Retro 1990 - Lets become full court press team next year

[SaeHusky]

Seriously with 3 super athletic guards in Gilbert, Adams, and Purvis , a big time athlete in Larrier and the length of Hamilton, Darra, Facey, and Brimah why not. This way our struggles in our half court offenses become less of an issue. Thoughts?

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Seriously with 3 super athletic guards in Gilbert, Adams, and Purvis , a big time athlete in Larrier and the length of Hamilton, Darra, Facey, and Brimah why not. This way our struggles in our half court offenses become less of an issue. Thoughts?

I'm sure Ollie will push for that at times. After all, he always stresses getting out and running. However, I think our half court offense should improve anyway next year. This will be the first time since the 13-14 team that we have two quick, ball handling guards who can create their own shot. I don't think we should solely rely on full court pressure unless our half court offense is still struggling midway through the season. We need to develop a reliable half court offense if we want to keep up with the big boys.

 

[80shusky]

I have thought we could probably have pressed more that last two seasons but we played outstanding defense this year in general (Kansas game aside) so it isn't always a good idea to mess around with something that works well. By pressing more, I believe we may have benefited from it had we played man most of the time but switched to a trapping press in key moments in the game to change momentum. I also think pressing can help with offensive stagnation by creating transition baskets. Assuming everyone comes back (Purvis/Hamilton) and the addition of Gilbert and Larrier plus some long athletic forwards like Diarra and Jackson you would think that we could press effectively next year. I wouldn't press for long periods but dropping it in here and there to throw the other team off and change our intensity and momentum could be a good thing.

 

[jibsey]

West Virginia lives by this and it works until it doesn't and takes a toll foul wise, but the way our roster is I would think we have to have more of it. It creates offense when you don't have bigs that can score.

 

[Hoophound]

I don't think its in the cards for us. Pressing is better for less talented, athletic teams as an equalizer. If we weren't pressing the last two seasons, we probably aren't ever pressing because the talent level is about to go way up.

 

[Horatio]

We should've pressed more this season. If everyone comes back next season and we add one more guard , we should definitely press next season.

 

[B1GEast]

I prefer man to man, with a press in certain situations

 

[johnhuskies95]

People say this every year. West Virginia is the only team that really does it anymore(at least in the top 100), and they legitimately need an 11 man rotation to pull it off.

With how often our bigs pick up fouls, I don't think it would work.

 

[CL82]

Freedom of movement rules make being an aggressive pressing team much more difficult. The press is best used selectively. It becomes less effective if you try to stay in it a whole game.

 

[boog204]

It won't happen... However, I can almost guarantee that KO will say that it will and that we will be a running team in the preseason. I'm hoping the latter is actually true and we don't return to the "let's start our offense with 10 on the shot clock" offense that we saw far too often this year.

 

[Huskybass]

KO will say that it is going to be a running team. Then when we play Cincy, the final score will be 61-58 or something like that. I always hope for an uptempo team so that the games aren't rock fights, but slow down teams always seem to be able to dictate the tempo against us.

 

[Waquoit]

That 89-90 press worked so well because Henefeld was the ultimate center fielder. Who's going to play that role on this team? Hamilton? He has tough enough time finding the right guy in a half court.

 

[mauconnfan]

That 89-90 press worked so well because Henefeld was the ultimate center fielder. Who's going to play that role on this team? Hamilton? He has tough enough time finding the right guy in a half court.

This ^^ and add Burrell to the other side of Dove, another very bright player who was always a great anticipator. Tate at 6'5 in front as well as a long 6'2" Smitty guards had to throw over them with less zip. The make up of the team and IQ, as we've said time and time again, is so important. And Rod Sellers, who didn't block many shots, was also very smart in the back and knew what to do. You have a rim protector in AB but he still has to be smart against the 2 on 1 often, he's not.

Maybe in 2 years, not next year though the make up will be young and inexperienced.

 

[ConnZag3]

The problem with the press is you need to consistently score in order to employ it or you get carved up like West Virginia did by SFA. I'm not sure we've been consistent enough on offense the last few years to be able to press often. A strong, surprise press is really the best way to utilize it, just like Cuse did against both Gonzaga and Virginia this weekend.

 

[jibsey]

Brimah had 3 fouls in 3 minutes with Kansas no press. With the press it's 5 fouls before the first timeout. So you say he's not the one applying pressure, right.

 

[1999.2004.2011]

My take is that our team defensively by most metrics was one of the best in the country. Our halfcourt defense was really really good, and I don't see why we would need to change it all that much next year. Our issue was that we had a hard time converting those defensive stops into easy transition baskets. All things considered, I would welcome some regression defensively if in turn, our halfcourt offense improved.

 

[superjohn]

Freedom of movement rules make being an aggressive pressing team much more difficult. The press is best used selectively. It becomes less effective if you try to stay in it a whole game.

Bingo, I just wish we would break it out more frequently.

 

[polycom]

What team that full court presses wins Championships? Besides Louisville in 2013? - This isn't an original thought JC said it.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

That 89-90 press worked so well because Henefeld was the ultimate center fielder. Who's going to play that role on this team? Hamilton? He has tough enough time finding the right guy in a half court.

This ^^ and add Burrell to the other side of Dove, another very bright player who was always a great anticipator. Tate at 6'5 in front as well as a long 6'2" Smitty guards had to throw over them with less zip. The make up of the team and IQ, as we've said time and time again, is so important. And Rod Sellers, who didn't block many shots, was also very smart in the back and knew what to do. You have a rim protector in AB but he still has to be smart against the 2 on 1 often, he's not.

