and sometimes would find open teammates for open shots. Looking ahead to next season I could see Dawson Baker being really really good at this. Also maybe even a guy like Richie who plays with a lot of energy and an edge and can finish through contact. He added a nice runner and floater to his arsenal this past season and it would be a smart move on his part to pick up this skill as well. He would be a tough one to defend if he could get the nuances down of back-to-the-basket scoring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=4bhIa7nbWY1uHW_2&v=Sy8bYXYjrc0&feature=youtu.be