Forcing turnovers

[gary2]

Our opponents have only made 13 turnovers total in our last 2 games. We need to force more turnovers than that.

What happened? Earlier in the season it seemed we were more aggressive on defense. There were a lot of quick doubles and playing the passing lanes. If Newkirk is going to play, he needs to help you here.

 

[Harve74]

We got burnt by three point shooters when double teaming so we mostly quit doing that. Some games we have sometimes still double teamed the post but I think we have become selective about which guys and teams it might be effective to use the trap.

Mostly, in the years we were very successful defensively, we did not really care about generating turnovers. Dixon and Howland before him do not play the passing lanes but guard the man.

Jamie has toyed with the blitz trap over the past 4 or 5 seasons periodically, with mixed results. We destroyed Colorado in the first NCAAT game last year using the trap, but most veteran teams can beat it if they know it is coming.

Basically, DT and Braves are correct. Gimmicks don't work for long. Effort is paramount and lateral speed is also important.

Pitt has lacked BOTH this season. As somebody posted, with basically a 2 man bench, it's not like Dixon has a whole lot of flexibility to sit someone if they are playing bad defense. Our roster just has real problems defensively. That simply may not change until this sophomore class has moved on.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Originally posted by Harve74:

Our roster just has real problems defensively. That simply may not change until this sophomore class has moved on.

With all this talk about junk defenses recently, I'm thinking it may not be a bad idea to install the 1-3-1 half-court trap next season but to do that effectively and to prevent the other team from just running a layup line against it, you'd have to practice and drill it daily.

The reason I think it could work better than our man is because:

1. Our guys are really bad in one on one defense, its almost impossible for us to keep opposing players in front of us

2. We have some good athletes and a lot of length.

You could put Jeter up top, then Artis, Young, and Durand in the middle with Robinson as the chaser down low. Now, you can't just install a 1-3-1 during the week and tell the guys to go play it on Saturday but if you focus on it during the pre-season practices, I cant see it being much worse than our man.

 

[gary2]

Harve, your last sentence is depressing. People tend to think that having two star semi-bigs (Young and Artis) has to be a recipe for success. I think you are saying that they (and Jeter, Jones, Newkirk) are so bad defensively, that we can not be truly good until they are all gone. I hope that is not true. Players do get better. Young has already developed into a better post scorer (still work to do) than I ever imagined. Maybe we get lucky in this years late signing period and find that missing ingredient or two.

 

[Jeffburgh]

The lifeline for some is the "offense"

That this team is going to be so good offensively, it will counter the poor defense.

I think some Pitt fans, not really being exposed to truly dangerous offenses, over estimate this one.

They SHOULD be better offensively next year, maturity and experience for Artis, Young, Jeter, Jones, and in theory DJ or Cam Johnson adding another shooting threat.

But, the offense is limited. They aren't going to get up and down the court and score in transition a lot because they struggle to rebound defensively to begin with, they have a slower paced PG and not really the runners at 2G and SF to do it. They don't have guards who can break a defense down OR a post threat past Young.

So, the offense is sort of limited, some post offense from Young, some spot up shooting for artis and jump shots from three from others.

Given that this is by far JDs weakest rebounding and weakest defensive team, just not enough to offense to counter act that.

They SHOULD be a solid team overall next year, top 25ish, NCAA type team. But, they have a ceiling unless something real miraculous happens defensively.

 

[gary2]

You talk about the blitz trap and the Colorado game. We looked great in that game. You go on to say most veteran teams can beat it if they know it is coming and I agree with you. The point I was trying to make with DT is that the element of surprise sometimes can have a greater impact than running the stuff that we practice every day. (Particularly when there is a large sample size this year indicating that our stuff on defense does not work.)

Roy Williams brought out the 1-3-1 in the second half against Duke last year. I am sure that the 1-3-1 was not something UNC practiced every day.

Wake Forest was a turnover prone team. They had not seen much if any of the blitz trap on Pitt film. Maybe, as Jamie felt the game slipping away from us, instead of relying on the defense we practice everyday coming through for us, he could have tried to change the momentum with something like the blitz trap. Even DT was wondering where the zone was against Miami.

As numerous people have stated, our defense is terrible. The answer needs to be more than our normal man to man with a sprinkling of 2-3 zone.

When it comes to scouting our opponents and player development, I think we miss Pat Sandle more than anyone would like to admit.

This post was edited on 3/6 4:00 PM by gary2

This post was edited on 3/6 7:07 PM by gary2

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Originally posted by gary2:

You talk about the blitz trap and the Colorado game. We looked great in that game. You go on to say most veteran teams can beat it if they know it is coming and I agree with you. The point I was trying to make with DT is that the element of surprise sometimes can have a greater impact than running our stuff that we practice every day.

Roy Williams brought out the 1-3-1 in the second half against Duke last year. I am sure that the 1-3-1 was not something UNC practiced every day.

Wake Forest was a turnover prone team. They had not seen much if any of the blitz trap on Pitt film. Maybe, as Jamie felt the game slipping away from us, instead of relying on the defense we practice everyday coming through for us, he could have tried to change the momentum with something like the blitz trap. Even DT was wondering where the zone was against Miami.

As numerous people have stated, our defense is terrible. The answer needs to be more than our normal man to man with a sprinkling of 2-3 zone.

When it comes to scouting our opponents and player development, I think we miss Pat Sandle more than anyone would like to admit.

This post was edited on 3/6 4:00 PM by gary2

Are we overestimating the "blitz trap" used against Miami? I know its been a year and maybe I'm forgetting but I don't remember us doing anything more than doubling the post which caused Colorado more problems than it should have. Our rotations were great and our guys were flying around on defense but it wasn't anything more than we normally do when we double the post. It wasn't like Jamie created a special defense for that game.

 

[gary2]

I heard Vir.Tech played a box and one on Brianna last night.

 

[JRPITT]

Some players just aren't good at m-m defense. Lateral quickness and bb smarts are key ingredients. It's also an attitude. BB smarts will come with experience and maturity. Lateral quickness is an off season work ethic. Attitude? May or may not be there. The evolution or lack thereof of these players in the off season will determine if Coach employs more zone or holds the fort with his m-m.