How a football play has invaded March Madness

The mastermind behind college basketball’s most creative inbounds play came up with it out of desperation.

Illinois State head coach Dan Muller had grown frustrated watching his teams wilt when protecting a late lead and facing full-court pressure.

In summer 2018, Muller had a wild idea, one no doubt influenced by decades of watching his beloved Chicago Bears. Muller drew up an inbounds play in which all five Redbirds lined up behind the baseline, three to the right and one to the left of forward Matt Chastain. When Chastain received the ball to inbound, his other four teammates would take off like wideouts sprinting downfield, the two weaker foul shooters running go routes and the two better ones cutting back to potentially receive the ball.

Before using it in a game, Muller explained his football-inspired concept to his league’s coordinator of men’s basketball officials and asked, “Is this legal?”

Longtime referee Eddie Jackson examined the rules closely and told Muller, yes, after a made basket, it was.

An opportunity to test Muller’s inbounds play finally arose in early January 2019 when Illinois State hosted Northern Iowa. With 7.2 seconds left in the second half and the Redbirds clinging to a two-point lead, Muller called a timeout, gathered his players around him and diagrammed what he wanted them to do.

“My players looked at me like I had six heads,” Muller told Yahoo Sports with a laugh. “I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, guys. Trust me, it’s legal.’ ”

The quirky idea that Muller unveiled four-plus years ago has quickly become one of college basketball’s trendiest inbounds plays. Baylor, Illinois, Michigan and Kansas State are some of the dozen or more programs who have run variations of Muller’s concept, according to Gibson Pyper, founder of the X's and O's-themed Half Court Hoops.

“Clemson” was former Northern Kentucky head coach John Brannen’s name for the play, an homage to college football’s reigning national champion at the time. “Pigskin” is Florida Atlantic’s name for it. At Kansas State, the play is known as “Mahomes.”

The football-inspired inbounds play may become even more widespread after Kansas State and Florida Atlantic both used versions of it this past weekend to help nail down NCAA tournament victories.

Kansas State ran the basketball equivalent of a bubble screen for point guard Markquis Nowell as it tried to protect a five-point lead over Kentucky with 26.7 seconds to go.

Florida Atlantic called two different variations of the play against Fairleigh Dickinson’s full-court press while trying to protect a lead in the final 70 seconds.

“It’s just a safe way to get the ball in and get it in the hands of your No. 1 option,” Florida Atlantic assistant coach Kyle Church told Yahoo Sports. “I’m sure as it becomes more and more popular, defenses will adjust and figure out the best way to guard it, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has any answers just yet.”

It’s difficult to say with certainty that Muller was the first coach to run this type of inbounds play, but anecdotal evidence suggests he is the father of the current craze. Brannen reached out to Muller asking about the play after watching the Illinois State-Northern Iowa game. The Northern Kentucky coach ran a similar version just three nights later in the final minute of a narrow victory over Wright State.

Baylor head coach Scott Drew brought the inbounds play to a national TV audience the following week when he experimented with it late in a victory over Texas Tech. Drew, who had stumbled across Northern Kentucky’s version while perusing the scouting tool Synergy, said he liked the element of surprise, how difficult the action is to defend and that his players were eager to show off their wide receiver skills on the hardwood.

“We get our football coaching fix with those patterns and the players love it because they all think they can play football,” Drew told Yahoo Sports. “Anytime you put in a play that they’re going to enjoy, there’s a better chance they remember it and a better chance they work hard to execute it.”

When Illinois head coach Brad Underwood first started running the football inbounds play a few years ago, he couldn’t help but chuckle at how opposing players would react. Underwood recalls them “looking over at their bench like, how do we guard this?”

The rising popularity of the play has removed some of the surprise factor for opposing teams, but Underwood told Yahoo Sports, “I still think it’s hard to guard.” He tries to make sure of that by varying the look he gives opponents and the routes that his players run.

“It’s been really good to us,” Underwood said. “It creates all kinds of space to get the ball where it needs to go.”

Coaches might be in position to call the football inbounds play only a few times a year, but they say it’s a useful option to have when protecting a narrow lead against a desperate opponent. Ask Virginia how quickly a season can collapse if a late-game inbounds play goes sideways. Furman’s dramatic game-winning 3-pointer last Thursday doesn’t happen without Kihei Clark’s panicky turnover while being trapped along the baseline.

The football inbounds play, on the other hand, has a growing track record of success. That’s what persuaded the Florida Atlantic staff to install the play entering this season after initially writing it off as gimmicky.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it fail,” Church said. “When you start to see it work over and over again, you start to think maybe there’s something to this. I think that’s what happened with us. If you see something work every time, it’s almost stupid not to have it in your playbook.”

Whether the football inbounds play becomes a passing fad or a trend with staying power likely depends on its success rate. Coaches predict it will only become more popular unless defenses develop a counter and it stops working so consistently.

The innovative play has already outlasted the coach who conceived of it. Dan Muller resigned his position as Illinois State head coach in February 2022 with the Redbirds on their way to a third straight losing season.

“We didn’t have as many leads as I had early in my career so we didn’t have as many opportunities,” Muller said wryly.

Muller said he is done with basketball coaching for good and is instead pouring his energy into building his new executive coaching and leadership development practice. He describes the football inbounds play as his “one claim to fame.”

“When I see it, there’s probably a little bit inside of me that says, 'Hey that’s cool,'” Muller said. “Maybe I invented one thing.”