Full court press

[SDjohn]

It would be nice to use the press a little more IMO and not just when we are down double digits. Not saying press all game or even every game. But 3-5 minutes here and there especially if SU comes out flat OR the opposing team comes out hitting wide open 3’s since our forwards can’t figure out their rotations in the zone.

Boeheim has forgotten more about basketball than most of us will ever know. That being said, I’ll never quite understand why, when the press is working, he will call it off when we get the game close again. I get it, you can’t run players to exhaustion but more players are getting minutes this year than any teams in recent history. They are also younger and more athletic so why not press more?

 

[CardiacCuse]

certain players like judah symir, benny and quadir are all perfect for the press and could be a way to get them time and also throw opponents off

other players like bell jg3 taylor might not be best in the press, though...

whatever the case...adjusting the defense if its being shredded is a must.

 

[newmexicuse]

Really do not think our press is anything special in and of itself.

However, since Jimmy will not go man, it is the closest thing we have to mixing up D's when the Zone is being trashed. Personally, I beat the dead horse that we should be playing some man when we need a defensive change up, but the press is better than staying with what is not working.

 

[Cuse'91]

Really do not think our press is anything special in and of itself.

However, since Jimmy will not go man, it is the closest thing we have to mixing up D's when the Zone is being trashed. Personally, I beat the dead horse that we should be playing some man when we need a defensive change up, but the press is better than staying with what is not working.

As our "second" defense, we should be using it as a change up far more quickly. Especially since we are relatively deeper than most years. JGIII, and even Jesse, don't need to be playing over 35mins per game.

 

[Cuse181]

As our "second" defense, we should be using it as a change up far more quickly. Especially since we are relatively deeper than most years. JGIII, and even Jesse, don't need to be playing over 35mins per game.

I’d love to jump into it every 8 minutes, even if it’s just for 4-5 possessions. Keep them guessing

 

[721Comstock]

I’d love to jump into it every 8 minutes, even if it’s just for 4-5 possessions. Keep them guessing

Or do it like a hockey line change, where we bring in all the bench dudes, Sy, JT, QC, JBA (or Brown) and Hima,
and let them go full trunk-monkey press until the next TV timeout.

Even if we choose to press w the normal rotation, I’d consider putting Hima in to save Jesse any unnecessary fouls (he didn’t get any vs ND, but why risk it?) and Hima almost never plays enough minutes where we hafta worry about him using all 5 of his.
Dude is an excellent defender & shot-blocker, which is what you want as your last line of D while pressing.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

It depends upon the opponent. You generally press, not necessarily to create turnovers, but rather to dictate tempo. When you have a slowdown team like ND, they are more likely to get rattled than some other teams might be. We have some guys that are better suited for it than others, but it would have to be situational, depending upon who we are playing.

 

[Cuse181]

Or do it like a hockey line change, where we bring in all the bench dudes, Sy, JT, QC, JBA (or Brown) and Hima,
and let them go full trunk-monkey press until the next TV timeout.

Even if we choose to press w the normal rotation, I’d consider putting Hima in to save Jesse any unnecessary fouls (he didn’t get any vs ND, but why risk it?) and Hima almost never plays enough minutes where we hafta worry about him using all 5 of his.
Dude is an excellent defender & shot-blocker, which is what you want as your last line of D while pressing.

That could work too

 

[SDjohn]

Really do not think our press is anything special in and of itself.

However, since Jimmy will not go man, it is the closest thing we have to mixing up D's when the Zone is being trashed. Personally, I beat the dead horse that we should be playing some man when we need a defensive change up, but the press is better than staying with what is not working.

It’s not anything special like Pitino’s days with Kentucky or anything. I don’t think we even got a turnover off of it yesterday but it definitely energized them in a big way.

You’re exactly right, we need something to change up defensive looks. Syracuse will not play M2M until Jimmy retires. I worry (if we hire in-house) after he does leave is Autry or GMac will stick with the zone exclusively as well.

 

[Orangezoo]

It depends upon the opponent. You generally press, not necessarily to create turnovers, but rather to dictate tempo. When you have a slowdown team like ND, they are more likely to get rattled than some other teams might be. We have some guys that are better suited for it than others, but it would have to be situational, depending upon who we are playing.

I think you can do it for short stretches against almost everyone. Longer stretches against opponents who want to play in the half court with a lot of shooters.

While normally you want to speed the opponent up in addition to turn them over but in our case it also speeds us up which is a positive as well given the typically slower pace.

