I think we will see a lot more dribble penetration as well as getting Cooney free for corner 3'a of the baseline action. That zone has had serious trouble getting to the corner shooter tonight. I think we played it almost too much like a zone and not enough like it was man. When ever Duke drags one of the zone defenders Miami has real trouble recovering. I agree we need to get a lead and make them play faster.
Spot on. 1-2-2 zones, by definition, are weak in the corners. Skip passes to the corners and overloading one side with a shooter in the corner can burn it (as can dribble penetration, but that kills any defense). Of course, shooters still have to make the shots.
That said, in the chat room during our first tilt, I said that, because of the way Miami matches up out of that zone, it's better to treat it like a switching man-to-man than a pure zone, a point your post makes, too. In all screening situations, screeners need to seal the switching defender and cut hard to the hoop. Also, we need to spread the floor to open driving lanes that should disorient the defense as it collapses to help on penetration. Doing so should open shooters and should help us rebound more effectively on offense.
I thought Duke used the ball screen effectively last night against Miami's zone. They spread the defense out like I said we should above. The ball handler would start at the hash with a player in the ball-side corner to occupy the ball-side forward-defender. They placed a shooter in the weak side corner, and another player on the weak side wing above the free-throw line. As the dribbler came off the ball screen and the defense rotated to switch, he would skip pass to the shooter in the weak-side corner, who was open for three because the weak-side forward-defender had to have a foot in the lane to help on the ball screen.
We should exploit Miami in the same fashion. Put Grant in the ball-side corner, and Fair at the weak-side wing (to keep the weak-side guard-defender honest). Let Rak/Keita set the ball screen, place Cooney in the weak-side corner, and let Ennis find Cooney several times. Rak/Keita should be able to rebound on the weak side while rolling off of the ball screen. As the defense adjusts to this, other things should open up, especially if Cooney hits a couple early.
