1-3-1 zone

[ChicosBailBonds]

Thought we played extremely well tonight.  Thrilled for the seniors, for Buzz and MU.

My two areas of concern, however....closing out the game.  Good grief we need to handle the ball better.  The other was WVU's zone, the 1-3-1 which we looked pretty poor against.  I've said since the preseason game I attended, I would zone MU every game of the year.  Not sure why opponents haven't, but I sure suspect our NCAA opponent to do it.  It's ugly watching our zone offense.  At this point in the year, I'm not sure if we can do anything about it but next week I suspect we will see that from our opponent.

[PGsHeroes32]

I agree the 1-3-1 is a really scare. It bugs a lot of teams though with how tough it can be. Late games are always a wreck for us and we always make that play to look like were going to blow the game(sometimes we do). Thankfully down 3 today they missed their shot and we closed it out. Still really solid d in the second half.


Really need to work on the freebies though. Its really getting frusterating.


Anyway we can get Davante in their to close games out?

[jeffreyweee]

After a time or two down the court we attacked the 1-3-1 well. In particular the crowder flash --> pass to DJO for the 3 to put us up 6. That's why they abandoned it. A look like that is designed to throw you off your offense and I thought we responded well after our initial attempt. We don't see that very often so with that in mind I'd call it a success.

[wojosdojo]

Buycks pulled a Hardy in the corner with that bad t/o. The 1-3-1 hurt us bad and ever since Zaga went zone on us I am afraid to see it. That aside, great win. Hope we aren't as tired as we were against Gtown last year.

Chicos, what's the rpi looking like after tnite?

[ErickJD08]

After a time or two down the court we attacked the 1-3-1 well. In particular the crowder flash --> pass to DJO for the 3 to put us up 6. That's why they abandoned it. A look like that is designed to throw you off your offense and I thought we responded well after our initial attempt. We don't see that very often so with that in mind I'd call it a success.

????  That play was the only successful play we ran in the 1-3-1 zone.  And they didn't stop playing the 1-3-1.  We just caught them in transition.  

It's "rare" because you need the right personel to run it well.  1-3-1 is centered around forcing a pass to the wings and trapping.  If you don't have the length to prevent an effective pass out of the trap, you will be eaten alive by lay ups and "and-1's" with players out of position and rotating back.

Chicos... I would agree with playing zone against MU all game long but I think WV started the game in a 2-3 and we did pretty well.

[Silkk the Shaka]

Zone is not our weakness.  We can look frustrated for stretches against zones but full-court pressure with length has made us look our worst (end of Louisville, Cincinnati, St. John's).  We did okay against Syracuse's zone I seem to recall...

[jeffreyweee]

????  That play was the only successful play we ran in the 1-3-1 zone.  And they didn't stop playing the 1-3-1.  We just caught them in transition.  

It's "rare" because you need the right personel to run it well.  1-3-1 is centered around forcing a pass to the wings and trapping.  If you don't have the length to prevent an effective pass out of the trap, you will be eaten alive by lay ups and "and-1's" with players out of position and rotating back.

Chicos... I would agree with playing zone against MU all game long but I think WV started the game in a 2-3 and we did pretty well.

They were playing man to man afterwards.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Buycks pulled a Hardy in the corner with that bad t/o. The 1-3-1 hurt us bad and ever since Zaga went zone on us I am afraid to see it. That aside, great win. Hope we aren't as tired as we were against Gtown last year.

Chicos, what's the rpi looking like after tnite?

57 rpi

[El Duderino]

Zone is not our weakness.  We can look frustrated for stretches against zones but full-court pressure with length has made us look our worst (end of Louisville, Cincinnati, St. John's).  We did okay against Syracuse's zone I seem to recall.

I agree with you.

I think when Huggins went to the 1-3-1, it just through our players off for awhile, but that can happen to any offense when a defense switches the defense they are playing, especially when switching to a 1-3-1 which not many teams use.

It's the teams though with really good athletes like you mentioned that can press and/or trap a lot which get's me most nervous. As good as Junior played tonight, he can be shaky at times vs the press or traps. I don't even need to say more about Buycks vs trapping defenses. Vander struggles handling the ball. Crowder can make some really head scratching passes vs heavy pressure defenses.

So we may struggle here and there vs zone defenses, but many teams can also. The way we can penetrate though to break down a zone, it does worry me much. What i really don't want to see is our first round NCAA Tournament game being against a long, athletic, and pressure based defense who loves to trap.

