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Thread: Post defense

  1. #1
    Supporting Member Emp's Avatar
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    Post defense

    I was wondering why Mack was leaving O'Mara and Jones alone to guard Happ alone most of the game last night. I don't recall doubling Happ at all.

    It didn't seem like a good strategy. Happ was chewing us up. The only good news was we weren't fouling out.

    Is there method in that madness that's long term? It's my opinion that X is going to have to be very lucky to make a FF without an intimidating center defending the lane. We've got all the other parts right now. Is Mack taking the long view that these guys have to work from now til March to learn to guard alone?

    Both Sean and Tyrique seem to be playing with poise on offense and at the FT line. If they can defend, it will be so much more likely we can live the dream this year.
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    They had guards come down and show help. But really, Happ is a stud. We won't see a better post player all year.

  3. #3
    This is just my speculation, but the strategy was probably to kind of let Happ get his but make sure no one else hurt us too bad. The one time they did double him he kicked it out for a 3. It definitely felt like he was killing us, but at the end of the day he went 7-13 which is a pretty average game for him. The rest of the team went 18 or 48 so I think the strategy worked.

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    What Happ had in skill, our post bigs had in strength. There's a reason he averages 20+. Our bigs did fine.

  5. #5
    Supporting Member AviatorX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Emp View Post
    I was wondering why Mack was leaving O'Mara and Jones alone to guard Happ alone most of the game last night. I don't recall doubling Happ at all.

    It didn't seem like a good strategy. Happ was chewing us up. The only good news was we weren't fouling out.

    Is there method in that madness that's long term? It's my opinion that X is going to have to be very lucky to make a FF without an intimidating center defending the lane. We've got all the other parts right now. Is Mack taking the long view that these guys have to work from now til March to learn to guard alone?

    Both Sean and Tyrique seem to be playing with poise on offense and at the FT line. If they can defend, it will be so much more likely we can live the dream this year.
    Happ is one of the more unique post scorers I've seen. He is really really fluid and skilled. Doubling him consistently would have gotten X destroyed by open cutters and jump shooters.

    Mack obviously had it perfectly scouted - the inside the huddle toward the end of the game showed him reminding the guys that Happ always fakes the dribble hand off and Tyrique defended it perfectly in crunch time.

  6. #6
    All-Conference XU 87's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Emp View Post
    I was wondering why Mack was leaving O'Mara and Jones alone to guard Happ alone most of the game last night. I don't recall doubling Happ at all.
    I think it was because he's also a very good passer. One time Macura tried to double him and he immediately passed to Macura's man for a dunk.

    X also tried to have the guards crowd down a bit and harass Happ on the dribble, but they could only do that so much since they also had to stay close to the guy they were guarding.
    Last edited by XU 87; 11-18-2017 at 10:02 AM.

  7. #7
    [QUOTE=Emp;601125]I was wondering why Mack was leaving O'Mara and Jones alone to guard Happ alone most of the game last night. I don't recall doubling Happ at all.

    It didn't seem like a good strategy. Happ was chewing us up. The only good news was we weren't fouling out.

    Is there method in that madness that's long term? It's my opinion that X is going to have to be very lucky to make a FF without an intimidating center defending the lane. We've got all the other parts right now. Is Mack taking the long view that these guys have to work from now til March to learn to guard alone?

    I have watched the game 3 times and could not disagree more, in fact I could argue that our combined 5 position out played Happ and his back up. As far as an "intimidating presence" in the post, Tyrique defines that nicely as a soph and Sean is like an oak tree down there. Also if you watch the game again you will see our defense collapse on Happ several times forcing him to either pass or pick up his dribble before he wanted to.
    Last edited by Xuperman; 11-18-2017 at 11:00 AM.
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    Happ had 8 assists. Many of them went to their three point sharp shooters.

    Just listened to Byron and Joe on the All Access radio replay. Lark was adamant that double teaming him was not working, and it risks the danger of getting their other younger players in the game. When we tried to double team us he burned us again and again.

    That kid is a stud. I honestly think we did a great job against him. Some one put up the combined stats of our Bigs vs Happ on another thread. I will find that. I am not sure what else we could have done.
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by xuwin View Post
    Jones had 11 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist in 17 minutes
    O'Mara had 8 points, 2 rebounds and 0 assists in 16 minutes

    for a total of 19 points, 8 rebounds and 1 assist in 33 minutes

    Happ had 21 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists in 30 minutes.

    So as a tandem Jones and O'mara neutralized Happ and you might conclude that is the main reason Xavier won the game. They didn't shut him down, but, his defense against them wasn't exactly anything to brag about either.
    I think XUWIN has a great point. We were going up against a top flight guy and giving as good as we got with our tandem big men.

    BIG FELLA!!!
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