Saint Louis: The System Behind an Elite Shooting Offense.

In Josh Schertz's second season with the Bilikens, his team trails only the Belmont Bruins in effective field goal percentage. A feat that a Schertz-led team is rather familiar with, as his teams have ranked 12th, 1st, and 4th in the preceding three seasons. The Bilikens are undeniably an elite shooting offense, but how do they do it?

Can't Run If You Don't Rebound

Before we can get to the fun part of this article (scoring, duh), I feel a responsibility to highlight the importance of the Bilikens' elite defensive rebounding. Despite the absence of a imposing interior force, the Bilikens are a top-30 team in defensive rebounding. Rarely will you find a defensive possession that doesn't end with four Bilikens crashing the defensive glass.

At Indiana State, Schertz coached three straight teams that ranked inside the top 15 in defensive rebounding. Controlling the glass is a clear emphasis and feeds directly into transition offense.

Many players will need to adjust to the expectation that they will crash on every shot attempt. A common mistake is for players to watch their teammates rebound when their matchup does not crash. Through constant emphasis from coaches, players' habits can change to match the standard and help the team become elite.

The Standard

1. Blockout an offensive rebounder

2. Crack down on a mismatch

3. Get the basketball

Transition Offense

With a constant emphasis on rebounding, Saint Louis starts their transition offense from a predictable rebounding shell. As they secure the rebound, that shell turns into a wave that pressures the defense. The ball handler quickly scans the floor to look for a numbers advantage and get the ball to that area. Meanwhile, the wings are getting wide and filling the corners.

In situations where the ball is behind the wave, they are looking for hit-ahead passes to capitalize on their transition advantage. If the defense is still running back, this is a great opportunity to drive the ball to the baseline as the help defense will be unsettled. These hit-ahead passes are always the first option to get the ball into the attacking zone and pressure the defense.

If defenses mitigate the numbers advantage and focus on matching to the wings early, there is still an opportunity to attack while the defense is still in moving. These middle drives are riskier with the inclusion of gap defenders and can be limited to trusted drivers.

Secondary Transition Offense

In this style of offense, it is important to implement "triggers" as a way to organize the chaos. Any reference to "triggers" simply means a designed action or layers of actions that generates movement. The goal of these actions is to take a neutral situation and create an advantage that the offense can play from.

If you want an in-depth breakdown of these actions, I highly recommend Adam Pike's article where he does a great job defining and building out these triggers in great detail. In the effort to not duplicate his article, I am going to touch on these triggers from a broader perspective.

https://medium.com/@AdamPikeGrizzliesFilm/josh-schertz-triggers-random-ness-and-the-saint-louis-billikens-mens-basketball-program-9697015e2dfe

Before I dive into film, there are two ideas that are crucial for understanding the why behind so many of these decisions. First, filling the corners is of utmost importance because of the spacing it creates. Second, choosing a trigger ultimately comes down to eliminating any pauses within the offense.

Ball Screens

The most common action is "flat" or "drag" ball screens because of there simplicity and effectiveness in creating advantages. With their 5-out spacing, the big occupies the top of the key, which naturally flows into a drag ballscreen without the offense having to pause. Notice the spacing, the drag comes at the slot going towards the two-side with both corners filled.

Against defensive pressure, Saint Louis sets a flat screen in the backcourt to give the guard space to attack. This serves as the trigger with a slight advantage created. The guard gets into the paint which is a typical sign of a good offensive process.

With a big like Robbie Avila, the Bilikens can be creative with their ball screen actions. They love to use inverted ball screens (a guard sets the screen for a big) or "7" screens. Again, notice how this comes out of their 5-out spacing with the guard coming from the wing opposite to where the ball was. This creates space to Avila's strong right hand.

A potential problem comes when the big's distance from the ball will create an offensive pause. Situations when the big is behind the ball in transition or has to significant space to cover to get into the ball screen action. In those instances, Saint Louis will flow into screens between guards and wings.

With a guard ahead of the ball and the big trailing, the guard sprints into a ghost screen which creates space for the drive.

Defenses will normally switch guard to guard screens which can open mismatch opportunities. Without an advantage, the offense can flow naturally into a big catch and guard motion around that.

Delay

Getting a big catch in the secondary transition is a great way to flow into dribble handoffs or zoom actions.

The most important aspect of this motion comes with the guards being willing to create paint touches without the ball. With guards willing to screen and cut, this offense can create no-dribble layups which are the best shots in basketball.

There are also great opportunities to twist down screens in zoom when shooters are the first screeners.

Looking to keep the ball when teams are trying to hedge or switch the zoom action.

