Beating Texas

[elface]

From Seth Davis of SI.The Link

Texas: How good is the Longhorns' zone offense?

It better be real good, because if opposing coaches are smart, Texas will not see a single possession of man-to-man defense this season. Why would they? Texas was ranked last in the Big 12 (and 233rd nationally) in three-point shooting last season, and the team's only long-range threat, A.J. Abrams, has graduated. Rick Barnes is bringing in a trio of scary-good guards (freshmen Avery Bradley and J'Covan Brown plus Florida transfer Jai Lucas) who can beat any defender off the dribble but aren't good outside shooters. Moreover, the Longhorns boast maybe the most muscular front line in the country in Dexter Pittman (who has slimmed down to 298 pounds), Gary Johnson and Damion James.

Seems to me you play a zone to do one of three things: Take away the dribble-drive, sag in on the big men and force the other team to beat you from behind the three-point line. The Longhorns should get lots of practice playing against the zone this season. Their effectiveness (or lack thereof) will determine whether they are a great team or just a good one.

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[bierce]

I'm somewhat concerned about outside shooting, but the writer forgets to include Hamilton in his analysis, and he's way off base when he says Lucas isn't a good 3 point shooter, as Lucas only hit 43.5% in his year at Florida. I suspect Brown will be better than any of the other guards in this capacity as well.

 

[elface]

I think you're right on Lucas and Williams.

My take is that Texas will be so much better defensively that they will run a lot. Texas hasn't been this good defensively since the Gibson-Aldridge years. And while that team could zone effectively because of Aldridge, they weren't a team that created a lot of turnovers.

This team will ball-hawk and get steals. They remind me more of the Kansas teams with Robinson and Chalmers.

 

[bierce]

I didn't add Williams, just because I don't see him on the floor much this year. Maybe I'll be proven wrong about that, but I just don't see how he gets the time this year.

 

[Texoz]

Three words?

Dribble drive penetration.

We'll have much better ball handlers: Bradley, Lucas, Brown and even Hamilton.

Mentioning Williams is a very good point though. There is some discussion of red-shirting him (on the internets), but his 3-point skills could come in very handy.

 

[mars]

I like Davis, but this misses the mark. We will have plenty of shooters and penetrators to make a zone pay. Now, if he said this would determine whether we'd be a great team or a national championship contender, that might be a different story..

 

[KMed]

He's right in that every team should zone us, because if they didn't we would absolute pick them apart. It's picking the lesser of two evils.

 

[hippie]

we may or may not cannot shoot (still to be determined), but we dang sure will gobble up rebounds by the dozen if teams stick with the zone.

 

[bierce]

The main difference will be that Bradley, Lucas, and Brown, whatever their shooting abilities are, will shoot much better than Balbay and Mason, neither of whom demanded defenders to pick him up anywhere outside of the paint.

Defenders will have to guard the ball handler to 20 feet. That will make all the difference.

 

[skymonkeyhorn]

It's picking the lesser of two evils.

I agree with that statement. Most teams will start with man2man but when Dex is dunking the ball, Hamilton is breaking down the M2M defense with mid-range jumpers or layups, when Avery is breaking defenders ankles for mid-range jumpers and passing to the open man for high % shots, when James is getting 10 rebounds or more , then JBrown is hitting his jumper THEN teams will go with a zone.
The team will continue to do what it does best Dribble Drive and kick outs to open shooters, Hamilton, Avery, Lucas, Brown and sometimes James will kill them with 3's. Lets not forget that James ,Dex, Wang, Chappy,Johnson will be taking any misses for easy put backs and or fouls in the zone..

SF Jordan will go 25-30 minutes per game that leaves 10 minutes for Williams / Mason. I doubt that RB puts Johnson at the 3, he may go with Mason unless Mason plays like last year, we may even see Chappy at the 3 for a few minutes.
I doubt that Williams red shirts, he has the shoot to blow up zones.
Offense may be better then our Defense which is going to be kick ***.
Fun season for MNC !

Take your poison, Attack our PG's dribble, Avery handles they put their 2nd best defender on Avery that means that their 3'rd best defender has Jordan and JH knows what to do with that situation, He scores when he can.

 

[GoHornsGo90]

I also love Davis, in fact he's my favorite sports journalist, but this is completely off base. Lucas is either our best or second best three point shooter (along with Williams). Hamilton is just as good and is practically unguardable. I agree that the zone is the only way teams even have a chance against us, but the reason is not to try to stop us (which I consider essentially impossible), but to try to slow us down, hope we miss some shots and get frustrated, and try to just do enough to be able to win at the end.

 

[History Horn]

While I don't think we'll be the best three point shooting team in the nation, the zone defenders better block out or big Dex, Damion, & company will massacre them on the boards.

Zone defenses make it tougher to put a body on a man after the shot goes up.

Our offensive rebounds and second chance points should be off the charts if people take this route as a means to slow us down.

Hook 'em

 

[horns58]

I read somewhere (maybe the AAS website) that Ward has also significantly improved his shooting. I remember thinking that he had the best looking shooting form on the team last season, but it just never seemed to go in for him. Then Barnes would yank him out of the game every time he shot it, so he never really got in a groove.