Dean Smith

I have to take exception to two points. 1) Bobby Knight motion might be in hibernation but not because of lack of post players. If you watched his Steve Alford years they were doing some early mover-blocker concepts and the focus was on getting Alford the three and mid-range jump shots, not the post at all. The big problem in teaching the Knight/Pete Newell motion is that it takes too much time. Every player has to be able to read everyone else's cuts plus the ball. You have to have five players on the floor that have a very high basketball IQ to make that motion work at it's highest potential. The time it takes to teach such a motion to make it run smoothly is now not practical with the time coaches are allowed to be with players being cut over the years by the NCAA. 2) I was privileged enough to have multiple occasions to hear McDermott discuss his offensive philosophy. He said because of the time needed to teach a "good" motion it was impractical to do so. The majority of what you are seeing Creighton do is running up to 50 different set plays with each of them having multiple counters to what the defense tries to do. So you might see the same play run five different times and it looks like they are doing five different things. As far as I know all of them have commonalities such as there is always at least one option for the top of the key three. These are the shots he spends the majority of the time practicing. When you take account for all the different set plays they run and all of the counter options each play has, it definately looks like they are running a motion. He feels this still doesn't take as much time to teach as a Knight motion offense and yet he has far more control over the action the offense is using at any given time because he has called the set he wants.

Yes he did - He and Tanner switched halfway through.

You could see defensively that Nana struggled with the team concept. After a couple of ugly shots I thought Palmer took the game over in transition and was definitely the best offensive player on the floor scoring from all three levels and the line. I had him as the best player on the floor tonight. Glynn was Glynn and that's more than good enough. Evan Taylor is going to help in a lot of different ways, even hitting from three. Roby still no confidence on offensive when he doesn't have a dunk but still another level athlete, Gill looked good, very confident player now. The offense played the fastest when the ball was being pushed by Allen and he's not afraid the make the pass or take the shot. Being aggressive and not just trying not to make mistakes. And the biggest surprise for me, after watching the post drills, transition drills and the scrimmage, I'm willing to say Okeke is a better offensive player than Jordy.

No it was supposed to be attached to your 2-2-1 Press post. Denny Crum with his great teams at Louisville would run that press 4 or 5 different ways. He had one where they picked one non-ball handler from his scouting reports. They would leave him open and once the ball was in his hands the team switched out of the 2-2-1 to a complete denial M-4-M and forced the non handler to bring the ball up with hard on the ball pressure.

I think people get too caught up in how do I beat "this" trap as opposed to teaching players how to beat traps. There are certain dribbles such as the reverse/dropstep crossover that works against everything but the traps that attack the inbound pass. The techniques to step around or step through the trap are the same regardless of the trap you are facing. The are some fundamental differences between m-4-m traps and zones but everybody ends up with two trappers, two anticipators and one basket protector no matter where they start from. You have to get one guy on the top of the trap, one guy splitting the trap and one underneath the trap for reversal. Teach those principles and then you can start your press break from most any formation. I liked starting in a 1-4 either across the freethrow line or across half court to distort their trap from the get go but there are plenty of other ways to start. Technically you aren't supposed to be able to literally pressure on defense. If they are really applying physical pressure that's a foul (and I know there will always be some missed.) The real pressure is created in your own players minds. Practices need to be harder than games. Teach the proper techniques and where we need players to receive the ball and then make things as difficult as you can for them in practice. Allow 7 defenders or let the press get very physical. Stress your players in practice so they can be more relaxed and just execute in games. When they "know" they know how to break a press, it becomes much easier mentally for them to do so.

People are playing baseball?

Slightly different take here. We asked and you chose to come here so my number1 is what's best for the team and then what's best for the kid slides in at 2. I realize this is crazy talk in 2017 but you are one part of a larger whole and making sacrifices for what is best for the team even if it isn't exactly what you see as what is best for you is part of being a member of a team. I can hear the snickering by people leaving because they didn't get to play the position they have their heart set on but that's what the door is there for.

I don't think coaches do things in practice that encourage passiveness, at least not on purpose. I see that passiveness or I would rather describe it more as complacency is the default position. The "killer instinct" or what I would describe is maintaining focus regardless of time and score is what needs to be taught and reinforced.

