In that Duke Hardknocks show on ESPN, they showed an early Duke practice, with Coach K nursing some back injury and Jon Scheyer & Nolan Smith were running practice. It made me wonder: is the Beard/Adams/Sutton/LeFevre/Burg braintrust better than Coach K & co? The answer should always be Coach K, right? He's the GOAT. I’m not so sure. We had a schematic advantage the other night. Duke had better players but was entirely flummoxed in the half court. They could not score because our half-court defense is the best in the country. Anything in transition—a steal, long rebound, or long outlet pass—was an automatic layup for Duke. So the game became a chess match of controlling tempo. And we just couldn’t beat them in an 82-possession game. The 82-possession number was strange because it seemed like we were dictating things for the majority of the game, but the 10-15 minutes where we let them run up and down just dealt too much damage. That said, I don’t think anyone in the country can draw us out of our methodical pace like Duke. It seems highly unlikely that anyone will beat us in Lubbock. I bet we’re favored by at least 2 against Kansas.
NBA on the perimeter
Simply stated, that was an NBA game out on the perimeter. Tough for anyone not named to Culver to get the ball past half court, much less create anything offensively. It seemed like our game plan at one point was to identify whoever Duke’s white guy was guarding and try to take him off the dribble. Culver and Kyler did a pretty good job of it.
We’re ‘Bama in the Half Court
There’s no better way to describe our half-court defense. We took literally everything away from Duke in the half court. I’m not sure that they scored a single basket on a post-up possession. We forced Barrett & Zion to be shooters. And made life hell on their 3-point shooters with close outs & deflected/stolen kick out passes. It’s obvious that there is more to our scheme than emphasizing charges and giving a WWE belt to the guy who draws the most. We funnel drivers into certain areas so that everyone can expect what comes next. The refs are expecting contact, the guy guarding the ball is expecting help to step up if he can force the ball handler to beat him one direction, and guys tasked with deflecting kick-out passes are expecting those passes to come from one spot. It’s a masterpiece to watch.
Norense
Major surprise for me on the defensive end. He played 23 minutes. Was not a liability in the half court when left out on unfavorable switches. Won his fair share of battles in the paint. Very impressed with Norense’s play. We can win a lot of games with an effort like that from Norense.
Moretti
Similar to Norense, very impressed with Moretti’s half-court defense. He played Ty Jones as well as could be expected. There was a possession with less than 20 seconds in the first half where the situation called for our best defensive lineup. It was Moretti and Mooney at the top of a 2-3 zone, and we got a huge stop to take the lead into halftime. Beard/Adams have a lot of confidence in Moretti on the defensive end, so I do too. Very encouraging moving forward.
Mooney
Level’s mentioned how Mooney has been a much better passer than we thought he’d be. The same could be said for his defense. Mooney played 32 minutes against Duke and is second on the team in minutes. Since we have the best half-court defense in college hoops, that means Mooney can play a little bit of defense. Outside of 3-pt shooting, Mooney hasn’t played up to the expectations that I have for him on offense, but he’s more than exceeded those expectations defensively. He’s a lot bigger, longer and more athletic than he gets credit for. He’s an all-conference type player if he can start limiting turnovers and get a few more 2-pt jumpers and drives to fall.
Culver
Freak. He was 4-7 on shots at the rim, with none of his makes coming off assists, so he had to create it all himself. Duke has the biggest and best athletes in the country and threw everything they had at Culver to stop him. He looked like the best player on the floor not named Zion.
Overall, I’m highly encouraged by what I saw. Going in, I thought deflating the ball and playing flawless offensively in a 65-possession grind fest was our only chance at winning. That wasn’t really the case. Duke was too big, too fast, and too well coached to let us play a full-on grinder. But we still had a chance to win, largely because we’re ‘Bama in the half court and Culver was, at times, the best player on the floor. As mentioned above, I’m not sure anyone else has enough NBA players on the perimeter to force us to play that kind of tempo but, even if they do, we’ll still have a puncher’s chance.
NBA on the perimeter
Simply stated, that was an NBA game out on the perimeter. Tough for anyone not named to Culver to get the ball past half court, much less create anything offensively. It seemed like our game plan at one point was to identify whoever Duke’s white guy was guarding and try to take him off the dribble. Culver and Kyler did a pretty good job of it.
We’re ‘Bama in the Half Court
There’s no better way to describe our half-court defense. We took literally everything away from Duke in the half court. I’m not sure that they scored a single basket on a post-up possession. We forced Barrett & Zion to be shooters. And made life hell on their 3-point shooters with close outs & deflected/stolen kick out passes. It’s obvious that there is more to our scheme than emphasizing charges and giving a WWE belt to the guy who draws the most. We funnel drivers into certain areas so that everyone can expect what comes next. The refs are expecting contact, the guy guarding the ball is expecting help to step up if he can force the ball handler to beat him one direction, and guys tasked with deflecting kick-out passes are expecting those passes to come from one spot. It’s a masterpiece to watch.
Norense
Major surprise for me on the defensive end. He played 23 minutes. Was not a liability in the half court when left out on unfavorable switches. Won his fair share of battles in the paint. Very impressed with Norense’s play. We can win a lot of games with an effort like that from Norense.
Moretti
Similar to Norense, very impressed with Moretti’s half-court defense. He played Ty Jones as well as could be expected. There was a possession with less than 20 seconds in the first half where the situation called for our best defensive lineup. It was Moretti and Mooney at the top of a 2-3 zone, and we got a huge stop to take the lead into halftime. Beard/Adams have a lot of confidence in Moretti on the defensive end, so I do too. Very encouraging moving forward.
Mooney
Level’s mentioned how Mooney has been a much better passer than we thought he’d be. The same could be said for his defense. Mooney played 32 minutes against Duke and is second on the team in minutes. Since we have the best half-court defense in college hoops, that means Mooney can play a little bit of defense. Outside of 3-pt shooting, Mooney hasn’t played up to the expectations that I have for him on offense, but he’s more than exceeded those expectations defensively. He’s a lot bigger, longer and more athletic than he gets credit for. He’s an all-conference type player if he can start limiting turnovers and get a few more 2-pt jumpers and drives to fall.
Culver
Freak. He was 4-7 on shots at the rim, with none of his makes coming off assists, so he had to create it all himself. Duke has the biggest and best athletes in the country and threw everything they had at Culver to stop him. He looked like the best player on the floor not named Zion.
Overall, I’m highly encouraged by what I saw. Going in, I thought deflating the ball and playing flawless offensively in a 65-possession grind fest was our only chance at winning. That wasn’t really the case. Duke was too big, too fast, and too well coached to let us play a full-on grinder. But we still had a chance to win, largely because we’re ‘Bama in the half court and Culver was, at times, the best player on the floor. As mentioned above, I’m not sure anyone else has enough NBA players on the perimeter to force us to play that kind of tempo but, even if they do, we’ll still have a puncher’s chance.
