Its time to scrap the press for the year

RocknRollface

Well-Known Member
We don't have the speed on the perimeter and the bigs don't rotate well enough.

Its resulting in more negatives than it is positives.
 
I think you are right. They should spend time focusing on the half court defensive sets. I think the D would be more effective if they switched up b/w man, 2-3, and the 1-2-2 trap.
Switch them up as they see fit but drop out of the press until they show they can effectively execute the halfcourt defensive sets.
 
McCaffrey loves pressing and trapping and despite our talent shortcomings, he views it as a key element of his system. I listened to some of the postgame and he said "the press was good to us tonight". This year is more about turning the roster over than winning games IMO.
 
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McCaffrey loves pressing and trapping and despite our talent shortcomings, he views it as an key element of his system. I listened to some of the postgame and he said "the press was good to us tonight". This year is more about turning the roster over than winning games IMO.

Thats pry true. Some of the players are pretty effective on the press (Marble, White, May), but some just do not fit (Archie, Brommer, Gatens, mcCabe). So I guess you just keep working the system for the guys that will be here next year and beyond.
 
It's going to take a couple more recruiting classes to get this train back on the track again. We gotta be patient and atleast give him 4 or 5 years to prove himself.
 
It's hard to do, but if you take the first few minutes of the game when we were playing fast with some success, that is (hopefully) what the future holds. The difference is ISU has 10 guys that can play fast and we have 2-3.
 
McCaffrey loves pressing and trapping and despite our talent shortcomings, he views it as a key element of his system. I listened to some of the postgame and he said "the press was good to us tonight". This year is more about turning the roster over than winning games IMO.

I have a feeling that this is why Fran has a good record of turning teams around. Every decision is pointed towards 2-3 years in the future. He isn't going to scrap a system he think is important to long-term success so that he can win 18 games instead of 14. When you take over a horsecrap team and try to win right away, you only dig yourself deeper.
 
The press was working in spots tonight......it can be a great weapon. I don't think we should give up on it completely.

Of course, it can hurt you if you give up to much easy stuff. I'm glad Fran is pressing and can't wait to see it in action with influx of better talent.
 
Unfortunately there isn't a style of play that works when you have our talent. We can't play man-to-man without giving up blow by layups and our zone gets exposed by teams with crisp ball movement and average + shooters. If they are below average coming into the game, they will leave with season highs in 3 point shooting. We seem incapable of having a hot shooting night, whether from 2 or 3.
 
I would like to see us press in made free throws only. We wouldn't scrap it all together and still be able to work on it. We need to get the half court defense squared away before anything else.
 

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