Gary Dophin

westview

Well-Known Member
I listened to part of the game on the radio. Dolph was going on about how this team's play reminded him of Ton Davis's teams. I can not remember the exact words,but he went on to say they were playing great man to man like the Davis teams. What a stupid statement. Tom's teams played very little man to man.
 
They might have played little man to man but when they did they were incredible. It's not a stupid statement. Dolph knows what he is talking about.
 
iirc Davis led teams would switch between man to man and zone quite a bit during the game. They also pressed, what a novel idea, but had a propensity to play 4 corners with a lead. When they did play man to man they would get after it and substitutions would come in waves.
 
I remember the article in Sports Illustrated entitled "How to Turn up the Heat" and it was a short article with a huge stick figure diagram on the Iowa full court press. Guy with biggest arm reach guarding the inbound pass... 3 dudes playing Defensive Back, and your best shot blocker in the lane.
The pass around the long armed fella (Lohaus) would get picked off by either (Marble, Armstrong, Gamble, Moe, etc.) and someone like Horton would be at the back end playing as the last line of defense. When the ball was picked off, they would just attack the wings with the long armed fella already under the hoop.
Those were the days... remember the Illinois game when Iowa was getting beat badly and Davis came out in the second half with a full court press and Lohaus went OFF!!!? That was one of my favorite games of all.
 
Actually it wasn't a stupid statement at all. Mr. Davis's teams almost always played man to man on misses and press back into different types of zones on makes.
 
I remember the article in Sports Illustrated entitled "How to Turn up the Heat" and it was a short article with a huge stick figure diagram on the Iowa full court press. Guy with biggest arm reach guarding the inbound pass... 3 dudes playing Defensive Back, and your best shot blocker in the lane.
The pass around the long armed fella (Lohaus) would get picked off by either (Marble, Armstrong, Gamble, Moe, etc.) and someone like Horton would be at the back end playing as the last line of defense. When the ball was picked off, they would just attack the wings with the long armed fella already under the hoop.
Those were the days... remember the Illinois game when Iowa was getting beat badly and Davis came out in the second half with a full court press and Lohaus went OFF!!!? That was one of my favorite games of all.


That was a great game.
 
I remember the article in Sports Illustrated entitled "How to Turn up the Heat" and it was a short article with a huge stick figure diagram on the Iowa full court press. Guy with biggest arm reach guarding the inbound pass... 3 dudes playing Defensive Back, and your best shot blocker in the lane.
The pass around the long armed fella (Lohaus) would get picked off by either (Marble, Armstrong, Gamble, Moe, etc.) and someone like Horton would be at the back end playing as the last line of defense. When the ball was picked off, they would just attack the wings with the long armed fella already under the hoop.
Those were the days... remember the Illinois game when Iowa was getting beat badly and Davis came out in the second half with a full court press and Lohaus went OFF!!!? That was one of my favorite games of all.

I remember more athletic teams passing over the press and making layups.....but i digress.
 
Perimeter D and finding the shooter seem like it was always an issue under Mr. Davis. Kenyon Murray was able to mask some things because he was versatile and athletic, but he was a rare exception.
 
I seem to remember Mr. Davis's teams in a zone with 5 players in the lane. I also remember Bobby being very upset because we did not come out of the zone when we were getting burned by the three.
 
I seem to remember Mr. Davis's teams in a zone with 5 players in the lane. I also remember Bobby being very upset because we did not come out of the zone when we were getting burned by the three.

That's what I seem to remember also - Davis's Iowa teams almost always playing a packed-in zone which led to great rebounding but poor 3-point defense (insert Mac McCausland saying "the defender has GOT to flash out at that shooter!"). I also remember a press that was fierce on the in-bounds pass, but then relaxed as the players drifted back into the zone.

A Davis team getting after it in man-to-man? I just don't remember it, but maybe in the first couple of years when he still had Raveling's players.

Wasn't it Lute that fell in love with the 4 corners? IIRC the shot clock was in by the time Mr. Davis got here.
 
That's what I seem to remember also - Davis's Iowa teams almost always playing a packed-in zone which led to great rebounding but poor 3-point defense (insert Mac McCausland saying "the defender has GOT to flash out at that shooter!"). I also remember a press that was fierce on the in-bounds pass, but then relaxed as the players drifted back into the zone.

A Davis team getting after it in man-to-man? I just don't remember it, but maybe in the first couple of years when he still had Raveling's players.

Wasn't it Lute that fell in love with the 4 corners? IIRC the shot clock was in by the time Mr. Davis got here.

Mr. Davis used it a lot, at least early in his tenure. Not so much later. They used a modified form of it extensively until around 89-90.

And they used man to man some, but not a lot. They would mix up zone defenses quite a bit, I seem to remember the 1-3-1 and 1-2-2 used quite a bit, particularly with Bill Jones at the top of the key chasing the guards all over.
 
That's what I remember too. I can't remember the late 80's well enough to say what type of half-court defense they played, but in 90's, I seem to remember Davis' teams playing a lot of zone, and getting torched by 3's. I remember PSU hitting 17 threes against us one game back in 1995 or 1996.

I remember alot of things from the Davis era, but a half-court defense that "gets after it" isn't one of them.
 

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