The inbound

Much of what Greg Gard does is similar to what Bo Ryan did. Makes sense, since he was Bo's assistant for his entire career, and why fix what ain't broken. Some of the wrinkles Gard has added have been major, like the experiment with the 3-2 zone, (I hope it will RIP) and some minor. One of the little things he added was a change to the inbound play when under your own goal. 

This was always a rather annoying play for fans under Ryan, for pretty stupid reasons. The play often started with some screening action toward the rim that almost never resulted in someone getting open. Even if they did, they wouldn't get a pass unless it was 100% open, as Ryan did not want any turnovers, period. Then after waiting about 4 seconds of the allotted 5, the inbounder would throw the ball out past half court to a guard who would run it down. The play always came close to a 5 second call which made fans edgy, but they almost never got the 5 second call. On occasion a defender would intercept the long inbound, and this would lead to a transition opportunity, but again this was a great rarity. 

This was a very reliable way to get the ball inbounds without turning the ball over, so Bo used it almost exclusively. From a fan's perspective, (in a league with Izzo, who runs all kinds of inbounds plays with great results) it was an area that just looked like UW should be better in. This is a rather stupid fan opinion of which I occasionally agreed with, to my detriment. When you already have an offense that is spectacularly efficient at running half-court offense, you don't need to design a bunch of schemes to get open shots off the inbounds. Just get it in, and run your normal stuff. Also, don't doubt Bo. 

I do like what Gard has done with the inbounds play though. The play is similar in that it is very safe, with an extremely low turnover percentage, but has some advantages over the chuck it deep play. It starts with a guard as the inbounder, and the other 4 players basically in a box formation. One player is right under the rim, another (which is always a big, usually Happ) is on the baseline to the outside of the inbounder. The other 2 stand somewhere between each elbow and the 3 point line. 

It looks like this:

The inbound is designed to get it in right away to the big on baseline. The player under the hoop commands the attention of his man for obvious reasons. Having a man under the hoop also tends to have the man guarding the inbounder shade to the hoop to take away any chance at an easy pass under the hoop. The 2 players at the top are far enough away that they draw their man out of the action. The defender guarding the baseline player has to maintain defensive position between him and the basket. This leaves the space to the corner wide open. Since this player is always a big, they just have to create a post position with their body so the space to the sideline is open as they step away from the basket. 

The badgers will occasionally run a back screen with the player under the hoop screening a defender at the top to open a cutter to the hoop. It's a nice wrinkle, but they don't do it often. They usually just get it in to the big on the baseline. This is followed up by the inbounding guard running around the big with the ball, who can either do a screen/handoff to the guard, or keep the ball as the guard continues through to the 3 point line.

It looks like this:

Why is this better than the chuck it in deep play?

1)    While both plays result in a very safe, low turnover rate pass being thrown, in the event of a bonehead mistake on the pass, the turnover is on your side of the floor, so it won’t result in a runout transition play.

2)    With the chuck it in deep play, the ball is received on the other end of the floor from your basket. It takes 5 seconds or so to gather the ball, get it across half court and initiate the offense. By inbounding to the baseline and running the handoff, you are already in your offensive set. You have your triangle all set up with the player at the top who can down screen and go to the post, or you can just let the big with the ball go right to work in the post on the wing, or the guard can take the ball and reverse it to the other side of the floor.

I know it’s not a major difference, but I like the change.