kelvin sampson interview

[CorduroyG]

he was on andy katz’s podcast today. katz asked him about playing against the syracuse zone of course. sampson basically said its all about the personel. coaches know how to coach against a zone. but if you have magic johnson larry bird and steph curry on your team thats why youre gonna beat the zone, not coaching. magic will penetrate the zone and kick it out to bird and curry for 3s. he said they played washington last year and against their zone and mike hopkins. he said sasser and grimes played well but jarreau struggled.

he also said syracuse isnt an 11 seed, the game is basically a 50/50 tossup.

i feel better after listening to that lol. sounds like hes not really gonna have much of a gameplan to attack the zone other than the typical get the ball in the middle and make a play, and just hope he has the players to execute it. hello 2003!

 

[jdubs30]

Lol hopefully this is just gamesmanship but if he’s throwing his hands up and saying “it’s up to the players” that definitely gives me more confidence

 

[HoustonCuse]

Couldn't find full game, but extended highlights.

 

[CorduroyG]

Lol hopefully this is just gamesmanship but if he’s throwing his hands up and saying “it’s up to the players” that definitely gives me more confidence

i really think players underestimate the zone. mcneil from wvu said in the post game presser it surprised them how tough it was and it took them awhile to adjust to it. for these non acc teams i really think they feel like beating a zone is as simple as making open 3s. because the rare times they do play against a non syracuse zone thats what happens. then when the game starts its like holy S its hard to make a pass much less a shot! thats when coaching comes in

 

[jdubs30]

Just looked at that Houston/Washington game. Houston won by 4 but Washington was up by 15 in the 1H.

Jarreau played 6 minutes - 3 TOs, 0/1 from the field, no points

Grimes had 14, Sasser had 5 and Fabian White had 18.

Caleb Mills, who left the team, was the leading scorer with 19.

Also, Chris Harris led the team with 5 offensive boards; Nate Hinton led the team with 5 defensive boards - both are gone.

Grimes/Sasser/Gorham went 4/11 from 3. Interesting note - Grimes didn’t make a 2pter.

Even though Jarreau had 3 TOs, Houston as a team only had 7.

Isaiah Stewart had a massive game - we need Q

FYI, KenPom ranked Washington 31st on D last year, we are currently 86th

 

[PauliePeppas]

Extend on Grimes and the rest will take care of itself...he scares me a ton and they need to reallllly exaggerate how far out they play on em

 

[Entropic]

Couldn't find full game, but extended highlights.

That was certainly a 2-3 zone but didn't look or move anything like ours. Slow close outs and rotations.

 

[supp]

We're going to win or lose on offense. Houston is capable of playing and winning in a slopfest. We don't have that same ability. The more missed shots, the better their chances.

 

[jdubs30]

Extend on Grimes and the rest will take care of itself...he scares me a ton and they need to reallllly exaggerate how far out they play on em

Sasser can get hot too, but I think you can let him shoot it a time or 2 before you worry about rushing out to him

 

[pearl31]

yeah.
I hope they are using the UW zone from last year and how Sampson remembers the zone from '03 to prepare for Saturday.

 

[DoctorBombay]

I was speaking to a buddy the other day about how this time of year, I don't really care who or how the other team is playing. If we're clicking and everyone shows up, we'll keep winning.
Now would be a great time for Griff to make his mark, and Q to dominate inside. If we get what we've been getting from Buckets & Co, we'll cruise.

 

[NKR1978]

A little more worried about their 3 point defense. It's significantly better than WVU and SDSU. I like our chances though.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

All season long teams have managed to play well against our zone. Up until last weekend.

All this wishful thinking that Sampson is incompetent against a zone is stupid.

I think both teams play well. I think we need QG to be our best player and not give up offensive boards. Will be a close game.

 

[Cbjr4200]

All season long teams have managed to play well against our zone. Up until last weekend.

All this wishful thinking that Sampson is incompetent against a zone is stupid.

I think both teams play well. I think we need QG to be our best player and not give up offensive boards. Will be a close game.

I think something that people forget is how well our defense plays at the end of the year especially when we get into the tourney. The rotations the last 5 games have been a lot stronger then in January. We slowed down both SDSU and WVU’s offenses greatly and if it wasn’t for garbage time chucking for SDSU and McNeil’s bombardment late in the game we probably hold both teams to their season lows in points. I think that is more then them just missing shots, we are getting out to the shooter with our hands up a lot more often and confusing them with our quick rotations and how high the zone is playing right now. We stop a couple of their hot shooters I think we can contain that offense. If Huggins couldn’t figure out the zone on Sunday (Future Hall of Farmer and has coached against the SU zone multiple times) then I don’t see how Sampson will be able to even with six days of preparation.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

I think something that people forget is how well our defense plays at the end of the year especially when we get into the tourney. The rotations the last 5 games have been a lot stronger then in January. We slowed down both SDSU and WVU’s offenses greatly and if it wasn’t for garbage time chucking for SDSU and McNeil’s bombardment late in the game we probably hold both teams to their season lows in points. I think that is more then them just missing shots, we are getting out to the shooter with our hands up a lot more often and confusing them with our quick rotations and how high the zone is playing right now. We stop a couple of their hot shooters I think we can contain that offense. If Huggins couldn’t figure out the zone on Sunday (Future Hall of Farmer and has coached against the SU zone multiple times) then I don’t see how Sampson will be able to even with six days of preparation.

