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Duke Basketball 2014-2015 Discussion thread

I have to assume that K honestly thought he could use Matt Jones to deal with situations like last night, and maybe he still feels that way, but if so he's part of a really tiny minority at this point. The theoretical Matt would have been a good player to turn to last night.
 
I mentioned this on another thread, but I think a large part of the issue the past few games has been poor three-point defense, and while Rodriguez hit one right off a ball-screen, most of them haven't seemed like they're directly related to our (admittedly mediocre) ball screen defense.

Still, though, through the first 14 games we gave up 4.1 threes a game on 26 percent shooting. Last two games, we allowed 10 threes in each game, on 56 percent shooting.

That's not all new -- we're playing better teams on the whole, and Wisconsin admittedly shot okay from downtown against us too, we just beat them in other ways. But it's still problematic.
 
Just saw this Rob Dauster piece on our defensive struggles, SIAP. This rings truer to me than a lot of the blame-the-passing-lane-pressure talk. Our D is bad, but the weakest points are on the ball D by our two shortest guards, PNR defense in general, and helping in general. Good video clips included (good as in that they show bad defense).
 
Dauster is growing on me. I thought that Davon Reed drive on the baseline and layup was the most damning play of the entire week, and that had nothing to do with scheme.

If I were coaching this team right now, I might challenge Okafor to foul out of a game. Like sit him the next game if he doesn't foul out of this one. Needs to play without fear of fouling.
 
Okafor can't afford to foul out, so the matador/invisible defense is the correct approach. Duke has no backup center who can come close to Okafor's positive impact on the team per offensive and defensive possession.
 
+1

Someday, when only advanced stats people are walking the earth, they will look at Marshall's 2014-15 stat line and wonder what the hell happened.
 
That's fine for him to say, but it has nothing to do with what is happening now, at all (even though it looks like Valvano owned K based on my very brief look at the media guide).
 
childress22 said:
Just saw this Rob Dauster piece on our defensive struggles, SIAP. This rings truer to me than a lot of the blame-the-passing-lane-pressure talk. Our D is bad, but the weakest points are on the ball D by our two shortest guards, PNR defense in general, and helping in general. Good video clips included (good as in that they show bad defense).
Click to expand...

But I think a change in scheme would help all those issues. Take this piece on the packline, for example.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/virgi ... y-bennett/

Want to know why our help sucks?

"“Deny” teams put themselves at greater risk, because once their initial pressure is beaten, help defenders face long, rushed recoveries since the structure of the defense is already stretched so thin."

Here's something on the PNR:

"Everything that Tony’s Virginia team does defensively stems from this concept of middle help, including its pick-and-roll defense. While it’s become more popular to “down,” forcing pick-and-roll ball handlers toward the sideline or baseline, Tony’s teams, per the system’s rules, still allow them to head toward the middle of the floor."
 
rome8180 said:
childress22 said:
Just saw this Rob Dauster piece on our defensive struggles, SIAP. This rings truer to me than a lot of the blame-the-passing-lane-pressure talk. Our D is bad, but the weakest points are on the ball D by our two shortest guards, PNR defense in general, and helping in general. Good video clips included (good as in that they show bad defense).
Click to expand...

But I think a change in scheme would help all those issues. Take this piece on the packline, for example.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/virgi ... y-bennett/

Want to know why our help sucks?

"“Deny” teams put themselves at greater risk, because once their initial pressure is beaten, help defenders face long, rushed recoveries since the structure of the defense is already stretched so thin."

Here's something on the PNR:

"Everything that Tony’s Virginia team does defensively stems from this concept of middle help, including its pick-and-roll defense. While it’s become more popular to “down,” forcing pick-and-roll ball handlers toward the sideline or baseline, Tony’s teams, per the system’s rules, still allow them to head toward the middle of the floor."
Click to expand...

I fully understand and accept the basic argument -- the further a guy has to go to help, the less likely he is to get there in time -- but I'm not sure that being too spread out is our biggest problem. The pack-line is predicated on the guy at the top forcing the defender to go in a particular direction. Our two point guards can't do that -- Tyus sure as hell can't. Most pack line defenses pick the ball-handler up at half-court, which I know so many people here are fans of. If we tried the pack line with Tyus up top, any savvy point guard would just go around Tyus to the outside.

Moreover, the way to beat a pack line is to have a pair of good shooters with range. That's why it's silly to me that people are all "Uh, packline!" after two games in which we got torched from outside for 30 points each game. Yeah, if only we could play a defense designed to force Anthony Barber to drive into the middle and kick it out to Turner and Lacey on the wings...

