What's worse? The offense or the defense?

[Brooky03]

i don't get the people here who we think we can't play man to man defense. that's all you learn from the 6th grade up. i never once played zone.
people here act like it's learning some new foreign language when in fact we're the only team in the ncaa speaking only portuguese. the switch to man would not be above the talent level or cognitive grasp of any player on this team. we don't play it simply cuz the coach thinks "zone" is his trademark.

I never thought I'd ever get to this point, but I'll say it, this team needs to play m2m defense. St. John's would not have scored even close to 90 points if we played man. The only defender who might not be able to pull it off is Coleman. He doesn't give us anything in the zone though, so it can't get much worse in m2m and should help his rebounding.

 

[two3zone]

I never thought I'd ever get to this point, but I'll say it, this team needs to play m2m defense. St. John's would not have scored even close to 90 points if we played man. The only defender who might not be able to pull it off is Coleman. He doesn't give us anything in the zone though, so it can't get much worse in m2m and should help his rebounding.

As someone who appreciates the zone and loves the zone more than any other defense when it's elite, I 100% agree with your post.

 

[manleyzoo]

We're not going to have anything resembling a good defense when we only play zone and have an immobile Center and 3 foot tall Guard.

Eggzactly! What we have is a coach who can't teach man defense, not players who can't play it.

 

[tbonezone]

Eggzactly! What we have is a coach who can't teach man defense, not players who can't play it.

i'd stick with won't over can't. we used to play excellent man . only time we ever went zone was to protect a big in foul trouble.

 

[orange79]

i'd stick with won't over can't. we used to play excellent man . only time we ever went zone was to protect a big in foul trouble.

If you're talking under JB as head coach, that's just not true. Zone was always the primary. Absolutely, we used to play a lot more M2M. A lot. But to say "...only time we ever went zone was to protect a big in foul trouble..." is just not true.

 

[manleyzoo]

i'd stick with won't over can't. we used to play excellent man . only time we ever went zone was to protect a big in foul trouble.

You're right, it is won't. I've often wondered exactly how athletic the players would have to be for Boeheim to play M2M. If they're very athletic the zone is great no matter what (it is). If they're not athletic we have to play zone because the players can't do anything else (hard to believe this one, lots of un-athletic teams somehow play a well-coached M2M). It all boils down to won't as you say.

His thinking on the zone is odd to me. He has great patience with it when it's not working but he has none of the same patience for M2M. We fail in it for a few minutes and it's gone. The problem, as we've seen this year, is you have to have the exact right players in each position for it to be effective. You kinda, maybe, sorta, perhaps should be able to give the players a plan B if you don't have that kind of roster.