I’m not calling for his head

[oldwarrior81]

Baylor runs a bunch of different looks out of a zone.

I think their base is a 1-3-1 but there are times they morph out of it into a 3-2 for a handful of possessions.

[tower912]

I understand the 3-2 and 1-2-2 variations of the zone.    From everything I have ever read, the 3-2 is weak against 3's from the top of the key and corners as well as dribble penetration.     So, Anim at the top of the key, Markus and Rowsey on the wings, Matt and Sam down low.    Skip pass to the corner on Heldt's side, Heldt closing out on a shooter who can shoot the 3 if he is a step late, leaving no size under the basket, or drive by him if he closes out wrong, leaving, wait for it, no size under the basket.    Or Heldt staying home and one of the midgets being responsible for an entire side of the court.   IMO, this is why it is not commonly used at the D1 level.     Sorry, but I am not feeling it.    At the end of the day, I do not think there is a defense that will cover up the individual defensive weaknesses of playing Markus and Andrew together.    And the alternative is to take minutes away from 20 ppg scorers and giving them to a pair of inconsistent freshmen.    In the end, no truly good options.   

[MUDPT]

I haven't watched much of Baylor this year, but they used to run a lot of the "Amoeba Zone."

http://www.coachesclipboard.net/AmoebaDefense.html

Drew picked it up from Southern Utah when they were in the same conference as Valpo.

[tower912]

Requiring long, quick defenders.

[Floorslapper]

Guys, Ners was an All North Woods Conference performer for Minoqua High School.  He's the only person that's ever posted on a basketball forum with any kind of actual basketball playing experience.  He can also dunk a basketball, even on a 10 foot hoop!  He once was allowed to volunteer at Buzz's basketball camps by holding kids' hands as they crossed 17th and Wisconsin to ensure they made it safely back and forth between the Al and the Rec Center.

Obviously, given all these incredible credentials and the unbelievable athleticism he has, he has forgotten more than Wojo and every member on Scoop combined will ever know about basketball.  When he speaks, simply bow to him and say, "You are, as always, right."

(What I'm saying is the guy is completely clueless and there's no need to argue with him.  No matter how much evidence you will give him, he's always going to be "smarter" than you.  No matter how many times he's told to move on from a topic or move on from the board, he'll continue to come back here and be unable to move on from those very few topics he can't get away from.  Much like Chicos, the unhealthy inability to ever be wrong, admit they are wrong, move on when asked to do so, or stay away when asked to do so will never go away for him.)

Sounds like a bad case of projection.  You should re-read what you post here.  You come off every bit the sanctimonious type, you espouse me to be.

Meanwhile, your boy has yet to win 3 Big East games in a row, through 4 seasons as coach at MU.  I understand you bowed at the altar early, and have major wood for the Woj, and thus to have to come here and try to defend the very, very mediocre results thus far, is challenging.  Now, I could go through and search your previous posts where you touted this year being our major breakthrough year - but, I won't be cheesy and out you and that idiocy you posted 3 years ago.

That all aside, I hope Wojo pulls through next year, and advances the program to consistent NCAA appearances.  He's certainly shown to do well recruiting, but the in-game coaching ceiling likely will be a C. 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I'm still waiting for you to provide PPP in zone versus M2M for Big East play TAMU.  And why would it matter if our base defense was zone from the beginning?  Doing something over and over and over (repetition/consistency) is of absolutely no value, right? 

P.S. - WE didn't win last night because our defense was even satisfactory.  We won, because, just as it always requires, we were elite shooting the basketball.  Our M2M last night was awful, just as it always is.

Like I told you before, Synergy doesn't have a setting for conference play. I can't even look at individual games and tell you PPP by man or by zone. I can tell you how many times a team scored against the zone and how many times they didn't....but it doesn't tell me how much they scored in those possessions. I can't tell if they scored three pointers, 2 pointers, or got fouled and made 1/2 FTs.

What I can tell you is that for the season Marquette is allowing .95 ppp in man defense and 1.06 in zone defense. I can also tell you that Creighton was the only game where Marquette allowed a higher % of scoring possessions in man than in zone in conference play. Which supports the hypothesis that Wojo is willing to try zone and will stick with it when its working and will move away from it when its not.

And yes consistency and practice over the course of a year absolutely makes a team better at a defense. Absolutely. But over the course of 20 minutes in a basketball game? Hell no.

Our M2M was awful last night. As it always is. The zone was worse. Like it has been every game other than Creighton. We won last night because of our offense....like we've won 95% of our games. That's part of our identity this season. Do I wish I wasn't? Hell yes! But its who we are this year. I don't really give a rip how we win as long as we win. This is what happens when two of your best three players are awful sub 6 foot defenders.

[wadesworld]

Sounds like a bad case of projection.  You should re-read what you post here.  You come off every bit the sanctimonious type, you espouse me to be.

Meanwhile, your boy has yet to win 3 Big East games in a row, through 4 seasons as coach at MU.  I understand you bowed at the altar early, and have major wood for the Woj, and thus to have to come here and try to defend the very, very mediocre results thus far, is challenging.  Now, I could go through and search your previous posts where you touted this year being our major breakthrough year - but, I won't be cheesy and out you and that idiocy you posted 3 years ago.

That all aside, I hope Wojo pulls through next year, and advances the program to consistent NCAA appearances.  He's certainly shown to do well recruiting, but the in-game coaching ceiling likely will be a C.

You are right Ners. Now before you get a chance to put me on a poster like you have so many other poor north woods souls, please allow me to step to the side!

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I'm simply not a fan of doing anything inconsistently.  As a result, I don't like the concept of sprinkling in a possession of zone approximately every 7 possessions.  I don't feel you get reliable results by doing anything at a ratio of 1:7.

I realize GTown scored against the zone in its first attempt, and as a result, Wojo chose to kneejerk and go back to M2M.  This pattern followed throughout the first half.  We have concrete evidence that we suck in M2M - especially with both Rowsey and Howard in the game.  No sane, objective person here would argue otherwise.  I simply would like to see Wojo give the zone a REAL chance (as in exclusively), as he did at Creighton, and see how the chips fall with Cain playing in the zone 16 minutes per half.   We have basically 60 minutes of data points on playing predominately zone (granted it was only about 65% against St. Johns), but we got MUCH better results than we've seen in M2M. The layup line at the basket, and excessive following and FTA were greatly reduced in those 60 minutes.

This is why Wojo is the coach and you're not. Wojo can see something isn't working after a few possessions. You need an entire half in order to know for sure!