Going inside three of Darius Miller’s plays. They all happened consecutively, early in the first half with UK down to Old Dominion and struggling against their 3-2 zone defense. It was a look UK hadn’t seen before, and given the back-to-back noon tip-offs, weren’t able to fully prepare for. The key to this defense: get to the middle of the lane.

“First half, he kept us in the game,” head coach John Calipari said. “We couldn’t get guys to drive to the middle because they didn’t want to contact. They tried to drive baseline to run from people, and you don’t get anything. You have to get in the middle of their defense.”

Miller, unlike the rest of the team, showed his experience in how he handled these three consecutive plays.

PLAY 1: Miller drives and scores

Miller is at the top of the key. The defense is set, with the ball in Marquis Teague’s hand on the left side.

|

|

Kyle Wiltjer is also on the left side of the court, and high enough to where one of the outside defenders has to play him. UK is spaced out in a way that forces the three outside Old Dominion players to guard four UK players.  As such, when Miller gets the ball here, he has a gap to drive at.

|

|

Miller slashes into the middle of the lane, right into the heart of the 3-2. All five defensive players collapse on him. Many times (the next plays), players will be wide open to receive a kickout. Here, Miller has enough space to hit a quick jumper.  Now, he not only passed it, he scored. So he was making those 5-, 7-footers,” Calipari said.

|

PLAY 2: Drive and Dish

Miller is at the bottom right of the screen. UK again plays three guys at the top, occupying the top line, and the bottom right defender is tasked with the post area, so he can’t stick on Miller.

|

|

Miller gets the ball. With the Old Dominion coming at him, Miller is able to drive hard to his left and get past him.

|

|

|

Miller continues driving. The other Old Dominion defenders see Miller has beat his man. The defender at the top left at top middle are already sliding down to provide help defense.

|

|

|

Miller reaches the heart of the defense, and he’s succeeded in collapsing the defense around him again. This time, an open Doron Lamb waits for a pass at the top of the key, with plenty of space to launch an uncontested three. “He was the only one who said, give me the ball and I’ll get in the middle of the defense,” Calipari said.

|

PLAY 3: Drive and Dish again

Miller is, again, at the bottom left, running wide with UK in transition. This position will allow him to potentially catch and shoot, or catch and drive.

|

|

|

Miller receives the pass with plenty of room to shoot if he wants to. But Old Dominion is scrambling to get set as UK races up the floor, so Miller decides against the pass and chooses instead to attack the defense.

|

|

|

Miller again drives left, catching the Old Dominion defender unable to reverse direction fast enough to stay with him. And again, you can already see the Old Dominion defense collapsing inward.

|

|

|

Miller gets to the sweet spot again, and he’s drawn four defenders to him. They’re all facing Miller and have committed to stopping him, leaving two UK players relatively unattended on the perimeter.

|

|

|

Miller leaps to pass the ball to Wiltjer on the perimeter, who launches an uncontested three. “If Darius didn’t play, we would have gotten beat by 10 or 12, easy,” Calipari said.

Follow @KernelASmith

or email him at [email protected]