Bennett's a great coach, and his teams play great defense. They work the pack-line to perfection, although it doesn't hurt that their top six guys are a sophomore, four juniors, and senior. That doesn't mean that everybody should use it, or is good at it

There's got to be a middle ground somewhere, where we pressure hard outside the arc, but our two biggest players stay low, and we just give up a lot of midrange twos. Right?
 
The guy on the ball does -- not everyone else. Per hereand here, although the second link just calls it "well beyond the three-point line" in UVA's case.
 
Yeah, I would completely disagree from all the ball I played and was taught, and that includes some hilariously bad Dick Bennett defense videos from back in the day.
 
childress22 said:
rome8180 said:
childress22 said:
Just saw this Rob Dauster piece on our defensive struggles, SIAP. This rings truer to me than a lot of the blame-the-passing-lane-pressure talk. Our D is bad, but the weakest points are on the ball D by our two shortest guards, PNR defense in general, and helping in general. Good video clips included (good as in that they show bad defense).
Click to expand...

But I think a change in scheme would help all those issues. Take this piece on the packline, for example.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/virgi ... y-bennett/

Want to know why our help sucks?

"“Deny” teams put themselves at greater risk, because once their initial pressure is beaten, help defenders face long, rushed recoveries since the structure of the defense is already stretched so thin."

Here's something on the PNR:

"Everything that Tony’s Virginia team does defensively stems from this concept of middle help, including its pick-and-roll defense. While it’s become more popular to “down,” forcing pick-and-roll ball handlers toward the sideline or baseline, Tony’s teams, per the system’s rules, still allow them to head toward the middle of the floor."
Click to expand...

I fully understand and accept the basic argument -- the further a guy has to go to help, the less likely he is to get there in time -- but I'm not sure that being too spread out is our biggest problem. The pack-line is predicated on the guy at the top forcing the defender to go in a particular direction. Our two point guards can't do that -- Tyus sure as hell can't. Most pack line defenses pick the ball-handler up at half-court, which I know so many people here are fans of. If we tried the pack line with Tyus up top, any savvy point guard would just go around Tyus to the outside.

Moreover, the way to beat a pack line is to have a pair of good shooters with range. That's why it's silly to me that people are all "Uh, packline!" after two games in which we got torched from outside for 30 points each game. Yeah, if only we could play a defense designed to force Anthony Barber to drive into the middle and kick it out to Turner and Lacey on the wings...

Bennett's a great coach, and his teams play great defense. They work the pack-line to perfection, although it doesn't hurt that their top six guys are a sophomore, four juniors, and senior. That doesn't mean that everybody should use it, or is good at it

There's got to be a middle ground somewhere, where we pressure hard outside the arc, but our two biggest players stay low, and we just give up a lot of midrange twos. Right?
Click to expand...


Great post.

I could not picture Tyus executing at that level.
 
Watching UVA defensive videos on youtube right now, and maybe I'm watching the wrong ones because they are definitely not picking up at halfcourt. Not even close.
 
Since my wife and son are out of town and I have nothing better to do, I went to espn3 and watched the first 5 possessions of Clemson @ UVA. Perrantes actually does start the defensive possession about 40 feet out, but he is retreated the entire time Hall brings the ball up. Perrantes leaves several feet of space and doesn't really guard Hall until Hall is fairly close to the 3-pt line. So I guess it comes down to what you would call "picking up" at halfcourt. I would argue they are most certainly not picking up at halfcourt in this game, not anywhere close to the pressure that Duke plays that far from the basket. The UVA defender is a few arm's lengths away and always retreating as the ball is brought up. He only attempts to guard his man once the ball gets within a few feet of the 3-pt line. I will add that Clemson only pushed the ball up once in those 5 possessions, and UVA gave up even more ground and picked up even further back on that possession.

Tyus or Quinn could do this so much easier than what Duke asks them to do. I actually think the hardest part of UVA's defense for Duke would be Okafor hedging.
 
"There's got to be a middle ground somewhere, where we pressure hard outside the arc, but our two biggest players stay low, and we just give up a lot of midrange twos. Right?"

Mostly, I think this is a good plan. However, it depends on what you define as "pressuring hard." If you mean trying to force turnovers by getting out in passing lanes and in the opposing player's face, I disagree. If you mean contesting shots, I agree.

From what I've witnessed, Physics is right. Bennett's point guard doesn't really guard the ball 40 feet out in the same way our guys do.
 
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