Virginia continued its success at the John Paul Jones Arena with a win against Clemson on Tuesday. The Cavaliers are 29-1 in their last 30 home men’s basketball games in ACC play. The Double Bonus takes another look at how the Hoos won against the Tigers.

Switching Screens

In the Florida State Double Bonus article, one section focused on ball screen defense as Virginia looks for solutions to its struggles with consistently stopping those actions this season. UVA has stumbled against roll-and-replace looks in particular (this is when the screener rolls and another player rotates from low to high with a replacement cut at the same time). The items in the FSU article: flat hedge, bluff and recover, and ice/down/block.

Against Clemson, the Wahoos added another adjustment to its ball screen defense options: switching screens. Throughout the second half against the Tigers, the Cavaliers swapped assignments when the visitors rotated into ball screen actions. The screener’s defender took the dribbler while the dribbler’s defender took the screener. Generally, a switch on ball screens greatly reduces dribble penetration, an area that has really caused rotation problems for UVA. It can also bottle up the screener on a roll or pop if executed well.

On the other hand, switches can lead to mismatches. Since many ball screens involve a post player setting a screen for a guard, a switch leaves a post player defending a guard on the perimeter and, potentially, a guard defending a post player rolling to the basket. Virginia got caught in this situation at least twice against Clemson and the guard scored going to the basket and on a pull-up 3-pointer. Late in the game, Jaron Blossomgame was fouled shooting a 3-pointer by Devon Hall, who did not switch when Blossomgame screened and then scrambled late when the Clemson post player was uncovered at the 3-point line.

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