Wanted to highlight a note from Cowdog from the game thread:
“… aggressive zones, not laid back zones…pressure zones.
One only needs to look Petino, for instance. State’s got one guy built for M to M in Barber.”
^While – in general – I’m very much a proponent of good man-to-man defense over a zone, I’d really like to see that aggressive zone again. The key for the effect the zone had against GT was how active and aggressive it was – that translated to other areas as well. It also helped to spy Miller – though he did obliterate us with offensive boards and a couple of mid-range zone buster jumpers. Overall though, I think you just tip your hat to Miller – aside from him, the zone swung the game along with Lewis’ production and management. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say GT’s fate was sealed once we switched to that zone – it really highlighted their lack of offensive skill players.
We have good personnel with which to run zones and traps … incidentally, with respect to NC State it helps speed the game flow up for us – which is desperately needed for this team to succeed. There was a game earlier in the season (I can’t recall which) in which we ran a 1-2-2 pressure/trap zone with Warren at the point of it that was very effective. I’m in favor of seeing some more zone. The caveat, of course, is rebounding … again though – hat tip to Miller.
One more note: we ran ‘man’ for the majority of the OT and Lewis wasn’t too much of a liability from what I saw. I unfortunately don’t have it on dvr, so please let me know if I’m off base here.
