2019-20 Season

Film Room: The basics of Brad Underwood’s spread offense

Film Room is an X’s and O’s breakdown of Michigan basketball. Gibson Pyper diagrams Michigan’s offensive and defensive sets and provides and in-depth schematic look at Michigan’s opponents. Pyper has spent years diagramming college and NBA offenses and takes you inside the nuance of the game with his videos and diagrams each week. 

Today’s Film Room is a re-post from last year, breaking down the spread offense that Brad Underwood (and Oregon’s Dana Altman) have popularized. 

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Michigan heads to Illinois on Wednesday night and will face one of the more unique offenses in college basketball. Brad Underwood’s spread offense forces defenses to guard different actions than they are accustomed to. At its best, his offense can be one of the most effective in college basketball. Just three years ago, Oklahoma State finished the year with KenPom’s No. 1 ranked offense despite a 20-13 record.

This year’s Illinois offense is a long way off from Underwood’s 2016-17 squad, but should still pose a challenge for the Wolverines. Underwood has diversified his attack this year, blending in some new sets to feature Kofi Cockburn, but his team will still run many of these spread concepts.

Coincidentally, Michigan will see a similar offense on Saturday as well. Oregon head coach, Dana Altman’s offense, features many of the same concepts as Underwood’s spread offense, which will create some overlap in Michigan’s game prep this week.

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