Virginia goes to Inside Triangle offense vs. NC State, plus Jacob Cofie trims the hedges

More on Virginia finding an old friend to put together its best offensive performance of the season and the defensive upside of Jacob Cofie

During the Tony Bennett era in Charlottesville, Virginia basketball was known for its methodical pace and defense-first approach — with the Pack Line scheme and a commitment to defensive rebounding as its foundation.

While it may not have been nearly as essential as the Pack Line, Virginia’s offensive scheme was notable, too: In an age of rising high pick-and-roll and ball-screen usage, Virginia continued to utilize concepts that featured a lot of off-ball actions.

This isn’t to say Virginia avoided running ball screens. They weren’t Bellarmine. The pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop were still major components of the offense, including the use of continuity ball screen actions during the 2018-19 season — en route to an NCAA Championship. However, the Blocker Mover was a crucial part of Virginia’s offensive DNA. It forced opponents to defend a series of pindowns and flare screens deep into the shot clock, while also allowing Bennett’s low-mistake offense to further dictate pace.

Blocker Mover served as Virginia’s base under Bennett, but it wasn’t the team’s only continuity-based motion approach. Bennett and Virginia also ran an Inside Triangle/Inside Motion (Middle Third) offense. (Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski referred to it as “Inside Triangle” after a Duke-Virginia game I covered in 2019).

At its most basic application, Inside Triangle features two offensive players spaced to the left and right sides of the floor and three players in the middle. That trio in the middle will interact with one another through a series of constant screening actions and cuts. It’s mostly read-and-react, which can confuse a defense with its randomness, but there distinguishable patterns to how it flows.

The two players on the sides of the floor can be called into the action, too, but the three in the middle lead the dance.

It’s been a sluggish start as Virginia has searched for an offensive identity this season under Ron Sanchez. With a dearth on-ball creators on the roster, the Cavaliers tried new things, including more 5-out sets. So far, the results aren’t exactly awesome: the offense barley cracks the Top 200 nationally in terms of adjusted efficiency.

The Cavaliers turn the ball over too frequently, they don’t really get to the foul line (No. 323 nationally in FTA rate) and they don’t get to the rim. Currently, Virginia ranks 335th nationally in percentage of field goal attempts (31.3 percent) that take place closer to the rim, per Bart Torvik’s shot data. If it weren’t for the insane 3-point shot making of Isaac McKneely, things would be especially dark.

In their two ACC games, though, the Wahoos have gone back to the basics. During the road loss at SMU, UVA ran 15+ possession of Blocker Mover, according to my charting.

Even with 17 points and four 3-pointers from McKneely, the results were far from ideal: Virginia scored 0.81 points per possession, its second-least efficient outing of the season (0.67 points per possession vs. Tennessee), while shooting a frigid 8-of-28 on its 2-point attempts (28.6 2P%).

A few weeks later, in the ACC home opener vs. NC State, Virginia mostly went away from Blocker Mover. Virginia ran only three possessions of Blocker Mover, all which took place in the final two minutes before halftime, netting zero points: one turnover (Anthony Robinson) and two misses from McKneely (0-of-1 2PA, 0-of-1 3PA).

Instead, the Cavaliers chose to lean on Inside Triangle against the Wolfpack. By my charting, Virginia ran 25+ possessions of Inside Triangle. This recipe worked as Virginia’s offensive menu produced the team’s most efficient performance of the season: 1.2 points per possession (63.5 eFG%), 17-of-28 2-point attempts (60.7 2P%), 9-of-20 3-point attempts (45 3P%) and only seven turnovers (12% TOV rate).

As the calendar flips to 2025, let’s take a look at Virginia’s use of an old go-to series in this New Year’s Eve game. In the words of Charlotte Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball: “New year, new me. Same me, though.”

