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Duke Coaching

SeanMayTriedToEatMe said:


It’s happening. K is coming out of his 6-year coma.

You want the best talent. They want to go pro ASAP. They don’t get or take to your defense for whatever reason.

That’s all fine. It’s fixable with this solution: Play a defense they get and do well. Now, finally, we are there.
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Tremendous news.

I am so happy.
 
I am sitting here thinking about a junior Marques Bolden and all those athletes next year zoning Kentucky in the Champions Classic.

They may not score 60.

We may actually win two natty champers in a row now that the main problem is being addressed. Focus full-time on the zone in practice- who knows? You'd be a fool to dismiss the possibility!
 
I've always thought the two biggest weaknesses with zone are (1) giving up too many 3 point attempts and (2) not being able to rebound as well defensively.

I still need to watch last night's game, but based on the box score, and understanding this is merely a 1 game sample size:

- On the season Va Tech's 3P attempted/FG attempted is 40%. Last night, it was 20/49 (41%).
- Va Tech, a terrible offensive rebounding team (rebounds 23% of its misses, #324 nationally) was held below its season average to just 11%

Were the threes they took good shots that bounced out, or reasonably well contested, or somewhere in the middle?
 
VT did miss some open looks, but it was nothing like, say, the UNC game where Kenny Williams alone stepped into like 10 wide open catch-and-shoot 3s. Duke was actually fairly well-coached last night on defense and did not collapse much when a pass went inside the zone. Duke stuck with shooters. I think that threw VT off quite a bit. You could tell the guard they put in the middle of Duke's zone was wanting to kick it out, but he often had nowhere to go with it.
 
VT did not seem to have game-planned for our zone very well, although we did play the defense particularly well last night. I still think that teams that can put four shooter/drivers around the perimeter -- or even four shooters of which two can also drive well -- will give us fits. I think 40 minutes of zone against Carolina could be a disaster.

However, I'd be perfectly happy for the team to prove me wrong.
 
Duke also seemed to have scouted well. VT has one regular who can't shoot: Devin Wilson. Duke left him alone at the arc and dared him to shoot instead of closing out hard on a non-shooter like Theo Pinson. I think the coaches said, "you know how everyone else guards, Trevon? Guard Wilson like that."
 
physicsfactor said:
Well we saw what that did to Duke's defensive rebounding.
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I can't remember how much zone vs man we played in the second half, but I do remember that zone was maybe 1/4 of the first half, yet yielded three of the most open 3-point attempts UNC got.
 
Liked the wrinkle of having two guys in the middle up front with the opposite side guy looking to drop down to the cover/harass/threaten any player who set up there. This kept Carter from having to step up and allow a quick hitter to the baseline. It was more like a 1-3-1 where the guy in the middle floats in and out. I think De'Andre Hunter types are too good/versatile to give them space at the free throw line.
 
SeanMayTriedToEatMe said:
That makes sense if your stance is “Duke shouldn’t switch to zone as the primary defense until it’s perfect, not just when it’s much, much better than man.”

This is from earlier this season:



This is from near the end of last season:



Sometimes it’s ok to not be contrarian and just accept that the coaching has been idiotic in this regard for years.
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Might be recruiting related, they don't play zone in the NBA and if you play a full season of zone you get negatively recruited against for not preparing the players properly.
 
LastHearth said:
SeanMayTriedToEatMe said:
That makes sense if your stance is “Duke shouldn’t switch to zone as the primary defense until it’s perfect, not just when it’s much, much better than man.”

This is from earlier this season:



This is from near the end of last season:



Sometimes it’s ok to not be contrarian and just accept that the coaching has been idiotic in this regard for years.
Click to expand...


Might be recruiting related, they don't play zone in the NBA and if you play a full season of zone you get negatively recruited against for not preparing the players properly.
Click to expand...


Yep, if there’s anything we’ve learned from the past few years it’s that these OADs are laser focused on refining their defensive skills.
 
The problem with the zone will be offensive rebounds (something that Virginia Tech doesn’t do against anybody and didn’t even try to do against Duke), not open 10-15 footers.
 
DukeCrow said:
Not even going to blame duVAL. Keeping him in when you knew they would foul was sheer idiocy. Especially since they took out Carter.
Click to expand...
Just posted the same thing. We give K credit for finally playing the right defense, bu apparently it's at the expense of everything else.
 
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