UNC Press

[NCMUFan]

Watching the MU vs UNC game in the 2nd half when UNC applied the backcourt press.  It was phenomenally successful.
I would appear two UNC players would trap the Marquette player with the ball.  A third UNC player would just be positioned in the middle of the backcourt.  The MU player with the ball had maybe only one option to pass to another player.  The floater UNC player would anticipate where the MU player with the ball would have to pass to.  This floater was constantly intercepting the pass.  What a great press.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

Made even more effective by MU inbounding the ball to the corner the majority of the time. 

[NCMUFan]

Perez was a disaster inbounding.  Garcia is the person to inbound.  Also, MU should have more than one option than Carton to inbound the ball to.  UNC seemed to figure that out knowing MU did not want to inbound to anyone else.

[tower912]

Garcia is the one to receive the inbounds pass.   Not in a corner.   A hand off or a quick dump pass to a guard on the move and the press is over.   Mcilvaine, Miller, Kentucky.

[StillWarriors]

Garcia is the one to receive the inbounds pass.   Not in a corner.   A hand off or a quick dump pass to a guard on the move and the press is over.   Mcilvaine, Miller, Kentucky.

This!! Garcia should start at half court and flash towards the three point line depth. If they guard him, that would pull the defenders looking to trap the guards in the corners back a bit. Force them to make a decision. The inbounding the ball into a corner and baseline trap repeatedly has been by far the biggest source of frustration for me this season. Garcia is the perfect relief valve with his height and ability to dribble if need be. I would love to hear an explanation from the coaches for the press break strategy.

[mileskishnish72]

I'm with Tower. Have Dawson be the receiver, not the inbounder. And have him NOT in the corner.
If nobody seems to be open, tossit to Dawson -he's 6'11", can jump some, and is going to be guarded by a guard. IIRC Sam was used to break presses.  A flip to the wings, and the press is broken. We might even get on a break or two, but that hasn't been a huge success of late either.

[tower912]

Sam inbounded the ball and generally knew where to go with it.   Then he would get the ball back as an outlet from the initial double team and start moving it up the floor until he could hand it to a guard.   

[Milkshakes]

DJ is our only player who can handle the ball. If he leaves who handles the ball for MU. Having a freshman point guard having to play almost the whole game will be a huge problem.  I really hope DJ comes back for another year. 

[TSmith34, Inc.]

This!! Garcia should start at half court and flash towards the three point line depth. If they guard him, that would pull the defenders looking to trap the guards in the corners back a bit. Force them to make a decision. The inbounding the ball into a corner and baseline trap repeatedly has been by far the biggest source of frustration for me this season. Garcia is the perfect relief valve with his height and ability to dribble if need be. I would love to hear an explanation from the coaches for the press break strategy.

Someone please tell Wojo as failure to have any semblance of an inbounding strategy was the final straw to tip me to a nojo.

[NCMUFan]

Sam inbounded the ball and generally knew where to go with it.   Then he would get the ball back as an outlet from the initial double team and start moving it up the floor until he could hand it to a guard.

So, why not go with that same strategy?  Has Wojo forgotten what has worked in the past?

[tower912]

DJ is our only player who can handle the ball. If he leaves who handles the ball for MU. Having a freshman point guard having to play almost the whole game will be a huge problem.  I really hope DJ comes back for another year.

Not exactly true.   And a press can and should be beat with quick passes and movement, not a PG.   Now, if you have a great PG, the press is moot.    If you don't, move the ball quickly.     

Even passing it to the corner is acceptable IF the player receiving the pass is comfortable passing it quickly.   Have at least two and preferably three clear options as the double team closes and pass the ball quickly.    You have three possibilities.   Up the sideline, near the foul line, or back to the inbounder under the basket.     But the rest of the team has to know what is coming, hit those spots instantly so that the player receiving the ball in the corner trusts that they will be there and can throw to a spot and trust that his teammate will get it.   

But it would be impossible to simulate UNC's pressure in practice.    Theo, Justin, and Oso are all out.   So, you now have Perez, Akanno, Symir, 6' walk ons and 5'9 team managers trying to simulate D1 pressure.      So it is entirely possible that they are running these press breaks to perfection in practice but struggle in games against D1 size and speed.   

[MuggsyB]

Not exactly true.   And a press can and should be beat with quick passes and movement, not a PG.   Now, if you have a great PG, the press is moot.    If you don't, move the ball quickly.     

Even passing it to the corner is acceptable IF the player receiving the pass is comfortable passing it quickly.   Have at least two and preferably three clear options as the double team closes and pass the ball quickly.    You have three possibilities.   Up the sideline, near the foul line, or back to the inbounder under the basket.     But the rest of the team has to know what is coming, hit those spots instantly so that the player receiving the ball in the corner trusts that they will be there and can throw to a spot and trust that his teammate will get it.   

But it would be impossible to simulate UNC's pressure in practice.    Theo, Justin, and Oso are all out.   So, you now have Perez, Akanno, Symir, 6' walk ons and 5'9 team managers trying to simulate D1 pressure.      So it is entirely possible that they are running these press breaks to perfection in practice but struggle in games against D1 size and speed.

