Terrence Jones shows some great footwork

Terrence Jones, with his 29 points and 13 rebounds, had a very nice coming out party in his dominating performance against Oklahoma. He showed several impressive skills for a freshman but I was most enthralled with his footwork in the paint.

The intricacies of the dribble drive offense

Diamond Leung wrote an article on ESPN regarding Kentucky freshman Terrence Jones and his excitement to play in Coach Calipari’s dribble drive offense. Since it is the slow time for college basketball, I decided to fire up the NCAA Vault and watch Kentucky’s two tournament games last season against Cornell and West Virginia (the underrated aspect of the Vault: no commercials. You can watch a game in just over an hour) and see the offense in motion.

Stay with me after the break for some notes on the offense and some video breakdown.

DeMarcus Cousins has refined post moves

It is rare that a college freshman enters college basketball with strong footwork in the post to beat defenders. In high school (and possibly even AAU to an extent), they have ruled on the height, strength and athleticism to score in the paint. However, in college, they come up against players just as strong as themselves but they often don’t have the footwork necessary to develop strong post moves.

DeMarcus Cousins came into his freshman year with a variety posts developed to beat defenders in the low post. This skill is rare for a college freshman, so let’s take a look at how refined Cousins was at a young age. We have a few clips from their Sweet 16 matchup against Cornell and their elite 8 game versus West Virginia.