Anthony Collins's Alley-Oop To Victor Rudd Jr. Against Pittsburgh

Ken asked me to go through the Anthony Collins alley-oop to Victor Rudd Jr. that ended up being USF's last field goal of the game against Pittsburgh. No problem.

This is actually a pretty simple three-man play between Collins, Rudd, and Ron Anderson Jr. The play starts with an inbounds pass into the backcourt, which Toarlyn Fitzpatrick hands back to Collins before heading down into the post.

Collins dribbles out past the hashmarks for a few seconds. Then Anderson comes out to set a high screen for Collins. Pittsburgh switches the screen, so Dante Taylor ends up on Collins for a moment, a good 30 feet from the rim. Once Collins stays put, he heads back towards Anderson and Tray Woodall moves back towards Collins.

Instead of going back down low, Anderson moves towards the left wing and acts like he's going to set a pick for Rudd to come around and shoot a three-pointer. The key here is that J.J. Moore isn't watching Rudd -- he's sneaking a peek at Collins in case he has to help defend a drive by him. He's sliding along in front of Rudd, expecting him to continue towards the waiting Anderson. But when Moore looks at Collins, Rudd quickly breaks around the back side toward the rim.

Moore's already taken one wrong step, and his feet are planted so that he can't get around and try to follow Rudd to the basket. At this point it's all over. Collins lobs it for Rudd, and although he muffed the catch a little bit, he got the ball in the basket for a lay-in.

It's amazing how much crisper an offense looks when you get a point guard who is capable of running it. Even as a true freshman, Collins is the best point guard the Bulls have had since at least Reggie Kohn, and maybe all the way back to Chucky Atkins. The next three years are going to be a lot of fun with him at the controls.