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Message: [QUOTE="HoustonCuse, post: 1959897, member: 87"] Here's my take: 1. JB has said that due to limited practice time, he realized that focusing 100% on zone was a more effective way to go. Since he has done that, our zone has reached new levels, setting records in the NCAA tournament in 2013 and leading to 2 FFs in recent years on teams with very suspect offenses. An all-time accomplishment for the program. 2. Now here we are seeing M-2-M being rolled out again. No it was not for mercy purposes, JB talked of playing it in the preseason. 3. This is confusing to say the least. In a year where we need all the available time to teach 5 new guys the zone, time is being spent on M2M. An absolute contradiction to point #1. Some possible conclusions: 1. JB is concerned he cannot get this zone to a functional state in time (that could mean by conference play or by NCAA Tourney time). With all the new personnel he feels he just can't get there and so he is hedging bets with M2M. This is of course extremely concerning because it means that a mediocre defense is the teams ceiling. Whether it is zone or M2M, it will be average at best in this scenario. or 2. Since our "scout team" in practice can now be comprised of all scholarship players that are actually going to see the court, there are now players who "know" M2M available to put into games. For instance, last year, the only players who would ever play M2M in practice were all walkons on the scout team, this year, that is different. Thus, your actual scholarship players are being exposed to more M2M and thus it is sort of "free" to try it out some. I suggest this is probably not the case since we had similar depth in 2012 and saw zero M2M in game action that year. Other thoughts? [/QUOTE]

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