Barkley stays killing the zone | Page 3 | Syracusefan.com

Barkley stays killing the zone

I can't figure out how people watched this team the entire year and took away from it that our defense was the problem.

Our defense was 13th in the ACC in 3-point percentage defense. Our defense was solid, but not as great as many seem to think.
 
Our defense was 13th in the ACC in 3-point percentage defense. Our defense was solid, but not as great as many seem to think.

Agreed. Last year's team [the F4 squad] was terrific at closing out on shooters and using length to make people take tough shots.

I don't think that our defense was "bad" this year, per se, but we were much weaker on the perimeter than we've been.
 
After watching the Dayton game, it's tough to defend it.

I love the zone but he is right. It does allow teams like Dayton to beat us.

He said again tonight. The only team Dayton's beat so far that's better than them is Syracuse but they play that zone which negates their talent advantage.

If we're going to play zone 100% we need to develop a press like Ville does. Something that speeds teams up. Obviously, you know where I'm going with this. To press from time to time, we need to develop the bench. Can't press playing 6 or 7 all game.

P.S. Kenny Smith stays clowning himself. "Dayton will finally play a team with size and athleticism, they've played teams with size or athleticism but not both". Riiiiiiiiight. Of course Barkley jumped in and quasi defended us "Well Syracuse has both but they play that zone". Lol..
yeah a 20-18 half proves the Zone is ineffective. What a bunch of BS. They lost because they didn't, score, period.
 
yeah a 20-18 half proves the Zone is ineffective. What a bunch of BS. They lost because they didn't, score, period.
Clearly you haven't paid attention to any of these ideas being discussed in this thread.
 
It's not "the defense stinks", as opposed to "the defense doesn't force the pace."

Historically, SU has been a running team. They recruit guys who can run, they recruit athletes, they recruit scorers, at times at the expense of fundamentals. When you play at a slower pace, you put more emphasis on fundamentals, and Syracuse as a team doesn't make this work. What things work, and what have teams that have played at a slower pace used? Good shooting, motion offenses, and post play. I'd say SU went 0-3 on those, flat out ignoring the post, running a predictable offense, and the shooting suffered. If you lack the things to make a slower offense work, it seems like pushing the pace and finding easier ways to score would be helpful. If you want to sit there, and play a defense that makes it challenging to score, but at the same time, is completely at odds with what works best for your offensive identity, then you get games against inferior teams of 49-44 or 55-53. That style allows opponents to establish the game on their terms. A team whose strengths lean towards uptempo play is not going to fare as well in slower games, and SU has proven this many a time in my years as a fan.

If SU is able to dominate the glass, if the opponents make not-so-intelligent plays, you get a game like Western Michigan. A team making 13 turnovers in a half, many of them careless? I'd expect SU to get out and go. SU owns the glass by 20? Same thing. Also, if you get a relatively weak defensive team that loves to run (Duke, Villanova, UNC [in theory]), you get fun games. You get a game where a team is careful and can't shoot, and neither can SU, you get the run of Miami, Pitt, Maryland, NC State, BC, GaTech, Dayton etc, games, where they turn on 1-2 plays, sometimes on miracle shots, for good or bad. But in those games, you'd never look at the opponent as a more talented team than SU. You'd say "they gave the game away". Two potential lottery picks, an additional pick, a hall of fame coach? None of those teams had that. SU went 7-4 against those teams, and it easily could've been 5-6.

Nobody's advocating the Oregon style of "disinterest in playing defense" (best description of any NCAA tourney team I read), but it wouldn't hurt SU to go into a game saying "let's impose our will on the opponent". And that doesn't mean "yes, they can't get easy shots, but if they want to pass for 30 seconds, go right ahead." That is not imposing your will.

Kev
 
there seems to be some presumption that man speeds things up

i don't care what defense you play, you can't make someone shoot the ball if they don't want to shoot it

if it's about getting steals, we got plenty of those
 
Clearly you haven't paid attention to any of these ideas being discussed in this thread.
clearly, I think the argument about the zone being responsible in anyway for that loss is an idiotic idea. Defense was great and kept SU close, the one reason SU lost was because they didn't make shots, period, end of story, no need for debate. Debating zone vs man to man has been going on since the beginning of these boards and nothing has changed. that's the D SU plays and as long as it's executed effectively SU will be in the game. If they played Man to Man I'd say the same. Playing Zone ahs nothing to do with going 0 fer on 3 pointers. That's why they lost.
 
The last 2 seasons have been our lowest scoring output since forever it seems. Decades.

We've played zone forever with no problem scoring.

It's not the defense slowing down the offense, it's the offense.

Want to speed up the opponent and Olay zone? Make shots. Score points. Get leads.
 

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