Three sides to every triangle

Right off the jump, here’s a possession of Inside Triangle early in the game. Andrew Rohde and Dae Dae Ames space to the right and left wings, respectfully, while McKneely, Jacob Cofie and Elijah Saunders form the interior triangle.

The possession starts with Saunders lifting to the top of the key and receiving a pass from Rohde. That triggers a cross screen from McKneely — a dangerous screener, given his immense off-ball shooting gravity — for Cofie, who flashes to the elbow. Off the catch, Cofie (64.3 2P%) turns, faces the rim and uses a nifty combination of speed, skill and strength to play through the bump.

Cofie (69.8 2P% at the rim) uses his upper body to displace the 6-foot-10, 240-pound Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, which he synchronizes with good footwork to stay on balance for the reverse finish.

Virginia ranks Top 35 nationally in weighted averaged height, according to KenPom. In lineups with the 6-foot-6 Rohde as the de facto point guard, Virginia’s size is even more apparent — with every player between 6-foot-4 (McKneely) and 6-foot-11 (Blake Buchanan). Instead of trying to collapse smaller, quicker defenses, like NC State (No. 237 nationally in weighted average height), with dribble drives, Virginia can use the post touch the paint or create kick-out opportunities.

Rohde, Cofie and Suanders create the triangle on this possession with McKneely (44.7 3P%) and Taine Murray (35.3 3P%) spacing the floor. After Saunders passes to McKneely on the right wing, Rohde has options: cut to the post off of a back screen from Cofie or curl toward the ball off a screen from Saunders.

Rohde elects to use Cofie’s screen and set up shop just off the right block, defended by the 6-foot-2 Michael O’Connell. The off-ball motion of Inside Triangle continues, though, triggering screen-the-screener action: after Cofie screens for Rohde, he runs to the top of the key off a pindown from Saunders. This, in turn, pulls NC State center Ismael Diouf out of the lane; Virginia has inverted its offense, with its point guard operating in the post and its center pulled above the 3-point line. Rohde scans over the top and skips it to Murray in the weak-side corner.

Dennis Parker Jr. and Diouf do a nice job sticking to their guys, but freshman guard Trey Parker plays off of Murray as a help defender and his closeout isn’t under control when the ball is skipped, thus creating the easy catch-and-go opportunity.

Here’s more of Rohde operating in the post vs. O’Connell. Once again, Murray and McKneely space to the sides. From this Triangle set, it looks like Rohde and Buchanan are prepared to set staggered screens for Saunders. Rohde, however, slips his screen, cuts to the left block and receives the entry pass from Murray. As Rohde starts to operate, UVA runs more off-ball action: Saunders curls toward the ball off a screen from Murray, who then curls around a screen from Buchanan. This serves as occupying action — tying up potential help defenders — as Rohde leverages his size advantage to score 1-on-1 in the post.

With Cofie’s feel for the game and passing abilities, Virginia is able to invert its offense in lineups with the freshman from Seattle as the center. Cofie initiates this Inside Triangle possession as Saunders (240 pounds) works in the post against Dontrez Styles (210 pounds), NC State’s power forward. As McKneely lifts out, Virginia ends up with four players above the 3-point arc while Saunders seals in the paint — creating a hi-lo opportunity with Cofie (16.5% assist rate, 12.2% TOV rate).

This lineup of Rohde, McKneely, Murray, Saunders and Cofie scored 1.32 points per possession in 10 minutes of action vs. NC State, according to CBB Analytics, while shooting 5-of-7 on 2-points attempts and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

Under Kevin Keatts, NC State’s defense switches freely — both on and away from the ball. Generally, the Wolfpack switch most 1-4 (point guard through power forward) and 4-5 (power forward and center) exchanges. That wasn’t always the case this week in Charlottesville, though. NC State was more selective with its 1-4 switches against the continuous flow of Inside Triangle.

