Hard to say. What would disqualify those teams from being good pressure man to man teams? If personnel is the difference, then it's personnel. I want a system like Louisville's where we're not seemingly hamstrung by our defense over who to recruit and recruits don't worry about coming here because of our defense. Louisville plays good defense every year. We should know given how often we look clueless on offense against them. The whores help but that can't be the only reason they're successful.
Class of 2017 PG Tremont Waters (CT) to LSU
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Hard to say. What would disqualify those teams from being good pressure man to man teams? If personnel is the difference, then it's personnel. I want a system like Louisville's where we're not seemingly hamstrung by our defense over who to recruit and recruits don't worry about coming here because of our defense. Louisville plays good defense every year. We should know given how often we look clueless on offense against them. The whores help but that can't be the only reason they're successful.
cusefan88
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I'm not anti-zone, just often frustrated that's the only defense they can play.
OrangeZeus
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I don't think the zone has been the problem. I'd argue the problem has been Boeheim's unwillingness to switch out of the zone when things aren't working our way on defense. Our defense was horrendous to start the year, and marginally improved as the year progressed. I was hoping Boeheim may mix in some M2M early on this year, but that never happened. And besides years when the zone defense isn't up to Syracuse standards, there's always going to be games like @BC this year where a player or a team goes off from deep. That game against BC this year, they shot 16-26 (61.5%) from deep on us. Bowman was 7 for 8 that game. Turner was 4 for 7, Robinson 3 for 4, and Chatman 2 for 5. When Syracuse isn't able to stop the three, which is bound to happen at least once or twice each season, we would be better off showing a different defensive scheme to at least switch things up.
Cuse'91
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Other factors are minutes played and fouls. I don't care what anyone else says, it takes more energy to play man D. Which would necessitate playing more than 6 guys...
OrangeinNH
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I would tend to agree in principle, but both SMU and Duke are primarily m2m teams and play all of 6 or 7 guys in big games.
If this was Family Feud this would be the number one answer on the survey. JB doesn't switch. We can be a zone team 95% and when its not working because a team is hot be a 5% m2m team.
Its all zone or press when we are down team.
White and Gillon played m2m for 3 years. We could have atleast tried it when the opponent is hot. My biggest complaint with JB is he never changes defenses when the opponent is shredding us.
When the zone is on its elite at turning the opponent over. If we aren't getting turnovers its not smart in today's basketball because teams can shoot a lot better now.
I always wished JB would switch a little on defense in a game to make the offense of balance, but in all reality playing zone is not the issue..I coach HS basketball and took over as HC this year for first time...I realized very quickly the trend that has begun and hit my team...Kids DO NOT want to defend. All about the O like what they perceive Golden state as. I think Cuse actually has a leg up most years cause of that and usually has good defensive efficiency ratings...I had too play alot of zone this year cause my best offensive player by far and also a senior wouldn't defend...I had to hide him as best I could...Cuse this year had to play zone and the guys struggled with rotations and getting TO's which is what the Orange zone usually does...If they went man, who were TT and Lydon going to cover?...How bout White and Roberson when he came in...We would have gotten destroyed...Duke can score but they wont win the tourney cause they cant defend well...Same with KY...Kids dont want to defend and M2M make them susceptible.
OrangeDW
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Very impressed with the little I've seen. Would be so huge for the program to get a PG like this for next year's class this late in the game.
He plays similar to Kemba Walker. We need a PG. We get this kid and he makes SU a NCAA tournament team.
Cusefan0307
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God I hate Duke fans. They don't even want the kid. Would rather focus on guys for 2018.
dan7800
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Duke fans are beyond elitist. They really don't get it if they don't want Waters. Every Duke recruit is always overrated ranked in the rankings because they are Duke commits.
They should want this kid because Duke always has PG problems with all the talent they bring in.
HoustonCuse
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He did mix in man to man at the beginning if you recall. I was very worried at the time because it was a big indicator that he thought he was not going to be able to get this group up to a good level with the zone by the time conference season rolled around. That turned out to be true. I assume a couple factors played into his decision to stick with zone though: 1. We had injuries take us back down to essentially a 6.25 man rotation again, 2. The team did show reasonable ability in the zone at home starting in late January, 3. He had to make a management decision about where he was going to spend his practice resources and decided on zone (give #1, and 2).
HoustonCuse
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They got everybody they wanted last year and then some. And we still beat them with what our own fans call scrubs.
hoopsupstate
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They have the right to act this way because they have the best program in the country. They have nothing but McDonald All-Americans and they don't have to settle for anything else. SU should be so lucky. It will be interesting if Jackson comes back. Duval won't just come in and move him off the point. Jackson has really come on over the past month. I don't see Waters coming to SU. He had Duke, Indiana and Kansas as his finalists before and they all still need a point guard.
cuse10
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Indiana will arguably be in worse shape than SU next season if Bryant leaves.
TheCusian
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Lots of folks bashing the zone will be begging for it the moment things go bad post-JB. Mark. It. Down.
That said - I liked when we recruited skilled offensive players and plugged them into the zone, instead of recruiting for the zone and hoping they'd become elite offensive players.
I like this kid.
That said - I liked when we recruited skilled offensive players and plugged them into the zone, instead of recruiting for the zone and hoping they'd become elite offensive players.
I like this kid.
The zone is good when it gets turnovers. We get turnovers by having long athletic teams to intercept passes.Small guards are not a fit for the zone if you are going to play it 100% of the time.
The problem with the zone is we play it 100% of the time we aren't pressing. If JB mixed like 5-10% man to man into the D when the zone struggled it would give the team a chance when the opponent was hot.
JB saying our team can't play man to man is just him defending his decision not to do it. We played zone throughout his career but until 2010 he would sprinkle in some man to man. He refuses to do it now even if his personnel don't fit the zone. That isn't smart.
Francis03
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Nobody is saying that the zone is useless and is the devil. 100% zone is what most have a beef with. Nothing wrong with hoping that Hop can turn us into Louisville on steroids. Recruits seem to be really excited about that. We have had more kids recently say that they don't want to play 100% zone because it's all they hear from the competition and it's a reason why we have hardly sniffed any top 20 talent as of late.
Melancer46
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Honestly, I don't even mind playing the zone nearly exclusively, but I also see the positives in converting to a system more like Louisville's. In the very least, I think being able to switch things up when one system isn't working is a good thing to have. Lean on the 2-3 if you want, but if a team comes out and is simply murdering it like we see from time to time, have a backup plan besides just "packing it in/extending it out".
This is what my post right above was trying to say.
I have no problem with the zone. It works with proper personnel. However, JB hasn't switched it up since 2010 he lives and dies by the zone. If he came out of a TO last second in m2m and the opponent drew up a play for the zone it would shock the heck out of an opponent. Also, when teams are shredding the zone switching to M2M should be done. He won't.
Hopkins appears to be way more progressive than JB and hopefully he is.
