Today continues our series covering significant schematic trends to monitor in the NCAA this season.
In case you missed the first two, check them out below:
In part one, we looked at the decisions defences make to not slide to dodgers. Today we shift to a sub-plot of those decisions, which is the proliferation of big-little picks behind the goal. These actions are more effective, more frequently used, and more important to offence than ever.
Defending them isn’t a plus, it’s mandatory.
Trend: Defending Big / Little Picks Will Separate the Great from The Average
Big-little picks are pick and roll actions that occur between one player guarded by a long pole (big) and one by a short stick (little).
These actions are part of a decades-long evolution of pick and roll play in field lacrosse. When the two-man evolution began, it was mostly on the wing, with picks that mimicked those found in box lacrosse.
While still effective, defences have learned how to better defend these picks, and have figured out a variety of methods to keep their matchups (i.e keep their long sticks on the ball).
This is a generalization to be sure, but it is true that defences are generally better at playing traditional picks than they used to be. Slick offences and offensive players can still manipulate defenders in positive ways, but it takes more effort and deception than it used to. In relative terms, wing two-man games may not necessarily be as effective as they used to be.
This has led to the proliferation of big/little picks and offences that focus on them. There are three main reasons why these picks are used so much, and why defending them is so important.
REASON 1: Superstar Attackmen
Similar to evolutions in basketball offence, big-little picks are a way of getting your best player covered by the weakest link on the other team. And similar to basketball offence, the ball handlers in these pick and roll actions are almost always the best player on the offence.
Players today are more comfortable with picks behind the goal. Gone is the stigma that players “need” a pick behind the goal. Many of the best players invite picks and have years of practice at manipulating them to their benefit.
These picks also pull an extra defender out of the defence. The passing lanes are larger because there are only four defenders above the goal. For elite passing attackmen, this is a major difference.
Consider this shift from Pat Kavanaugh and Notre Dame for a great example of the challenges defences face. At the start of the possession, Notre Dame sets a goal line pick to get Pat on a short stick. This allows him to whip a skip pass through the defence. Hopkins does a great job of scrambling to shooters to avoid a goal, but the ball movement is so fast that when it gets back to Pat, he still has a short stick.
He goes to work and Notre Dame scores. All of it was started by a big/little pick that got a Tewaarton candidate onto a bad matchup.
REASON 2: The dive / sit is a killer
The dive/sit (also called an X cut) is nothing new in college lacrosse. It has been a feature of pairs style offences for a while, but in recent years teams have perfected it.
The basic idea of the dive/sit is when the offence will set a pick behind the goal and have two players on the crease. The “crease” here refers to the area up to roughly ten yards directly in front of the goal, which is different than the actual goal crease.
When the dodger picks a direction, one player will “dive” or cut towards the goal. The other player will usually not cut, but rather “sit” in a soft spot in the middle of the defence.
This offence helps dodgers identify slides easily. Most defences will slide from the middle of the field, which means that one of the dive/sit defenders will be involved in the slide. This is where it gets tricky.
The open man is usually the “sit” player in the middle of the defence. However, if the second slide defender even takes one step towards that player, good offences have already ripped the ball through the zone to the “dive player.”
Virginia attackmen Xander Dickson and Payton Cormier were the gold standard of this play, catching feeds from Connor Shellenberger.
If you support too much towards the ball, this happens:
If you mess up the communication, this happens:
If you don’t slide at all, this happens:
If the defence slides from the top, this happens:
This offence is absolutely deadly, and requires top-down communication from the entire defensive unit. UVA has mastered it, but plenty of teams run it. Increasingly, having a plan to stop it will be imperative for any defence trying to compete.
Reason 3: Mistakes = Goals
Big/little picks are usually set very close to the goal. This impacts the techniques that defences that can run.
On picks that are far away from the net (for example near the midline), most defences will “get under” the pick. This means the defender will momentarily disengage the ball carrier, and will avoid the pick by stepping under, or closer to the goal. After navigating the pick, the defender has time to get back to the ball carrier.
This is much harder behind the net, because the actual lacrosse net is in the way. The net can be a tripping hazard for defenders, and also acts as another picker.
But more importantly, the close proximity of big/little picks to the goal means that mistakes almost always lead to goals. There is very little time for teams to slide or adjust for mistakes, and offensive players can capitalize immediately.
Consider this goal by Georgetown’s Brian Minicus in last year’s NCAA tournament. It is a good example of every reason listed above: Minicus is an incredible player (reason 1: superstar attackmen) and the Hoyas run the dive / sit (reason 2). And lastly, when UVA’s Cade Saustad gets under a pick, he appears to start worrying about the back of the lacrosse net. Minicus makes a great play and because the pick was so close, the defence has no time to adjust.
This clip from Michigan is another good example. The picker (number five Michael Boehm) makes a great late adjustment to his pick which punishes the Duke short stick for trying to get under the pick. Michigan capitalizes on the mistake immediately.
Or, to choose a more recent example, consider this goal from Connor Shellenberger. Poor pick play hurts Michigan immediately.
So, What Are We Left With?
For defences, the big/little presents all kinds of headaches. Coverage options that are too simple don’t adjust well enough for the different scenarios and lead to suboptimal decisions. Overly complex coverages ask too much of the players and lead to confusion and chaos.
Most importantly, teams need to find ways to minimize goals that come directly from the big/little games. In the shot clock era, just hang on.
This is an example from Army. They clearly communicate and are not fooled when Penn State runs the first action. Then Penn State runs an effective pick for their star player, number seven TJ Malone. Army smartly switches the pick, which significantly reduces the likelihood of giving up a goal directly from the pick.
Rather than recklessly sliding, they wait for the right opportunity to send help and produce a turnover.
In the next clip, Hopkins uses a different strategy. They clearly have the game plan to not let Pat Kavanaugh beat them (a smart strategy). They get a good “chip” from their short stick, and Pat’s original defender chases the ball to keep the matchup and flush the ball out of his stick. The whole defence recognizes the scenario, and rotates a man to the obvious next pass, the original picker in the action.
It is clearly communicated, and Hopkins gets back to their original matchups.
Hopkins and Army use different strategies, but both can be effective. They have clear answers to the questions of where, when, and how to play picks and support the ball, and what to do in the different possible scenarios. While imperfect, both strategies preserve the defence for as long as possible. They might get beat eventually, but not right away, and not by the best player.
The good defences will be able to answer these questions. The rest will struggle.
Everyone can run it on offence. The question is, who can stop it?