If a defense is locked in, off-ball switching can disrupt the rhythm and timing of a motion offense, denying advantages for players cutting off of screens. When a defense switches the off-ball actions, in theory, it doesn’t have to rotate or chase-and-recover. The switch, however, is vulnerable against two things that Inside Triangle can produce: slip screens and size mismatches in the post or along the perimeter.

For instance, UVA uses Inside Triangle to create a positive matchup during this possession vs. NC State from the 2020-21 season. As the offense starts its flow, Sam Hauser has a similar set of options: come off a back screen from Reece Beekman into the post or curl toward the ball off of Kihei Clark’s screen.

Hauser opts to run off of Clark’s screen first and then cut to the post off of Beekman. The Wolfpack switch every action. No advantage is created, but as the ball swings back to Clark, Virginia’s point guard has NC State’s power forward, Jericole Hellems, matched up with him — as Jay Huff and Trey Murphy space the floor. Clark uses his speed advantage to drive by Hellems and score at the rim.

(Side note: it’s just ridiculous that Virginia had three tall shooters like Hauser, Murphy and Huff — all of whom are shooting above 36.5 percent from deep in the NBA this season — on the same team.)

Historically, Virginia under Bennett used a lot of Inside Triangle against Keatts and NC State — in part because it created switches and allowed UVA to play matchup ball, either entering it into the post or attacking slower defenders in space.

Once again from the 2020-21 season, the 6-foot-8 Hauser comes off a back screen from Clark and into the post, drawing the 6-foot Braxton Beverly. As soon as Murphy spots the mismatch, he dumps the ball into Hauser in the post and UVA clears out the right side of the floor. Hellems digs down off of Clark to help Beverly as Hauser goes to work, which creates a kick-out 3-pointer.

In the 2022-23 season, UVA runs early drag screen action with Beekman and Jayden Gardner, which creates a switch — Greg Gantt, NC State’s 4, takes Beekman. From there, Virginia goes into its Triangle; McKneely sets a cross screen for Gardner and a back screen for Kadin Shedrick. The screens from McKneely occupy NC State’s help defenders as Beekman receives a pass back. Now isolated on the right wing vs. Gantt, Beekman shows off his speed and shiftiness — attacking downhill, forcing a help rotation from Casey Morsell and kicking to Gardner for his go-to elbow jumper.

From the 2023-24 season, here’s an Inside Triangle possession at Florida State, which switches all exchanges, 1-5. Beekman passes to Rohde and cuts in the direction of McKneely. It looks like Beekman will set a flare screen for McKneely, but he instead slips the screen. Jalen Warley and Jamir Watkins, two talented defenders, communicate the switch, but with Beekman’s quickness on the slip, he’s able to get inside leverage on Watkins and turn the corner for a finish at the rim.

Matched up with NC State, with Sanchez pushing the same buttons as Bennett, a similar slip screen effort from McKneely produced the Pack’s worst defensive breakdown of the game. Cofie, McKneely and Saunder — once again — form the triangle. Cofie passes to Rohde on the left wing and gets set to cut off a “Rip” screen from McKneely. Before the back screen is set, though, McKneely slips out to the left corner. Jayden Taylor and Marcus Hill fail to communicate the coverage: Hill never gets screened so he stays with Cofie, while Taylor auto-switches and shifts to Cofie. This miscommunication leaves McKneely, the best shooter in the gym by a wide margin (apologies to CTB, who was in attendance at JPJ for this game), all alone in the corner for an uncontested 3-ball.

Virginia also found success against the switches by exploiting the new matchup in the post.

On this possession, UVA works the ball from left to right. After Saunders sets a cross screen to bring Cofie to the right block, he cuts off a pindown from McKneely, which NC State switches. Styles takes McKneely, a dangerous shooter that NC State doesn’t want roaming freely, and O’Connell grabs Saunders. As soon as Saunders has the smaller O’Connell matched on him, he cuts to the block; UVA lifts everyone else above the arc and it creates another hi-lo entry for Saunders, who seals and scores.

