During the post game show yesterday he made the comment that has been concerning me for some time: How does PU react when they are faced with something they either haven't seen or rarely see? (he was extremely complimentary of CMP and PU and even said the fan base deserves a FF and hopes we get one). So please leave the thoughts of him out of it. I'm just quoting him because it was something I have thought also.
I was glad when the Maryland coach switched up and started pressing and dropping into a zone off of it. I think it's pretty clear that we are prepared and do well against M to M defense. Let's be honest, its what we see 95% of the time in the B1G. I know we love our conference but I don't think it necessarily prepares us well for the tournament. I believe that the almost exclusive M to M is one of the reasons we haven't had a champion in 23 years. If you watch other major conferences, they change up quite often so their teams are used to facing many different looks. In the B1G conference our only question is, are they going to double Edey or play him straight up.
If we were to play Kansas for example, I guarantee Self is going to give us looks we never see in the B1G. We may still win, but it won't be because Edey catches the ball 3 feet from the basket and turns and scores. Alabama and Arizona, same thing. Izzo has been to a bunch of FF's, but it isn't because of versatility. Yesterday showed that in spades. Edey was having his way inside and Izzo never went to anything else. He threw a few double teams in, but never tried anything else. Just threw up his hands and gave up.
This isn't an argument for CMP to play zone, let's try and leave that out of it. I'm specifically talking about what other teams do or may do to us in the tournament. It's my biggest concern other than injuries. Interested to hear what others think about our conference preparing us for the dance.
I was glad when the Maryland coach switched up and started pressing and dropping into a zone off of it. I think it's pretty clear that we are prepared and do well against M to M defense. Let's be honest, its what we see 95% of the time in the B1G. I know we love our conference but I don't think it necessarily prepares us well for the tournament. I believe that the almost exclusive M to M is one of the reasons we haven't had a champion in 23 years. If you watch other major conferences, they change up quite often so their teams are used to facing many different looks. In the B1G conference our only question is, are they going to double Edey or play him straight up.
If we were to play Kansas for example, I guarantee Self is going to give us looks we never see in the B1G. We may still win, but it won't be because Edey catches the ball 3 feet from the basket and turns and scores. Alabama and Arizona, same thing. Izzo has been to a bunch of FF's, but it isn't because of versatility. Yesterday showed that in spades. Edey was having his way inside and Izzo never went to anything else. He threw a few double teams in, but never tried anything else. Just threw up his hands and gave up.
This isn't an argument for CMP to play zone, let's try and leave that out of it. I'm specifically talking about what other teams do or may do to us in the tournament. It's my biggest concern other than injuries. Interested to hear what others think about our conference preparing us for the dance.