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KP Report on the Fighting Illini (UI)

RJKarl said:
We need Key to start. He's looked terrible coming off the bench.
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He's worse but Wake is better. I like him as a 6th man, I think he's too similar a player to Crawford to start them together, and that issue is compounded because it leads to more situations where Childress and Wilbekin play extended minutes together.

Chill is leading us in assists per game and Crawford is looking more and more like a 2 guard. I'd start him before I went back to starting Woods.
 
So odd if we haven't played zone because we don't practice it, once we went to zone we looked much more engaged in the game. Not saying we are going to be a great zone defense team but if they are better and more active in it then let's run with it.
 
First half looked like it was going to be more of the same we've seen all season, but solid 2nd half. Our guards started being more assertive with the ball. Even if it's just 1 hard step toward the basket and you get cut off, you have got to be a threat if you have the ball and make the defense stop you. Too many times this year we have just been dribbling and staring.

Different defense in the second half too, and I don't just mean the zone. We were actually communicating on rotations and making them. The chemistry looked A LOT better all around. We still have a long way to go, but we have a lot of guys with room and potential to grow.
 
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Deac83 said:
So odd if we haven't played zone because we don't practice it, once we went to zone we looked much more engaged in the game. Not saying we are going to be a great zone defense team but if they are better and more active in it then let's run with it.
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One thing I noticed out of the zone was how well the guys communicated. More talking tonight on defense then I have seen all year.
 
Deac83 said:
So odd if we haven't played zone because we don't practice it, once we went to zone we looked much more engaged in the game. Not saying we are going to be a great zone defense team but if they are better and more active in it then let's run with it.
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We had clearly practiced that zone. It was a 3-2 with a lot of interesting wrinkles in it. That doesn't just happen without some time dedicated to it.
 
I’m a fan of the zone and I’d like to not see a four guard rotation as long as Moore and Sarr are available with either D. Mitchell, Melo or even Chaundee rotating over to the four. Really liked seeing Moore’s aggressive offense tonight. He looks much improved, actually. Well done all around. Go Deacs!
 
Communication and rotations were awesome tonight. Loved to see that succeed. We just have to finish off good defensive possessions with a rebound and we would’ve blown them out.
 
TUA01576 said:
One thing I noticed out of the zone was how well the guys communicated. More talking tonight on defense then I have seen all year.
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our cavernous arena and small fan base FTMFW !

yes agreed the defensive effort was there all night
 
Rafi said:
We had clearly practiced that zone. It was a 3-2 with a lot of interesting wrinkles in it. That doesn't just happen without some time dedicated to it.
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Agree with this. Really good execution of the 3-2 zone. We just need the weak side to be more aware and put a body on somebody. Our rebounding should eventually improve.
 
SkyDivingDeacon said:
I’m a fan of the zone and I’d like to not see a four guard rotation as long as Moore and Sarr are available with either D. Mitchell, Melo or even Chaundee rotating over to the four.
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That's a great consequence of the 3-2 zone - you have to play two bigs.
 
Ill started 4-5 (if I added right) from 3, then hit their last two. In between that they were 6 of 22. That helped us crawl back into the game and then get double digit lead.
 
Rafi said:
We had clearly practiced that zone. It was a 3-2 with a lot of interesting wrinkles in it. That doesn't just happen without some time dedicated to it.
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It's just a matchup zone. When Illinois started 3 guys under the free throw line it looks like a 2-3. When they start 3 guys above the free throw line it looks like a 3-2. Traditional zones are really only useful as a change of pace or if a team really can't shoot from outside. If you establish 5 set positions on the floor and rotations to cover 3 of those positions outside, you can always run a 4th shooter baseline. And if you cheat on that you always have a high post open. Almost all set zones give up one of those things and rely on length and athleticism to make up for it.

Manning's zone doesn't do that. We'll move all 3 guard defenders to the arc on one side of the court against an overload. And we'll leave a single defender on the high post to prevent open corner 3's. We barely double team anything and it's clear everyone is supposed to find the offensive players close to them and rotate to avoid defending empty space.

It leads to some really weird rotations and requires a lot of talking. Better teams will work our bigs outside more which we saw last year against Collins, but it's still effective. We made up for a lot of really poor defensive efforts last year by using that zone down the stretch against good teams.
 
Deac83 said:
So odd if we haven't played zone because we don't practice it, once we went to zone we looked much more engaged in the game. Not saying we are going to be a great zone defense team but if they are better and more active in it then let's run with it.
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There is no way that we ran that zone tonight without practicing. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but the guys knew exactly where they needed to be at pretty much all times.
 
Rafi said:
We had clearly practiced that zone. It was a 3-2 with a lot of interesting wrinkles in it. That doesn't just happen without some time dedicated to it.
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That was sarcasm from me, as some have said we don't play zone because DM wants to play man.
 
One thing I really like about the zone is that it hides a number of our defensive weaknesses—Doral doesn’t get as winded and can play to his strengths, Woods and Crawford don’t get lost as much, and we can use some of our frontcourt length to disrupt passing lanes.
 
The zone makes a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons for Wake. It will be problematic against good three-point shooting teams (hell Illinois still shot over 40% tonight from behind the arc), but tonight it did exactly what it was supposed to do---disrupt the flow, prevent the slashers, and force three point attempts. It's why we won the game.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
The zone makes a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons for Wake. It will be problematic against good three-point shooting teams (hell Illinois still shot over 40% tonight from behind the arc), but tonight it did exactly what it was supposed to do---disrupt the flow, prevent the slashers, and force three point attempts. It's why we won the game.
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I agree with this.

We got to tidy up that weak side business, get some bodies on some people, and improve those rebounding numbers.
 
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