Miami’s Defensive Strategy

[Letsgohuskies11]

If they stop any two of Sanogo, Hawkins or Newton, they have a good chance of of winning. How? Given their penetrating 4 guard offense, take it to the basket and get a favorable whistle. BTW, as good as we looked against the Zags, offensively, Miami was much better against Texas. They shot 59% to our 40% and had basically a 2:1 advantage on the free throw line. Doomed may be an understatement, if our defense does not show up.

 

[7774]

For our defense, it worked against Gonzaga, so we're sticking with against Miami.

I’m not sure how well it worked. They got wide open 3s and missed them.

 

[gsmooth]

Baiting AJax into shooting wide open 3's is a mediocre strategy. It also has the problem with giving him a running start at penetration where he can do some real damage.

If I was Larranaga I would play some kind of 3/4 court trap out of the gate, but not every possession. Make the UConn guards work and burn clock to get the ball up, but don't force an adjustment. The risk is that UConn turns the pressure into a fastbreak, but if it is not full pressure, he may get UConn to burn 10-12 seconds before they start running their offense. Make the shot clock your friend. I don't know why any mediocre defensive team like Miami would even think of playing UConn straight up in man or a 2-3 zone. Larranaga has to use something exotic.

Interesting strategy suggestion. I was thinking UConn could do that to Miami, not a full court press bent on creating turnovers, but just to slow down Miami from getting into their half court offense and tire them out.

 

[willie99]

We have too many options. Hence they're doomed

WINNING

 

[gsmooth]

That makes the most sense to me for them defensively.


I will say this, I think they are poor defensively partially by design. They are like Creighton in that they only really have five guys who scare you, their starters. The main difference is they don't have an eraser in the middle. They do go eight, but 6-8 aren't near the players 1-5 are (good, serviceable but not near the starters). They can't afford foul trouble. I think it's one of the reasons you have seen them go on late runs. They start playing harder defense as the game winds down, while still making tough shots. I am not saying they are world-beaters defensively but I do think they have a second gear they don't usually exert until the end of games.

Sanogo is going to have his hands full with Omier to start. He is a load. Not that he will back Sanogo down, but it will be hard for Sanogo to back him down also. Sanogo should be able to shoot over him but getting close shots might be hard. Depends on how the refs call things. I don't think they double the post at first and rely on Omier being strong enough and having a lower center of gravity to keep Sanogo a step or two outside of his kill zone.

Personally, if they can stay out of foul trouble and commit fully to defense I would put Pack on Newton and Poplar on Jackson and pressure both. I want to take away Jackson's passing sight lines as much as possible and make Newton pick up his dribble. Letting Jackson stand at the top of the key with no-one around waiting for a man to cut, or a screen to be set and a man to get open is a recipe for disaster for other teams unless your off the ball defense is top notch.

Wong is fast and athletic enough to stay on Hawkins around screens but I have yet to see him commit to defense for more than 10 minutes a game.

Wong could get tired tried to chase Hawk around those screens. This could hurt Wong's offense.