O'Hanlon's secret at Lafayette: Good shooters

IN THE DESERT of defense that has been the first 2 months of this season, there is an oasis of offense up in Easton, overseen by a man who recruits shooters and teaches an offense that has stood the test of time, even this time, when defense, after a one-season homage to scoring, is once again ruling college basketball.

Lafayette College's Fran O'Hanlon coaches the nation's second best three-point shooting team. The Leopards' 42.9 percent from the arc is a full 9 percentage points better than the national average. His team also shoots 49.4 percent overall (15th nationally) and 75.9 percent (10th) from the foul line. They average 77.9 points per game. And, by the way, they are 9-4.

So what is his team doing differently? What is he doing?

"We've got good shooters," O'Hanlon said. "I don't know that there is any magic formula."

He is being modest. O'Hanlon is renowned as one of the great offensive teachers in the sport.

"I think our passing game is hard to guard at times," he said correctly. "We spend time, believe it or not, on defense, but we're not kidding ourselves."

Lafayette simply is not getting the kind of elite athletes who will shut teams down. So the coach recruits skill and shooters.

"I don't mess around too much with their form," O'Hanlon said. "Find out what your team can be really good at and try to make it work. Our offense is conducive to getting shots for people."

You can make shooters better with hard work, but, O'Hanlon said, "It's hard to turn non-shooters into shooters."

O'Hanlon has some shooters and he is letting them shoot. And, in a season of bricks, his shooters are making them.

O'Hanlon has been in the game for nearly half a century - a terrific guard on some really good Villanova teams from 1967 to 1970 and an assistant at Penn under Fran Dunphy when the Quakers were in the midst of their historic 42-0 Ivy League run 20 years ago.

This game is not the game he played or the game he used to coach or even the game he would like to coach.

"Everybody concentrates on stopping their opponent," O'Hanlon said. "There is not enough movement on offense . . . Some big guys don't even factor into the offense."

The high ball screen has become the default offense. It can be effective, but it also brings defense to the ball and often restricts movement.

When O'Hanlon hears talk of reducing the 35-second shot clock, he worries.

"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," he said. "Now, they're taking bad shots with 35 seconds on the shot clock. I can't imagine. There will be even more bad shots. That is not the answer."

The NCAA rules committee tried to make charges harder to take last season. They tried to make a foul a foul. They wanted scoring to go up and offense to flow. After 1,000 games last season, scoring was up to 75 points per game, a dramatic increase from the 67.5 in 2012-13, the lowest since 1951-52. Fouls had fallen to only 17.68 per game, lowest since first being tracked in 1947-48. They were up to 20.3 fouls after those 1,000 games.

At the end of the season, scoring was still up, 71.0 points, a nice increase. Fouls (19.11) were up, as well.

After 4,800 games this season, scoring and fouls are way down. Teams are averaging only 68.37 points and officials are calling 18.5 fouls per game.

"There is way too much physicality," O'Hanlon said. "The NBA is much cleaner than the college game."

He is not sure anymore what constitutes a foul in the college game.

"They say stuff like, 'Let them play.' What are you going to say, 'Let them foul'?" O'Hanlon wondered.

And the block/charge call?

"I think that they should make it so it's really hard to get a charge," O'Hanlon said.

They tried last season. They have reverted to the default charge call this season, even though replays continue to show officials get the call wrong way too much. My theory has always been that unless everybody in the gym knows it's a charge, it's a block.

"I couldn't agree more with that unless a guy takes a running start and goes flying in there," O'Hanlon said.

You won't see O'Hanlon's players taking dives trying to impress officials. You will see them taking open shots and making them. If you are tired of watching airballs and bricks on TV, take a trip up to Easton and check out one of America's best shooting teams playing for an old-school coach who remembers the game the way it was and insists on still playing it exactly that way.

Toronto's Kyle Lowry is a lock to be the first Big 5 player to make the NBA All-Star team since Jameer Nelson in 2009.

Lowry has been the best player for one of the Eastern Conference's best teams all season. All the Villanova product has done is average 20.6 points, 7.6 assists and 4.7 rebounds for a team that is 24-10.

Ask anybody who was around the Villanova program when Lowry arrived in 2004, which player was the program changer and they all tell you it was Lowry. Jay Wright and his staff had some very good upperclassmen, including Randy Foye and Allan Ray. But they were almost too nice. Lowry gave the Wildcats an edge.

In Lowry's two seasons on the Main Line, Villanova was 52-13, played in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. He was very good at Villanova, even better now, an excellent point guard in a league filled with more elite point guards than any time in memory.

Wisconsin's run to the 2014 Final Four really should have ensured Bo Ryan's place in the Hall of Fame. The onetime Chester High point guard almost has to get in soon, hopefully this year.

Consider his record: 718-225. Consider his four Division III national championships at Wisconsin-Platteville, where his title teams went a combined 119-5.

Consider what he has done at Wisconsin, a basketball backwater forever. Pre-Bo, the school had been in exactly nine NCAA Tournaments. He will be 14-for-14 when the Badgers are placed into the 2015 bracket as a very high seed.

The Badgers have been in the top four of the Big Ten every season of Ryan's career there. The last team to do that: Purdue in the 1920s and '30s when its star was John Wooden. Bo's Big Ten record (158-66) is the best ever by percentage.

And this looks like Bo's best team, with NBA lottery pick Frank Kaminsky and likely first-round pick Sam Dekker. By the time the tournament starts, four of Wisconsin's starters probably will have scored 1,000 points and the fifth, Nigel Hayes, might be the most improved player in the sport.

This is Bo Ball with NBA talent. Wisconsin is always a tough out.