Excellent article on the Full Court Press

#1
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MikeHamiltonFan

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#1
How underdogs can win : The New Yorker

If you are saying that Pearl cannot get extremely talented guys to put forth the effort needed to press effectively, perhaps you are correct. I think he has not demanded it from guys like Hopson because he did not have the depth to run it. He also did get great effort from these guys in playing halfcourt defense, running, rebounding etc.

I think Pearl has not had the depth in quite a while to try pressing for most of a game.

I think in the next two years he will have the backcourt depth to look as strong in the press as the 96 KY team.

If kids start getting the taste for steals and dunks, they will be motivated to put forth the effort to make the other teams miserable.

Looking at our schedule, there are maybe 3 or 4 teams next year that would not be overwhelmed by our press.

I am very happy that Pearl has proven he can coach halfcourt defense. I also think in a given matchup Pearl may need to back off the press if it is ineffective. I am excited he is returning to it next year if we have the personnel and depth to do it.

By the way, the article is long so if you have difficulty reading (you think this has been a novel for instance) you may want to skip it.
 
#4
#4
MikeHamiltonFan said:
How underdogs can win : The New Yorker

If you are saying that Pearl cannot get extremely talented guys to put forth the effort needed to press effectively, perhaps you are correct. I think he has not demanded it from guys like Hopson because he did not have the depth to run it. He also did get great effort from these guys in playing halfcourt defense, running, rebounding etc.

I think Pearl has not had the depth in quite a while to try pressing for most of a game.

I think in the next two years he will have the backcourt depth to look as strong in the press as the 96 KY team.

If kids start getting the taste for steals and dunks, they will be motivated to put forth the effort to make the other teams miserable.

Looking at our schedule, there are maybe 3 or 4 teams next year that would not be overwhelmed by our press.

I am very happy that Pearl has proven he can coach halfcourt defense. I also think in a given matchup Pearl may need to back off the press if it is ineffective. I am excited he is returning to it next year if we have the personnel and depth to do it.

By the way, the article is long so if you have difficulty reading (you think this has been a novel for instance) you may want to skip it.
Click to expand...

Yep, we could only play 9 guys this year and last year. To press, you need to have around 25 or 30 guys that you can bring into the game. What a joke.

The fact is: you press when you can't play half-court defense or feel you can't match up in a half-court game. We don't have to do that any more. Why would we want to give up 5 or 6 free dunks a ball game that they wouldn't get on our half-court defense.
 
#5
#5
LawVol13 said:
Yep, we could only play 9 guys this year and last year. To press, you need to have around 25 or 30 guys that you can bring into the game. What a joke.

The fact is: you press when you can't play half-court defense or feel you can't match up in a half-court game. We don't have to do that any more. Why would we want to give up 5 or 6 free dunks a ball game that they wouldn't get on our half-court defense.
Click to expand...

You would think that an Elite Eight run while playing solidly in the half-court on both ends would quiet this crap. Apparently when some posters on this site claimed they would rather lose and play exciting basketball than win and play slowed-down halfcourt sets they weren't lying.
 
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#6
#6
emainvol said:
You would think that an Elite Eight run while playing solidly in the half-court on both ends would quiet this crap. Apparently when some posters on this site claimed they would rather lose and play exciting basketball than win and play slowed-down halfcourt sets weren't lying.
Click to expand...

It's not even logical. Why start that crap back up when you have just come off the most successful season ever playing completely different?
 
#7
#7
LawVol13 said:
It's not even logical. Why start that crap back up when you have just come off the most successful season ever playing completely different?
Click to expand...

I don't mind the press in some situations, but to use it as a base defense is simply mystifying.
 
#10
#10
emainvol said:
You would think that an Elite Eight run while playing solidly in the half-court on both ends would quiet this crap. Apparently when some posters on this site claimed they would rather lose and play exciting basketball than win and play slowed-down halfcourt sets weren't lying.
Click to expand...

I don't see anything wrong with putting a press in the arsenal, but it has become clear this year that half-court defense should be priority #1. When that is worked out to Bruce's satisfaction, then we can work on a press, which would be very useful situationally.

Edit: I see that you're in agreement on this point, so don't take it as an argument against your post.
 
#11
#11
Incipient said:
I don't see anything wrong with putting a press in the arsenal, but it has become clear this year that half-court defense should be priority #1. When that is worked out to Bruce's satisfaction, then we can work on a press, which would be very useful situationally.
Click to expand...

I am 100% behind this line of thinking.
 
#12
#12
I'd be shocked if Bruce went back to the press as his defensive scheme. I think he's smart of enough to realize to stick with what brought him the most success.
 
#13
#13
LawVol13 said:
Yep, we could only play 9 guys this year and last year. To press, you need to have around 25 or 30 guys that you can bring into the game. What a joke.

