HoopSpeakU: Bringing Its Analysis to the College Game
Posted by KCarpenter on November 1st, 2011On what would be the eve of the NBA season, the NBA lockout continues to benefit college basketball. The inimitable Sebastian Pruiti, founder of NBA Playbook, and contributor to Basketball Prospectus, The Basketball Jones Blog, and about a billion different NBA blogs and websites has taken his considerable talent for tactical breakdowns to the newly launched HoopSpeakU, which will presumably take after it’s well-written and insightful parent, HoopSpeak.
This is very good news.
Sebastian Pruiti Scouts Roy William's Offense And Thankfully Not His Dance Moves
While there are a few sites that do a good job of posting similar tactical breakdowns, such as The Mikan Drill (which we directed you to this morning), Pruiti is one of the absolute best at breaking down the details of play execution. His inaugural post on HoopSpeakU is a near-exhaustive breakdown of North Carolina’s offense. This is simply must-read stuff if you want to look under the hood at the engine that will be powering the Tar Heels’ half-court offense this season. If he can bring the quality analysis to the NCAA that he brings to the NBA on a regular basis, college fans (us) will be all the smarter for it.
HoopSpeakU seems to, at least initially, bring a welcomed focus on the strategy of college basketball. In addition to Pruiti’s scouting report, the site launched an x’s-and-o’s weekly column called “Pass/Fail.” In the first installment, friend-of-RTC Josh Riddell breaks down a couple of plays from last year’s NCAA Tournament. Of greatest interest to ACC fans is that he includes analysis of the game-winning play that allowed a surging Virginia Commonwealth team to beat the stout defense of Florida State. It’s great stuff, and intellectually enjoyable to basketball fans as a whole, even if it may be emotionally painful to Seminoles fans.
