The Irish suffered a tough loss to Purdue Saturday in which it led 52-38 at the half but ultimately fell 81-86. There were a lot of reasons for the collapse, a lot of it having to do with Notre Dame’s inability to protect and rebound in the paint (an issue I discussed in my last article).

Caleb Swanigan (26 pts on 11-19 shooting) gave the Irish a lot of trouble in the interior, and 6-8 Vince Edwards used his athleticism to score 20 points and grab 6 of Purdue’s 14 offensive rebounds. The Boilermakers got to the line 23 times (19-23) compared to only 8 for the Irish. This forced Brey to play multiple “bigs” on the floor at the same time, choosing from Bonzie Colson, Martinas Geben, and Austin Torres. Torres played 5 minutes (2 against Villanova), Geben played 22 minutes (16 against Nova), and Colson played 31 minutes (35 against Nova).

Mike Brey is in a constant balancing act as he handles his lineups. Although these “two big” lineups will at times be necessary to survive on the defensive end, his best offensive lineups almost definitely feature just one of Colson or Geben on the floor.

Go-To Plays

The Irish seem to have two “go-to plays” offensively that have been very effective. They were both utilized a lot against Purdue.

Farrell pick-and-roll with Colson/Geben starting around top of the arc Colson post up

Both these plays can be run with two bigs on the court, but they have been much more effective with just one. Let’s start with the Farrell pick-and-roll.

Below, Colson sets a pick for Farrell. Colson’s man leaves to corral Farrell while Farrell’s defender tries to fight through the pick and get back to his man. This is how most college teams defend the pick and roll, having both the screener’s defender and the ball handler’sdefender focus on the ball handler. Then, a third defender has to leave their man to guard the screener rolling to the basket.

This isn’t the only way to defend the pick-and-roll. In the NBA, many teams “switch” on picks, having the screener’s defender guard the ball handler while the ball handler’s defender takes the screener. But there aren’t as many great athletes in college basketball as there are in the NBA, so coaches often don’t feel comfortable with their big men switching on to and trying to stop speedy guards for example. Thus, we have the pick-and-roll defense Purdue and most teams utilize above.

Now, the above play ends with a basket, but the fact that both Colson and Geben are on the floor limits the play’s effectiveness. With Geben at the top of the key, his defender leaves him to stop Colson, who is rolling to the paint (remember Colson’s defender left him to focus on Farrell, so someone on Purdue has to pick Colson up). This leaves Geben wide open for a three, but Geben has never shot a three in his career…

Below, the P&R works like its capable of. Geben is the long big, with four shooters (Farrell, Pflueger, Beachem, and Gibbs) on the floor. Geben sets a good pick and rolls to the rim. Farrell and Geben’s defenders both focus on Farrell, leaving Pflueger’s man to account for Geben. Pflueger’s man initially does his job, but when he sees a wide open Pflueger moving towards the top of the arc, he leaves Geben. Farrell then finds Geben, who draws the foul. Pflueger is essentially in the same position Geben was on the previous play, but his shooting ability makes the play much easier to execute.

Below, Colson is the lone big on the floor and sets the pick, and two defenders go with Farrell. Temple Gibbs’s man shades over to account for Colson, and Farrell finds Gibbs for a pretty good shot that doesn’t fall. Why isn’t the shot more open? Well, as effective as the Farrell P&R can be, its chances of success are proportional with the quality of the initial pick set. The screener’s defender only has to guard the ball handler until he feels comfortable that his teammate has the ball handler under control. Then he can return to guarding the screener. Colson’s pick only somewhat slows down Farrell’s defender, allowing him to recover quickly. And when he quickly recovers, the screener’s defender (Isaac Haas) begins to retreat to Colson. And this allows Gibbs’s defender to no longer worry about Colson and move back to Gibbs. And this allows him to contest Gibbs’s shot.

