Tuesday night, Purdue exposed the best-kept secret in Columbus, that Ohio State is atrocious at defending ball screens. This means the new best-kept secret is that Deshaun Thomas is a never-nude. (Oops.) Now, the ball screen is the hardest basic play to guard, which is why it's so common.1 But considering that OSU's best player is their center and their best on-ball defender is their point guard, they should be decent at guarding ball screens. They aren't, however, because of one simple reason ? miscommunication.
Ball screens are difficult to guard because they force defenders to make a ton of decisions in about a second: Does the on-ball defender force his man away from the screen or make him use it? If the defender makes the dribbler use it, does he go over or under the screen? Does the guy guarding the screener use a hard hedge, regular hedge, flat hedge, show-and-go, or no hedge at all? Should he call out a switch and take the ball handler himself? Ohio State's defenders don't appear to be on the same page when they guard ball screens. This is probably because coach Thad Matta's ball screen philosophy changes from game to game depending on the matchups. Some teams stick to one strategy: Switching every ball screen, forcing dribblers away from screens, hedging hard on every pick, etc. But Matta likes to use different strategies depending on which players are involved in ball screens. When the Buckeyes execute it well, this variation makes it difficult for the offense to figure out Ohio State's strategy. But when the information becomes too much to process, Ohio State's defenders momentarily forget what they're supposed to do, and Tuesday night happens.2 Throw in the fact that Ohio State's big guys aren't the best defenders in the world3 and it's easy to see how Purdue scored at will against a defense that some consider the best in college basketball.