Saunders finished with a game-high 22-points (6-of-7 2PA), but he wasn’t the only guy who made his presence felt in the lane. As Virginia got back into the game early in the second half, Murray got downhill and made several key catch-and-go plays.

Virginia starts this possession with staggered down screens for McKneely. Instantly, this causes confusion for NC State as Jayden Taylor tries to communicate a switch with Parker Jr., wanting him to take McKNeely, while Parker Jr. stays with Saunders.

After setting the second down screen for McKneely, Cofie follows with a chase ball screen for his teammate. As McKneely dribbles right off of the ball screen, Huntley-Hatfield meets him at the level of the screen — just above the arc. This puts two NC State defenders on the ball and creates the roll opportunity for Cofie. While Rohde occupies the help defense and sets a down screen on the right side for Saunders, which NC State switches, Breon Pass must come off of Murray in the left corner to tag Cofie. This leaves Murray open.

McKneely reads the coverage and delivers a skip pass to Murray. Pass races back out, but the Kiwi attacks the closeout, touches the paint and uses his size to finish at the rim over a contest from Pass.

The on-ball creation limitations will be there all season, but with the shooting/gravity of McKneely, the frontcourt passing and play finishing of Cofie and Saunders, and Murray’s willingness to drive the ball, UVA has some pieces that can form a functional offense. Going forward, Inside Triangle may be the best way for Virginia to optimize its most productive offensive players.

Jacob Cofie: Next Up?

One of the core competencies Virginia became known for under Bennett, albeit to a lesser extent than the commitment to defense, was its output as one of the nation’s premier player development programs.

Several of those developmental success stories helped fuel a defense that was built on disciplined principles, communication, hard work, scheme execution and, yes, a lot of really talented players.

Those defenses were led at times by elite point of attack defenders, like Reece Beekman, or high-level rim protectors, like Jay Huff. In between those two positions, several of the more notable defensive leaders were athletic, rangy forwards: Akil Mitchell, Darion Atkins, Isaiah Wilkins, De’Andre Hunter, Mamadi Diakite and Ryan Dunn, the latter two of which were also incredible shot blockers.

These were guys who had to check every box for the Pack Line: defend multiple positions, hedge and recover on ball screens, double the post, X-out, rotate around on the back side when two defenders are on the ball, create some havoc but never foul, and rebound the hell out of the ball.

In this sense, as of one the last recruits Bennett brought to Charlottesville, Jacob Cofie is in the mold of these predecessors. He is the archetypal Virginia frontcourt player: a lesser-heralded prospect who has the tools to anchor Virginia’s defense and emerge as an NBA talent.

Through the first 11 games of the season, Sanchez has used five different starting lineups. For the last three games, UVA has gone with the same lineup to start: Ames, McKneely, Rohde, Saunders and Cofie, who was inserted into the first five for the Memphis game. He may never leave the starting lineup again.

The impact numbers with Cofie are substantial. With a defensive rebound rate of 21.6 percent, a block rate of 7.5 percent and a steal rate of 2.5 percent, Cofie is one of two high-major freshmen — along with analytics darling Thomas Sorber from Georgetown — with 20 percent defensive rebound rate, 5.0 percent block rate and 2.0 percent steal rate.

Watch him peel off of his man to delete this shot in the paint by SMU’s Boopie Miller.

Cofie is also one of only two ACC freshmen with a defensive box plus-minus of 4.0 or better. The other rookie is Cooper Flagg, the top NBA prospect in the world at the moment.

According to CBB Analytics, Virginia’s defense has allowed only 98.1 points per 100 possessions with Cofie on the floor this season (84th percentile nationally). Regardless of who else is on the floor, that number jumps to a defensive rating of 107.1 points per 100 possessions when Cofie is on the bench.

Even with the impressive blocks and steals numbers, Cofie isn’t recklessly chasing defensive highlights. He’s showcased excellent feel, anticipation and understanding of team defense concepts.

