Offensive strategy against Cuse and zones...

[bleeny72]

I really hope to see a lineups consisting of SN, RB, JL, NG, RS, and AD for much of Saturday's game, as I think they are the best weapons against the zone.

I really like AO and think he and SN are the key cogs to a successful deep run, but in this game, I like these players. His inability to hold onto the ball while going up against the zone is disastrous. With multiple players collapsing on him, he has not shown the ability to finish well enough in traffic against good shot blockers like Melo and CJ Fair.

I think that against a zone we need athleticism to jump quickly and attack at the hole. Thus, AD and RS in the game a lot as they are our best finishers down low due to strength at the rim and jumping ability.

The thing I want to see most is Jeremy flashing into the middle of the zone as the key cog at the FT line. I think he is an underrated passer and is definitely at his best in the midrange game and floaters (rather than shooting 10 threes a game, which we saw against Seton Hall). By posting around the FT line, he will be able to take quick shots from that area and when Cuse begins to collapse on him, open shooters like RB, NG, and SN will be able to shoot in rhythm. In addition, if the inside guys like Melo, Joseph, and Fair come at him from the bottom spots of the zone, passes to Roscoe and Drummond will allow them to have easy buckets down low. Georgetown did this a lot and it had a lot of success (minus their missing numerous open layups).

With the stalling offense the Huskies have seen recently, it is evident SN cannot be the only guy with the ball in his hands. However, last year and early this year, it was seen that he is a rhythm shooter. If he can receive kickouts and passes where he can step into his shot (with the defense collapsing on Lamb), he can begin to find his game again. The team is slumping and a kickstart to the offense against zones (as it seems thats all teams play against us...and why wouldn't they?) would do wonders for confidence. Even if a loss, a good offensive showing would go a long way towards team confidence to put points on the board against a very good defense. .

 

[James]

I agree with the part about Shabazz being able to get his shot falling by stepping into them more, but I'm not sure about that starting line up. After last game, but makes you want to start AD OR Napier against a zone? I would start RB, Lamb, Giffey/DD, Smith, and AO. AO and Smith have shown willingness to improve, and i'm sure they've been practicing very hard.

It is my contention that Napier isn't 100%, so why play him a crazy amount of minutes? Let him comfortably come off the bench with no pressure.

 

[sparky]

We have to attack the creases of the zone and kick the ball out. Attack creases draw 2 guys and kick out. We need to do this earlier in shot sequence.

 

[ZenConn]

3 words for the offense: Make A Shot.

If we can't, it really doesn't matter what offense is run ....

 

[FeedTheDove]

Why havent we put JL in the middle before? He seems like the best possible option considering the d would be FORCED to collapse onto him since at that range he should be unstoppable, which would leave bazz, boat, or one of the bigs open. If they dont he can pull up quick enough to nail a jumper. From that range itd be a lay up for him

 

[UConn_Top_Dog]

I really hope to see a lineups consisting of SN, RB, JL, NG, RS, and AD for much of Saturday's game, as I think they are the best weapons against the zone.

I really like AO and think he and SN are the key cogs to a successful deep run, but in this game, I like these players. His inability to hold onto the ball while going up against the zone is disastrous. With multiple players collapsing on him, he has not shown the ability to finish well enough in traffic against good shot blockers like Melo and CJ Fair.

I think that against a zone we need athleticism to jump quickly and attack at the hole. Thus, AD and RS in the game a lot as they are our best finishers down low due to strength at the rim and jumping ability.

The thing I want to see most is Jeremy flashing into the middle of the zone as the key cog at the FT line. I think he is an underrated passer and is definitely at his best in the midrange game and floaters (rather than shooting 10 threes a game, which we saw against Seton Hall). By posting around the FT line, he will be able to take quick shots from that area and when Cuse begins to collapse on him, open shooters like RB, NG, and SN will be able to shoot in rhythm. In addition, if the inside guys like Melo, Joseph, and Fair come at him from the bottom spots of the zone, passes to Roscoe and Drummond will allow them to have easy buckets down low. Georgetown did this a lot and it had a lot of success (minus their missing numerous open layups).

With the stalling offense the Huskies have seen recently, it is evident SN cannot be the only guy with the ball in his hands. However, last year and early this year, it was seen that he is a rhythm shooter. If he can receive kickouts and passes where he can step into his shot (with the defense collapsing on Lamb), he can begin to find his game again. The team is slumping and a kickstart to the offense against zones (as it seems thats all teams play against us...and why wouldn't they?) would do wonders for confidence. Even if a loss, a good offensive showing would go a long way towards team confidence to put points on the board against a very good defense. .

J-Lamb needs to use Rip Hamilton as an example and take advantage of his mid-range game. Bad things happen when he dribbles. He is a stop and pop guy. Also, quick sharp passes swinging the ball back and forth, eventually leading to a flasher (Lamb) in a open pocket, will help break down the zone. Georgetown utilized this strategy beautifully. Our bigs need to crash the boards hard too, but we have to spread out the zone so Cuse is out of position for the rebound. If they start packing in the zone more, Niels, Lamb, and Shabazz should only then look for the 3. Offensive rebounds and put backs I think will be a game changer, so a 2 guard line up with Shabazz/Lamb or Boat/Lamb; and AO, AD, Roscoe down low with solid sub minutes from Tyler and DeAndre; would be best.

