Season leftovers: UConn Alleyoop

I diagrammed several different alley-oop plays during the season and this one from the UConn Huskies showed a little something different from the rest, so it is worth taking a look at as well. It starts with an alignment UConn used frequently during the season but the Huskies showed a different set out of this alignment than normal.

You can see Kemba Walker and Roscoe Smith position themselves on the elbow, with Jeremy Lamb close by. You would expect Walker to be the primary option but it turns out he is just a decoy and part of the double screen set for Lamb. Notre Dame has defenders in place to defend the alley-oop but they just fall asleep and Lamb takes advantage to get the dunk.

Look at where the defense is positioned in the following frame. Tim Ambromaitis is trailing Lamb around the screens but Carleton Scott is in good position to help on a potential lob. All he has to do is take a few steps off of Smith and he will be able to challenge Lamb at the rim. You will see that he stays chest to chest to Smith and does not react to the pass over the top.

Lamb does not do anything complicated as he uses the double screen but Notre Dame just does not adjust their defense to Lamb curling around the screens to the rim. Both defenders are playing chest to chest to their man and with Abromaitis trailing Lamb, Lamb has a free path the rim. Smith is the main defender responsible here, as he is in poor position on off the ball defense. Scott is not a threat in this position and there is no need to be hugging Scott. He should have been a few steps off Scott, which would have allowed him to challenge the pass.

Since UConn uses this alignment to free up Walker or get Lamb open on the wing, the defense is not ready when Lamb instead goes to the rim. The defense was not expecting this and Smith either does not see Lamb coming around the double screen or just does not react in time and with no ball pressure out top, it is an easy pass and dunk for the Huskies.