Film Room: How Auburn used Houston's aggressive defense against itself

The Cougars thought they could harass the Tigers all night long. But Auburn walked out a winner with a combo of special players and special calls.

We’ve decided to extend our Stretch 4 Special for the start of Auburn basketball season just one more day.

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It will give you access to this Film Room special on Auburn’s spectacular offense against Houston’s elite defense from Saturday night’s heavyweight bout in the Space City — and it will give you access to everything we write and say about the Tigers, from our coast-to-coast coverage, all season long.

One more special note: I (Justin) co-wrote this Film Room with my brother, who has been instrumental to our basketball Xs and Os work throughout the Observer’s history. He carried a ton of weight in this piece, and I hope you enjoy our shared insights on what made the Tigers so effective Saturday night.

PG/SG Tahaad Pettiford (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

HOUSTON — What Auburn did on offense Saturday night in its 74-69 road win over KenPom No. 1 Houston was as impressive as it was unexpected.

The surest thing in college basketball over the last several seasons has been the elite defense of Houston. The Cougars limit scoring and strangle shooting percentages better than anyone in the country, and that’s been a consistent theme under ultra-experienced head coach Kelvin Sampson.

Even after a slow offensive start and a tough finish to the first half, Auburn’s offense countered with a second half that hardly anyone has come close to replicating against Houston in recent years.

Auburn scored on 70% of its possessions and averaged a ridiculous 1.533 points per possession. All-American center Johni Broome went 8-10 from the floor for 16 points after halftime. Freshman phenom Tahaad Pettiford scored 15, including a 3-4 mark from beyond the arc, and didn’t turn the ball over a single time.

“They have one of the best defenses in the country,” Broome said. “The coaches drew a great game plan up. We started putting in ball screens and allowing them to put two on the ball, then taking advantage of the disadvantages. We put the ball in Tahaad's and Denver's and our guards’ hands. They gave me good looks, and I just finished.”

The mastermind behind Auburn’s offensive surge was assistant coach Mike Burgomaster, who has worked his way up from graduate assistant to the “offensive coordinator” role for Bruce Pearl.

“Mike Burgomaster called every offensive play in the second half,” Pearl said. “I went with every play he put forward. And we did a pretty good job designing some plays this week. We had some things this week that we hadn't shown yet — particularly in the second half, particularly late.”

The key to Auburn’s offensive success against what had been a largely impenetrable Houston defense was making the Cougars’ trademark aggressiveness work for the Tigers.

Combine that with some clutch individual plays from several stars — especially an old one in Broome and a new one in Pettiford — and Auburn painted an offensive masterpiece inside Toyota Center.

The first clear-cut example of the strategy Auburn would use to burn Houston in the second half actually came midway through the first half.

On this set, the initial quick 5-out action isn’t there. So, Auburn decides to reset and improvise halfway through the shot clock. It’s a simply spaced 5-1 ball screen, an open play that Auburn traditionally signals by patting the top of the head. You can see Dylan Cardwell and Denver Jones both sign for it here.

Houston denies the ball screen very aggressively here. Houston point guard Milos Uzan, who had an outstanding game until he fouled out, steps all the way up to prevent the ball-handler from taking the screen while the screener’s man (known as the X5) steps into a contain-and-blitz coverage. Notice the aggressiveness away from the ball as well, as the bottom corner defender for Houston steps all the way up into the left passing lane.

To the right of Pettiford, Chad Baker-Mazara pops up to get in the point guard’s sightline and receive the initial pass, and JP Pegues hits him as an exit valve. Then Baker-Mazara makes an even quicker pass to Cardwell, who stuck around at the high post.

Away from the play, Jones lifts out of the left corner, and Chaney Johnson drifts down into the dunker spot, between the block and corner. Cardwell has the ball at the high post, collapsing the defense and prompting Houston’s last defender to commit to him. So Cardwell makes the smart play by making a quick dump-off to Johnson, who is cutting backdoor.

Houston’s Mylik Wilson is late rotating over, thanks in part to that Jones lift out of the corner. At that point, the defense is beat and all Houston can do is foul Johnson from behind on the dunk attempt.

Johnson hits both free throws, which helps him get to seven of Auburn’s first 11 points. He was a huge help early off the bench, and Auburn would end up relying on him in crunch time.

This is an easy, quick-read improv play. Basketball 101.

To counter an aggressive coverage — like two blitzing defenders on the ball in a ball-screen action — you have to get the ball out quickly, see the floor and hit the open man as soon as possible.

Since the pressure prevents the first pass from going straight to Cardwell at the high post, the easy “exit-valve” pass presents itself to Baker-Mazara, who makes a hot pass to Cardwell in the middle of the court and puts Houston’s defense in a scramble.

