Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="Orangezoo, post: 4811095, member: 237"]
Good post. One particular nugget- on the defense.

I've watched the game a few times and get the vanilla reference. What I was seeing ( besides not being a heavy pressure approach) was a very intense focus on jumping the passing lanes while also sagging into the middle to protect against backdoor cuts and easy cuts across the lane in general. They were teasing the opponent to throw it over the top thus putting them up against our shot blockers. That seemed specific to the opponent to me. Again it's an exhibition so need to see a lot more.

On the topic of pressure defense- watching a lot of these teams pressing hard and being overly aggressive to create turnovers - they lack a general purpose to me as well outside a select few. Hurley at UConn has more purpose with his defense ( helps a lot with someone like Jackson to be clear) but some others even like Musselman and our future opponent Tennessee- it seems chaos and trying to get turnovers is the purpose more than a more in depth strategy/tactic.

When you watch these teams you don't hear them talk about being gassed but it's clear by the second half this is often the case even with deeper teams. At which point then it's your offense that really becomes the key.

I feel like this is maybe where smart deployment of the zone can be effective to preserve legs and capitalize on tired legs on the other side.

I will add also that with Tennessee we should be aiming to penetrate and go with the lob quite a bit. MSU isn't really built that way and honestly it was there all game vs kicking for 3s.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?