MBB Game 19: @ UNC - Monday 7pm - ESPN

[Deaconrob1]

I don't fully understand the tactics in a drop coverage, but re-watching the condensed game it appeared:

- Davis had wide open floaters and layups.

- We made Cadeau, the Swedish guy, look like Jalen Brunson. Hell, we never stopped the ball. We just let him go all the way to the rim.

- We completely shut down former, back in 2016, ACC-POY, A. Bacot.

Yeah, we gave RJ and Horne from State wide open floaters. I guess in theory if our offense didn't get suffocated in both of those 2nd halves the hope is you can give those up but out-score your opponent on offense to cancel it out. But when you suck offensively and can't shoot from 3 then its like giving up free points almost every possession. I'm not the best X's and O's guy either but you would think you'd try something else after realizing offense isn't coming easy on your end and you aren't keeping pace.

 

[scooter84]

It seems obvious against an opponent like UNC with a player like Davis that you might play drop coverage against the rest of the team - but not against Davis. You simply can't give a player like that free reign from 12 feet over and over. And once you let him get rolling it is very difficult to slow him down...

 

[BlackjackMc]

A miserable performance last night. Deacs played Carolina even for 23 minutes. Heels hit a couple threes, crowd revs up, heels make the game 94 feet. Goodbye Wake.

A lot of conversation about the problems Wake has faced on the road. In the six losses, all were away from the Joel. In those six losses the Deacs have surrendered an average of 83 ppg. In the second half of those games they have surrendered an average of 45 ppg. In the ACC losses they have allowed their opponent to score and average of 48 ppg in the second half. Teams seldom win games when their defense is that poor. No D. No W.

 

[deacfan123]

So this is a good post. I wonder what it looks like against state fsu and unc on a neutral court. We play well at home poorly on the road. We play well against mediocre to bad teams and fold against solid teams. I think on a neutral site we beat fsu lost to unc and ncsu is a toss up.

We would've crushed state if that was a neutral court game. I gotta give it to the wolfies, they made that arena hell for the deacs in the second half. It was a real advantage.

 

[2&2 Slider To Leyritz]

It seems obvious against an opponent like UNC with a player like Davis that you might play drop coverage against the rest of the team - but not against Davis. You simply can't give a player like that free reign from 12 feet over and over. And once you let him get rolling it is very difficult to slow him down...

The issue isn't the drop coverage itself, most NBA teams (who are really trying to prevent the 3pt/layup barrage) play drop coverage all the time and don't get torched from the midrange like that. Some of that is because NBA teams still force the 3s anyway and avoid the midrange because they can still make them and are all about #trends across the long season, whereas college has many more variables and college coaches will happily take what you give them. But the bigger issue is that: (a) our bigs seem really bad at it whether by design or not, and (b) we really over-pursue on the remainder of the perimeter, which limits any help defense.

(a) may be a byproduct of allowable zone defense and no defensive 3-second violations in college versus the NBA, which force the NBA defenders to move up and out of the lane faster, where we just aim for getting under the basket. Whatever it is, it is causing massive gaps in the lane that simply aren't there in the NBA schemes. We are clearly not doing something right.

(b) doubles down on (a) as there is no help pinching in from the sides, which widens the gaps.

Of course I pointed this out after the State game and was shouted down by the kenpomstats sunshine brigade, who feel that limiting threes is more important than getting repeatedly torched in the midrange. And that is probably true in the NBA where pretty much everyone on the court can light it up from 3 if not guarded. But in college, it is okay to let teams keep shooting 3s, as most are not that good at making them. What isn't good is letting high level college players waltz into the lane with nobody anywhere close to them for wide open 6' shots over and over and over. That may work against shitty teams, but it isn't going to work against anyone who we need to beat to actually make some noise. Forbes, a great talent evaluator and program salesman, has not proven to be a good game coach yet. I think if and how he responds to this glaring weakness in his gameplan will be a big indicator of his coaching ceiling.

 

[inspectah_]

The issue isn't the drop coverage itself, most NBA teams (who are really trying to prevent the 3pt/layup barrage) play drop coverage all the time and don't get torched from the midrange like that. Some of that is because NBA teams still force the 3s anyway and avoid the midrange because they can still make them and are all about #trends across the long season, whereas college has many more variables and college coaches will happily take what you give them. But the bigger issue is that: (a) our bigs seem really bad at it whether by design or not, and (b) we really over-pursue on the remainder of the perimeter, which limits any help defense.

(a) may be a byproduct of allowable zone defense and no defensive 3-second violations in college versus the NBA, which force the NBA defenders to move up and out of the lane faster, where we just aim for getting under the basket. Whatever it is, it is causing massive gaps in the lane that simply aren't there in the NBA schemes. We are clearly not doing something right.

(b) doubles down on (a) as there is no help pinching in from the sides, which widens the gaps.

Of course I pointed this out after the State game and was shouted down by the kenpomstats sunshine brigade, who feel that limiting threes is more important than getting repeatedly torched in the midrange. And that is probably true in the NBA where pretty much everyone on the court can light it up from 3 if not guarded. But in college, it is okay to let teams keep shooting 3s, as most are not that good at making them. What isn't good is letting high level college players waltz into the lane with nobody anywhere close to them for wide open 6' shots over and over and over. That may work against shitty teams, but it isn't going to work against anyone who we need to beat to actually make some noise. Forbes, a great talent evaluator and program salesman, has not proven to be a good game coach yet. I think if and how he responds to this glaring weakness in his gameplan will be a big indicator of his coaching ceiling.

Good post.