syracuse needs to press more

[Millhouse]

heard a gottleib snippet and he was dead on

only pressing as a panic down 10 hurts us - pressing more makes waiters the best player in the country, and sitting back in the 2-3 all game slows the game down which inferior opponents want.

(it's not man zone, it's press zone.)

he also talked about the obvious - scoop needs to play better (duh)

 

[PhatOrange]

heard a gottleib snippet and he was dead on

only pressing as a panic down 10 hurts us - pressing more makes waiters the best player in the country, and sitting back in the 2-3 all game slows the game down which inferior opponents want.

(it's not man zone, it's press zone.)

he also talked about the obvious - scoop needs to play better (duh)

I agree and for once in my lifetime (against a slow down team) I'd like to see JB go outside the norm, open up in the press and make the game helter skelter right out of the gate.

Especially with the team we have now with the depth you wouldn't be asking 6 core guys to burn all their energy early.

 

[dollarbill44]

I do think we should have been pressing fairly early in the 1st half Friday against a Cincy team that was playing their 3rd game in 3 days and just off a 2OT game. Use 10 guys and run them out of the building. It's not a coincidence we started to come back in the final 5-6 minutes.

 

[TheRoyalIveyFund]

heard a gottleib snippet and he was dead on

only pressing as a panic down 10 hurts us - pressing more makes waiters the best player in the country, and sitting back in the 2-3 all game slows the game down which inferior opponents want.

(it's not man zone, it's press zone.)

he also talked about the obvious - scoop needs to play better (duh)

I completely agree and posted the same before Uconn game. There's no reason that we cannot start the game off, play the first 3 minutes or so, and when Dion comes in like he does, also bring in James, and throw the trunk monkey press on, even for a few minutes. I know JB is probably concerned about fouls but imo, the benefit outweighs the cost. Then, call it off and do the same thing if/when Fab is subbed out, etc. No reasons we cannot do it 2-3 times a half.

 

[All4SU]

I agree and for once in my lifetime (against a slow down team) I'd like to see JB go outside the norm, open up in the press and make the game helter skelter right out of the gate.

Especially with the team we have now with the depth you wouldn't be asking 6 core guys to burn all their energy early.

Yup. Agree 100%. But JB is who he is. I don't think it will ever happen in my lifetime.

 

[senorpalmer]

If there was ever a year to do it, this was it. Incredible length, depth and athleticism; and an offense that can struggle in a slow half court game.

In general over the years, the team hasn't utilized it enough IMO. The Vermont debacle may well have never happened had we seen more press that game; it got SU back into the lead on that dreaded day, and as soon as the deficit had been overcome we took the boot of their throat and let them go right back to what had worked for them.

 

[orangehomer]

one thing we showed against cinci that we hadn't seen yet was extending the guards to trap in the half court, which i think we will see more of. i think modern teams have too many ball handlers to try to press full court for any extended period of time, you might get a turnover but then give up a layup. my guess is we are going to see the zone extend and try to speed teams up if they are trying to stall ball us with inferior guards.

 

[Orangezoo]

good points.. even if you give up a few points you upset any possible flow.. cincy got into a flow too quickly.

 

[Ghost]

one thing we showed against cinci that we hadn't seen yet was extending the guards to trap in the half court, which i think we will see more of. i think modern teams have too many ball handlers to try to press full court for any extended period of time, you might get a turnover but then give up a layup. my guess is we are going to see the zone extend and try to speed teams up if they are trying to stall ball us with inferior guards.

I think we did that against Notre Dame earlier in the year too after we dug too big of a hole to get out of. It more or less worked in each game to the extent that we quickened the pace of the game. Too little too late though.

Throw me in the same camp, I wouldn't mind seeing us adjust more quickly when teams are slowing us down. We seem pretty decent with the press, and haven't been beaten as often as we were in past seasons. After awhile it breaks down, but when we're pressing we're usually selling out and taking risks that we wouldn't need to if we were using it as just a change of pace.

 

[OburgCuse]

I'd like to see us press more in certain situations (including during 1st half against Cinci) but for the most part our defense is so good why press and potentially give teams easy baskets (or lots of fouls against us) in transition when a team has to really fight to score. I view it as more of a change of pace way to speed up the game and give a team a different look if they are really taking their time and still picking apart our D and/or shooting lights out ie. Cinci in 1st half. Our press isn't really that good over a long period of time because it's very frantic and has lots of guys trapping in the backcourt and opens us up significantly to fast breaks the other way. I do agree that we need to utilize it more often in games like 1st half vs Cinci when we couldn't get a stop and they were completely dictating the game, but I don't think it's something we should open up with unless a team is picking us apart. We don't want to give a team that is struggling to score any confidence after hitting a couple layups in transition.