Getting the ball to Dok

While it appeared that the team was trying to throw the ball into him (especially during the 2nd half), ISU had a defender fading toward him when a lot of the attempted post entries were being attempted. I'm not sure how you combat that, but I feel that it was good game planning by ISU.

Once teams figured out that if Dok gets the ball within about 5 feet of the hoop, there's about an 80% chance that he'll score, and about a 60% chance it'll be via a dunk, they've adjusted.

Since he's pretty hard to stop when he gets the ball down low, one obvious move is to have a guy collapse on him and deny the entry pass.

One thing Dok still needs to improve on is to move his guy up the lane. If he's down on the block, there's not enough room to go over the top to him. If he can get his defender up the lane a couple of steps, it's MUCH easier for a pass to go over the top of the defender and get easy points for Dok.

But ISU aren't stupid either. Often they had a guy guarding Dok underneath, and then they'd allow a guy to collapse down to deny the entry pass. That's ok, because now Dok has 2 guys on him and somebody is open. KU needs to find that guy and that guy needs to make the shot. Luckily we (usually) have guys who can make shots from outside.

The other stuff we see a lot of is stuff that's drawn up to get Dok open. Whether it's a pick and roll, or some kind of other screening scheme that either opens him up, or forces a switch that creates a mismatch (put a 5'10" guard on Dok in the lane), we see a lot of that kind of thing.

I think one of the problems that these kids encounter is that at halftime, no doubt HCBS barks at them to get the ball into Dok. Meanwhile ISU knows that this is coming and they collapse on him, and the result is that at times we "force" the ball into him. I think that starts to change a little bit when other guys drive rather than shoot. If HCBS has told them to stop jacking 3's (especially early in the shot clock), I think they need to realize that people other than Dok can go inside. Say Dok is double-teamed: the "open" guy CAN just hoist a 3 and get blown up by Self if it misses.....OR the same guy could try to get inside. Then Dok's 2nd defender has to make a choice: pick up his man, leaving Dok freed up to get a pass, or stick with Dok and let the guy with the ball get a shot. I'm just guessing that if Newman or Vick misses a shot while trying to get toward the rim, HCBS will be a lot more forgiving than if he misses a 3.

Dok is a monster once he receives the ball. However, he is a work in progress on working without the ball to create the angles needed. He is getting better every day at this, just needs more experience.