He might have and if he did, good for him. I think many players around the country would benefit from a redshirt but not enough are willing to delay gratification which leads to no gratification and then a transfer.

"Did i say that redshirting players was trending in any other way but down? No." I don't think the rhetorical question you posted fits your explanation of why you did it. Did I post this to stir up trouble? No, I just can't seem to help myself.

I doubt we redshirt anyone. My remark was a comment on people extrapolating opinions based on gut feelings. As a fan of the social sciences, conventional wisdom can be true but many times turns out to be not so wise. Why do people ask a question just to answer it themselves? I don't know.

So when you are looking up those stats, why don’t you see if you can find the overall trend line on number of redshirts.

That nickname has to go. Scoring 17 on only 6 shots is the anti-TP. His stat line was much more likely to have those numbers reversed. He was a volume shooter. If Palmer can get near that number on near that attempts through out the season, he’s on one of the all Big10 teams. Would love to see it but not betting on it yet.

It’s not Miles. Kids don’t want to redshirt any more. The mentality has become “I want to play now and if I don’t, I am moving on down the road.”

Part of the no dunking thing was the painful feet.

I would love to have another JBD down low. His last year's stats weren't as good as his second year because of the feet problems, but we haven't had any post since be able to put up numbers like that second year. Almost 2 blocks a game his last year is better than any rim protector we have had since.

You maybe right but when I scan the court, in every scene he is the tallest player on the court by a significant margin.

Yes I figured that was the case. I guess I was saying in a roundabout way that since he seems to be substantially taller than his competition that maybe he is not playing the top level during the summer months which, though his post moves did look good, might make him look better than he actually is at this moment in time. Sorry for being so obtuse.

So why was he always being guarded by someone 3 inches or more shorter than him?

Pete Carril's Princeton Offense has been one used by lesser teams but not always. The concepts are five players in constant motion played from the outside in focusing on cuts more than picks or posts. You need to leave the basket empty most times to be open for cuts but you can dive in to post. You need a good passing post player to pull it off. Depending on who is using it you can have pages and pages of rules regarding who cuts where and when. Players have to be basketball knowledgeable to make it work. JTIII had been using a variation part of the time with more post ups to meet his personal. The idea of hard ass defense and playing inside out kind of went away with the first JT. We will see if Patrick Ewing tries to bring it back.

I was going to say I hate to be a nitpicker but I guess I don't hate it because here I am again. The way you were taught the 1-3-1 in middle school maybe is only one version. I'm sure there are people here that played high school ball and maybe had 2 or 3 different rotations they could put use on their 1-3-1. People talk about 1-3-1 or 2-3 or M-4-M as if they are one thing. The are all just someplace to start. There are almost an infinite variety of ways you can play any defense. John Thompson had a 1-3-1 where all four players rotated around a big man (he had some good ones) so every player could and at times was the point. Denny Crum (btw - there is a petition circulating to bring him back to Louisville) ran a 2-2-1 full court press 4 different ways. I actually remember 3 of them. I seem to be rambling here, but the point is things are not as simple and clear cut as most people seem to think they are in basketball.

I took it the other way. I thought he meant he is more of an off guard than a 1. It seems more likely he would mentally turn around 1 and 2 than point guard and off guard, but either way it was a mental mix up on the coach's part.

To some extent, but they are competitors. He also related that as Taylor scored more and more Gill started guarding harder and harder and then Roby came over to double and the two of them still couldn't stop him from getting to and finishing at the rim. You won't go as hard as you would consistently but if they are anything like the ball players I've been around, pride and competitiveness takes over. You don't want that guy scoring on you over and over.

I wasn’t there. These were the observations of the kid that got dunked on. He basically said he was not that impressed by Gill. But sample size people. One night in the Rec center is not conclusive evidence as to a player’s ability. He also said Jack didn’t shoot that well on that particular night but I bet he has a couple of big nights from the outside this year.

If you have the slightest knowledge of NU basketball (and this kid is a big fan - he knows who dunked on him), you can't miss Jordy. If you read my post up the page, he was one of 6 NU hoopster to play at the rec that night.