Kolek planning to go pro
Fast team, excellent turnover ability on defense, but they never press? I don't understand, a team of Carter, Wilson, and johnson is born to press defense.
Two reasons....1.) Lack of depth, especially in the front-court. While the press can generate turnovers, when broken, your bigs are susceptible to picking up fouls as they are placed into odd-man situations. MU needs to keep HE and Luke on the floor. Having them defend 2-on-1s is not a great way for that to happen.2.) Today's rules. The emphasis on hand-checking and body contact really hurts teams that want to press. No coach wants the other team to be in the bonus with 14 minutes to go in the half.
To answer the question, it is obvious that Wojo believes in tough half court defense. So much so that he seems to be willing to give up some offensive rebounds to do so. Given that, pressing is probably not his style. His mentor doesn't do it. His mentor's mentor didn't do it.
I agree with all of this ... but today's rules didn't stop St. John's from mauling us when they were pressing.Refs often get caught up in the action and let far more go when a desperate team is pressing than they did during "regular play" early in a game.
Long-term this is true but his mentors don't believe in zone but we have used it effectively, sparingly. I think that is all some people are saying. But if Wojo and his coaches are not comfortable with it, so be it. Just think it could work from time to time.
His mentors might not "believe" in zone, but Duke plays quite a bit of zone and even Bobby relented and went with zone late in his career when he didn't have the personnel to play man.