That said, UConn can win this game by winning the rebound battle and points in the paint, with solid defensive pressure leading to fast break opportunities. From what I have seen Cuse like to run too, so speeding up the game should not be an issue.

 

[mauconnfan]

I really hope to see a lineups consisting of SN, RB, JL, NG, RS, and AD for much of Saturday's game, as I think they are the best weapons against the zone.

I really like AO and think he and SN are the key cogs to a successful deep run, but in this game, I like these players. His inability to hold onto the ball while going up against the zone is disastrous. With multiple players collapsing on him, he has not shown the ability to finish well enough in traffic against good shot blockers like Melo and CJ Fair.

I think that against a zone we need athleticism to jump quickly and attack at the hole. Thus, AD and RS in the game a lot as they are our best finishers down low due to strength at the rim and jumping ability.

The thing I want to see most is Jeremy flashing into the middle of the zone as the key cog at the FT line. I think he is an underrated passer and is definitely at his best in the midrange game and floaters (rather than shooting 10 threes a game, which we saw against Seton Hall). By posting around the FT line, he will be able to take quick shots from that area and when Cuse begins to collapse on him, open shooters like RB, NG, and SN will be able to shoot in rhythm. In addition, if the inside guys like Melo, Joseph, and Fair come at him from the bottom spots of the zone, passes to Roscoe and Drummond will allow them to have easy buckets down low. Georgetown did this a lot and it had a lot of success (minus their missing numerous open layups).

With the stalling offense the Huskies have seen recently, it is evident SN cannot be the only guy with the ball in his hands. However, last year and early this year, it was seen that he is a rhythm shooter. If he can receive kickouts and passes where he can step into his shot (with the defense collapsing on Lamb), he can begin to find his game again. The team is slumping and a kickstart to the offense against zones (as it seems thats all teams play against us...and why wouldn't they?) would do wonders for confidence. Even if a loss, a good offensive showing would go a long way towards team confidence to put points on the board against a very good defense. .

Pretty simple....have to make shots and move the ball quickly like GTown.......they had numerous passers in the game at all times finding seams and making the Cuse work hard and reversing the ball a lot. I doubt AO can be there unless he stays strictly on the baseline as his passing ability is not good and quite honestly neither is Roscoe.......I see huge trouble although I hope I'm wrong.

 

[willie99]

we should run the burn offense

at least we can say it was intentional

 

[wpq4elamin]

I think the best guy to put in the middle of the zone is beginning of the year Tyler. His confidence and his jumper have been shaky of late, but his tools and ability are probably best suited to being there- he's probably the second best elbow jump shooter on the team and is a pretty good passer for a big guy... that would allow drummond or alex to sneak around under the zone or in the gray area looking to seal on the weak side or for dump downs on reversals or quick ball movement.... but I don't know if Tyler is the best guy at this point after the last few games.... he has seemed tentative and his shot has not been falling... he definitely has not been the same guy as the beginning of the year, and it has nothing to do with "the physical nature of the BEast"... he's still gotten plenty of open jumpers that he just hasn't connected on and he seems tentative.... now that I think about it, I don't know if he's been quite the same player since his brother posterized him...

I think I'd try lamb or roscoe there and see how it goes.... granted you probably want jeremy on a wing for reversals and 3's, but he hasn't been shooting as well lately so why not let him get some 15 footers to get him going. Perhaps he can even get a couple floaters to go on shot fakes and duck throughs.... it will be really interesting to see how they attempt to take on a really good Syracuse team at the Carrier dome with the anemic offense they've been working with of late... perhaps it's an opportunity to springboard to greatness as they're being pressed further and further against the wall.... one can only hope

 

[Giddyup5]

There is one key problem with having Lamb flash to the foul line consistently.

The most important thing in attacking a zone offence is spacing IMO. That usually means having a guard at the top of the key, two players on the wings, and 2 players on the low blocks (with one of the usually flashing to the foul line). If you have Lamb flash to the foul line you need to have whoever is playing the 4 to move to the wing to keep spacing. Last year when Roscoe had confidence shooting the 3, it worked when he was the 4. If the 4 doesn't leave the low block, than there is no space for the 5 to seal his man on the weak side for dump down passes.

Having the wing available on the weak side keeps the zone honest and allows for swing passes, skip passes, dribble penetration and passes to the wing that keeps the zone moving side to side.

I honestly believe that is a big reason why we haven't seen Lamb at the spot more often. If you recall Jamal Coombs-McDaniel flashed to the middle of the zone a lot, because he was playing the 4.

Another way to attack the zone is to overload one side of the court. In this scenario, we have a guard at the top of the key, one on the wing, Lamb (or the other wing) flashing to the foul line, the 4 on the baseline corner and the 5 roaming the paint. I'd like to see more of this on Saturday in spurts.

