Cal Men's Basketball: High (Screen) Failures

How Cal consistently misplays the high screen on defense

In the writeup for the Oregon vs. Cal game from January 18th, I wrote about how I am confounded by the way Cal plays defense against high screens. Cal’s strategy is for the defender of the screener (usually a big man) to play back. This gives the on-the-ball defender space to move around the screen and allows the secondary defender to guard against the screener quickly rolling to the basket. Here is a play where it goes correctly for Cal’s defense.

UCLA’s #3 Adem Bona is set to screen Grant Newell for ballhandler Jaylen Clark. Lars Thiemann sees it developing and takes a half step back to give Grant Newell space to get around Bona and to be ready to respond to Bona’s followup action. This spacing is typical for Cal’s screening defenders. Here is the rest of the play.

Newell is quick enough to get around Bona, and Clark does not get a clear lane. Thiemann sticks very tightly with Bona as he rolls, taking away an easy entry pass. Clark rotates the ball to Jaquez, but Alijiki beats his screen and gets to him in time. Jaquez then feeds it into Bona, but Lars plays exceptional man-to-man defense and gets a turnover.

Unfortunately, for every good play like above, there are multiple bad plays. I want to highlight two plays from Saturday’s loss to UCLA, and how they show Cal’s lack of positional awareness in their screening defensive strategy.

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UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez never stops moving on offense. He doesn’t move frenetically or at a high speed. Instead, he is constantly looking for the right spot to be in for a shot attempt or to receive a pass that will rotate the ball around to other teammates. Watch this clip and follow Jaquez, who has the ball at the beginning.

Jaquez passes the ball and sets a quick screen for Jaylen Clark. Kuany takes a step back at the point of the screen, protecting the lane from any driving action by Clark or Jaquez. I believe this ‘watch the driving lane’ action is what is coached to the players. It is consistent across the games I have closely watched all season. In this case, Jaquez did not set a hard screen, and Newell is quick enough to stick with Jaylen Clark. However, instead of cutting down the lane or to a corner, Jaquez quickly curls back to the 3-point line. What is Kuany paying attention to here?

Kuany may have Jaquez in his perimeter vision, but he is not engaged with the play or ready to play defense on Jaquez. Jaquez rotates around to the best spot to receive the kickout pass once the defense collapsed on Clark. He nails the wide open 3-point shot.

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The other play to break down is UCLA’s first possession of the game. UCLA had 3 offensive rebounds on this possession before they run their 4th set play. Here is the starting spot;

You’ve got two screens forming here. #3 Bona is screening Sam Alijiki. Lars is playing it back. Headband-wearing Jaime Jaquez is setting up for a second screen if Lars ends up following ballhandler Tyger Campbell.

Lars does follow Tyger, and ends up getting contact with Jaquez. Grant Newell sees Bona rolling undefended, and switches over to defend Bona. Jaquez is moving out to the 3-point line. Lars makes the mistake of choosing to follow his original assignment (Bona) instead of sticking with Jaquez as he sets up for the 3 point shot. We end up with this, also the picture at the top of the article. Bona is double-teamed in the low post, Jaquez is wide open.

Grant gives his best effort, and rushes out to challenge Jaquez. The shot is off, but Jaquez crashes the glass, gets the rebound and easy putback. Here’s the entire sequence.

On the TV telecast, announcers Ted Robinson and Bill Walton said this was a “….learning experience for the freshman” Grant Newell. However, to me this play broke down because of Lars’ choices to a. not stick with Bona after the original screen and b. rotating back down after the second screen to the already covered Bona - leaving Jaquez totally alone at the top. Newell did what he could, but it is not his fault Jaquez was that open. The coaches saw this, as well. Thiemann was subbed out of the game less than 30 seconds later.

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Cal’s consistent strategy is to have the screening defender play back and be ready to respond. However, they frequently make the wrong decisions or are out of position when they do need to respond. It has been a problem all year long - and the coaching staff has not made any adjustments or tried a different defensive approach to high screens. In a season of many disappointments, this is my biggest letdown.