Willie Warren and the Pick and Roll

[Sooner23]

I've noticed in several of the practice videos so far how good Willie is at splitting the double-team when the defender guarding the picker steps out on him when OU tries to pick and roll.

In the video posted today on the SoonerSports.com blog, Willie splits the double on one play drawing the other post defender to step up, and he dishes to Ryan Wright for an easy jam. In another clip, he splits the double and pulls up in the lane for a short jumper.

Running the pick and roll this year with Willie, and even TMG for that matter, is going to open several new easy scoring options for us I think. It will also put guys like Wright/Allen, who don't have great post games, in an easier position to score like in the play mentioned above.

Then there's also the threat of Drew and Tiny picking and popping for jumpers out of that set too. Gonna be fun to watch us run the pick and roll this year with Willie and TMG as the catalyst.

 

[Sam]

I just wonder why we never did it last year with Blake and Willie. With Willie's shooting ability/driving plus Blake's athletic ability it would seem like it would've been very effective.

 

[afaSooner]

I think the 'picker' needs to be an above average jump shooter for the pick n roll to be effective. Teams will just play the rim with a guy like Blake.

Tiny is a perfect pick n roll guy IMO.

 

[Seymore Cox]

I just wonder why we never did it last year with Blake and Willie. With Willie's shooting ability/driving plus Blake's athletic ability it would seem like it would've been very effective.

We never did it, because when you bring blake 20ft away from the basket, it takes a guy that shoots 65% away from the basket. When UNC jumped on us at the beginning of the game last year, OU did use the pick and roll with WW and BG to stop that initial run.

 

[Sooner23]

I just wonder why we never did it last year with Blake and Willie. With Willie's shooting ability/driving plus Blake's athletic ability it would seem like it would've been very effective.

I think we were content with either getting it inside to Blake and letting him break his man down if he gets one-on-one defense, or them doubling Blake and having him kicking it out for wide open three's.

That's a pretty nice luxury to have when you have a guy like Blake and those options, except when the guards aren't hitting consistently. UNC was doubling Blake and we were getting wide open looks, but just couldn't hit them early.

I would've liked to see the pick and roll a little bit more though, because of from what practice video I've seen Willie has a real gift splitting those double teams off of it.

 

[Darwin]

Last season I thought the pick and roll was being saved for late season but there was never anything close to what I had expected. This year I hope its a regular set.