The fact is: you press when you can't play half-court defense or feel you can't match up in a half-court game. We don't have to do that any more. Why would we want to give up 5 or 6 free dunks a ball game that they wouldn't get on our half-court defense.
Click to expand...

Pearl said that he would return to the press next yesr.
 
#14
#14
I actually read the entire article linked by the OP. It is very good, but its premise, as it relates to us, is that the Davids of the College Basketball world should use unconventional strategies like the press to defeat the Goliaths of the College Basketball world.

We wouldn't have won nearly as many games in 2006 or 2007 without the press. But, we're not a David anymore. David's strategies leave him exposed. If Goliath properly adjusts, Goliath will defeat David.
 
#17
#17
emainvol said:
I don't mind the press in some situations...
Click to expand...

For example, Michigan could've used some form of it when they let Turner dribble up the court uncontested and take a wide open (albeit long) 3 to beat them by one in this year's Big Ten Tournament.

It's worth pointing out that there's more than one type of "full court pressure." In our tourney run this year, having Goins and Maze essentially guard their man full court (while the others were back on D) forced our opponents' main ballhandlers to work harder throughout the game and burn a good chunk of time before they could set up their offense.

In other words, a go-for-broke, 5-man press isn't the only way to establish the advantage of more able bodies.
 
#19
#19
I am not sure we disagree...

If our team is unable to play halfcourt defense well, we cannot do it when we need to (two senior guards in the tournament we cannot press) and we will lose.

I think if we get to where we can play halfcourt very well, then we need to work on and use full court press.

Also see the article or look at the 96 UK squad. Selby, Hopson, Tatum, Harris and Hall running up and down the court and getting 30 points off turnovers could be very sweet and if your team is athletic and deep enough and buys in to the effort required to press well, you can absolutely blow out teams that would hang with you if you played a halfcourt game the whole time.

To whoever said we had depth this year to press, perhaps you do not understand that stephen pearl cannot successfully defend a PG in the full court. Nor can Brian Williams. Nor can Skylar Mcbee.

If you have a backcourt with Goins, and Selby, and Golden and McRae, you could press for 3/4 of a game and not feel concerned.

With Maze, Goins (part of the season), Bone, Mcbee...you cannot. Josh Tabb would have even given more hope that we could press but we lost him as well.
 
#20
#20
Tatum and Hopson running a full court press sounds like a very bad idea.
 
#22
#22
ukvols said:
I actually read the entire article linked by the OP. It is very good, but its premise, as it relates to us, is that the Davids of the College Basketball world should use unconventional strategies like the press to defeat the Goliaths of the College Basketball world.

We wouldn't have won nearly as many games in 2006 or 2007 without the press. But, we're not a David anymore. David's strategies leave him exposed. If Goliath properly adjusts, Goliath will defeat David.
Click to expand...

Do we agree that you have to be able to defend successfully in the halfcourt? That is where we start and I think we all agree. You will also see that is not a new revelation to me, it is something I said I saw as a weakness thus far in Pearls career before the season started. One of the ways I agreed with BPV and hat.

BPV and I both thought Pearl could successfully coach it but just had not, hat said he could not.

Once you can successfully defend the halfcourt, I think Bruce is wise to realize that if you are Goliath size talent and you can press also, you look like the best of the Arkansas teams, or the best of the UK Pitino teams, you beat people by 30 points and your starters stay fresh in tournaments because even though they are running like mad when they are out there, they only need to play 25-28 minutes. They also do not cry about less minutes when they are averaging 22 points with lots of dunks off steals.

Calipari had Goliath talent, and they would still be playing if he had the ability to press the horrid WV backcourt.
 
#23
#23
Why is it necessary to even mention the other posters? Are they your points or not?
 
#24
#24
hatvol96 said:
A guy with bad knees and a malingerer playing 94 foot defense? How could that be a bad idea?
Click to expand...

Tatum looks healthy.

I said in my post that it remains a question to me whether or not Pearl can get Hopson, Golden, Harris and other guys who feel like they are stars to give the all out effort that Jajuan Smith gave on defense in the full court. I do not think that Hopson is as far away from being able to do that attitude wise as others seem to.

I can guarantee that we will not press full court consistently if our most talented players refuse to give effort unless they are running back and getting into halfcourt D.

If you played basketball you start to recognize that guys who are in awesome shape, who are very fast and who feel they are better than the other guy across from them often enjoy fullcourt defense. Skylar McBee should never be asked to shut down B Knight in the full court press. A guy like Selby might relish that challenge.
 
#25
#25
I don't care about blowing teams out. I would take six 1 point wins in mid-March through early April, playing great half court defense.
 
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