Fair points.  Maybe it's me  but it didn't appear to be a difficult press to eviscerate.    When we did break it we also seemingly had no clue how to take advantage of 2 on 1's.   They probably scored 14 points off of it which can't happen.  At worst we should have gotten 5 dunks off of their press. 

[brewcity77]

Sam inbounded the ball and generally knew where to go with it.   Then he would get the ball back as an outlet from the initial double team and start moving it up the floor until he could hand it to a guard.

Sam was an excellent press breaker. One more reason he was such a great player for us, because he did many of the little things that don't show up in the box score.

[MuggsyB]

Sam was an excellent press breaker. One more reason he was such a great player for us, because he did many of the little things that don't show up in the box score.

Very solid offensive player.  However, the little things that didn't  show up in the bs included his defensive woes at times.

[GooooMarquette]

Even passing it to the corner is acceptable IF the player receiving the pass is comfortable passing it quickly.

Yep. And it can be either a pass or a dribble, as long as he does it QUICKLY.

There were several times where the player who received the ball had time to dribble or pass before the double team came. Unfortunately, he froze, and that extra second made all the difference in allowing the UNC players to trap him.

[tower912]

And having Rowsey or Markus catch the ball in the corner can only end poorly.   Too small to see the passes out of the trap.

[brewcity77]

Very solid offensive player.  However, the little things that didn't  show up in the bs included his defensive woes at times.

I disagree. That's another small thing he generally did right. Sam wasn't individually a lock down defender, but he understood how to guide his man into the help defense and shot blockers. He wasn't a great individual defender, but he was a smart team defender.

He didn't have the foot speed or raw athleticism to do it himself, but he did well enough. The problem was Wojo has a poor defensive scheme and rarely recruits great individual defenders. All the team guys in the world won't help without a guy or two that can individually take the tough assignment.  There's never been a Ty-Shon Alexander or Justin Simon type (or Jimmy Butler, for a MU reference) on Wojo's roster.

[panda]

I disagree. That's another small thing he generally did right. Sam wasn't individually a lock down defender, but he understood how to guide his man into the help defense and shot blockers. He wasn't a great individual defender, but he was a smart team defender.

He didn't have the foot speed or raw athleticism to do it himself, but he did well enough. The problem was Wojo has a poor defensive scheme and rarely recruits great individual defenders. All the team guys in the world won't help without a guy or two that can individually take the tough assignment.  There's never been a Ty-Shon Alexander or Justin Simon type (or Jimmy Butler, for a MU reference) on Wojo's roster.

Correct - Everyone remembers Hauser v Ponds at the top of the key, but when the scheme (especially during the years Hauser was here) left him on islands a lot. I'll still never understand the insistence on picking up pressure so high up the floor with small guards who weren't particularly good defenders. It left us playing four on five more times than not with guys that weren't particularly great at closing out shooters or being quick on rotations.

Sam is a solid help defender, spatially aware and great rebounder in space. What he lacked in foot speed, he made up for in feel for the game.

[MU82]

I would have Garcia screen for a guard and then roll into the FT line/top of key area.

This has the double benefit of him  potentially freeing up a guard to catch the pass and also making himself available for the pass.

But at the very least, you have Garcia make himself available, with or without the screen.

I am disappointed that Wojo never tried using Garcia as the recipient, especially after what he was trying failed over and over and over again.

That failure was 100% on Wojo.

[MuggsyB]

Correct - Everyone remembers Hauser v Ponds at the top of the key, but when the scheme (especially during the years Hauser was here) left him on islands a lot. I'll still never understand the insistence on picking up pressure so high up the floor with small guards who weren't particularly good defenders. It left us playing four on five more times than not with guys that weren't particularly great at closing out shooters or being quick on rotations.

Sam is a solid help defender, spatially aware and great rebounder in space. What he lacked in foot speed, he made up for in feel for the game.

He was a decent help defender but as you pointed out he got torched on switches as did Joey.

[tower912]

And it really doesn't matter about the rest of your defenders when two of them are Rowsey and Howard.

[mix it up]

Watching the MU vs UNC game in the 2nd half when UNC applied the backcourt press.  It was phenomenally successful....

I thought the same thing and wondered why Roy did not press more often. We escaped by the skin of our teeth just about every time.

[MU82]

Sam was a much better defender than many people give him credit for, multiple times better than his brother.

Of course, none of this has to do with breaking a press.

BTW, Wojo did use Sam as an inbounder quite often - especially in 2018-19 when he had the luxury of using Joey as a potential recipient. Joey is tall, has decent hands and is a good FT shooter. Wojo also used Sam plenty as a potential recipient in earlier seasons.

I am convinced (as are some other Scoopers I respect a great deal) that Garcia would be our single best weapon against a press like UNC's - and not as the inbounder.

I thought the same thing and wondered why Roy did not press more often.

Yeah, I was mystified when Roy called off the press for a several-minute stretch after UNC had climbed back into the game.

[warriorchick]

I thought this was going to be about an article about MU in the Tarheel student newspaper.

[GooooMarquette]

I thought this was going to be about an article about MU in the Tarheel student newspaper.

Ask and you shall receive....

https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2021/02/unc-mens-basketball-marquette-side-one