The press and zone defense and the new 30 second shot clock

[Fly Rodder]

This is the first season with the 30 second shot clock. Previous seasons, teams have had issues with patience and finding quality shots against the zone using 35 seconds. I would expect that nearly all college regulars have an accurate internal clock so that they feel when time is getting short. Losing that extra 5 seconds seems to have affected at least a few teams this season. Now throw in the press, which can eat another 4-8 seconds off the clock. A team that can get the ball into the half court set against Syracuse now has only 22-24 seconds to get an offense set up compared to what has usually been 30-35 seconds.

I don't how much it has been affecting teams, but the press seems to have upset teams' rhythm quite dramatically in the last two games and I wonder if the reduced shot clock this season factors into it at all.

Edited to add: Prior to making this post, I didn't see this interesting article from Luke Winn in October where he specifically talks about the shot clock and the 2-3 zone of Syracuse:

There's a reason this is a big deal: Getting jammed up against the shot-clock deadline is a highly inefficient situation for an offense, and thus an attractive goal for a defense. College offenses are horrible—scoring just 0.703 PPP!—when up against the shot-clock deadline. They're horrible in comparison to other college scoring situations, and bad even in comparison to the NBA's under-four-second efficiency this season, which was 0.767 PPP. (NBA players, as you'd expect, are better at late-clock, one-on-one shot creation.)

So, what defense gets teams in late possession shots?

That brings us to the (obvious) next question: What defense scheme is best suited for grinding out the shot clock? Conventional wisdom seems to be that zone defenses take longer to score against. I suspect that this is because Syracuse is the program most associated with zoning, and Syracuse's 2-3 zone requires opponents to work at length to find scoring opportunities. But across all of D-I, does playing more zone necessarily result in longer defensive possessions?

And the money:

Under the new shot clock, presses like San Diego State's (or VCU's, or Louisville's, or Florida's, if it continues post-Billy Donovan) could prevent opponents from initiating offense until there's only 20 seconds left to shoot. That's enough time to run a couple of actions; if they don't yield good scoring looks, the dreaded, low-efficiency, up-against-the-deadline situation arises. And how many college teams have a killer isolation player who can bail them out of trouble? The 30-second shot-clock could trigger the spike in scoring that college hoops needs, but it could just as likely bring rise to a formidable army of press-n-grinders and Syracuse copycats, eating up time and forcing panicked heaves before the buzzer. It's far too early to concede this war to the offenses.

 

[Brooky03]

I was screaming at the tv everytime Virginia was allowed to roll the ball up the court. They were saving a very valuable 2-3 seconds, or more, by doing this and we seemed fine with it. I agree that the shorter shot clock helps our defense, in particular, a lot. It's not an advantage we should give up.

 

[sutomcat]

I was screaming at the tv everytime Virginia was allowed to roll the ball up the court. They were saving a very valuable 2-3 seconds, or more, by doing this and we seemed fine with it. I agree that the shorter shot clock helps our defense, in particular, a lot. It's not and advantage we should give up.

It was a smart move by Bennett to start rolling the ball up the court every possession against us this year. To my memory, he was the only coach to try it and I think it bought them a few valuable extra seconds to work against our zone.

Was disappointed JB didn't respond to it by leaving one of the guards lurking near center court when UVa inbounded the ball. Was happy to see Silent G do it once or twice late in the Elite 8 game though.

 

[CorduroyG]

I was screaming at the tv everytime Virginia was allowed to roll the ball up the court. They were saving a very valuable 2-3 seconds, or more, by doing this and we seemed fine with it. I agree that the shorter shot clock helps our defense, in particular, a lot. It's not and advantage we should give up.

If the clock was stopped, like coming out of a timeout or a made ft, i was glad uva was rolling the ball up, especially in 2nd half. We were losing by double digits, didnt make sense to me why virginia wouldnt want the clock to start asap. Of course as it turned out they needed those extra secs more than us.

 

[orangenirvana]

I was screaming at the tv everytime Virginia was allowed to roll the ball up the court. They were saving a very valuable 2-3 seconds, or more, by doing this and we seemed fine with it. I agree that the shorter shot clock helps our defense, in particular, a lot. It's not an advantage we should give up.

That was a smart strategy by Bennett.

 

[jec1521]

This is the first season with the 30 second shot clock. Previous seasons, teams have had issues with patience and finding quality shots against the zone using 35 seconds. I would expect that nearly all college regulars have an accurate internal clock so that they feel when time is getting short. Losing that extra 5 seconds seems to have affected at least a few teams this season. Now throw in the press, which can eat another 4-8 seconds off the clock. A team that can get the ball into the half court set against Syracuse now has only 22-24 seconds to get an offense set up compared to what has usually been 30-35 seconds.

I don't how much it has been affecting teams, but the press seems to have upset teams' rhythm quite dramatically in the last two games and I wonder if the reduced shot clock this season factors into it at all.

Edited to add: Prior to making this post, I didn't see this interesting article from Luke Winn in October where he specifically talks about the shot clock and the 2-3 zone of Syracuse:

So, what defense gets teams in late possession shots?

And the money:

Makes me wonder... maybe we should think about applying light pressure in the back court all game just to take a few seconds off the clock before we back up into our zone. Would it expend that much more energy? May be worth it. Not a full press to try to get turnovers, just something to creep a few seconds off the clock. You could probably apply this type of pressure with just one guard, allowing the guards to switch off and keep the amount if any energy used to a minimum.

 

[SoBristol]

The 30 second clock is good for the SU zone, but our press tends to speed up the opponent. We try for a quick trap, or try to get a hand on a pass, deep in the backcourt. When teams beat the trap, they often take a rushed shot before the zone sets up.

Teams could use full court pressure as a regular way to use clock -- maybe Louisville is an example. But that isn't how JB uses it.