New Defensive Wrinkle?

[MadRU]

Maybe I missed it earlier in the season but over the last few games I noticed something in Rutgers defense.

We start by pressing up full court, soft press, done mainly to slow the offense and use clock.

We then drop back into a zone. But the wrinkle seems that the start of the zone has man principles. Kind of an amoeba zone.

Then later in the clock we shift into a true man defense.

Caught teams off guard a few times. Caused a few shot clock violations and turnovers.

Found concept pretty interesting. We can do this IMO because we have versatile players that can guard multiple positions.

I only recall seeing one time that we got caught in a missed assignment and left a wide open three point shooter.

 

[RUDave_01]

I'm far from an expert, but I think I've seen some match-up zone and then you're right that on some possessions it seemed switched back to man. It seems like throwing that in there on a portion of possessions is contributing to RU's improved defense lately.

 

[carmenst]

I think the soft press is a good coaching move and wish we had done it since the beginning of conference play.

 

[goru7]

Maybe I missed it earlier in the season but over the last few games I noticed something in Rutgers defense.

We start by pressing up full court, soft press, done mainly to slow the offense and use clock.

We then drop back into a zone. But the wrinkle seems that the start of the zone has man principles. Kind of an ameba zone.

Then later in the clock we shift into a true man defense.

Caught teams off guard a few times. Caused a few shot clock violations and turnovers.

Found concept pretty interesting. We can do this IMO because we have versatile players that can guard multiple positions.
Definitely done by Coach to improve the defense. Going full court soft press, occasionally gets you a steal, occasionally a 10 second violation, takes 6-9 seconds off the shot clock , gets our guys engaged on defense early, allows us to back up to our zoneand use our length for deflections and steals,, preserves our legs chasing guys all over the court for 40 minutes, and overall has improved our defense. Also, stops teams that like to get it upcourt quick likeMichigan State to slowdown and get no easy fast break points. Will be used the rest of the way and will slow down Minnesota and Iowa. Excellent coaching move.
I only recall seeing one time that we got caught in a missed assignment and left a wide open three point shooter.

 

[zappaa]

“The Ameba Zone”
That’s definitely ours now, we own that.
Tell Pike!!

 

[MadRU]

“The Ameba Zone”
That’s definitely ours now, we own that.
Tell Pike!!

I remember a zone called that many years ago, might have been under Chaney at Temple.

 

[zappaa]

I remember a zone called that many years ago, might have been under Chaney at Temple.

Could also be the name of my new TV Pilot

 

[Shell21]

UNLV also ran amoeba zone under tark. I think ours is mostly a matchup that switches to man at some point or when past to a certain side

 

[MadRU]

Could also be the name of my new TV Pilot

Id give it a watch

 

[RUDead]

Glad to see Pike mixing in some different defenses. Playing man all the time might set the tone and give you an identity but being able to show some different looks is needed if you want to beat these elite teams.

 

[Yeah Baby]

Matchup zone is working and I like how we’re slowing them down on their way up the court. We play great D when we setup in that scheme.

i noticed on one fast break layup which we scored on (think it was JY) NW came right back and scored on us in 5 seconds. We beat them up the floor but then they beat us back.

I think game to game and even within a game we need to decide what is best to win that game. We can score when we are on and win with the up tempo in a shootout or we can grind them down like we did the last 2 games . Great job by Pike.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I am a major advocate of playing this way for years...especially with the length we have.

press then fall back into the zone with out length makes for less time for the opponent to run their sets....

 

[Mr. Magoo1]

I remember a zone called that many years ago, might have been under Chaney at Temple.

Chaney’s match-up zones were the toughest around.

 

[MadRU]

Chaney’s match-up zones were the toughest around.

Just looked it up, it was the UNLV zone under Tark.

 

[PiscatawayMike]

“The Ameba Zone”
That’s definitely ours now, we own that.
Tell Pike!!

The amoeba defense was developed by Fran Webster, an assistant for the Pittsburgh Panthers men's basketball team. In the 1970s, Webster perfected the defense with Pittsburgh head coaches Charles Ridl and Tim Grgurich. Grgurich later became an assistant to UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian, who utilized the defense himself. Pitt used the defense extensively in their 1974 season run to the Elite 8.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoeba_defense

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

“The Ameba Zone”
That’s definitely ours now, we own that.
Tell Pike!!

You get a pass for spelling It wrong.

 

[MadRU]

You get a pass for spelling It wrong.

Actually that’s on me

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

I am guessing the zone we have seen recently is due to a combination of opponent and with a reduced rotation the zone takes a tad less out of our players

 

[RUtrumpet92_rivals498139]

Waiting to see the debut of our euglena defense... they won't know what him 'em!

 

[LETSGORU91_]

“The Ameba Zone”
That’s definitely ours now, we own that.
Tell Pike!!

If you spell it that way and it sticks, we become a laughingstock who can't even spell our own defense.

 

[Greene Rice FIG]

If you spell it that way and it sticks, we become a laughingstock who can't even spell our own defense.

Amoeba is definitely harder than Myles

 

[Loyal_2RU]

Could also be the name of my new TV Pilot

Might require a soft cell...