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Message: [QUOTE="ibleedhuskyblue, post: 4863735, member: 149"] Chief 1. Samson can't learn defense from DC because they play totally different coverages. They are both doing what coach has asked of them. DC drops, and Samson hedges. He may have length and height, but he doesn't have the instincts to play drop coverage and still be an effective pick and roll defender. 2. Last few games, Samson's hedge has been a huge weapon slowing other teams guards, and making them go deeper into the shot clock. At times guards will be so psyched out by the double that they will pick up their dribble. It throws a huge monkey wrench in the offense. 3. DC plays a drop because of his feel, length, and timing. Samson hedges because (like Sanogo & Whaley), he's not a natural shot blocker, and can be more disruptive hedging instead of dropping down. 4. Hurley is obviously asking Samson to hedge. He's not just doing it for the heck of it. It's the strategy that Dan Hurley employs for certain players in certain situations. It will not work 100% of the time, but Dan Hurley thinks it works enough to use it with one of the bigs in the 2 big rotation. 5. It forces the opposing coach to have to spend time in practice game planning for 2 totally different pick and roll strategies. This takes up valuable (and limited) time that college teams have in practice. BUT, for our defense, it takes very little time to practice because only 1 player has to do anything different than normal defensive rotations. Strategically, it's a huge win for us, and Samson is good at it, as were Whaley and Sanogo. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach