Full court pressure! Alleluia!

[MUCrisco]

So Murf,

By your silence after reading the article I posted about Louisville going to the 2-3 zone in 2005, I will assume that you realize your comments were wrong.

[Murffieus]

My recollection is that Pitino played mostly man defense up until this year when he played just about all 2-3 zone----especially in the 2nd half of the year!

[Murffieus]

Readyto fly---playing a "pack it in defense" is a relatively easy concept to employ! Fits our personnel a lot better than a pick 'em up over the whole floor" and would be a great deal more effective.

Not rocket science to teach either!

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Readyto fly---playing a "pack it in defense" is a relatively easy concept to employ! Fits our personnel a lot better than a pick 'em up over the whole floor" and would be a great deal more effective.

Not rocket science to teach either!

Man, you could be right, but I'm just not seeing it. All of our players seem to have an advantage on both offense and defense when they are in the open court.

McNeal, Wes, and even DJ can guard most any guard/forward in the open court... and I will take them coming off of the wing one on one every time. I would also argue that Ooz is great in the open floor (runs the floor well, finishes are just ok) and Hayward isn't the athlete that the others are, but he has very good hands and is pretty good around the rim (he finishes much better than ooz). The incoming players will be able to defend within the system and run the floor as well (good athletes).

Again, the best part of the debate is that we will have a chance to see it all unfold this season.

Oh, also, obviously everybody here is providing opinions and trying to back up those opinions with facts (opposing teams, previous games, game recaps, etc).

Murf, there is no doubt that you know your hoops, and you have a great deal of knowledge. I think everybody respects that.

But, when you state your opinion as fact, it just distorts your message and the thread degenerates into you trying to defend your opinions as facts by stating something like "In the games I saw"...

You are better than that. Just state your opinion (based upon your basketball knowledge), and go with it. I know you have seen and coached a lot of games, so if you say that MU will not be able to press and play high pressure defense, then by golly you might be right. But, realize that some people around here are also pretty knowledgeable, so they may be right as well.

I think this is an interesting topic, but now we have a 5 page thread of people trying to prove you wrong (I'm guilty as well) instead of people actually discussing strategy, techniques, or styles of play... all things that are related to how MU might be different this year vs. previous years.

[Murffieus]

mualum-----my philosophy as a coach on defense was to give them what they could get from the perimeter with a hand in their face but protect the inside at all costs. Now that was before the 3 point shot-----so i would modify that somewhat today.

Anyway----when you play a containment defense the rule is-----the farther the man you are guarding is from the ball the further you sag off your man into the middle. That by itself clogs the middle-----and another rule was to switch all screens & handoffs on the ball and screens away from the ball----this gives a zone touch to your man to man defense-----another rule was to put yourself in the prper position to keep your eye on your man and the ball at all times and all the time (peripheral vision) so that you can react to both the ball and your man's movements. Another rule is front cutters as the come across the middle----and front postups!

There is a common misconception and that is that you have to stel the ball to play good defense----that's nonsense-----containment is the best defense as by containing the offense you force low percentage shots and prevent high percentage shots, which should be the major objective of any defense!

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

mualum-----my philosophy as a coach on defense was to give them what they could get from the perimeter with a hand in their face but protect the inside at all costs. Now that was before the 3 point shot-----so i would modify that somewhat today.

Anyway----when you play a containment defense the rule is-----the farther the man you are guarding is from the ball the further you sag off your man into the middle. That by itself clogs the middle-----and another rule was to switch all screens & handoffs on the ball and screens away from the ball----this gives a zone touch to your man to man defense-----another rule was to put yourself in the prper position to keep your eye on your man and the ball at all times and all the time (peripheral vision) so that you can react to both the ball and your man's movements. Another rule is front cutters as the come across the middle----and front postups!

There is a common misconception and that is that you have to stel the ball to play good defense----that's nonsense-----containment is the best defense as by containing the offense you force low percentage shots and prevent high percentage shots, which should be the major objective of any defense!

Nicely put. You know your hoops... I don't think anybody doubts that. and I think that is definitely one way to play defense... I don't think that coach Crean subscribes to the same philosophy... but that is the beauty of basketball... there are a lot of ways to defend it.

Also, as pointed out in this thread by several people, you can defend in different ways throughout a game based upon your strategy and personnel. Your pack it in style defense might work very well against a team like PITT or Providence, but might not work as well against a team like ND a couple of years ago when they seemed to have endless 3pt shooters. AND based upon how a specific player is playing (cough.. scottie reynolds... cough cough) you might have to adjust your defense on the fly to slow down a specific player and disrupt his rhythm.

Lots of ways to play defense. I think MU will pick up pressure full and 3/4 court this year to take advantage of their depth and good one on one defenders. BUT... I have been wrong before.

[muarmy81]

Wasn't this discussed last year?  I heard alot of "we're going to run teams off the court" because we had 3 great young guards but that never materialized.  I just don't think full court pressing is in Crean's system.  Occassionally we'd apply token pressure with cubillian or DJ guarding their man full court but never with a trap even though I always seem to recall the McNeal steal he had when he picked up his guy full court against Wiscy.  I personally think we should do some sort of full court pressure but if we didn't do it last year I don't really see TC implementing it this year.

[Murffieus]

muarmy----the voice of reason!

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Wasn't this discussed last year?  I heard alot of "we're going to run teams off the court" because we had 3 great young guards but that never materialized.  I just don't think full court pressing is in Crean's system.  Occassionally we'd apply token pressure with cubillian or DJ guarding their man full court but never with a trap even though I always seem to recall the McNeal steal he had when he picked up his guy full court against Wiscy.  I personally think we should do some sort of full court pressure but if we didn't do it last year I don't really see TC implementing it this year.

I agree that MU hasn't been a high pressure team in past seasons. I think that is partially due to Crean's system, and partially a product of depth (or lack of it). It's hard to play a high pressure style if you can only go 7 or 8 deep. If you get anybody in foul trouble, you pretty much have to abandon the pressure because you don't have enough guys to effectively sub in and out.

I think this team can go 9 or 10 deep... so I think they will be able to pick up the pressure much more often.