Now here, the play works to perfection. Geben sets a strong pick, and the two defenders go with Farrell. Beachem’s man goes with the rolling Geben, and Farrell finds the wide open Beachem for three with a nice pass. Note also that the other Purdue defenders are hesitant to help off of great shooters in Vasturia and Ryan. If either of these guy can’t shoot, Purdue could just play off these guys, stop the roll the man, and not pay for it with an open three pointer.

Here, Geben sets a strong screen, the two defenders go with Farrell, and both Ryan and Beachem’s defenders shade towards the paint to account for the rolling Geben. This leaves Ryan and Beachem open. Beachem’s defender probably shouldn’t have helped on the play since Ryan’s defender had Geben, but his help defense forces him to close hard out on Beachem to prevent a three. Beachem takes advantage of the hard close out, attacking and throwing one down.

Teams know this is an effective offensive set for the Irish and as a result expect Farrell to use the pick every time. Farrell does a good job of occasionally rejecting the pick like below. This forces both of his two P&R defenders along with an additional defender to account for his drive. This leaves Colson open.

The Irish turned to the Farrell P&R twice in the final minute. Here, Colson’s pick got Farrell some space and he drove in for a nice bucket.

On arguably the game’s most important possession, Colson comes up to screen, but Farrell doesn’t even give the play a chance, passing to Ryan, who misses the shot. This wasn’t necessarily a bad decision; it was just a unique one given his decisions in his other P&R plays.

Before moving to the second go-to play, it’s worth noting that other Irish ball handlers are capable of running the P&R as well. However, Farrell is clearly the team’s best ball handler and passer, and that is why the Irish often turn to him to execute the play.

Okay, now lets turn to the Colson post up. This play is much more straight forward: let Colson get post up position, give him the ball, and let him go to work. The Irish’s propensity to turn to this play along with the play’s effectiveness are due to the fact that Colson is a great post up player. He’s strong, has a variety of moves, and finishes nicely around the basket.

But like play number one, this go-to play can be much more effective with four shooters spacing the floor. This allows Bonzie to attack his defender without much help defense; the other defenders are worried about leaving their men open for three.

Below, Austin Torres is on the floor as a second big. As Colson posts up, one can see that Torres’s defender (Haas) is standing in the paint, prepared to help defend the post up. Since Torres can’t shoot, Haas has no reason to concern himself with leaving him open. Haas’s presence contributes to Colson not pushing further into the paint and settling for a tough turnaround jumper.

Here, the Irish have four shooters on the floor in Gibbs, Farrell, Pflueger, and Vasturia. Colson has more space to operate. Some defenders try and help a bit, and Colson needs to occasionally make them pay by hitting capable open shooters. Still, he essentially has the whole paint to operate and banks home the bucket.

Here, no defenders help off the shooters, giving Bonzie plenty of time and space. He finishes with the and-one.

Below, Bonzie gets space, gets good position, then ultimately finishes after an offensive board. It’s interesting that Vasturia starts crashing the offensive glass as Bonzie begins to shoot rather than solely spacing the floor. I suppose he may have been trying to crash the glass late enough that he was not impeding Bonzie’s post up, but early enough that he would have a chance to get the offensive board.

The Irish turned to the Colson post up twice in critical moments of the game. Here, Purdue sends essentially a triple team at Colson, who still manages to score.

As explained, teams will often be hesitant to do this when the Irish have four shooters on the floor. But teams should consider making Colson find these open shooters out of the post when they help on defense. I think Colson is capable of making this pass, but he just hasn’t demonstrated it much this season.

On Colson’s last post up, Purdue’s defenders don’t help and stick to the shooters. Bonzie has plenty of space and gets a great look but just can’t finish.

The Irish will turn to these “go-to plays” throughout the season. As discussed, these plays, and the offense as a whole, is almost surely better of with just one big on the floor. But these lineups have had some significant struggles defensively. It’ll be fascinating to monitor Coach Brey’s lineups throughout the season.