Dukes defense

[crazyduke3]

I've been equally as critical as anybody, if not moreso than most, about our defense, but I think we've had two pretty good showings in our last outings. In particular I really loved what I saw in the first half against Wake.

Now, Wake isn't UK but, they are a well coached team and do have ACC talent.

I felt every time we applied the 3/4 pressure we saw excellent results. I hope we get to the point where we use it at every junction. When we did regular defense, Wake started sinking 3's. Keep the trapping up our boys are THRIVING off of that. UNC will be a great chance to continue tuning it up.

Thoughts?

 

[aah555]

Hard to say. Although our defense in 4 of the past 5 home games has been pretty good, it's not clear (i) how it will hold up against more athletic competition; and (ii) whether our man-to-man defense can travel when we don't have a raucous crowd inspiring our guys and arguably rattling the opposition. Obviously, we've also recently lived through the Va Tech disaster and the UNC home game and Syracuse road games weren't great showings -- so, it certainly hasn't even been consistent of late.

IMO, while we are making some progress, it's probably premature to make any grand proclamations.

As for the 3/4 pressure, I definitely wouldn't do that against UNC. In fact, if there was one take away from the UNC game IMO, is that UNC is a very dangerous squad if you let them play in the open court. If anything, I would lean towards our gameplan against Louisville, where we used zone to make the opposition with jumpers out of half-court sets. I don't think UNC can win that kind of contest over 40 minutes. IMO, we'll wear ourselves out and give UNC too many easy baskets if we try and press -- particularly b/c of UNC's depth advantage at basically all spots. While we may not be as good as UVA in half-court sets, I think we're far better than UNC. If you look at UNC's results all season, there is really no evidence of them being able to out execute a good team in a possession-by-possession game. IMO, it's not an accident that they've lost to Butler, Iowa, Notre Dame, and UVA.


This post was edited on 3/5 10:22 PM by aah555

UNC In Transition

 

[GTHC_ GTH!]

They pulled out the 1-2-2 Full court press without Jah against ND and they struggled mightily with it and then agains Wake. Seems like something they could do a lot more in most games. Make the game fast. That is where we are the best in the nation. And, it keeps teams from using Jah in the pick and roll. It makes them take time off the clock just go get into the half court and then they are rushed. Assuming they don't turn it over to begin with.

We seem to play better D when it is a full court type. More aggressive. I hope it's something we see more. Maybe UNC could handle at home so we don't use it as much, but it should still be used some.

 

[aah555]

Originally posted by GTHC, GTH!:
They pulled out the 1-2-2 Full court press without Jah against ND and they struggled mightily with it and then agains Wake. Seems like something they could do a lot more in most games. Make the game fast. That is where we are the best in the nation. And, it keeps teams from using Jah in the pick and roll. It makes them take time off the clock just go get into the half court and then they are rushed. Assuming they don't turn it over to begin with.

We seem to play better D when it is a full court type. More aggressive. I hope it's something we see more. Maybe UNC could handle at home so we don't use it as much, but it should still be used some.

Yes, but in both those games, you're speeding up teams -- and particularly players -- that don't want to be sped up and, in the case of ND, a team we're more athletic / longer than. As bad as UNC looks in the half court, there are few teams who execute more efficiently in transition. A guy like JP Tokoto would far prefer to try and score in a 3-3 fast break situation where he catches the outlet pass at the mid-court stripe than have to go against a set defense.

 

[Crank_it_loud]

Their biggest strength is K actually using all different types of D this year, even the 3-2 zone on top of the 2-3 zone. If he continues to do that, Duke will do well and adjust to the opponent. The O will take care of itself.

Would be interesting if he tried a true 1-3-1 One at some point.....

 

[JCColsCane]

Originally posted by Crank_it_loud:
Their biggest strength is K actually using all different types of D this year, even the 3-2 zone on top of the 2-3 zone. If he continues to do that, Duke will do well and adjust to the opponent. The O will take care of itself.

^This. Seems to make it tough on everyone we used it on. Also, when the kids are talking and switching, they are almost unbeatable. I don't know why we cannot talk, switch, and keep the middle closed off every game, instead of just once in a while. We also play this defense exceptionally well when Jah is not in the line-up, which is not good.
For Duke to go deep in both Tournaments, they must talk, switch, and help! If not, our Tournaments will be short lived.
Go Duke!!


JC-OFC

 

[dukiejay]

The difference with this team, say compared to last year, is that we've proven with this current group our defense can be effective. Last year that wasn't the case. If it was a close game down the wire it typically wasn't going to end well.

 

[mo.st.dukie]

Yeah, in both the VT and UNC games they actually had to make a defensive stop to send it to overtime. They are capable of playing good defense, they just don't do it nearly as consistently as they should whether talking game by game or possession by possession.

 

[HuffyJB]

As mentioned, an interesting thing about this year is an almost unprecedented willingness to switch defenses (man, odd-front zones, even-front zones, extended pressure, etc.). I really like having multiple options.

The flip side of that is there are examples of all of the above being ineffective, and not exclusively against quality competition. K used all of that at one point or another against VT to little success. But, obviously, they've all been used to great effect at various times.

 

[crazyduke3]

Ah yes, the zone. It would be good against UNC.... but remember last time? Will we actually use it? Gosh I hope so.

 

[GAAP]

I'd love to see us mix up the defenses in order to keep them off balance.

 

[aah555]

Originally posted by dukiejay:
The difference with this team, say compared to last year, is that we've proven with this current group our defense can be effective. Last year that wasn't the case. If it was a close game down the wire it typically wasn't going to end well.

Yes and no. I agree that last year's Duke team, by-in-large, played very poorly down the stretches of games. But, IMO, the biggest change this year has been on the offensive end -- where we've continued to score even when our defense breaks down. For instance, UVA scored or got to the line in 6 of their final 10 possessions. Last year, we would have lost b/c our offense tended not to score in those situations. This year, we won b/c we scored on our last 6 possessions -- 5 of which were 3s.

If you look at games like UNC and Va Tech as well, while it's true we did get final end-of-game stops, we still also gave up a lot of scoring opportunities late. We hardly locked them down.

I say all that to make the point that, while our defense is somewhat better this year, I think this year's group isn't that different from last year's group on that end of the ball. Indeed, as much as we define last year's squad based on how they played against Mercer, reality is that it was a team that also had a lot of good moments where it looked as if it's defense was coming around -- whether it be how they locked up a very good Michigan team pre-garbage time, held a couple ACC teams under 50, etc. etc. However, it was flawed on that end of the ball -- as this year's team is -- and I just don't think we're going to suddenly start getting good teams to turn the ball over like Clemson or Wake did in our building.

I don't think we're going to have a repeat of a Mercer / Lehigh type situation b/c (i) we're going to have a higher seed; and (ii) in the end of the day, I don't think it's possible for a mid-major team to contain our frontline -- particularly Okafor. He'll get whatever bigs they have in foul trouble quickly, and will basically be able to score at will if need be. But, on the defensive end, I think it will depend entirely on who we're playing. Like last year, there are certain squads we can defend pretty well -- and there are others that will give us difficulties. I don't think this group is going to be any different.

 

[jnastasi]

The true test of how our defense has come along will be Saturday. Wake isn't a tournament team.

I actually wish we got to play Miami again. I'd love to see if we could defend a guy like Rodriguez. Maybe in the ACC tournament.