Comments (0) | |

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009

Georgia growing into Fox’s triangle offense

ATHENS — Offensively, the Georgia basketball team is dealing with a mysterious triangle.

Head coach Mark Fox uses the shape to describe his offense, the same system head coach Phil Jackson used to win 10 NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.

The offense, players say, is effective, but complex. It opens options not previously encountered, but understanding all the possibilities is difficult.

“It’s confusing, but once you actually emulate it on the court, put it to work, it’s very effective,” said forward Chris Barnes

Last season, the Bulldogs used Dennis Felton’s methodical offensive approach, a motion based system. The pace was slow, and the shot clock worked until a high percentage shot was found. At times, points were hard to come by. Players showed frustration, and fans grew impatient.

“It feels real good because last year we were restricted to a lot of things,” Barnes said. “It feels real good to play like we want to play.”

So, just how does this puzzling triangle work? Players say Fox has catered to his talent by allowing shooters to spot up and letting those who can drive to the basket slash into the lane. It’s all about choices, Trey Thompkins says.

“The beginning is easy, but once you actually get into all the options, it can be difficult,” he said. “You can pass to one side, screen away or set a back screen. There’s so much more. There’s still a corner series we don’t even know yet. There’s so many ways to go with it.”

The goal is to set up triangles on the offensive end, employing three players on one side of the floor. Players must read the defense and make passes, screens and cuts accordingly.

Fox admits his offense, in its entirety, is hard to grasp. The first-year head coach says he likes to play at a fast pace, but he quickly added there will be no forced tempo.

“Ultimately we want to play as fast we can play well,” he said. “You have to have the right personnel to have the ability to play in the open court. We have some work to do there. We’re going to structure how we play to the talent that we have.”

Everybody is on board, from players to coaches. The triangle is believed to be the answer for a team built on versatility. Point guard Dustin Ware, whom Fox and assistants rave about, has shown the ability to make the right decisions so far in practice. Thompkins, who figures to be the scoring leader, says the triangle will pay off because of the team’s athleticism. The Bulldogs will be able to “play off the way defenses try to play them,” says Barnes.

But the downside is the magnitude of learning involved and the lack of time left to fully comprehend. There will be some mistakes and struggles, Ware says, while the players pick up the triangle.

“I think we have a pretty diverse type package, one that I don’t think we can fully implement for quite some time because it’s going to take some time to learn,” Fox said. “Normally you have three or four new players. This year we have 15, because they’re all trying to learn a new system, so we’ll have to take that into account as we move forward.”

The key is that players are eager to run the triangle. Assistant Stacey Palmore says he’s impressed with how often players ask questions about the offense outside of practice. Players are showing up early, staying late and are eager to learn new intricacies.

“I think the pace that we’re doing this, in terms of Coach Fox implementing it, I think we’re doing pretty good,” Palmore said. “The offense has a lot of pieces to it, so we’re just getting the nuts and bolts of it down now. How effective it can be remains to be seen.”

The offense is in its infancy, but the players can already see where the system can take them.

“The triangle is something we can take full advantage of,” Thompkins said.