When the No. 3 Michigan men’s basketball team is on the floor, the paint is typically packed. Looking to protect the rim and prevent easy layups, the Wolverines are often content with giving up an open 3-pointer in order to deny an easy two.
But that doesn’t mean Michigan will let teams waltz into a shot from deep without any sort of resistance. The Wolverines have turned to a new defensive tactic to make those open 3-pointers not as open.
Over the past few games, junior center Aday Mara has used the Kornet Contest when opponents have taken open 3-pointers. With his long arms extended high above his head as he jumps, Mara hoped to contest shots from over 15-feet away from shooters.
The Kornet Contest raised eyebrows a few years ago when the 7-foot-1 Luke Kornet was spotted jumping in the paint to guard an open 3-pointer for the NBA’s Boston Celtics. An unorthodox maneuver, the Celtics hoped his length and height would be enough to obstruct view of the hoop.
“Luke Kornet was doing it,” Michigan coach Dusty May said Monday. “The Celtics had some tricky schemes where they put Robert Williams and Kornet, they put him on whoever’s in the corner so he could roam and make plays, and so he was naturally going to be behind the play. And you jump like these guys are doing just to distort vision and cause a reaction.”
A rarity in basketball at all levels, the Kornet Contest is not something many teams utilize. But for a Michigan team that wants to keep players near the rim for rebounds and rim protection, it’s a potentially useful tool.
May is a coach who’s emphasized getting defenders down low. It’s a strategy he employed last year with a tall frontcourt duo of then-graduate Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin. Against Wisconsin last season, in order to combat paint penetration, May loaded up the interior with defenders, which proved successful as the Wolverines won. But once the rematch in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game came around, the preparation was different as the Badgers improved from long range.
“Then we played the Big Ten Tournament, and those guys had added the 3-point shot to their game,” May said. “And so we were in a pickle. Do we play it the way the other teams in the league have or do we stay with our identity and then we’re just going to get a late contest? But we’re going to jump as high as we can and try to impact the shot without being at the 3-point line or whatever the case. So I think Wisconsin went 0-for-4, 0-for-5.”
The strategy ultimately paid off. The Wolverines took down the Badgers and learned that the Kornet Contest could be a useful tool on the defensive side of the ball.
The tactic wasn’t featured again throughout the remainder of the season. But now, with a frontcourt that’s even longer and more athletic than last season, May and company realized it could again be a defensive weapon.
“We thought with Aday and these guys, this could be a weapon for us,” May said. “And I think because they’ve done it, it’s worked. We’ve gotten more and more buy in. But it goes back to philosophy. We want to challenge everything. We want to challenge every pass. We want to challenge every dribble, and certainly we want to challenge every shot.”
Michigan has now used the Kornet Contest in the past few games. With Mara contesting open 3-pointers from the paint, the Wolverines are able to at least attempt to mess with a shooter. Standing at 7-foot-3, Mara’s height plus his vertical is certainly enough to challenge a shooter’s vision of the hoop.
Although Mara may not always be available to rebound in these instances, the Wolverines don’t need him to. When both graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg and sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr. are in the game, there are still two big men near the rim to rebound in Mara’s absence. Both Lendeborg and Johnson have already proven to be weapons on the defensive glass, with 7.6 and 6.6 rebounds per game, respectively.
While an open three is not preferable to a contested three, the Wolverines are willing to live with the ramifications of that open shot. It’s what helps them anchor the paint as the nation’s leading 2-point shot defense, with opponents nailing just 36.9% of shots from within the arc.
So with a little help from some seldom-used NBA tactics, Michigan can protect the paint while still attempting to alter open 3-pointers, adding another facet to its already strong defensive identity.
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