An X's and O's question re: Denver

[IHateLaState]

Denver runs that weave offense similar to Princeton and it clearly gave us problems. As I was watching the game, it seemed to me that the offense was so effective because they were able to extend our man to man outside of the lane and thus opened up the backdoor cuts. Why would we not just sit back in a 2-3 zone if we meet them again in the tourney? Let them weave all they want but pack in the zone?????????

[SlappyCajun]

Because they can shoot the cover off of the ball. They want you to play zone. If you play a 2-3 you are going to give up open 3's. They are betting that they will make.

Denver runs that weave offense similar to Princeton and it clearly gave us problems. As I was watching the game, it seemed to me that the offense was so effective because they were able to extend our man to man outside of the lane and thus opened up the backdoor cuts. Why would we not just sit back in a 2-3 zone if we meet them again in the tourney? Let them weave all they want but pack in the zone?????????

igeaux.mobi

[VObserver]

_ Denver runs that weave offense similar to Princeton and it clearly gave us problems. As I was watching the game, it seemed to me that the offense was so effective because they were able to extend our man to man outside of the lane and thus opened up the backdoor cuts. Why would we not just sit back in a 2-3 zone if we meet them again in the tourney? Let them weave all they want but pack in the zone????????? _

Because they also have shooters. Pack the paint in a zone, and you have to leave seams on the perimeter which will give open looks to their shooters. Better to take your chances on out-athleting them in the man.

[zephyr]

_ Denver runs that weave offense similar to Princeton and it clearly gave us problems. As I was watching the game, it seemed to me that the offense was so effective because they were able to extend our man to man outside of the lane and thus opened up the backdoor cuts. Why would we not just sit back in a 2-3 zone if we meet them again in the tourney? Let them weave all they want but pack in the zone????????? _

Zone is great when you have to protect the paint on defense and it often puts you in good rebounding position as a defense. The negative is that it often opens up the perimeter shot with decent ball movement and patience. That is why nobody zones teams like Denver or Duke. It's also counterproductive as Denver doesn't really have a lot of height inside or post scorers to try to sag on so its defending a non strength. Something like a 1-3-1 could possibly work better but when you're in zone, players typically tend to not mover their feet as much and passing lanes can still be created. It's an offense that is based on patience and movement and teams that are not disciplined on defense have a tough time defending it because its very difficult to play aggressive defense for 30+ seconds. You can defend this offense but the key is weakside defense. Our players are going to get beat if they are denying the pass to a wing player and are backdoored. It's going to happen but if you have good weakside defense, you can create turnovers or get charges when they attack the basket.

I was hoping that coach Marlin would try to get us into more of a fullcourt game with them in running some press and trapping zones extended a bit. By making them eat up some clock to get the ball into the frontcourt or create turnovers obviously, you disrupt their ability to enter their offense and run 20+ seconds off the shotclock. Bottomline is we gutted out a win and that was impressive.

[CajunEXPRESS]

I was hoping that coach Marlin would try to get us into more of a fullcourt game with them in running some press and trapping zones extended a bit. By making them eat up some clock to get the ball into the frontcourt or create turnovers obviously, you disrupt their ability to enter their offense and run 20+ seconds off the shotclock. Bottomline is we gutted out a win and that was impressive. _

I like the way we are finishing games on defense, but we need to improve offense. Yea, 10 is great, but DU has not been a good road team. Still 10 straight at any time to any goup of peers is great. Results, results, results.

Again in this game for some unknown reason the other team lost the game more than we won the game. This is the third time I can remember in the streak that a high percentage free throw man has missed at a critical moment to give us the upper hand.

When the other team misses a short field goal in football, when their best free throw men miss at the end of the game. The only thing you can say is you put them in a hard position to make the very makeable plays. They choked. We could have choked with T B at the line shooting a free throw with .6 seconds and winning that game. We won that one as he took the lead from being behind.

[Turbine]

I think DU missed the freethrows and simple tip in because UL's defense flat wore them out.
igeaux.mobi

[CajunEXPRESS]

_ I think DU missed the freethrows and simple tip in because UL's defense flat wore them out.
igeaux.mobi _

I don't buy that for a second. But maybe, just maybe their blogger got it right. Humidity difference in multiples of tens. Heavy air made the ball off target just a bit.

[IHateLaState]

I understand all of the above... Yet the fact remains, until the last 3 minutes and then the OT period, their weave was very effective I think. It has been stated that Denver has good 3 point shooters... an effective match up zone could, I think, put pressure on those shooters... they still have to make a long jump shot as opposed to the relatively easy backdoor layups they were getting... Also I agree we should have run more full court pressure and maybe we will

Still in the end we won. If we match up again i would like to see maybe some combination of full court pressure, match up zones and man to man.... They are very patient, even when they were down 4 they ran their weave offense which took valuable seconds at the end.... giving a variety of looks, coupled with their patience would add even more pressure on them to score every time... just a thought

[cajunfan32]

I like the full court pressure idea. Especially because denver doesn't have the speed we do. And like a few have mentioned, they won't be able to be as patient when they get down in offense because they will have less time


igeaux.mobi

[BirdofParadise]

_ I understand all of the above... Yet the fact remains, until the last 3 minutes and then the OT period, their weave was very effective I think. It has been stated that Denver has good 3 point shooters... an effective match up zone could, I think, put pressure on those shooters... they still have to make a long jump shot as opposed to the relatively easy backdoor layups they were getting... Also I agree we should have run more full court pressure and maybe we will

Still in the end we won. If we match up again i would like to see maybe some combination of full court pressure, match up zones and man to man.... They are very patient, even when they were down 4 they ran their weave offense which took valuable seconds at the end.... giving a variety of looks, coupled with their patience would add even more pressure on them to score every time... just a thought _

I never say never. But if we play Denver and play zone on more than one possession, I'll be shocked.

They're entire team can shoot 40-50 percent from there. I, as a coach, would never zone them. Not even for one possession.

[Just1More]

_ I think DU missed the freethrows and simple tip in because UL's defense flat wore them out.
igeaux.mobi _

Turbine, some fans think that a game is won by the last play of the game. They hang the gold medal around the neck of the guy with the last free throw if he makes it... or they hang the loss on him if he misses. It's fan stupidity. Everything during a game matters. Everything. Start to finish. Everything.

[Boomer]

_ I like the full court pressure idea. Especially because denver doesn't have the speed we do. And like a few have mentioned, they won't be able to be as patient when they get down in offense because they will have less time


igeaux.mobi _

If you want to learn match up---watch Syracuse---I think that is all that they play and play it well---the whole deal with the Zone concept is to ANTICIPATE the ball flow----I always taught that it was a man defense within an area---When the off guy receives the ball you are there but broken down and not running to him!!!!! Another factor is the game underneath where you can play with smaller personnel-----I remember Southhall against a 3/2 matchup where they drilled him every time across the paint as the ball moved around the circle and he tried to post up---he was done after the game and never got the ball----BTW anybody not love the Denver offense----Think of the non-contested lay-ups and the % of these made in the game!!!!!