The reason GTown was so successful IMO is because they have bigs who can handle the ball and pass. The only big we have that can do that is TO. Tyler has been very disappointing lately. I expected him to get pushed around in the Big East and maybe not play great defense and struggle on boards. I guess I just had higher expectations from him when he got an open shot.

Obviously there are a lot of keys to this game. IMO we need to live with TO and Roscoe at the 4 for the majority of the game and they need to be effective from the high post. Lamb needs to flash into the middle of the zone selectively when we overload one side. We need to dominate the offensive glass the entire game and get into the bonus early in each half to get easy points from the line.

To be honest, what scares me most is Cuse's transition offence. They are as good as ever in generating easy fast break points after turnovers and rebounds because the guards at the top of their zone can leak out early. That and I've always thought our transition defense has never been great.

Needless to say we are gonna have to bring our A game to have a chance. Its possible.

 

[wpq4elamin]

If Tyler or Roscoe were shooting better, I think you could use them on the wing as you mentioned with ROscoe last year, but unfortunately neither of them has been confident shooting jumpers lately...

I think the overload would work extremely well if, and only if, you put boat on the opposite side of the overload so that when you kick and reverse to him he can exploit the moving/recovering zone and attack the gap (possibly looking for a lob for drummond/AO after they've sealed their man on the opposite block)

 

[UChusky916]

AD needs to be in the game against the cuse zone. If they cheat just a little bit, it should be an easy alley-oop and an automatic 2 pts.

 

[MidTown Husky]

I like our current set : pass the ball around on the perimeter and have lamb or bazz throw up a 40 foot three pointer when the shot clock expires

 

[hungry husky]

Only way we're going to hang is if RS/TO/DD make some shots to bust the zone and JL has at least 20.

 

[orangehomer]

basically the zone loses to one or more of the following, 1) make a ton of threes, 2) have big men that can pass and finish in traffic, or 3) get tons of offensive rebounds and second chance points. if i was uconn, i would probably think about going chuck-and-duck and let the guards shoot tons of threes and hope that drummond/oriakhi can go wild on the offensive glass.

 

[bobbygt]

basically the zone loses to one or more of the following, 1) make a ton of threes, 2) have big men that can pass and finish in traffic, or 3) get tons of offensive rebounds and second chance points. if i was uconn, i would probably think about going chuck-and-duck and let the guards shoot tons of threes and hope that drummond/oriakhi can go wild on the offensive glass.

IF you told me this is all uconn would need to do in order to beat Syracuse 3 weeks ago, I'd say we'd have a 50/50 chance in this game.

But during this horrible stretch of games, uconn hasn't been able to do either of 1 or 2 at all.
--1) They've been shooting about 15% from 3 over the past several games, and if you take away Napier's desperation 3 pters in the last minute of both the Cincy and Tennessee games, the teams has been quite awful from 3 for about 6 games now.

--2) Although Oriakhi showed some nice finishing against UL, Drummond completely disappeared. Neither of them are very good passers and neither have been consistenly good finishers.

I do think that if uconn plays with some fire and don't get too far behind, they will be able to rebound with Syracuse. Even if the two big guys aren't particularly good at using their bodies, they are still pretty strong and will push Melo to have a good game.

How is Melo's rebounding?

 

[pauliepeppas]

IF you told me this is all uconn would need to do in order to beat Syracuse 3 weeks ago, I'd say we'd have a 50/50 chance in this game.

But during this horrible stretch of games, uconn hasn't been able to do either of 1 or 2 at all.
--1) They've been shooting about 15% from 3 over the past several games, and if you take away Napier's desperation 3 pters in the last minute of both the Cincy and Tennessee games, the teams has been quite awful from 3 for about 6 games now.

--2) Although Oriakhi showed some nice finishing against UL, Drummond completely disappeared. Neither of them are very good passers and neither have been consistenly good finishers.

I do think that if uconn plays with some fire and don't get too far behind, they will be able to rebound with Syracuse. Even if the two big guys aren't particularly good at using their bodies, they are still pretty strong and will push Melo to have a good game.

How is Melo's rebounding?

Not great, hands are shaky and he can get pushed around by a guy his size...this will be a tight game , i think you guys come out strong after that lbille performance and par for the course one of lamb napier or boatright will get hot from three

 

[WillB4]

NO dribbling! As mentioned before quick passes to make the zone move side to side hopefully getting an open J (and swish!). Also moving the ball with passes to the free throw lane in and out, make the zone move and be a little ahead of it.

 

[dpross]

I like our current set : pass the ball around on the perimeter and have lamb or bazz throw up a 40 foot three pointer when the shot clock expires

This is clear sarcasm, but funny and truthful nonetheless.

 

[Giddyup5]

Normally I'd disagree with you about the no dribbling.

One of the most effective ways to beat a zone is by dribble penetration as long as you make timely passes to the wings and bigs.

However, with this team, I worry about over dribbling.