Press Break/Late game rotation and end game defense

[royalfan]

I understand why we would bring Parker in for Tai on defense.  Those reasons seem pretty self explanatory.  My question is why was Parker leaving on offense to try to break the press while Leslee was staying in the ballgame.  Seems obvious that they will either foul or get a steal.  If they foul, we can bring Smith right back in for Tai, ending up with the same defensive rotation.  Seems like there is a little better chance of not getting it stolen with Parker in.  There has to be a reason, can someone enlighten me on what that might be?  I would want one of my best ball handlers in over one of my worst I think. 

 

I have also noticed a little bid of a bad pattern under Miles regarding late game defense with a lead.   We take it to extreme measures of going away from our typical pack line defense it seems.  We take it to extremes to not allow 3's which ends up allowing them anyway, and worse creates all sorts of driving lines and we are so scared to foul it results in such easy baskets.  We must clean this up before we take a bad loss because of it.  Think Ohio St last year in tourney.  They would just attack every time and with a lead we don't seem to resist very much.  Miles needs to get that fixed IMO. 

 

Anyway, these were a couple things that bothered me yesterday and wanted to see what others think about these issues or potentially them being non issues. 

Edited January 25, 2015 by hhcdimes
Edited for Smith clarity

[HB]

Because Benny is a one-directional driver whose size creates a huge problem with a press break.  The Minnesota game gave an inkling as to why Benny was subbed on offense in the last few minutes.

[royalfan]

That makes some sense for sure regarding size.  Do you think L. Smith is a better option?

Edited January 25, 2015 by hhcdimes
Edited for Smith clarity

[ajb5856]

Benny is a huge liability on the press break in late game scenarios. His size makes it harder to get open and his lack of length makes him that much more a difficult target for the passer. If he gets the ball, his lack of size causes huge problems if he gets trapped. Tarin's athleticism alone makes him a better option. He's nearly as quick, taller, longer, and can leap.

[royalfan]

So we have determined that Parker ideally shouldn't be in there.  I think I agree with that after further thought.  I know I do.  T. Smith was already in the game.  I am talking about L. Smith.  I don't think he is our best press break option available and that was my point.  Not talking about T. Smith.  While has has had some problems against the press break also, he is a much better option than Parker, I agree. But still not sure Parker doesn't give us a better chance to break a press and make free throws than L. Smith. 

[HuskerBB]

The last few possessions we did take L. Smith out and went with all 5 guards.   Once we new MSU was going to foul pretty much immediately if they did not get the steal that was what we did.  I think Miles was a little reluctant to go that little at first, but by the end that is what he was doing.

 

Tarrin Smith is a much better option than Benny on the press break.  Benny really is a liability in that area because he really struggles with a trap.   Towards the end of the Minnesota game they went to a system where they automatically sent 2 guys to trap Benny wherever he got the ball - they were not trapping anyone else, just Benny. 

[royalfan]

Lesilie was in for Parker a whole bunch in the last two minutes against press break.  Not sure specifically when that may have changed or if it did, but if did, which I didn't notice on last couple of possessions then Miles must have figured it out. 

[royalfan]

And not sure why everyone wants to continuing arguing that T. Smith should be in over Parker.  He was and I think everyone agrees with that. 

[Huskerpapa]

I certainly have an opinion as to who should be in the game, but that aside, I am more troubled by our manner in which we are attempting to break the press.  It seems awfully...well, passive... .  Oftentimes we seem to put the ball in a perfect position for the opposition to either trap us or otherwise turn it over. 

 

I am assuming that our strategy is to get the ball quickly back to Shavon who arguably is our best free throw shooter...so we inbound the ball to a corner and then quickly pass it back to Shavon.  Is that the strategy?

[hhcmatt]

So we have determined that Parker ideally shouldn't be in there.  I think I agree with that after further thought.  I know I do.  T. Smith was already in the game.  I am talking about L. Smith.  I don't think he is our best press break option available and that was my point.  Not talking about T. Smith.  While has has had some problems against the press break also, he is a much better option than Parker, I agree. But still not sure Parker doesn't give us a better chance to break a press and make free throws than L. Smith. 

 

Were you talking about Leslee in your first couple of posts?

[royalfan]

 

So we have determined that Parker ideally shouldn't be in there.  I think I agree with that after further thought.  I know I do.  T. Smith was already in the game.  I am talking about L. Smith.  I don't think he is our best press break option available and that was my point.  Not talking about T. Smith.  While has has had some problems against the press break also, he is a much better option than Parker, I agree. But still not sure Parker doesn't give us a better chance to break a press and make free throws than L. Smith. 

 

Were you talking about Leslee in your first couple of posts?

 

Yes, thought it would be obvious but I was wrong. 

[royalfan]

After watching back the end.  We ran 5 press breaks with L. Smith in for Parker.  We struggled mightiliy and this is what caused my frustration in the first place.   At the 1 minute mark we did go small exclusively taking Smith out on both offense and defefse for the lineup of T. Smith, Parker, Tai, Sheilds, Petteway.  We no longer struggled against the pressure at that point.  I think Miles could have still played the offense defense game with Leslie but probably thought we matched up better with their perimiter players on defense also by going small.  So it turns out that Miles did get it figured out eventually after five possessions of struggling with the press with Leslie in for Parker. 

[hhcmatt]

 

 

So we have determined that Parker ideally shouldn't be in there.  I think I agree with that after further thought.  I know I do.  T. Smith was already in the game.  I am talking about L. Smith.  I don't think he is our best press break option available and that was my point.  Not talking about T. Smith.  While has has had some problems against the press break also, he is a much better option than Parker, I agree. But still not sure Parker doesn't give us a better chance to break a press and make free throws than L. Smith. 

 

Were you talking about Leslee in your first couple of posts?

 

Yes, thought it would be obvious but I was wrong. 

 

 

The last few minutes of the game spanned about 30 minutes of real time. I know I thought you were referring to Tarin when I first read this

[royalfan]

I should have made it more clear.  Guess I had a thought in my head that Parker should be breaking presses instead of Leslie, and neglected to consider that there was another Smith who certainly belonged in there for press break since he was in there. 

[lanigan123]

Look against the press that MSU ran we should have back screened and threw down court. It was a joke.

[roscoe]

Nu does little to no screening when being pressed and also needs to put someone deep to take a possible defender/trapper away. Like someone mentioned earlier there should've been some deeper passes as aggressive as MSU was being. And if NU is gonna try the out of bounds to out of bounds pass they need to spread out rather than making a short pass that allows same defender to guard it. 

[HuskerBB]

Nu does little to no screening when being pressed and also needs to put someone deep to take a possible defender/trapper away. Like someone mentioned earlier there should've been some deeper passes as aggressive as MSU was being. And if NU is gonna try the out of bounds to out of bounds pass they need to spread out rather than making a short pass that allows same defender to guard it. 

 

The problem when we tried that yesterday is not that they were close - but that MSU switched it up and did not guard Shelds throwing it in that time.  They had been doing that up to that point, but took a different approach at that point.

[lanigan123]

MSU covered it to deny inbounds. Plays were there for lob plays.

[hhcmatt]

I don't know if Michigan is a pressing team but Michigan and Minnesota are two away games featuring teams that turn you over.

I sense working against pressure/press would be a priority this week.

[AuroranHusker]

I don't know if Michigan is a pressing team but Michigan and Minnesota are two away games featuring teams that turn you over.

I sense working against pressure/press would be a priority this week.

 

Yep, another huge week for Nebrasketball to keep improving. Glad Tai's back in the rotation!