The Upside- Virginia

[SWC75]

- In his pre-game interview with Matt Park, Jim Boeheim, as expected, praised Virginia extensively. Then he ended with “We are really looking forward to this game.” I hadn’t heard him say anything like that before. He did something he normally doesn’t do: he changed his line-up proactively, moving Michael Gbinije to the point and putting BJ Johnson at small forward. It gave us a big, long line up with three outside shooters in it. Jim obviously wanted to be able to shoot over Virginia’s stiff defense, to rebound with them and to play some big-boy zone and see if they could handle it. I think he expected to win this game. For 14 minutes, it looked like he was going to be right. The fact that he was willing to shuffle the deck for a particular opponent was intriguing. I just don’t know if it reflects a change in his thinking or if this will turn out to be time-time deal.

- It was fun while it lasted. It looked as if Tony Bennett might be Tom Crean, a successful coach who didn’t know how to crack a really good zone. He Cavs were down 13-2 and had missed 9 of 10 shots, (and two free throws) with 8 turnovers. The rebounding at that time was 9-13, a reasonable margin. JB had to be feeling pretty good. I know I was.

- We forced 20 turnovers, 10 of which were steals. A strong defensive performance against a good passing team. It may need some work but that ‘long’ line-up is worth considering for next season. We’ll lose Christmas but may have the depth needed to allow our center to be more aggressive on defense. It could bring memories of the 1996 and 2014 runs to the Final Four, keyed by an over-powering zone made so by the size of the backcourt.

- Nobody stormed the court!

18-12, (9-8) with 1 more to go

LET’S GO ORANGE!!!!

 

[tbonezone]

well we finally got to see the success of boeheim's dream formula.just 5 guys playing 100 % zone.

 

[cuseguy]

I don't think that lineup was going to help us rebound better. If anything, we became a worse rebounding team.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

I don't think that lineup was going to help us rebound better. If anything, we became a worse rebounding team.

The move of G to the top made our guards instantly better rebounders, so that helped. The zone forces long shots which results in long rebounds. Our guards have been bad lately about getting those long boards. I liked that aspect.

We just need to do better jobs getting and keeping position on the glass. That 7 foot white guy just parked himself on the block too many times without getting pushed out of there. BJ and Roberson need to get STRONGER if they want to be able to control the boards. Jumping ability alone will not do it. This has been a consistent theme at SU for a long time. Just because you jumped over everyone in HS does not mean you will be able to do that at a high level in college.

 

[SBU72]

well we finally got to see the success of boeheim's dream formula.just 5 guys playing 100 % zone.

As UVA has only one lose, do you think defense was the only problem? 28 other teams had similar if not the same problem playing something other than 100% zone with mostly 5 guys.