Coach Cal knows how to draw it up!

Razorback Reels for Vanderbilt looks at Arkansas's production on set plays.

If I’ve said it once in this space, I’ve said it a 1000 times: To understand what a coach really thinks should happen offensively, look at what they draw up after timeouts (ATOs), baseline out-of-bounds plays (BLOBs), and sideline out of bounds plays (SLOBs). When people talk about the great things John Calipari brings to a program, his coaching X’s and O’s are rarely mentioned.

That might be unfair to Calipari. Last night, Arkansas scored 0.94 points per possession for the game, which is exactly what it sounds like—how many points a team scores on average across their possession for a game or season. 0.94 points per possession across an entire season would be good for about 350th in college basketball per KenPom and well below Arkansas’s average of 1.12.

However, on those ATOs, BLOBs, and SLOBs against the Commodores, the Razorbacks netted 1.67 points per possession. For context, that would be the most efficient college basketball offense ever if it was extrapolated over an entire season.

So, what does Calipari do with his team on those set pieces? How can they do more of it? And why doesn’t he get more credit for his chalk talk?

Let’s roll the tape!

The Successful ATOs, BLOBs, and SLOBs

For time’s sake, we won’t watch every single one of these from last night. We’ll skip the possessions that didn’t result in points (a Billy Richmond turnover and missed threes by Trevon Brazile and Zvonimir Ivisic) and a possession that resulted in D.J. Wagner ending up on the foul line (FWIW, though, he did knock down both foul shots—that’s two points for that possession). That will leave us five really good possessions to work with. If three makes a pattern, then in my book, five is a mandate. Let’s watch them all in order

Here’s the first one:

Richmond curls around a screen from Jonas Aidoo to catch the inbounds pass. He swings it to Brazile who swings it to Johnell Davis. Davis notices the shot clock running down and hoists a deeeeeep three that goes in. Not sure what credit you can give Calipari for here other than noticing Vanderbilt subbed in a big body big and choosing to sub in Aidoo.

Number two:

Right after a Vanderbilt free throw (which counts as a play stoppage here, making this an ATO), Calipari called for this Spain Pick and Roll. Ivisic sets a screen for Richmond at the top of the key and then gets a back screen from Davis. Davis then pops out to the three-point line. That’s an easy read for the ball handler. You either hit the roll man or the shooter who pops out, depending on who gets open. In this example, it’s Big Z rolling unimpeded for a jam.

Number Three:

This actually looks like a play call to get another dunk for the big. After the initial movements of the motion offense (Richmond pass to Brazile, Brazile dribble handoff with Karter Knox, Knox pass back to Richmond and then clearing out to the corner), Aidoo runs a ghost screen for Richmond and then gets a back screen from Davis.

However, the ghost screen freezes Richmond’s defender, which is the only daylight a player with his athleticism needs to get the basket. Richmond got an and-one opportunity and hit the free throw. There are three more points!

Number Four:

If you have kept up with Razorback Reels this year, you’ll notice this as a Calipari staple for two reasons. First, he loves to enter the ball into the 5 man and then immediately run a dribble handoff back to the inbounder. You have seen this all season long. Second, Davis operates well in the two-man game, as you see here. When Davis was struggling earlier in the season, plays like this are how Calipari got him going.

All three other players are cleared out to the weakside to give Davis plenty of room to use his dribble off the screen. He gets to the restricted area and hits a tough shot. Two more points for the good guys!

Number five:

Like number three, this one didn’t go how Calipari drew it up, but he’ll certainly live with the result. It seems like the goal of this play call was to get Davis a quick three-point opportunity coming out of the half. However, Brazile hits Davis—not Davis’s defender—with his pindown screen. It appears that Ivisic was also in position for another pindown screen and he kind of froze when Davis hit the floor.

Brazile recovered though and kept playing. After the ball got reversed back to Wagner, Brazile got himself into space at the top of the key. That positioning made him an easy outlet when help closed off Wagner’s driving lane. Brazile hit the open look. Three more points.

Key Takeaways

For starters, Calipari is doing some precise X’s and O’s work here. Everything he draws up is heavy on off-ball screening to get his players the right looks at the correct times. He deserves credit for his tactical work against Vanderbilt, which is another notch on the “Damn, I guess Calipari is just kind of a good coach” belt he’s been sporting since the calendar turned to February.

At the same time, Razorback fans have to wonder why Calipari doesn’t do more of this kind of thing throughout the game. He likes to allow his players to play with freedom on the floor, but his elite efficiency in the plays he draws up makes a strong case for him to do more playcalling from the sideline.