Billinikens Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 One of the things that I have really enjoyed about watching Villanova this year is that they have stuck to their guns each and every game, no matter what personnel the other team puts on the floor. They play a 4 guard system because that's what their personnel dictates. Sure, Jay Wright would love to run Curtis Sumpter out there and only have 3 guards, but that option has been taken from him. Instead, he puts out a lineup that is fast, quick, and that can shoot it from deep or take it to the rim with dribble penetration. They press and play pressure defense that forces other teams into their style and tempo. With all that said, the only situation I can think of this past year that SLU dictated the style of play was the game that IV and BH played together for a stretch. Brad forced matchup problems on the other team that they didn't respond to very well. The rest of the time we seemed to react to the other teams' game and try our best to hide our weakness at the PF with double teams and other gimmickry. If we don't miraculously find or develop a solid PF for next year, what can Brad due to force other teams to react to the players he puts out there rather than us reacting to them? Do we have good enough athletes to force a quicker, full court pace that would minimize how effective the opposing PF can be in half court sets? Any other ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Billini, I missed your post and posted something similar above. I think BH and IV in the lineup poses tremendous matchup opportunities for us and will improve our transition game and perimiter defense immensely. The real question is what areas does BH have to improve and what does IV have to work on to be a 4. IV's handles come to mind, but that may not be fair as he usually had 2-3 people all over him. Put a semi effective 7' in there with him they can't do that. Probably even a bigger problem though is the movement of IV. If he's at the 4 he can't be a stationary post up guy all the time he's got to move. Or could play him at the high post setting BH low. IV work on your 15 footer and dribbling over the summer. BH your one handed hook jumper and your passing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 This makes great sense - take two players and have the play out of positions. We have a good center who excels - leave him there! As far as Bryce goes - he is long way from playing any 25-30 mpg. We need a forward who can rebound - BH has not shown that he is a rebounding machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinfootes Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 I've heard a few people on here mention that having IV and BH on the floor at the same time would help the transition game, but I'm not sure how. Sure it would free up a guy who had been playing the #4 spot on defense to move back to #3, but it would also take a much faster player off the floor and replace him with BH. If you're really going with a transition game, you need guys on the floor who can move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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