Retro 1990 - Lets become full court press team next year

[FfldCntyFan]

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

I Agree. There is nothing wrong with choosing your spots a couple times during a game and pressing for two or three consecutive possessions each time but the majority of the time we need to be in man.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

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.

Great post! The Dream Season team operated at times almost like a single organism, although that overstates it some. The way they compensated for such huge size disparities was remarkable and Burrell was really good on defense as a freshman. He made some mistakes, but by today's standard, he played like a junior. Chris Smith as a sophomore was the guy who made some really huge baskets at the biggest moments. A tough defender as well. Someone who does not often get his due was Torraino Walker. He would come in at 6'6" and play against Alonzo Mourning and sometimes Mutombo. He was a strong, tough, and smart player.

The next year, the loss of Tate was felt as Steve Pikiell took his spot with Gwynn coming off the bench still. Pikiell may have been back from injury, but just did not have the quickness to make it all work. Still a fun year to watch as Burrell's steals were amazing. Such quickness he had for someone 6'5"-6'6".

 

[joober jones]

I've always loved full-court pressing at all levels of the game. Back in my high school days it got me some pine riding time when I kept applying full court press after the coach screamed at me not to. I guess I had some Antric Klaiber in me.