Maybe in 2 years, not next year though the make up will be young and inexperienced.

The Dream Season team was up there with the 1999 team as two of the smartest teams of the Calhoun era. As Mau said, Burrell was just so good as a freshman and the entire team came to buy in to the great model displayed by Nadav. That team had great quickness, speed, and length. In watching games from the next two years after the Dream Season, it was interesting that the effectiveness of the press in creating turnovers deteriorated pretty rapidly despite having many of the same players, just without Henefeld's "glue." I think that JC began to use the press more to create pace than to create turnovers after a while. I would urge young fans of the Huskies to watch the Dream Season games on the Husky Games site...the press that year was truly amazing. I have also come to have a greater appreciation for how good and how tough Rod Sellers was playing against much bigger players throughout his career. I would put him as the 4th best center in the JC era behind EO, HT, and JV. What a year that was!

 

[boog204]

The Dream Season team was up there with the 1999 team as two of the smartest teams of the Calhoun era. As Mau said, Burrell was just so good as a freshman and the entire team came to buy in to the great model displayed by Nadav. That team had great quickness, speed, and length. In watching games from the next two years after the Dream Season, it was interesting that the effectiveness of the press in creating turnovers deteriorated pretty rapidly despite having many of the same players, just without Henefeld's "glue." I think that JC began to use the press more to create pace than to create turnovers after a while. I would urge young fans of the Huskies to watch the Dream Season games on the Husky Games site...the press that year was truly amazing. I have also come to have a greater appreciation for how good and how tough Rod Sellers was playing against much bigger players throughout his career. I would put him as the 4th best center in the JC era behind EO, HT, and JV. What a year that was!

We "pressed" for many years after the dream season with fairly pedestrian/mediocre results until JC essentially scrapped it all together. People seem to forget that the success of our press in 89/90 was due primarily to the players in it. We have not had another Nadav or Burrell since and our press was never again anything more than a nuisance or tempo tool. We're not going to miraculously bring out the 1-2-1-1 or 2-2-1 and all of a sudden have a layup drill and parade of turnovers.

 

[KemBuckets21]

Seriously with 3 super athletic guards in Gilbert, Adams, and Purvis , a big time athlete in Larrier and the length of Hamilton, Darra, Facey, and Brimah why not. This way our struggles in our half court offenses become less of an issue. Thoughts?

Agreed. This will help out a ton on offense too. With our athletes and slashers we should not have been so reliant on three pointers. Only issue is, if we do press more we will likely need to cycle more bench players in (i.e. SC2), which is less than ideal. Could work out though if we can get another competent defender.

 

[Waquoit]

We "pressed" for many years after the dream season with fairly pedestrian/mediocre results until JC essentially scrapped it all together. People seem to forget that the success of our press in 89/90 was due primarily to the players in it.

Right. And when a team that year beat the first trap their troubles weren't over, they got funneled into a second trap that was just as tough. After the Dream Season, it seemed that the 2nd trap never developed as well. My cynical take is the press was less effective as the level of recruiting improved.

 

[boog204]

Right. And when a team that year beat the first trap their troubles weren't over, they got funneled into a second trap that was just as tough. After the Dream Season, it seemed that the 2nd trap never developed as well. My cynical take is the press was less effective as the level of recruiting improved.

It's possible. I think JC changed it up a bit too. We ran 3 different presses in 89/90. We did the inbounds trapping 1-2-1-1, we did a half-court/sideline 2-2-1 trap where Nadav wreaked havoc, and we had a crazed man-to-man full out deny ball press where we looked for quick steals. The following year, Burrell was the "steal" guy; I think he led the nation, and then the following year he had 37 less steals in the same amount of games. Teams learned and we changed to a more passive 2-2-1 that could trap as needed, but was instead used to disrupt the opponents rhythm. Once we got shotblockers, doing the 2-2-1 became less important because we always had someone to erase defensive mistakes. So we became more of a balls-to-the-wall man to man team. Those early JC teams used to play all sorts of different zone defenses too. That all but stopped as we got better.

 

[dennismenace]

West Virginia lives by this and it works until it doesn't and takes a toll foul wise, but the way our roster is I would think we have to have more of it. It creates offense when you don't have bigs that can score.

Yes and it would have been interesting to use it more this year since we did not really have a good half court offense. Not much sense in using it against a team with good ball handlers. I wouldn't want to live and die by it; use when effective.

 

[dennismenace]

It's possible. I think JC changed it up a bit too. We ran 3 different presses in 89/90. We did the inbounds trapping 1-2-1-1, we did a half-court/sideline 2-2-1 trap where Nadav wreaked havoc, and we had a crazed man-to-man full out deny ball press where we looked for quick steals. The following year, Burrell was the "steal" guy; I think he led the nation, and then the following year he had 37 less steals in the same amount of games. Teams learned and we changed to a more passive 2-2-1 that could trap as needed, but was instead used to disrupt the opponents rhythm. Once we got shotblockers, doing the 2-2-1 became less important because we always had someone to erase defensive mistakes. So we became more of a balls-to-the-wall man to man team. Those early JC teams used to play all sorts of different zone defenses too. That all but stopped as we got better.

Thanks! Good detailed analysis.