As Villanova runs its continuity ball screen offense here, Cofie hedges the first empty-side screen — pushing the action out to half court before recovering back to his man. The ball swings to the left side and Villanova runs another empty-corner screen with Eric Dixon short rolling into space as Saunders hedges out. Now, Cofie is in the help spot; he slides over and forces a pass out from Dixon. Thanks to a great skip pass from Dixon, Villanova still generates a decent shot late in the clock here — a catch-and-shoot 3-point attempt for Wooga Poplar — but the X-out contest is on time and Cofie closes the possession down with a box-out rebound. That’s excellent work from Cofie, who hits the right notes across every part of his assignment.

Virginia’s defensive system may not reflect what’s commonplace in the NBA, where drop coverage and switching have become important parts of trying to win the math game when defending screening actions — instead of the hard hedge. However, NBA defenders must know how to defend when away from the ball: when and where to rotate, different help responsibilities, proper closeout technique — the list goes on. It’s early in his college career, but Cofie has shown a high aptitude for all of these things. Blend that with his size and length, and there’s the outline of an intriguing defensive prospect for the next level, assuming he continues to make strides as a shooter.

More from the Villanova game: Cofie helps in the paint when Ames gets broken down off the dribble. When the kick-out pass comes, Cofie nails an X-out with Rohde, who closesout on the corner while Cofie sprints to Rohde’s previous assignment on the wing.

With his motor running hot, Cofie covers a ton of ground. Ultimately, he’s rewarded for it, too. Buchanan corrals the long rebound and hits ahead to Cofie for a leak-out dunk.

During the win over NC State, all 25 of Cofie’s minutes came with Buchanan and Anthony Robinson, two of Virginia’s centers, on the bench. When Cofie was on the floor, he operated as center — guarding Huntley-Hatfield in the post and hedging dozens of NC State ball screens.

This wasn’t a defensive masterpiece by Virginia, to be clear. NC State scored 1.16 points per possession, though much of that efficiency came by the way of unsustainable late-clock shot making in the first half. Virginia tightened the screws over the final 20 minutes and Cofie played a huge role.

On this sideline out-of-bounds play, NC State runs Zipper action into a step-up ball screen with Taylor and Diouf. Using his mobility, Cofie hedges the ball screen and pushes Taylor way out from the rim — deep into the left wing. Styles replaces up the floor and receives the outlet pass from Taylor; Virginia’s defense is now in rotation and Cofie has to cover some serious ground. Styles swings it to Parker in the corner. These two passes require Cofie to sprint from the left wing all the way to the right corner — with Saunders scram switching behind the play and taking Diouf — so that he closeout and contest the 3-point attempt from Parker.

One minute later, NC State gets to its Wedge ball screen series — with Parker setting a screen for Styles and then lifting up to receive a pass from Hill, followed immediately with a ball screen courtesy of Diouf. As Cofie hedges the screen, Virginia’s size takes over again against the 6-foot-1 Parker. With the 6-foot-10 Cofie hedging out and the 6-foot-6 Rohde staying with Parker, Virginia has a lot of length on the ball. Parker tries to pass it over the top to Diouf on the short roll, but Rohde deflects the pass and Cofie scoops up the loose ball to complete the turnover.

No doubt, NC State missed veteran center Ben Middlebrooks in this game. He’s an excellent pick-and-roll player and he does quality work on the short roll, working as both a scorer and a passer. Those short roll opportunities are there against Virignia’s defense, too, but without Middlebrooks, NC State wasn’t able to squeeze much out of those pockets of space.

Given his importance on the offensive end, Virginia is asking a lot out of Cofie. He has a laundry list of defensive responsibilities, and his activity hard hedging all of these ball screens means he’s putting a lot of miles on the odometer.

Conference play will be a serious test for Cofie, but he’s already emerged as one of the best defenders in the ACC and an NBA prospect.