Should IA press Mich St. from the start of the game?

[paladinhawk]

I'd like to see Fran gamble a little this game. The Spartans seemed to have some issues against it in Carver. Foul trouble could be a potential problem, but with Valentine playing again I think the Hawks need to try to keep them off balance. Letting them set up in the half court is playing with fire IMO.

 

[StormHawk42]

Not sure I start with it but as Baylor showed the other day and we showed against Purdue, your backup defensive gameplan can be very valuable if implemented at the right time. I'd say hang on to it to see if we can hang in a regular half court game and then throw it on them later in the half. If we use it too early and get burned, we can dig a deep hole for ourselves on the road.

 

[yerpHAWK]

I think we don't let them past half court the whole game.

 

[like-woahh]

I say play it soft to just burn some clock in the 1st half and then turn up the heat in the 2nd half.

 

[DanL53]

I say play it soft to just burn some clock in the 1st half and then turn up the heat in the 2nd half.

Yeah, and mix things up to mess with Valentine's mind. He still makes freshman mistakes. Then slap the press on hard in the second half.

 

[like-woahh]

Yeah, and mix things up to mess with Valentine's mind. He still makes freshman mistakes. Then slap the press on hard in the second half.

Fran has mixed up defenses brilliantly this year to keep teams off balance. Mixing up press into zone, press into man, no press into zone, no press into straight up man.

He's really done a great job of confusing the crap out of the opposition offensively. The 30 second shot clock has been Fran's best friend.