Practice Observations: Warm-up for open practice TODAY!

[Major Majerus]

Crackerjack - 1 toy in @ box

[Cincybill]

5 hours ago, Sheltiedave said:

Only problem is we don’t have any ultra athletic players. We have players who just arrived who bump up our athleticism, and we are in the top half of a solid conference, but we are not feeding NBA teams with four of five players.

Skip is right; a full court, 3/4 court, diamond drag, box one, and half court trap all require extensive coaching, practice, and game time to get players dialed in. Athleticism only drives the car so far - the knowledge on when to jump a ballhandler, what angle to take, how and why to help double are all critical.

Press defense is just like teaching point guards when and how to go to the hoop, and when to stop, when to pass, etc. You still end up with fifth year seniors driving into help defense, losing the ball, getting a charge, and having a shot stuffed every game. The new guys need hours of press practice and watching tape to learn the how to.

Hargrove is ultra athletic for the schedule we have. But whether someone is"ultra athletic" or not doesn't make a difference. I'd be willing to bet that if he really is still trying to learn the half court defensive concepts here, most of the minutes Hargrove gets at the beginning of the year, the team will be pressing. Same with Perkins. It will allow them to think less and focus more on using their talents.

[wgstl]

5 hours ago, Sheltiedave said:

Only problem is we don’t have any ultra athletic players. We have players who just arrived who bump up our athleticism, and we are in the top half of a solid conference, but we are not feeding NBA teams with four of five players.

 

Hargrove and Jacobs are about as athletic as you can get.  

[Sheltiedave]

25 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

Well that's a rather insulting comment... and wrong.   Goodwin is one of the most athletic guys in the league.   His jumping/offensive rebounding is "ultra athletic".   Will he play in the NBA?  probably not.  And from the stories I hear, read about Hargove, he too sounds "ultra athletic".   How many guys do you know who can high jump like he can?   Ally oop passes from teammates? And from what I hear, Jacobs is quite athletic too.   

Guess I just tired of trashing our own players...  I didn't realize our competition in A-10 (from Davidson, VCU and UD through UMass and Fordham) are all stacked with ultra athletic players, most of whom are NBA bound.   And in the other thread, how great their coaches are --- future HOF coaches!  Good to know!

And wrong again.  Skip never once any or all of the above types of presses or defensive schemes.   Only looking to play uptempo for possibly 40 minutes. It is you who is attempting to complicate things with numerous defensive schemes.   Who said anything about a half court trap?  other than you.   And while we are at it, how complicated really is a box and one?   Good stuff!

A box 1 is a full court press.

a box and one is not.

but a genius like you already knows that.

[Clock_Tower]

Just now, Sheltiedave said:

A box 1 is a full court press.

a box and one is not.

but a genius like you already knows that.

Maybe if you played the game, you would know that executing defense (including full court presses) is easier than executing offense.  Good stuff.

And running an NFL route and catching the ball is easier than being a cornerback.  Thanks!!

[dennis_w]

I agree, why are we trashing our own players? i would suggest that there are few ultra athletes in basketball, if the definition is must run 4 consecutive sub five minute miles. i would say that pool is limited. that said our team has some very good athletes that should be able to run a press in the a10. anyone can disagree without casting insults to our players

[billiken_roy]

easier from a mental standpoint maybe but not easier from an effort standpoint.   great defense is all about effort and smarts both.   and imo if we are playing full court defense the effort needed from more players will be a lot.   holes in full court defense because someone didnt pull their wait = layups and dunks. 

[Quality Is Job 1]

1 hour ago, Old guy said:

Yes, it was. But as you recently found out a number of our MBMs do not go to the main page of the forum and I thought they  would like to see this as well.

No; what was said was that many people don't go to the home page of the website (i.e., billikens.com/).  I can't imagine anyone using this forum bypasses the main page of the forum (billikens.com/forum/index.php?showforum=101); therefore, you can be 99.99% confident that if someone is reading this thread, they will have seen the "PD Article on French" thread also.

[slu72]

28 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

easier from a mental standpoint maybe but not easier from an effort standpoint.   great defense is all about effort and smarts both.   and imo if we are playing full court defense the effort needed from more players will be a lot.   holes in full court defense because someone didnt pull their wait = layups and dunks. 

Any one ever wonder why possibly one of the greatest minds in college hoops, our own beloved Rickma, never employed a press? He knew good half court D could be taught. Primarily, help defense to prevent guys from getting open for easy shots or good looks. I'm not a real big fan of running up and down the court for 40 minutes. Yes, I'd surely like to see us becomes a team that pushes it after a D rebound to get an easy layup or a wide open 3, but not so sure every team has the parts to play like VCU or Arkansas under Richardson. It takes a lot of effort, and players, to press and then get back to play good half court D. Not sure that's how we're built, or what Travis was aiming for in putting this roster together. We shall see.