 

[SDjohn]

certain players like judah symir, benny and quadir are all perfect for the press and could be a way to get them time and also throw opponents off

other players like bell jg3 taylor might not be best in the press, though...

whatever the case...adjusting the defense if its being shredded is a must.

I agree with JG3 maybe not being great in the press but I don’t see Bell or Taylor as liabilities in it like they are in zone. Maliq Brown is another that would thrive in the press.

100% agree that adjusting the D if teams are shredding the zone and we all know Jimmy is never going to play M2M in “real” games. Go Cuse!

 

[IthacaMatt]

Really do not think our press is anything special in and of itself.

However, since Jimmy will not go man, it is the closest thing we have to mixing up D's when the Zone is being trashed. Personally, I beat the dead horse that we should be playing some man when we need a defensive change up, but the press is better than staying with what is not working.

I'd like to see them be able to switch to the 1-3-1, like they did the last couple years, when the opponent is having success with the entry pass to the foul line. The 1-3-1 takes that away, but it opens up the corner shot more.

You can't ask the center to chase the corner shooter; you have to hope that the wing guys on the "3" line (horizontal across the foul line, basically), can interrupt the passing lanes to make it hard for the PG to feed the corner shooter.

 

[Ceerqqq]

I think a secondary reason Boeheim uses the press is simply to get his players in the right frame of mind
to start putting much more pressure on the other team's players while playing the zone.

If the way the guys are playing the zone is not causing the other team to feel pressured enough to miss shots/passes, then going to the press puts them quickly into the attack mode where you're actively
trying to get the ball handler to make a mistake you can exploit.

Once you've been pressing for a while, when you then go back to the zone, some of that intensity to
force turnovers carries over and you begin to pressure the ball & passing lanes in a way that makes
the Boeheim Zone work at an optimal level.

During the Notre Dame game, when I saw that the zone was not intimidating ND's shooters out of their comfort zone (1st half) I knew that Boeheim would go to the press, for just that reason...

 

[CardiacCuse]

I agree with JG3 maybe not being great in the press but I don’t see Bell or Taylor as liabilities in it like they are in zone. Maliq Brown is another that would thrive in the press.

100% agree that adjusting the D if teams are shredding the zone and we all know Jimmy is never going to play M2M in “real” games. Go Cuse!

only thing about taking out jg3 and bell is that to come back and use the press you often want to hit transition 3s...so you want them out there in that case

 

[SDjohn]

only thing about taking out jg3 and bell is that to come back and use the press you often want to hit transition 3s...so you want them out there in that case

I’m not saying to take them out, just saying I don’t think it’s JG3’s strong suit. Although I’m really interested to see the difference if Taylor takes most of the minutes at the 2 instead of the 3 next year.

Definitely want you best shooters out there for transition 3’s, absolutely couldn’t agree more.

 

[CardiacCuse]

imo joes unimposing defense at the top of the key is a bigger issue to team success than has been acknowledged/discussed

 

[CardiacCuse]

great to see the press being used proactively this game...its a weapon...and it gets players like quadir with all of his energy into the game

 

[shu 49]

imo joes unimposing defense at the top of the key is a bigger issue to team success than has been acknowledged/discussed

His defense has improved drastically.

 

[djcon57]

His defense has improved drastically.

I think not having to spend energy handling the ball has been huge as we expected.

 

[two3zone]

Against the GTs of the world sure, against teams that don’t blow 4-1s our press will get eaten alive

 

[shu 49]

I think not having to spend energy handling the ball has been huge as we expected.

True and he seams to be trying much more now.

 

[hoopsupstate]

I think the biggest thing the press does is it helps us get some energy and gIves us some rhythm.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I think our press is quite terrible. But what it does is speed up the game and for whatever reason, seems like these bad teams miss more wide open shots when they play faster vs having first worked the ball around for the same exact open look

 

[SDjohn]

I don’t think our press is anything special but it does change the energy level. Today, again, they came out flat until the press. Heck even when they went back to zone you could see how much more active it was (just for a few minutes).

Wish we would have tried it when Miami started their comeback. At least give them another look when you feel the momentum shifting instead of letting the zone get shredded.

 

[Sbucketball]

I don’t think our press is anything special but it does change the energy level. Today, again, they came out flat until the press. Heck even when they went back to zone you could see how much more active it was (just for a few minutes).

Wish we would have tried it when Miami started their comeback. At least give them another look when you feel the momentum shifting instead of letting the zone get shredded.

When they switch back out of the press they actually get out on shooters. It’s a miracle. Energy way up. I’d like to see us get in the press at the beginning of our routine early game slide, instead of after getting down double digits. It wakes us up.