Second half in the cornfield .

[rawdognyc]

Maybe we go to a 1-3-1 or a 2-3 zone with long quick guys up top

A 2-3 zone which doesn't switch on every back door and rotate all over the court would be ideal. We have the wings and the shot blocker to do it. Matter of fact if Sanchez, Sampson, and Obekpa are all in together that's what should be run.

I think they should play man to man and press

I agree. Even Norm's undermanned teams pulled off an occasional upset playing man. Now we have big time depth and athleticism and we watch them wave at threes all night. There is no accountability with the current format and even good defenders like Dom are a step late covering for others. The simple fact is that zone leads to threes. When teams are hot with it we don't have a chance..In 2010 we used man to up the tempo and it worked. I don't see the effort right now and the teamwork is lacking. This reverts directly to Lavin and changes have to be made now to be effective. If guys are dogging on "D" they should sit but it's hard to identify it in this format and provide performance incentives.

can you stop bringing up Norm Roberts, Bobby? Here's a picture...enuff said
[attachment]Screenshot_2013-11-12-13-28-31-1.png[/attachment]

 

[ccnobz]

Sitting back and looking at those conference records it's amazing how bad this team was.

 

[beast of the east]

Now this is just a crazy guess, but...

I do have a hunch that Lavin and his staff know basketball a little more than most of us, who may have coached in youth leagues or a little higher.

If you ask me, I think Lavin is trying to teach the zone, which you need to be pretty good at to get past your toughest competitors, especially deep into the tournament. His first year, we took our lumps with it (remember the Fordham debacle) until we gave it up and went primarily man the rest of the season.

Year two was a washout with Lavin sick and a very thin roster. Last year we played a lot of zone, but I also think he knew we weren't strong enough to be a serious tourney team.

If I had to guess, we will see a lot of zone on the weak side of our schedule until December 15th, and if we haven't shown signs of a really good zone developing, will be playing a lot of man vs. Syracuse and going forward.

Just a guess.

I could be mistaken but I don't remember that 2011 team playing primarily man defense down the stretch. I just remember the zone becoming a little better game by game.

You're not mistaken. The 2010-2011 team just got better in the zone, as the season progressed.

I'm not denying that. What is true though, is that they went primarily man a little bit after the Fordham game, and started getting stops, steals, and letting their overall athleticism shine. I think Lavin will revert initially to more man once the Big East season begins, and phase in the zone, rather than take his lumps the way we have early thus far. I expect to see a lot of zone until 12/15, and then a decent shift to a lot of man.

 

[beast of the east]

Maybe we go to a 1-3-1 or a 2-3 zone with long quick guys up top

A 2-3 zone which doesn't switch on every back door and rotate all over the court would be ideal. We have the wings and the shot blocker to do it. Matter of fact if Sanchez, Sampson, and Obekpa are all in together that's what should be run.

I think they should play man to man and press

I agree. Even Norm's undermanned teams pulled off an occasional upset playing man. Now we have big time depth and athleticism and we watch them wave at threes all night. There is no accountability with the current format and even good defenders like Dom are a step late covering for others. The simple fact is that zone leads to threes. When teams are hot with it we don't have a chance..In 2010 we used man to up the tempo and it worked. I don't see the effort right now and the teamwork is lacking. This reverts directly to Lavin and changes have to be made now to be effective. If guys are dogging on "D" they should sit but it's hard to identify it in this format and provide performance incentives.

can you stop bringing up Norm Roberts, Bobby? Here's a picture...enuff said
[attachment]Screenshot_2013-11-12-13-28-31-1.png[/attachment]

But think of how much money they saved by hiring a CYO coach.

 

[MJDinkins]

Now this is just a crazy guess, but...

I do have a hunch that Lavin and his staff know basketball a little more than most of us, who may have coached in youth leagues or a little higher.

If you ask me, I think Lavin is trying to teach the zone, which you need to be pretty good at to get past your toughest competitors, especially deep into the tournament. His first year, we took our lumps with it (remember the Fordham debacle) until we gave it up and went primarily man the rest of the season.

Year two was a washout with Lavin sick and a very thin roster. Last year we played a lot of zone, but I also think he knew we weren't strong enough to be a serious tourney team.

If I had to guess, we will see a lot of zone on the weak side of our schedule until December 15th, and if we haven't shown signs of a really good zone developing, will be playing a lot of man vs. Syracuse and going forward.

Just a guess.

I could be mistaken but I don't remember that 2011 team playing primarily man defense down the stretch. I just remember the zone becoming a little better game by game.

You're not mistaken. The 2010-2011 team just got better in the zone, as the season progressed.

I'm not denying that. What is true though, is that they went primarily man a little bit after the Fordham game, and started getting stops, steals, and letting their overall athleticism shine. I think Lavin will revert initially to more man once the Big East season begins, and phase in the zone, rather than take his lumps the way we have early thus far.

True! They did pressed and harrassed Fordham into mistakes. Good job remembering it. But for the most part, they were played zone during the 2010-2011 season.

I expect to see a lot of zone until 12/15, and then a decent shift to a lot of man.

That's very possible, considering they played some man last Friday.

 

[southernjohnny2]

when you have the depth we have we should be pressing and playing full court defense...stop with letting teams set up in their half court offense and play at their comfort level..If we really have as much depth and length as we talk about..use it to our advantage...run and gun...

 

[McGarry2]

Tom don't know if you notice we don't exactly have a relay team on the floor.

 

[southernjohnny2]

we did much better when we pushed the ball. We have Pointer, Greene, Jordan, Sanchez, Sampson, Harrison, all are good in the open court...Gods Gift and Obekpa can run as well..The only one who looks like they prefer a slow game is Branch....I would press the heck out of opponents and keep them from getting in their half court for as long as possible...The more time the opponent has the easier it seems to be to breakdown our defense and get a real easy shot...We don't shoot the 3 well and that might be because we don't run an offense...This team is full of horses, let them run!!