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What do you do?
Here's my two cents FWIW:
I think a lot of it depends on our defensive scheme. I really think we should zone press them, force them to get out of the rhythm of their offense, giving them a look at something they haven’t seen all year. At first, I thought getting into the Diamond-1 press would be great because it forces turnovers. But, it’s easier to break when you have good guard play and it can leave your big man (Sacre) hanging out to dry in transition, which results in foul trouble. I like running the 1-2-2 press and dropping back into one of three zones: 3-2 (not 2-3) , Box-1 (on McConnell), or a Triangle-2 (on McConnell & Dellavedova). The 1-2-2 forces them to use a big man in the break, taking the ball out of the hands of their scoring threats. It also slows them down, forcing them to adjust on offense and shake up the tempo. I like the 3-2 because it focuses on perimeter defense and is okay to run when you’re stronger on the post, which we are. We need to take away the three; that’s the key to winning this game. The Box-1 and Triangle-2 allow you to focus on one or two guys and play sticky defense on them, while providing help-D with the other 3 or 4 running a matchup zone. These also work best when you have superior bigs.
On offense, we have to shoot better from the arc. Last game, we went 5-13, including 1-5 from Gray and 0-3 from Meech. We can’t have either of these stat lines on Thursday. We need Steven to step and knock down a couple, with Marquise also taking a few. I think second-chance-points could also be a huge factor. We need guys like Sacre, Dower, and Harris to attack the boards and need to get some good minutes out of KO.
Player-for-player, we are more talented than anyone in our conference. I think any time this is the case, and you have three slip-ups in the WCC, most of it is on the coaching staff. I think there has also been a lack of execution and leadership as well, but I do put the coaching staff at fault for SCU and USF. Having said that, I think we can gain a lot of momentum going into the WCC by taking this game down. Win out (including WCC tourney), I see us grabbing an 8 or 9 seed at 24-9 (although I wouldn’t mind a 10 in Tucson).
GO ZAGS!
Here's my two cents FWIW:
I think a lot of it depends on our defensive scheme. I really think we should zone press them, force them to get out of the rhythm of their offense, giving them a look at something they haven’t seen all year. At first, I thought getting into the Diamond-1 press would be great because it forces turnovers. But, it’s easier to break when you have good guard play and it can leave your big man (Sacre) hanging out to dry in transition, which results in foul trouble. I like running the 1-2-2 press and dropping back into one of three zones: 3-2 (not 2-3) , Box-1 (on McConnell), or a Triangle-2 (on McConnell & Dellavedova). The 1-2-2 forces them to use a big man in the break, taking the ball out of the hands of their scoring threats. It also slows them down, forcing them to adjust on offense and shake up the tempo. I like the 3-2 because it focuses on perimeter defense and is okay to run when you’re stronger on the post, which we are. We need to take away the three; that’s the key to winning this game. The Box-1 and Triangle-2 allow you to focus on one or two guys and play sticky defense on them, while providing help-D with the other 3 or 4 running a matchup zone. These also work best when you have superior bigs.
On offense, we have to shoot better from the arc. Last game, we went 5-13, including 1-5 from Gray and 0-3 from Meech. We can’t have either of these stat lines on Thursday. We need Steven to step and knock down a couple, with Marquise also taking a few. I think second-chance-points could also be a huge factor. We need guys like Sacre, Dower, and Harris to attack the boards and need to get some good minutes out of KO.
Player-for-player, we are more talented than anyone in our conference. I think any time this is the case, and you have three slip-ups in the WCC, most of it is on the coaching staff. I think there has also been a lack of execution and leadership as well, but I do put the coaching staff at fault for SCU and USF. Having said that, I think we can gain a lot of momentum going into the WCC by taking this game down. Win out (including WCC tourney), I see us grabbing an 8 or 9 seed at 24-9 (although I wouldn’t mind a 10 in Tucson).
GO ZAGS!
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