It is taught early on that a pass moves faster than any player on the court, and good spacing makes reads very fast and very simple. An elite defense like Houston might be great with its help on the first pass away from the double team. But it’s much tougher to be great with help on subsequent ball movement, especially if passes are made just as soon as they are caught.

You can think of it like a quarterback having a hot read versus a blitz in football. It turns a defense’s aggressiveness against itself by creating something simple and fast to counter it. The ball, at that speed, is literally “hot.” The read is instant and instinctual, and it creates natural advantages — 2-on-1, 3-on-2, 4-on-3, etc.

The foundation of Houston’s ultra-consistent defensive success is that attacking mentality against ball screens. The Cougars are experienced, athletic and tough across the board. They feel like overwhelming offenses in their go-to actions is the best way to break them over the course of 40 minutes.

Houston clearly wanted to do that against Auburn, especially when a freshman point guard like Pettiford was handling the ball.

However, it didn’t take long for Pettiford to show that he wasn’t going to crumble under that relentless pressure.

Later in the first half, right off of a missed free throw, Pettiford takes it up the right wing, and Auburn sets up in a 5-out look. Broome pops to the top of the key to receive the pass, while Baker-Mazara cuts from the right corner to the ball — initially looking like he will set a ball screen.

After Pettiford dishes the ball to Broome, he bluffs like he’s going to drift into the corner. Meanwhile, Baker-Mazara quickly fakes a ball screen for Broome and spins into an off-ball screen for Pettiford.

After Pettiford receives the pin-down screen from Baker-Mazara, Broome gives him the ball on a dribble handoff — creating a stagger screen. This is what’s known as a “Zoom” action, much like the ones we broke down in the Film Room last year at this time, after Auburn put up big numbers in a season-opening loss to Baylor.

Houston — as expected — blitzes the ball-handler and double-teams Pettiford.

This is savvy point guard play from Pettiford. His read is #21 Emanuel Sharp in the middle of the court, so he uses his eyes to freeze the defender by looking right at him, and hits a diving Broome to the basket for the and-one bucket.

Notice that the help defense from Houston is going to be too high to rotate underneath in time. J’Wan Roberts comes over, but this creates a natural 2-on-1 at the basket.

When Broome gets the ball, he has the option to hit Johnson on a lob or a dump-off — or he can just take it himself against a defender who is still sliding in. He chooses the latter and without a dribble, he elevates over the defender, absorbs the contact and gets the and-one.

Houston adjusted, though, and made life quite difficult for Auburn for the rest of the first half. The Tigers were outscored 19-7, going from up seven to down by five at the break. That Houston lead grew even more early in the second half.

But here’s a big, game-turning play in a crucial moment for Auburn. The Tigers were down by 9, and a hustle tip-in by Broome and a forced turnover on the other end gave them a chance to make it a two-possession game again.

After an off-ball foul on Houston, Broome in-bounds the ball from underneath to Pettiford up top. Johnson sets a side ball screen (known as a Spread Ball Screen), and Houston once again blitzes it with a double team — this time, LJ Cryer and Roberts force a pick-up.

Johnson dives into the high post. Pettiford fakes a quick dump-off to Johnson and bounce-passes it to Broome.

Houston gets caught out here, trying to scramble back and recover. The bottom-side defender, Terrence Arceneaux, takes Broome on the pass. He’s not the only one, though, with Ja’Vier Francis also deciding to take on Broome.

Broome calls his own number by faking the wide-open swing pass to Chris Moore in the corner. This time, both Arceneaux and Francis leave the ball to cover Moore. That’s trouble for Houston, which is getting its own aggressiveness turned against itself.

Broome gets a wide-open dribble drive down the lane. Roberts gets drawn up again at the last second, creating another 2-on-1 opportunity with Broome and Johnson down low. Again, Broome with a clear lane to the rim and a late defender, takes it himself and soars to the rim for a big two-handed slam.

These next two baskets are all about a freshman point guard playing fast and pushing the tempo — which is exactly what he said drew him to Auburn in the first place.

After a missed shot from Houston, Pettiford sees an opportunity to take the ball up the floor in a hurry. There’s no need to wait and let Houston get its defense set, so Pettiford races up the floor until somebody stops him.

No one does. He creates a lane with a nice crossover on a recovering defender on the left wing and flies down the middle. Using his off hand, he gets enough space to flip the ball over Houston’s last-gasp rim protection and hits an extremely tough but impressively fluid lay-up to give Auburn an 8-0 run.

A few minutes later, Pettiford does it again. This time, it comes off of a missed free throw. He takes the outlet pass and immediately sees a 1-on-1 situation with Cryer.

In a matchup between a freshman point guard playing in his second career game and a fifth-year senior, former national title-winning wing playing in his 109th career game, the kid wins.