[MUSF]

????  That play was the only successful play we ran in the 1-3-1 zone.  And they didn't stop playing the 1-3-1.  We just caught them in transition.  

The fast break is one of the best ways to beat a zone.  You can't take credit away from the team for "just" catching them in transition.  Pushing the ball up quickly before a zone can get set is often extremely effective.  Buzz and the boys deserve credit negating the 1-3-1 with the fast break.

That said, we did struggle against it in the half court but a little preparation can go a long way.  It is very difficult to run the 1-3-1 effectively, which is one reason it is so rare.  If Buzz preps the team and the players execute, I don't think we will have as much trouble with the 1-3-1.

[willie warrior]

????  That play was the only successful play we ran in the 1-3-1 zone.  And they didn't stop playing the 1-3-1.  We just caught them in transition.  

It's "rare" because you need the right personel to run it well.  1-3-1 is centered around forcing a pass to the wings and trapping.  If you don't have the length to prevent an effective pass out of the trap, you will be eaten alive by lay ups and "and-1's" with players out of position and rotating back.

Chicos... I would agree with playing zone against MU all game long but I think WV started the game in a 2-3 and we did pretty well.

No, there were two trips down the floor where they attacked it well--putting DJO in the corner for those two treys--one assisted by Crowder and one from JFC. First couple times we struggled against it. Pitino will likely try it tonight, and he has better athletes than WVU. Buzz needs to work that into practice today. And we know he reads this board.

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

Hopefully these different looks help them with whatever defense they see next week and they learn to limit taking challenged jumpers when there is plenty of time on shot clock.

[CTWarrior]

No, there were two trips down the floor where they attacked it well--putting DJO in the corner for those two treys--one assisted by Crowder and one from JFC. 

The 3 assisted by Junior was not against the 1-3-1, it was in transition with only one defender back.  I agree that we looked very shaky against the 1-3-1 except for the one possession where DJO knocked down the corner 3.  We won last night with defense and transition offense.  Our half court offense was not particularly good, but that's a heck of a defensive team in WV.

[StillWarriors]

That 3 in transition was off that huge steal and composure on the floor by Buycks to get it to JC. The guy gets ripped a lot. Deserves some praise for that huge play. Loved how we hit the offensive boards late too. Exact opposite of the Cincy or SH game; I cant' remember which it was. Played like WARRIORS last night. 3 in 3 days is tough to ask, but if a team and coach could ever want a game badly, I'm guessing this is pretty high on the list for our guys.

[muchamps]

I agree the 1-3-1 is a really scare. It bugs a lot of teams though with how tough it can be. Late games are always a wreck for us and we always make that play to look like were going to blow the game(sometimes we do). Thankfully down 3 today they missed their shot and we closed it out. Still really solid d in the second half.


Really need to work on the freebies though. Its really getting frusterating.


Anyway we can get Davante in their to close games out?







Hay Haywards, been on this all season, "Devante" the key! The last (2)nights where Buzz's best coaching this season, utilizing Gardner and the rest of his bench. Hope to see 20 plus min for the new "Big baby" and a W tonight.

[mu_hilltopper]

I imagine the team was relieved when the 1-3-1 ended, and they went back to man. 

I realize they shifted once DJO hit 2 deep buckets .. one was wide open, the other contested.    They went in, but could have easily clanked off the rim, too.  I was surprised Hugs left the 1-3-1, knowing MU was flustered and scored in spite of that. 

[CTWarrior]

I realize they shifted once DJO hit 2 deep buckets .. one was wide open, the other contested. 

The first DJO 3 was off of a steal in transition and WV only had one guy back, so that score did not come against a 1-3-1 zone.  (I guess you could call it a 0-1-0 zone if you were so inclined, and we've been prretty successful against that defense all year).  We looked pretty bad against the zone (DJO likely misses that 3 a little more often than he makes it and that was our only success).  But they felt forced to leave it and go back to man-to-man when we grabbed the lead and they didn't want us to milk clock.

[mu_hilltopper]

I would agree.  Of course, on the one hand, if you were UL, you had a frustrated offense that might milk the clock, but also might turn the ball over and not score due.  On the other, you could go m2m .. which MU could equally milk the clock, and oh, MU had scored most of their points against.

Hmm .. decisions, decisions.

[T-Bone]

We got out running and being aggressive, causing WV to blow some assignments and thus ending it. 
It took a little too long for us to recognize it and beat it, but once we did we were fine.
In the beginning of the BE season, we were awful against it.  We've gotten a lot better.  Syracuse comes to mind.