Defensive Strategy

[Shrmdougluvr]

I think it goes farther than just this squad. The zone isn’t adapted to be fully successful in the post-Steph era. And no, I’m not saying any kids we will face are on the level of Steph Curry. I just mean kids have been spending far more time practicing threes than anything else. So facing teams with multiple good shooters from deep is getting prevalent and not the exception anymore.

Yup. Everyone wants to shoot outside, practices shooting outside, and can hit from outside. Having a defensive philosophy predicted on allowing a team to do what it wants does not seem like a winning formula. I think it works in the Tournament because some teams aren't prepared for it, and some teams just struggle/force under the tourney pressure.

 

[Goin' Deep]

We saw it in the 1st half vs Drexel.
Now 2 halves against COLGATE(?).
2-3 is the easiest defense to attack...meaning you're going to get good/open shots.
Sometimes JB can adjust and the other team goes cold.
But if the other team stays warm, if the other team can pass...and with our lack of athleticism
and rebounding, CUSE is vulnerable to anyone.
Offensively(85 pts), Cuse didn't play poorly AND LOST BY 15.
Probably not the last time this team sees it.

 

[CardiacCuse]

We saw it in the 1st half vs Drexel.
Now 2 halves against COLGATE(?).
2-3 is the easiest defense to attack...meaning you're going to get good/open shots.
Sometimes JB can adjust and the other team goes cold.
But if the other team stays warm, if the other team can pass...and with our lack of athleticism
and rebounding, CUSE is vulnerable to anyone.
Offensively(85 pts), Cuse didn't play poorly AND LOST BY 15.
Probably not the last time this team sees it.

and still CUSE was only 7/23 from 3. not many open 3's really. a lot of iso ball and not many assists.

13 assists on 28 made shots isnt amazing.

85 points but a bad 85, imo...couldve done a lot better scoring this game, actually, imo.

 

[SWC75]

I hated our strategy in the zone yesterday. It seemed like we were incredibly impatient. All of our guys got sucked in to try and guard the guy in the middle who wanted no part of the 15 footer. Just let him shoot it. Everyone kept turning their back on the perimeter and that’s mostly how we got burnt.

Had to believe JB had to see this and the players didn’t adjust because it was obvious the big fat guy they had in the middle wanted nothing to do with shooting the ball.

Film will not be kind to us. All 3 of the forwards let themselves get screened on baseline out of bounds plays to give Colgate easy in rhythm jump shots. Lots of correctable stuff there.

We had a defensive strategy? We had a defense?

 

[Madbiker]

I hated our strategy in the zone yesterday. It seemed like we were incredibly impatient. All of our guys got sucked in to try and guard the guy in the middle who wanted no part of the 15 footer. Just let him shoot it. Everyone kept turning their back on the perimeter and that’s mostly how we got burnt.

Had to believe JB had to see this and the players didn’t adjust because it was obvious the big fat guy they had in the middle wanted nothing to do with shooting the ball.

Film will not be kind to us. All 3 of the forwards let themselves get screened on baseline out of bounds plays to give Colgate easy in rhythm jump shots. Lots of correctable stuff there.

You would think our coaches would have realized falling back into the paint to defend the foul line against an opponent taking 43 shots from behind the 3 pt line (more than 60% of their shots) was the wrong thing to do. Maybe stay up and defend the shooters behind the arc was a better strategy. But no adjustment the entire game. A total fail by the players and especially the coaches.

 

[UD1954]

Too early for me to give up on this team but one thing is obvious ...we're losing games that we shoot poorly in because our defense isn't athletic enough to cover the space required in our system...you can know where to be in the zone but if you can't get there what's the point .....

 

[CardiacCuse]

Too early for me to give up on this team but one thing is obvious ...we're losing games that we shoot poorly in because our defense isn't athletic enough to cover the space required in our system...you can know where to be in the zone but if you can't get there what's the point ...

i think part of it is just not being in sync and not moving correctly - and the speed wouldnt matter so much if the movement was more crisp. the lack of athleticism isnt there to make up for poor rotations like it has been at times...but I think if the rotations are correct/and more on-time, it can be a lot better with these players. in other words, a lot of it seems to be mental slowness...which has nothing to do with physical speed...which is actually a good thing bc that can be coached up.

 

[oTTo113445]

Benny's got to play. I'm concerned because the zone isn't orchestrated to take the ball away against teams with good ball movement. 30 seconds per possession is a long time to do over and over. We need 2-3 really hungry defenders right now we have about zero. It's not all about steals, Our defense and rebounding frustrated nobody yesterday. Some Good teams understand how to pass around zone defense before it can matchup, and when that happens we have to force matchups with our better defenders, instead of seeing defense as only team orientated. Jesse fixed that for us last year, and it felt like he had 85% of our defensive boards within 7+1/2 feet, and let us extend more comfortably without Marek at center. I don't know where that thinking went, now that we are even taller. To draw a comparison, there are plenty of midmajors who are not that athletic defensively and go to round 3 based on seniority, which we have.

The Biggest stat, was not only did they outshoot us in fg%, but they had 11 more threes. If they outshoot you then they are already up a couple. Add 11 extra points; and being beat by 6 on the boards. It's not about how it happened though, it's we have to move forward. We have a lot of seniority that understands that. Serious wake up call.

 

[two3zone]

Benny's got to play. I'm concerned because the zone isn't orchestrated to take the ball away against teams with good ball movement. 30 seconds per possession is a long time to do over and over. We need 2-3 really hungry defenders right now we have about zero. It's not all about steals, Our defense and rebounding frustrated nobody yesterday. Some Good teams understand how to pass around zone defense before it can matchup, and when that happens we have to force matchups with our better defenders, instead of seeing defense as only team orientated. Jesse fixed that for us last year, and it felt like he had like all of our defensive boards, and let us extend more comfortably without Marek at center. I don't know where that thinking went, now that we are even taller. To draw a comparison, there are plenty of midmajors who are not that athletic defensively and go to round 3 based on seniority, which we have.

The Biggest stat, was not only did they outshoot us in fg%, but they had 11 more threes. If they outshoot you then they are already up a couple. Add 11 extra points; and being beat by 6 on the boards. It's not about how it happened though, it's we have to move forward. We have a lot of seniority that understands that. Serious wake up call.

Isn’t the exact point of the zone to disrupt passing?

 

[CardiacCuse]

Isn’t the exact point of the zone to disrupt passing?

yeah I think for JB its that he gets to orchestrate and take away what he wants to take away (in theory)...and thats usually how it works. hes generally been able to force oppnents to beat his teams with their weaknesses (which most cant do).

sometimes teams are too good to take away what JB wants to take away (UvA, Villanova, Blake Griffin, Baron Davis, etc)...and sometimes (like in the Colgate game) the defense itself is not good enough...not executed well enough - to take anything away...which hasnt usually happened as JB recruits specifically to his zone.

this year...the family and buddies team...so far isnt "well oiled" enough to take much away from opponents.

but to answer your question id say the zone is more about clogging the middle and limiting penetration than stopping passing.