Michigan State several years ago tore apart the zone in the tournament by with one person getting open to the left of the top of the key and getting hot. Their ball movement had the person (MO Petersen) semi open the entire time and he was hot. Not saying that it will happen all the time (for example McNeil of West Virginia was hot but so was Syracuse) But it can happen.

Believe it or not, he was 5-9 from 3 pt range. Not like today where some players are 5-6 in the first half. His shooting was a big factor. They were on and we were not. They won 78-59.

 

[pearl31]

Michigan State several years ago tore apart the zone in the tournament by with one person getting open to the left of the top of the key and getting hot. Their ball movement had the person (MO Petersen) semi open the entire time and he was hot. Not saying that it will happen all the time (for example McNeil of West Virginia was hot but so was Syracuse) But it can happen.

configuration/execution of the 2-3 circa 2000 vs the current one are basically two different defenses

 

[orangemass]

Sure sounds like Sampson still doesn't have a plan... I like it

 

[CorduroyG]

All season long teams have managed to play well against our zone. Up until last weekend.

All this wishful thinking that Sampson is incompetent against a zone is stupid.

I think both teams play well. I think we need QG to be our best player and not give up offensive boards. Will be a close game.

so you think its just a coincidence that teams struggle against our zone in the tournament, and acc teams who see it every year have more success against it during the regular season?

 

[Madbiker]

Two things that are concerning with Houston ... they offensive rebound best in the nation. Rebound almost 40% of their missed shots. They are not big, they do it with quickness and energy. We are vulnerable to giving up lots of 2nd shots which tires your defense and can be demoralizing. They also pressure the ball well. And neither of our starting guards handles all that well. Marek will be needed to break pressure again and I expect a lot of minutes for Kadary.

 

[721Comstock]

Two things that are concerning with Houston ... they offensive rebound best in the nation. Rebound almost 40% of their missed shots. They are not big, they do it with quickness and energy. We are vulnerable to giving up lots of 2nd shots which tires your defense and can be demoralizing. They also pressure the ball well. And neither of our starting guards handles all that well. Marek will be needed to break pressure again and I expect a lot of minutes for Kadary.

So - all of the things you just said about Houston, were also true to a large extent for WVU.
And for SDSU.

UNC is a great O-rebounding team, and we survived that.
UVA pressures the ball and plays sound Man D, and we very nearly pulled that one off.

This won't be anything we haven't seen before.
And had success against. In spite of our shortcomings.

Meanwhile for them - the Syracuse 2-3 zone...

 

[Marty McFly]

we just gotta make shots, simple as that.

 

[HoustonCuse]

Michigan State several years ago tore apart the zone in the tournament by with one person getting open to the left of the top of the key and getting hot. Their ball movement had the person (MO Petersen) semi open the entire time and he was hot. Not saying that it will happen all the time (for example McNeil of West Virginia was hot but so was Syracuse) But it can happen.

Believe it or not, he was 5-9 from 3 pt range. Not like today where some players are 5-6 in the first half. His shooting was a big factor. They were on and we were not. They won 78-59.

Wait, "several years ago"? That was over 20 years ago brother! And I don't know, but I just feel like that game played out a little different than it seems from your summary there. Not saying your facts are wrong, part of me thinks our team just took its foot off the gas thinking they had it in the bag and couldn't restart the motor when they needed to.

 

[50YRsofCuse]

Wait, "several years ago"? That was over 20 years ago brother! And I don't know, but I just feel like that game played out a little different than it seems from your summary there. Not saying your facts are wrong, part of me thinks our team just took its foot off the gas thinking they had it in the bag and couldn't restart the motor when they needed to.

Look, just bringing up it as an example.

We had a decent team (24-5) then.
It was a demonstration how the zone fell part. Am not saying that it will happen again.

Other events (poor execution, poor scoring and whatever) played into Syracuse loss.

I am just saying that the zone that day did not adapt to a hot shooter which opened opportunities for other Michigan St players to score.

It was intended as an example. They had good ball movement, hit the open man who was hot and brole down the zone.

it was not intended to be this is what is going to happen.

 

[DoctorBombay]

I think the zone gets in team’s heads. They watch games & see other teams befuddled by it, & they become intimidated.
Athletes are like machines wherein the game starts, muscle memory kicks in, and their bodies go into “play mode”. They know how to run their stuff and how to score off it, but the zone makes you hesitate and question almost everything you've always done, especially if you start missing shots. The key is always for us to get a lead before they start to figure things out.

 

[CU44SE]

Bottom line, their athletes scare me. They jump out of the gym and should be able to pressure our guards well with their athleticism. I’m not so much concerned with our initial defense, but the secondary defense. We have to rebound the ball!!!! As I saw against Rutgers, Houston throws their whole body at the rebound. They had no set offensive identity. It was all jack up a shot and pray for the rebound, and rebound they did. We stop their offensive rebounds, we have a very good shot at moving on to elite 8.