Pack Line Defense

[IUBBALLAWOL]

Not sure if anyone has actually brought up one of our main deficiencies on defense and that is slllooooooow foot speed by most of the starters. Hartman,Johnson,McRoberts and Davis are just slow guys. It makes it very difficult to recover on a quick player once out of position. Archie will address this with new recruits being quicker,longer and more athletic. One reason he likes long wing players. Effort has been sorely missing in some games as well. This team has never been taught what it takes to play intense in your face defense and being slow makes it a worst case scenario.

 

[TR32]

In regular man-to-man, the off ball defenders (especially those closest to the ball) are closer to their man rather than the paint and those off ball defenders closest to the ball are defending passing lanes. In theory, pack line forces the offense to take lower percentage shots further away from the bucket, helps stop dribble penetration and protect the rim, and encourages rebounding since everybody is closer to the bucket. The obvious downside is the 3 ball is more open and teams that can shoot can take advantage.

The more athletic and lengthy the players, the better off ball defenders can close out on their man once they get the ball and reduce the downside of open outside shots.

I was hoping Archie would be able to adjust a little better against the hot shooting teams. I really don't care what year it is, beating IPFW and Indiana St. is expected.

This exactly.

 

[Thomtar]

Maybe this

Thanks for asking this, something I wanted to post. Like cryptocurrencies, I don't really understand the specifics of a pack line defense. But after getting shredded by the likes of hot shooting ISU and IPFW teams, teams that don't appear to be world beaters other than when they play in Assembly Hall, you have to wonder if our approach is that easy to exploit and might need adjustment with the current trend towards taking 3s and spacing 4-5 guys on the perimeter who can shoot.

will help you, kkott:

 

[Stuffshot]

Maybe this

will help you, kkott:

View embedded media

I’d feel a lot better about our ability to use this defense, if this instructional video used Dayton players to demonstrate it.

 

[darkhawk returns]

I did not hear his comments but that was the discussion we had at the game. Your first thought is why not switch to zone, but he didn't and was apparently willing to let the game play out forcing the kids to work the plan. They have demonstrated success in the scheme but only when the motor is on and it clearly wasn't Monday.

A zone tends to give up lots of open 3's with good passing or playing inside-out. I don't really see how that would be a solution. We don't have the players to play the Syracuse style zone. Why take away the teaching moments on the D we want to play? If they were executing properly, it wouldn't be as much of an issue, and wasn't as much of an issue in the 1st half. Bottom line is 29 points off TO's is too many to beat a decent team, shot selection and ball control weren't good enough, and it was just a bad game overall. I expected them to have a let down game after ND. They did. I didn't expect it to be that bad, but a lot of young players play....and the upperclassmen have a lot of bad habits. Anyone expecting a quick turnaround was fooling themselves. Against FW, they did start contesting shots late, but it was too late and even the contested ones were going in. Hats off to FW for being the much better team on the day and move on. The team is getting better, but they aren't as talented as they need to be and aren't going to be a top 20 level team this year at any point. I don't even want to imagine what they would look like in Crean's dribble and shoot a 3 offense with no defense....

 

[cshartle123]

Another reason why Archie is recruiting more forwards is that he would like to have the option to play big at the two and three so we can switch on ball screens. I predict this is the only time we will ever see three guards starting for an Archie team at Indiana.

 

[Thomtar]

I’d feel a lot better about our ability to use this defense, if this instructional video used Dayton players to demonstrate it.

Not that I'm arguing with you, Stuff, but -- it's Youtube: You get what they got and I took what they had.

 

[Stuffshot]

Not that I'm arguing with you, Stuff, but -- it's Youtube: You get what they got and I took what they had.

No complaints here.

 

[Hoosier_Phenom]

I don't think they do get too far down (that's the plan), I think they don't comprehend how hard they have to work on D to anticipate, react quickly/instinctively and close out aggressively without getting out of position. I truly don't think some of that will be corrected until Archie has kids he's selected to play this system. Think about how Georgetown, Syracuse, Lville and WVU, all great defensive teams at times, had a profile of the kids they had in their system. I think Crean was an offensive minded coach who sometimes flapped his lips about D, but I am confident they spent 75% of their practice time on O. I remember repeatedly watching players appear to rotate over to help on D and thinking: "they are too late, they'll never get there to help!". Of course, they weren't trying to help, they were running to the basket to get the ball out of the net (again, I'm confident Crean coached that he didn't want the ball to hit the floor) to inbound it and get up the floor FAST! When you have kids more concerned about inbounding the ball than stopping the basket, those kids are going to be a challenge to convert to a defensive mindset.

pack line doesn't mean you have to be inside the paint to help out. That's why they can't get out on the shooters fast enough. They just have to be close enough to stop the drive and to be able to help double the post.

 

[T.M.P.]

pack line doesn't mean you have to be inside the paint to help out. That's why they can't get out on the shooters fast enough. They just have to be close enough to stop the drive and to be able to help double the post.

Depends on the players ability and the ability of the opposition. The longer and/or quicker they are the more they can cheat to the drive.

 

[kkott]

Depends on the players ability and the ability of the opposition. The longer and/or quicker they are the more they can cheat to the drive.

Seems to me it will be susceptible to pick and pop type screens out high if you have more than 1 shooter. I don't think this team plays it well, and I assume Coach will adjust to stay closer to your man if 1) he's a shooter, and 2) the closer he is to receiving the ball. I've always loved how UVA defends so if we can get there, I'm all for it. Bennett was probably my top hope for a coach, but I'm very happy with Archie and think he's going to kill it here.