If you haven’t watched us prior to this year you missed nothing. This is pretty much how we play every year on defense. On offense the way we play varies depending on personal. This year with Cryer and Sharp as good shooters we run the offense through Shead driving and fishing with more off ball screens. While last year we played a lot of iso ball with guys like Tramon Mark, Jarace Walker, Marcus Sasser(pretty painful to watch). Sampson says he likes to give guys freedom to do what they want and are good at. He varies how a play is run based on the talent of the team.
I will say that it seems to work especially for the guards. We’ve had 3 all American guards in the last 4 seasons.
I would probably say under Sampson this is our second best team. The 2022 team that lost in the elite 8 was without a doubt the best team we had under Sampson.
That team was a really complete team and we were deep too. We went to the elite 8 and lost by 6 to Villanova.
Injuries really derailed the ceiling of the team. Tramon Mark and Marcus Sasser were missing and that was 30 points a game. Without them the team didn’t have anyone to create and make a shot besides maybe Shead and Kyler Edwards.
That team fully healthy was the best. There may be an argument that this team this year may compete with that 2022 team that was injured. A lot of the guys in the starting lineup to us year have performed better than I expected. We knew Sharp and Francis had potential but there was worry relying on them might shoot us in the foot. But they really have improved so much.