Everybody loves Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis. His teammates love his competitiveness. His coach thinks he should be one of the favorites for SEC Player of the Year as well as National Player of the Year. The national media is coming around too. NBC Sports’ Rob Dauster ranks the point guard sixth in his National Player of the Year power rankings. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein recently said that Ulis is probably the best point guard in the country. Even Dan Dakich, who has feuded with Kentucky fans all year long, included Ulis among his top five point guards.
All the praise heaped on the 5’9” floor leader is with good reason. Ulis is averaging 16.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game on the season, but a switch seemed to flip on around Christmas. Since the Wildcats’ rivalry game with Louisville on December 26, Ulis has averaged 19.9 points and 7.6 assists per game, scoring at least 20 points in all but four of those outings. Nobody has been more valuable to his team this season, proven by the fact that Ulis has played in all but 38 minutes of game action since SEC play began. Where Ulis has been especially good is in his ability to utilize pick-and-roll situations at the top of the key. In this edition of Freeze Frame, we analyze how Ulis so effectively uses screens to elevate the Kentucky offense.
Ulis has been a lot more aggressive lately in looking for his own shot. In the first frame below, forward Marcus Lee sets a pick for Ulis with the shot clock winding down. Ulis finds daylight when he turns the corner of a solid screen as PJ Dozier runs into Lee.
South Carolina loses Ulis as he goes around the screen.
Freshman Chris Silva (#30), potentially fearing that Ulis would drive past him in the open court, gives the speedster plenty of room. Ulis pulls up for the jumper to make the Gamecocks pay.
42.9 percent of Ulis’ shots are two-point jumpers, according to hoop-math.com.
The second play comes just after halftime, giving Frank Martin some time to adjust. In this play featured below, Ulis involves stretch-four Derek Willis in a pick-and-pop scenario.
Ulis and Willis play a two-man game at the foul line extended.
Willis screens for Ulis as Mindaugas Kacinas hedges hard to prevent Ulis from pulling up. Kacinas is guarding Ulis a lot tighter than the Gamecocks did in the first half.
Ulis is cut off.
Of course, Ulis recognizes the adjustment and swings it to the open Willis for a three-pointer.
Willis is wide open for three.
In the third play below, Lee screens for Ulis in the half-court.
Ulis is particularly dangerous with this much room.
Ulis recognizes that he is in a mismatch with Laimonas Chatkevicius checking him on the perimeter. He drives toward the middle of the lane, where he draws the attention of Isaiah Briscoe’s defender.
Ulis draws a lot of attention.
Ulis looks to pull up, as he has throughout the game, causing Chetkevicius and Marcus Stroman to collapse on the point guard.
Briscoe is wide open.
Now Ulis passes to an open Briscoe. Chetkevicius comes over to help, but by this point it’s too late. Briscoe hits the layup and draws the foul.
Briscoe for the and one.
Ulis took advantage of South Carolina’s defense last weekend to the tune of 27 points and 12 assists. He was particularly effective in pick-and-roll situations by pulling up for open jumpers until the Gamecocks adjusted. Once Ulis drew multiple defenders, he found open teammates for even better shots. All season long, Kentucky has failed to get much production out of its big men. As long as Ulis continues to play this well in the half-court, though, the Wildcats may not need their bigs to do anything other than set screens for their star. And when Ulis is on fire like he was last Saturday, he is not only the SEC’s most effective player, but one of the very best in the country.