The real test

[Dubl R 1]

That's a pretty good scouting report, Coach. Correct me if I'm wrong, I may have it backwards, but didn't we play mostly 2-3 zone in the 1st half and switched to mostly man in the 2nd? Either way, no excuse for giving up so many points to the bench and our 3 point shooting will have to be better or we'll be looking at another loss!

I honestly don't remember us playing much zone at all other than the first 2-3 possessions, and we did get off to a 9 point lead. Don't remember ANY zone in the 2nd half.

The ideal way to defend Drake IMO would be to play man for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock then switch to various zones throughout the game when the shot clock goes under 10...that takes away their bread and butter late in the clock, and if you keep em guessing on the zone switch, maybe that leads to bad possessions as the shot clock winds down. Or if Drake gets frustrated they may try to get a shot up before we switch, which IMO is also in our favor as we speed them up a bit....Also mix in some 3/4 court zone pressure just to keep em off balance.

This obviously requires a significant amount of focus by the team to pull this off, and you need a clear leader on the floor to call out the switches, and you really have to put an effort in to rebound out of those zones....but I think Drake would struggle against this.

I doubt we do that, but if done well it would really give them fits I think. They are so good at breaking you down in the final seconds I would rather dictate where that ball goes and who shoots it by taking away options with a zone, but do it late so they can't probe it for 20 seconds.

[egib52]

The other thing I would like to see Bradley at least try against Drake is something Coach Wardle has shown an aversion to do much of in his 10 seasons at Bradley- a half-court or 3/4 court pressing defense.

This is why I believe we give up such high 3 point percentages in some games. If you watch teams that really limit good looks, it is because they are in passing lanes and push the players out towards half court to make clean catches. Now with the Valley refs this could lead to us picking up ridiculous fouls.