EXCERPT: How did Virginia turn Sam Hauser into a preseason All-American?

Today, I published an in-depth feature on Sam Hauser and how one small Wisconsin town has changed Virginia’s basketball program forever.

That piece will be for paying subscribers only. But here is an excerpt from that piece, an in-depth look at how the Virginia staff worked on developing Hauser’s game for this upcoming season.

“Offensively, I’ve always kind of naturally adapted to who I play with, whatever system we ran,” Hauser said. His versatility on that end is where the value lies. “I played the four at Marquette [my first two years]. I played both the last year with Joey there. I don’t know what my natural position really is.”

“Being a tweener has its benefits,” he continued. “At the four I can draw out a mismatch. At the three I can go in the post. Being able to do a lot and be versatile is a good thing.

“I paid a lot of attention to what they were doing with [De’andre Hunter]. The No. 4 pick in the draft is big shoes to fill in that aspect, but I can do a lot of similar things to him on offense. Play out of the mid-post. Knock-down threes. Play for myself. Create for others.”

“He’s so complete,” added associate head coach Jason Williford. “He can do a little bit of everything.”

The goal this offseason was to get Hauser to the point where he can do more than just “a little bit” of everything.

The major point that the Virginia staff was focused on with Hauser after watching him work in practice for a year was defining whether or not he was truly a wing or just a four that can play away from the basket. Put another way, can he be as effective when he is being asked to guard, and being guarded by, players that are quicker and more athletic than him?

According to Virginia’s offseason development plan for Hauser, the focus was on improving his perimeter skills. Specifically, the staff wanted to see him develop his 1-to-2 dribble pull-up jumper, to improve his handle to the point that he does not turn the ball over when a defender beats him to a spot, and to break the habit of turning his back to the defense and backing a defender down in isolation when he cannot get to the rim. Defensively, it was all about footwork. Quicken up his slides. Get used to getting his lead foot over ball-screens. Work on the angle, the timing and the balance needed to closeout quick and prevent players from driving him on the catch.

How would he do all of that?

The plan, beyond the requisite reps needed in the gym, was to have Hauser spend the offseason playing as much 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 as possible, but only with smaller, quicker guards and without being allowed to revert to his crutch, turning his back to the defense. Focus on being able to make plays off the dribble against players who strength is taking away dribble drives. That’s the only way to get better at doing those things.

The goal was to get him to the point where he was not just capable of playing different positions offensively, but a very real threat.

And there’s a very specific reason for that.

I’ve covered this subject extensively in the past, so I’ll be brief here, but there are two offenses that Virginia runs. They are famous for their Blocker-Mover, which is an offense that was created by Dick Bennett that features two screeners (aka blockers) and three players running off of those screens (aka movers):

But that offense was limiting, particularly when talents like Jerome, Guy and Hunter were on the floor together.

So Bennett installed a continuity ball-screen offense prior to the start of the 2018-19 season, which Virginia calls their “flow”:

Hauser is the missing piece in both of these offenses.

Virginia cannot run their flow without shooting on the floor. The whole idea of spread ball-screens is that the gravity created by the threat of a three leaves space in the paint. When Jay Huff is setting a ball-screen for Kihei Clark, but the “shooters” that are spacing the floor are Braxton Key and Casey Morsell, who combined to shooting 18 percent from three last season, there is no space to operate in the paint.

Hauser doesn’t solve this issue entirely, but he will be the most dangerous player on the floor, and when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands, he will attract the attention of the defense. And that’s to say nothing of the impact that he can have in pick-and-pops, or that he can handle the ball a little bit himself.

Then there is the Blocker-Mover. Hauser will be at his best running off of the pin-downs that are ever-prevalent in that offense, but he’s skilled enough to be able to isolate in the mid-post. This is something that Bennett did often with Hunter in the two seasons that he was eligible to play.

There really are not any questions or concerns among anyone on the staff as to how Hauser will fit into what Virginia wants to do offensively. He’ll make them markedly better. It is why I have Hauser as a preseason first-team All-American and Virginia as a preseason top five team.