When these actions lead into layered actions, that is when they become very difficult to guard.

This style of offense is designed to increase offensive speed and free guards to play fast without the ball. Additionally, the Bilikens want to play randomly out of concepts which makes this "trigger" hard to break down (again, checkout Adam's article as he goes into great detail!). So, I will share a video I found helpful to look at the different options within this style of offense and suggest watching Florida to see how effective this offense can be.

Off Ball Screens

The final type of triggers are the various off ball screening actions that Saint Louis uses in the middle third of the court. The 5-out alignment creates away screen opportunities.

I have previously written about away screens in my article about secondary transition offense, so more information about the action can be found there!

The other option is setting flare screens from from two gaps away. A rather unique option for Saint Louis due to their bigs ability to shoot the ball from three is having a guard setting this flare for Avila. The clip below shows a more typical example of the big setting the flare which flows directly into their delay motion.

There is also the potential to layer flare screens within other triggers.

It is this ability to layer actions and concepts that makes this offense so difficult to guard. Flow from a ball screen to delay and back to a ball screen with a guard sprinting into a ghost screen is a lot for the defense to guard without ceding a slight advantage. Once the advantage is created, it is their spacing that gives them room to attack and their cutting to punish if the defense helps towards the ball.

Cutting

There are five common cuts in Josh Schertz's offense. And if you know me, you know how much I love good cutting. I am including split cuts in this section though they could easily be included in the triggers section.

45 Cuts

This style of cut is built to attack defenses when they are forced to help on a baseline drive. When the bottom defender is drawn to the ball, the second defender is taught to drop and guard the two offensive player on the weakside. Saint Louis counters this rotation with the weakside wing cutting straight to the rim.

At all levels, the 45 cut is a fantastic counter when teams are forced to help along the baseline. It can be utilized in different instances when the bottom help defender gravitates towards the ball but baseline drives are the most common usage.

"Shadow" Cuts

There I go again with my funky terminology. A "shadow" cut is a basket cut from the corner. I call it a shadow cut because this cut is used when the bottom help defender rotates to the ball and the cutter moves behind the help defender like their shadow. This cut is best used when the help defender has to step up on a middle drive or a short roll.

Shallow Cuts

With a shooting big, the Bilikens will pop their ball screens and make a shallow cut from the weakside wing to create space for their big. The purpose of this cut is two fold as it removes a potential stunt from their man on the bigs catch. Additionally, the cut creates space for the next offensive action.

This type of cut is very similar to the cuts used in a ball screen continuity offense. If the big doesn't shoot or attack a closeout, the shallow cut can open up the ball reversal which is what leads to getting to the next action. A less common option is turning the cut into a ball screen for the big.

There's also the chance for the cut to score if the defense is distracted.

These cuts are best when a ball handler or previous screener (pistol/7) have touched the paint and are looking to clear. With the paint touch, most defenses will compress and expand when the ball is moved to the top of the key. As the defenses is shifted and expanding, the shallow cut from the wing reconfigures the floor to create space for the offense. It can also rebalance the floor, notice the previous clip with the Pacers flaring Tyrese Haliburton and how Andrew Nembhard uses the cut to rebalance the floor around their Myles Turner.

Backcuts (Pause) Cuts

My favorite and most difficult type of cuts are the perfectly timed backcuts within the rhythm of the offense. This type of cut is all about players reading the situation and timing the cut perfectly.

When cutting off of a teammate's drive, there is a delicate balance between unguardable and terrible. If it is timed incorrectly, it can kill the drive with bad spacing and it brings a second defender to the ball. For this reason, I teach cutting on a pause. On a non-scoring drive, the ball handler will pause or dribble at a defender, creating cutting windows.

Cutting Examples

Split Cuts

The split cut is the most flexible due to the inclusion of a second player. Split cuts are a great option anytime the ball goes to a big on the perimeter or into the post. There are a lot of different reads within the split cut which makes it hard to guard but also hard to execute.

Offensive Sets

Overview

From an analytical sense, the Josh Schertz system is elite at generating high-level shot attempts. From a recruiting sense, there is a premium on shooting and cutting as the system desires no-dribble shot attempts at the rim or from the three point line.

With a perimeter oriented big man, Schertz likes the flexibility of using guards to set a variety of perimeter screens for the big to create either mismatch advantages or to put big defenders in a unique defensive problem.

From an analytical and roster perspective, Schertz has done a great job at both Indiana State and Saint Louis. He has a high danger offensive system that relies more on offensive decision making rather than individual players ability to create offense. It is difficult for players to learn as it requires fast decisions, relying more on instincts. When players adapt within the system, it creates an elite shooting offense.