Interesting theory. And yet, JB was known for the majority of his career as an offensive coach. It's really only been the last few years where the zone defense has been a significant differentiator [IMO].
I think a more likely thesis is that this year's team just had offensive limitations, versus JB recruits defense first and offense second. If Dion Waiters [for example] had been on this team, then maybe we wouldn't have been quite so anemic. We'd have had another shooter, and a guy who could get a basket at crunch time when we needed one--a skill lacking on this year's team. :noidea:
Not totally mutually exclusive, but. . .I don't see how--why would those things be mutually exclusive?
Not totally mutually exclusive, but. . .
A theory--the defense slows the opponents down so much that the entire game is played at a slower pace, which is not conducive to the tempo that our offense would like to play at.
We gave up 25 points in the second half. if we'd done that in the first half, we win, even with the bad offesne.
Nah. What was suggested above was that JB recruits for defense over offense. It had nothing to do with tempo.
I agree. It's that this years personnel was so suited for the zone. It wasn't said when we had RJ at the 4, or Johnny at the point, or Eric at the sg, or Paul H at the 3. And DC2 isn't really a zone recruit.Yeah, as I said in an earlier post, no one was making this argument last year. Or the year before, etc, when we had really good offenses.
It just happened this year that our defense was much further ahead of our offense. I don't think it really means anything about JB's system or anything like that.
For all the talk about how bad the offense was, we were 22nd in the country in offensive efficiency, and one year removed from a season where we were 6th in offensive efficiency. In this 5 year run we've had, our offensive efficiency has ranked higher than our defensive efficiency in 3 of the 5 years. Our defense has been in the top 10 one time. (This year)
So I think, in general, we may be going a little too far with how great the zone is (in a historical sense, I mean. No question we had a great defense this year, and they've been in the top 20 the last 3 years, but it's not like this is a top 5 defense every year) and also how bad the offense is. It wasn't all that bad this year, and 3 of the last 5 years have seen a top 11 offense in the country.
I think you're right. In 2010, we had the complete team. Great defense and great offense before AO's injury.Interesting theory. And yet, JB was known for the majority of his career as an offensive coach. It's really only been the last few years where the zone defense has been a significant differentiator [IMO].
I think a more likely thesis is that this year's team just had offensive limitations, versus JB recruits defense first and offense second. If Dion Waiters [for example] had been on this team, then maybe we wouldn't have been quite so anemic. We'd have had another shooter, and a guy who could get a basket at crunch time when we needed one--a skill lacking on this year's team. :noidea:
Not every team attacks the zone as deliberately as Georgetown, Butler, Marquette, etc. Temple didn't. OSU didn't last year. You don't have to run the shot clock down all the way to get off decent shots. A lot of teams with inferior talent will use this tactic to keep the score down, which keeps the game closer and gives them a better chance to win. Limit the time of possession of your opponent to keep them from scoring too much.Not totally mutually exclusive, but. . .
A theory--the defense slows the opponents down so much that the entire game is played at a slower pace, which is not conducive to the tempo that our offense would like to play at.
It also showed that fouling out McGeary was a tactic we DIDN'T employ near enough by going to the basket. Sure the zone has its place in the game especially the way Jim deploys his players but thats defense. On offense at times Joimmy tends to screw the pooch tactic wise.Our d was simply amazing this season. We were the only team to slow this offense down.
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