Pettiford gets to the middle and gets downhill in a hurry. The sequence is absurd: An inside-out dribble, a crossover, protect the ball on the gather step, and then a leaned-back, off-hand floater over two guys at the front of the rim.

That’s pretty special.

On the next trip down the floor, Auburn goes with the same 5-out Zoom play call from the 7:05 mark in the first half — which we broke down a little earlier.

Houston, of course, goes with the same blitzing ball-screen coverage. Pettiford again hits the exit-valve pass to Baker-Mazara who pops out, which creates a conflict in the back of Houston’s defense. Broome is on the low block, and Johnson is behind everybody in the short corner.

Baker-Mazara sends a diagonal pass from the right wing to the left block for Johnson, who had flashed from the weakside corner toward the hoop. Johnson hangs tough to meet the ball and gets fouled, and he knocks down both free throws.

Again, it’s a case of handling Houston’s double-team screen coverage and creating something out of it.

On the next trip down the floor, Auburn lines up in a traditional flex offensive set and initiates the play with a pass to Jones on the left.

This play would usually flow from left to right, but Johnson fakes the swing to the right and kicks it back to Jones on the left wing.

With Pettiford mixing it up and setting a cross screen on the X5 for Broome down low, the big man is wide-open for an entry pass from the left wing to the left block.

It’s an easy sequence for Broome, and he lays it in with his left hand. He should have gotten a foul call on it, but Auburn would at least take the game-tying bucket.

As Pearl said after the game, Auburn ran some sets in the second half that Houston hadn’t seen on film. This was a great example of that, as Auburn preyed on Houston’s aggressiveness against its usual tendencies and flipped it into a misdirection bucket for Broome.

Here’s another example of more misdirection, a couple of trips later. Auburn corrals a defensive rebound, and Johnson tries to push the pace up the floor. Houston does a great job of getting back on defense, so Johnson resets the ball to his point guard and Auburn calls a play.

The setup here is to work the ball to the right side and have a post entry pass to Broome on the right block. Houston takes that away by fronting him but also sends the weakside wing defender all the way down to help on the potential lob.

So instead of forcing the ball in there to Broome, Baker-Mazara skips a pass from the right corner to Jones who stays high on the left wing.

The skip pass sends Houston into a backside scramble and Broome battles into position on the left block. The defender rotates onto the high side of Broome, giving him a clear seal for a low-post entry pass as he easily converts for what could have been another and-one lay-in.

Auburn’s offensive performance against Houston’s elite defense was a combination of killer play-calling from the coaching staff and killer play-making from the guys on the floor. The last few examples have been the former, so let’s go back to the latter.

Auburn is down by five with 6:02 left, and it has a side out-of-bounds situation. The Tigers run a set, and the Cougars defend it quite well.

Baker-Mazara rushes a rather smothered stepback 3-pointer with plenty of time left on the shot clock. But Broome is there to get the offensive rebound in a ton of traffic, and he kicks it back out to Pettiford on the right side.

Pettiford pump fakes the defender into the air, uses an escape dribble to fake a baseline drive and then goes with another stepback in the right corner.

It’s pure, and it’s impossible to overstate how big of a shot this was from Pettiford. Bill Raftery would call it “onions.” Pearl just used “nuts.”

From a shooting perspective, stepback 3-pointers usually provide easy footwork rhythm and alignment off the non-dominant hand dribble.

It’s why a lot of shooters use it as a go-to move, even when it may not be necessary to create space. (You may remember how Kelly did that a few times in his red-hot run against Vermont in the opener.)

On the ensuing possession, Roberts tries to go 1-on-1 on a drive with Broome and ends up getting blocked for his troubles. Broome saves the ball from going out-of-bounds and gets it to Johnson, who pops it over to Baker-Mazara to start the push in transition.

Pettiford ends up getting the ball on the right wing on a very CBM type of between-the-legs drop-off pass. Pettiford penetrates, and Houston sends help again, creating another situation where there are two defenders on the ball. Someone’s gonna be open.

The freshman gets the ball out, and even though pass isn’t crisp, it still works due to the aggressiveness of the Houston defense and the spacing of the Auburn offense.

Johnson picks up the loose change as Houston is diving at the ball in extra help. That leaves Baker-Mazara left wide-open on the wing for what is essentially a warm-up 3.

(These clips are muted, but if you rewatch this play elsewhere, you can actually hear Baker-Mazara yell “Chaney!” to call for the pass.)

Baker-Mazara drills the much easier 3-pointer than his last attempt, and Auburn takes the lead for the first time since there were four minutes to go in the first half.

Houston hits a pair of free throws on the other end to retake the lead, but Auburn gets it right back with another excellent offensive set.

The play works its way into another 1-5 side (Spread) ball screen-and-dive from Broome. The screen on the left side occupies the defense, so the Cougars’ eyes are away from the ball and not focused on rotating over for low help on the Broome dive.

