Questions from the Scrimmage

[spiderman]

VT, I assume you and pretty much everyone on our board played at least through high school. I wasn't laterally quick enough to be a great defender, but knowing when to help, where to be when one pass or two passes away, hedging screens, switching or fighting over or under, etc ... that's not difficult stuff to understand.

 

[VT4700]

VT, I assume you and pretty much everyone on our board played at least through high school. I wasn't laterally quick enough to be a great defender, but knowing when to help, where to be when one pass or two passes away, hedging screens, switching or fighting over or under, etc ... that's not difficult stuff to understand.

And some of us I'm sure have coached or are still coaching. How about you? You do realize there's a difference in man-to-man defense at the high school level and above, right? if you are remembering how you played man-to-man defense in high school, you would likely be amazed at the difference in college. Trust me. You would have a whole lot to learn. And, there's also a big difference in an offense at a college level playing against the man-to-man. In other words, who knows how to attack a man to man defense better? A random high school team, or a team like Davidson? We can't just coach guys at a high school level and say go guard Davidson. There's a whole lot more to it than that.

There are plenty of man to man defense books and videos out there. Also, coaches will do clinics about this. Google them and I bet what you will usually read and hear is how time-consuming it is to teach and how difficult it can be to learn.

 

[spider23]

Going to have to agree with Sman here. Too long we have heard the excuses about the vaunted match up zone being tough to learn and the reason we continued to get torched on defense. NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. In fact, CoachFezz seems like he has done some coaching and easily points out fatal flaws in our O and D.
If we could keep the dribbler in front of us that would resolve 2/3 of our issues. Rebound the ball that is another big chunk. Yes, there are many variations on how you can play man defense, but it is not rocket science. To me our bigger problem is athleticism and size and ability to create a defensive culture and mindset. We are typically undersized or a tad slow at 2 or more positions at a time. And Mooney has shown and inability to enforce defensive accountability. Those are bigger problems than knowing when to help, or switch, etc.

 

[spider23]

4700 sounds like he has some college coaching experience, eh???????????????????

 

[spiderman]

VT, I'm not saying I should be the one teaching college level man or zone defenses. I'm saying the mental part of it, when taught by a professional, is not that freaking taxing. there's a handful of things for the player to learn in how his specific coach wants man defense played. I say a handful. if you want to argue that there's 20 or 50 things a defensive player needs to learn ... I don't care. learn it. you have months to learn it.

now physically, that's a different story. if you don't have the athleticism it doesn't matter that you know it. but the coach teaches how he wants it played, and the player then does it. whether it's man, or a 2-3, or a 1-3-1, or a match-up, etc. these are smart kids in a tough school. learning how to play defense can't be the most difficult thing they learn here.

 

[GKiller]

VT, I'm not saying I should be the one teaching college level man or zone defenses. I'm saying the mental part of it, when taught by a professional, is not that freaking taxing. there's a handful of things for the player to learn in how his specific coach wants man defense played. I say a handful. if you want to argue that there's 20 or 50 things a defensive player needs to learn ... I don't care. learn it. you have months to learn it.

now physically, that's a different story. if you don't have the athleticism it doesn't matter that you know it. but the coach teaches how he wants it played, and the player then does it. whether it's man, or a 2-3, or a 1-3-1, or a match-up, etc. these are smart kids in a tough school. learning how to play defense can't be the most difficult thing they learn here.

maybe the Moon man teaches it like nano engineering

 

[urmite]

VT, I'm not saying I should be the one teaching college level man or zone defenses. I'm saying the mental part of it, when taught by a professional, is not that freaking taxing. there's a handful of things for the player to learn in how his specific coach wants man defense played. I say a handful. if you want to argue that there's 20 or 50 things a defensive player needs to learn ... I don't care. learn it. you have months to learn it.

now physically, that's a different story. if you don't have the athleticism it doesn't matter that you know it. but the coach teaches how he wants it played, and the player then does it. whether it's man, or a 2-3, or a 1-3-1, or a match-up, etc. these are smart kids in a tough school. learning how to play defense can't be the most difficult thing they learn here.

As an nonathletic 55 year old man, I found a 48 inch vertical was the hardest thing to learn...

Surprisingly even harder than that 18 inch growth spurt...

 

[VT4700]

VT, I'm not saying I should be the one teaching college level man or zone defenses. I'm saying the mental part of it, when taught by a professional, is not that freaking taxing. there's a handful of things for the player to learn in how his specific coach wants man defense played. I say a handful. if you want to argue that there's 20 or 50 things a defensive player needs to learn ... I don't care. learn it. you have months to learn it.

now physically, that's a different story. if you don't have the athleticism it doesn't matter that you know it. but the coach teaches how he wants it played, and the player then does it. whether it's man, or a 2-3, or a 1-3-1, or a match-up, etc. these are smart kids in a tough school. learning how to play defense can't be the most difficult thing they learn here.

I hear what you are saying, but it's more than just learning the defense. It is learning it and being able to play it at a high level. For example, I bet every Virginia basketball player learns the pack line well before they are ready to play it a high level. The same can be said for man to man and certain zones. When you hear the phrase a guy doesn't know the offense or defense, a lot of times that means he has not grasped it enough to play it at a high-level, not that he doesn't know the main X's and O's of it. And, the difference in playing man and playing zone is that it's a lot easier to get away with a guy out of position playing zone than man. One guy messing up in man will usually affect the whole defense.

 

[kneepadmckinney]

I would settle, at this point, for a concerted effort for all five guys to look for a man to box out instead of staring at the rim or the ball when a shot goes up. I would love to see that on Friday.