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What defense do we run? What is our strategy?

To me it looks like we are in a 1-3-1 where we try to trap the ball in the corners? That goes awry almost every possession and they can have an open 3 pt look literally whenever they want one.

At times last night it appeared we were in a strait man and that was, coincidentally(or not?), the time that we closed the gap and tied the game. Why don't we just run a man defense???? So much simpler and easier and w don't give up 1,000,000 wide open looks at all times.

I don't know if I'm more knowledgeable. I don't feel like I am but yeah we play zone to try to make up for our lack of size but it doesn't seem to work and we are much better in man. I agree we should scrap our zone(it looks like a 1-3-1 to me as well but I think we run a couple different ones and sometimes we are in 2-3).
I think another factor in last nights game and probably a factor moving forward is without any subs playing man expends more energy so we may be running some zone to save our legs for later in the game. Who knows though. I certainly don't.

Looks to me that we run 3 to 4 different zones. Primarily a 2-3 but sometimes 3-2 and a 1-3-1. In past seasons, I’ve thought that our best zone d has come with the 1-3-1 with a bigger guard like JJ or Maldo at the top. These guys cause a lot of havoc at the point and jump a lot of passes. Our best d is man I think. We just don’t play great zone D and give up way to many open looks. We need to send our boys to Syracuse for the summer to learn zone D under Boheim

I think the reason we went to zone was because when Thompson was out, and Mueller was our starting "big", pokes were getting destroyed inside by other teams because we didnt have the size nor athleticism inside to play man without getting exposed.....
Now that Muellers not available and Thompsons back and hopefully naughton right around the corner, we should be more successful running man defense just based on personnel.... no question our zone defense has not worked very well, whether its coaching failure, or lack of effort, or as others have mentioned fatigue from not having much bench, teams have lit it up from the perimeter against our zone. The one exception was South Carolina and I dont know how much of that was our defense or just that they were ice cold.

Last night it appeared to the layman that I am, that we were bouncing between a man zone, 2-3 zone, and 3-2 zones. I dont know if the schemes just don't work, our effort was god awful, our knowledge was even worse, or what has been going on be we have been abused with our zone play. Opponents have been quite adept in finding the soft spots and have shot lights out. It's frustrating to watch.

It’s a poop 2-3 zone and has always been a poop 2-3 zone. Just man up and if we get beat we get beat but this zone is absolutely brutal. Man Defense can’t be any worse.

ItSucksToBeACSURam wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 9:33 am Last night it appeared to the layman that I am, that we were bouncing between a man zone, 2-3 zone, and 3-2 zones. I dont know if the schemes just don't work, our effort was god awful, our knowledge was even worse, or what has been going on be we have been abused with our zone play. Opponents have been quite adept in finding the soft spots and have shot lights out. It's frustrating to watch.

All of our new guys are consistently out of position in the zone, which creates allot of open looks. Teams shoot well against us because they get allot of open threes.

A bigger problem is we give up so many second chance points. Switching to man might help with boxing out, but our only good rebounders are Maldo and JJ.

We play the patented "Edwards Swiss Cheese" defense. We stink, and there are a lot of holes.

McPeachy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 10:47 am We play the patented "Edwards Swiss Cheese" defense. We stink, and there are a lot of holes.

And in addition, the opponents find it easy to cut the cheese.

This day and age basketball is hard to analyze, i think coaches just throw out things to limit offenses abilities anymore. And with our system when something is working bench them and don't use them the rest of the game. I still to this day don't understand why we don't use the run and gun style at 7220....but I'm ole school, fundamentals.....fundamentals

Adv8RU12 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:19 pm

McPeachy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 12, 2018 10:47 am We play the patented "Edwards Swiss Cheese" defense. We stink, and there are a lot of holes.

And in addition, the opponents find it easy to cut the cheese.

Or we do. Probably more likely a shart situation though.

When you think about the defenses we play, you have to keep a few things in mind. One, the players don't always execute them well. Often, in man the less intense players get beaten on the dribble, or help when they shouldn't help. The zone relies on a lot of shifting of responsibilities out front and when the players don't focus we get burned. Two, matchups are really important. We were getting killed in the man against South Carolina and when we switched to the zone we didn't get beat off the dribble. Some of the reason for that success was intensity but the other reason was South Carolina's inability to adjust to the zone--they seemed to be paralyzed on the outside and their big man just didn't punch the clock offensively.

Ultimately, the defenses work if the players are focused and able to execute them. This team is frustrating because the intensity and matchups seem to be different in every game. I think Coach Edwards wants a man defense team, but success with it is elusive--the Denver game is a perfect example because there were so many mental lapses on defense that resulted in points (e.g., the tip-in at the end when no one checked the small forward) they were impossible to count.