Just two weeks into the college basketball season, we already have our first surprise team of the season.
Meet the East Texas A&M Lions. They went 11-21 last season, and they had to revamp pretty much the entire roster. They started the preseason ranked 299th in KenPom and 321st in BURst, Basket Under Review's analytical ranking.
They're now 2-1 with true road wins against Oklahoma and Rice, and they rank 256th in KenPom.
East Texas A&M has shown why college basketball is so amazing. You can have a team with no expectations or real experience who can become the talk of the country after just a few games.
Head coach Jaret Von Rosenberg assembled this roster knowing their were financial restrictions compared to some of the top teams in the Southland and college basketball. He prioritized a mix of eight international players, two transfers from D1 programs, one transfer from a D2 program, one transfer from a community college, two returners from last year's roster, and one true freshman. That roster has been able to quickly gel, led by the trio of Bo Aldridge, Mohamed Diakite, and Alonzo Dodd.
But how exactly has this team been able to put it all together so quickly? Their ability to move on both ends has been key.
The Defense Rotates North, South, East, and West
East Texas A&M's defense is the first reason this team is 2-1. They held Oklahoma to 0.97 Points Per Possession, Rice to 1.04 PPP, and Fairleigh Dickinson to 1.11 PPP.
It's fitting that a team comprised of players from all over the world has found success defensively by being able to move everywhere on the floor. This defense hasn't been an aggressive defense that forces an insane amount of turnovers; although they are above D1 average in defensive turnover percentage, they use their aggressiveness to try and keep the ball out of the paint.
East Texas A&M has a hedge as their base defensive coverage, and they then rotate backside help at the rim. In this clip above, it isn't an ultra-aggressive hedge attempting to force a turnover, rather, it's built to not allow the ball-handler to get downhill. #24 Jaxson Ford goes into the flat hedge against the ball screen, putting two on the ball. Because of this, East Texas A&M has to have low man help in the paint, which is provided by #20 Thomas Duchamp rotating over and walling up at the rim.
The Lions are capable of turning up the heat when necessary, and their ability to understand each possession has been impressive. A good screen from Rice forces #20 Duchamp to be a step or two away from the ball. #21 Amar Hot recognizes this and instead of just sitting back in the flat hedge, he steps up towards the ball handler, pushing them back. By both cutting off the driving angle and pushing the ball handler back, Duchamp has enough time to recover, and Rice eventually forces up a tough floater.
That ability for East Texas A&M to be able to play aggressively while having a high defensive IQ has forced their opponents into some trouble. In this clip, Oklahoma tries going to a quick-hitting backdoor. #20 Duchamp tries to overplay the handoff, and starts getting beat backdoor. #24 Ford is able to quickly slide over and ends up forcing the turnover.
The Lions have also done well at forcing teams to take contested threes, fueled by their ability to be in the right spots at the right time.
With East Texas A&M being a defense that rotates baseline help to the rim, that does open up drive-and-kick opportunities for the offense. However, their ability defensively to make timely rotations has forced the offenses to take contested threes instead of open ones.
In the clip above, Rice is able to drive baseline with just 19 seconds left. #4 Gasper Skorjanc rotates baseline to try and wall up the drive, which opens the skip pass to the corner. #1 Bo Aldridge correctly rotates to the corner, forcing another pass, where #8 Alonzo Dodd is ready to closeout and contest. All of that happened within three seconds, and a single wrong reaction could've left Rice wide open, and the country may not be talking about East Texas A&M as much.
In this clip, Rice cleared out the entire left side of the floor to create a driving lane. As expected, East Texas A&M has the rotation at the rim ready, provided by #21 Hot in this one. Similar to the last clip, this is once again a drive-and-kick that the Lions are able to rotate effectively out on to contest.
It's one thing to be able to have correct rotations in the paint to take away drives and rolls. It's another thing to be able to do that and still correctly rotate out to the perimeter to contest.
The Offense Drives North/South Before Kicking Out
Dean Wendel was able to talk with Von Rosenberg in a great article you can find here. This quote from Von Rosenberg stood out to me.
"I want to lead the country in assisted field goal percentage," von Rosenberg said. (His teams have ranked 12th and 14th in the stat over the past two full seasons; at the time of writing, the Lions are currently 7th.) "I just believe if you put four, five talented offensive players on the floor and they're willing to all pass it to one another, it makes it impossible to scout or take something away ... the Europeans, they're more comfortable playing that way."
You can tell with how they play that they want to be a team that moves the ball offensively. Through three games, they have an assist rate of 73.0 %, putting them 12th in the country.
They've relied heavily on three point shooting as 45.8 percent of their points have come from beyond the arc, the 22nd highest in the country. Most of these are generated via drive-and-kick opportunities, and it's fueled their offense enough to find success.
Even on a possession like this where #10 Maxime Carrio isn't able to get all the way into the paint but still is able to start going north/south opens up the kickout. Rice starts rotating to protect the paint, and as this happens, #8 Dodd shifts up a step to the top of the key.
This is another good relocation from Dodd. East Texas A&M goes to a side ball screen as part of their normal flow of offense. Rice does a good job trapping the ball and rotating to take away the roller moving towards the paint. Dodd steps up to where he can be seen though and gets a good look from three.
This play starts with #5 Mohamed Diakite being able to get downhill and generate a paint touch. The defense already starts to collapse on the drive, but #4 Skorjanc's timely cut from the the top of the key to the rim brings two defenders with him, opening up #20 Duchamp on the perimeter for an open three.
Players don't have to have the ball in their hands to be effective moving north/south within the offense.
It also has to be mentioned that this team simply has some shot making to them as well. They went to a simple ball screen in this clip, with Diakite popping to the top of the key. Even with the tough catch, he's still able to gather himself and knock down the three.
East Texas A&M has struggled scoring on the interior, but their ability to simply get downhill has opened up plenty of three point opportunities which they've made sure to cash in on.
Offensive Rebounding Connects Everything
If you open up East Texas A&M's four factors, there'll be one number that jumps out.
They're offensive rebounding at an incredible rate.
Through three games, East Texas A&M is rebounding 44.3% of their misses, the 10th best in the country.
Some of the offensive rebounding comes simply from being a team that takes a lot of threes, leading to lots of long misses.
Beyond the shot selection, East Texas A&M does a great job of at least getting a hand on the ball. #21 Amar Hot is the best on the roster at it, often being able to at least keep a ball alive off of a miss, even if he isn't the one who ultimately ends up gathering the rebound.
The offensive rebounding success comes from their willingness to crash at least three players most of the time. In this clip above, they already have two players in/near the paint, and a third comes diving in from the perimeter. That combined with their ability to tap the ball allows them to generate a lot of second-chance opportunities.
East Texas A&M has rightfully become one of the fun stories in college basketball, and they even received a vote in the AP Poll. No one saw this coming, outside of the team in Commerce, Texas. They have a lot of road games upcoming, and they'll be traveling in all directions of the country. But that's fitting for this group of players that have shown they're willing to be all over the court to make winning plays.