Houston, yet again, blitzes the ball screen and doubles Pettiford. But, yet again, the freshman is cool and confident with his head up.

He uses a little drag dribble to find Broome at the high post, completely wide open, with nobody around. Both corners are occupied, which holds off any potential last-line help defense. Broome catches, turns and dunks.

This is as simple as a pick-and-roll gets, but the standout aspect here is how impressive Pettiford is at the controls of the offense. He looked like a veteran.

The next possession isn’t an example of inverting aggressive defense, but rather another showcase of how Burgomaster was cooking with gas on his play-calls. During this comeback and finish, Auburn was getting whatever it wanted on offense. Again, that’s absolutely crazy to think about against a Houston defense on the road.

Pettiford starts the offense with a DHO to Baker-Mazara and runs a loop — down from the corner, across the baseline to the opposite corner and up to the top.

As the ball gets reversed, Pettiford sets a backside pick for Jones and receives an off-ball screen from Johnson. (“Set a pick to get a pick” is something you’ll hear from Pearl a lot.)

Pettiford, once again in the Zoom action, gets a DHO from Broome at the top of the key and creates a wide-open look for 3.

Bang. No shot was too big, and no moment was too big for Pettiford. He’s a confident kid, and rightfully so.

On the next trip down the floor, Auburn doubles its lead with another Zoom variation — this time, coming with that ball-screen blitz strategy from Houston’s defense.

After getting the DHO, Pettiford looks off the defender by taking his eyes to Jones on the wing. He still whips the ball deep into the low post, where Broome is waiting on the left block.

It’s a complete mismatch. Uzan has rotated down low. With Baker-Mazara setting a backside screen to occupy the defense, help does not get there in time for the 6-foot-4 Uzan to deal with the 6-foot-10 Broome.

The result is an easy drop-step move and an even easier off-the-window make for Broome over his right shoulder.

After Houston cuts the lead in half with a pair of free throws, Auburn goes back down the floor for another great half-court set.

This one starts with Broome stepping up to receive the ball at the top of the key. There’s a weakside cross screen by Johnson for Baker-Mazara while the ball is passed to Jones on the right wing. He reverses it back to Pettiford, who receives a classic 1-5 ball screen from Broome.

You should know the story from here. Broome dives after the screen as Houston blitzes Pettiford and double-teams him. Pettiford hits the quick exit-valve pass to Baker-Mazara, who in turn hits a “hot” pass to Broome down low as Houston is late rotating across the back side of the defense.

It’s actually Joseph Tugler, who was part of the initial double team for Houston, that tries to get all the way down to the basket to defend Broome. There’s no chance.

Broome catches it on the left block and gets the lay-in through contact. It’s finally an and-one, and a rather easy one at that.

Now, let’s jump to the game-winning play for Auburn. Houston has pulled back in front by one after a clutch 3-pointer, but Auburn’s offense should have all the confidence in the world after what it had done to this point in the second half.

This time, Houston doesn’t jump the ball screen from Broome to Baker-Mazara, and instead stays home. Houston follows Broome to the post as he slips the screen and dives.

By doing that, Houston creates a ton of space at the top for Baker-Mazara to operate in isolation. There’s no help around.

Baker-Mazara drives diagonal to the right elbow, spins back to his left-hand, gets to his spot in the paint and turns into a quick jump hook — almost a push shot — right over a smaller defender. It’s a rather easy 2-pointer in that situation, and it gives Auburn a lead that it wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

This game-winner shows how much Broome’s dominance in the second half — and the amount of times Pettiford and Co. burned aggressive double teams on screens — affected the way Houston wanted to defend late. The extra attention to Broome on the slip created the opportunity for Baker-Mazara to go get a bucket by himself.

From a defensive perspective, Houston let a gifted scorer get way too comfortable in a 1-on-1 situation. He went from the top of the key to the paint with no extra resistance, no dig, no help and — eventually — no real shot contest.

After that game-winner by Baker-Mazara, it’s just defense and free throws for Auburn the rest of the way. Baker-Mazara, Jones and Pettiford all hit a pair of clutch ones, and it was fitting that the freshman got to finish off his star-making performance.

Houston stuck to its tried-and-true defensive system Saturday night. The only problem is that Auburn has proven that it can beat teams in a variety of ways — with a variety of players — and it stayed one step ahead of its hosts in a second-half comeback.

To pull off a comeback upset like that takes both special players and special coaches. And, as it stands right now, it looks like this Auburn team might have plenty of both.

“It's hard to get good looks, and to shoot 57 percent in the second half against a Kelvin Sampson defense is unheard of,” Pearl said. “Great execution and great game. Great organization.

“Great team effort.”