Re: Most Improved Celt:Pitino

[Dan Forant <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>]

The Celts were the only team playing this dizzying style of defense. If as
you say in 1-2 years they learn the half court defense, they won't have to
press, except for the occassional attempts, which all teams do.

At 10:39 AM 3/13/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Dan Forant <dforant1@nycap.rr.com> said:
>> Whodathunkit. Pitino changes strategy for a few games and we start winning.
>> No college pressing. The team is definitely playing much better defense.
>> Pitino said he left the greatest job in Basketball, that's because he never
>> coached the Celts before.
> 
> 
>My feeling is that if this is the reason for the improvement (some 
>people also point to a spirited team meeting last week) then it's 
>probably mostly or all due to the simplification of the defensive 
>strategy that's helping, rather than it not being possible for the 
>press to work.  I believe the press can work very well if executed 
>correctly.  The problem is you've got a very young team implementing 
>it against much more experienced teams, and the experienced teams 
>pick it apart.  In college, all the teams have the same experience, 
>which is not much, so the press befuddles.  In the NBA, there can be 
>huge gaps in experience, so a poorly executed press will leave gaps 
>that an experienced passing team will calmly find and exploit. 
>
>The problem is, the press takes so much time to learn that the Celtics 
>haven't put their full attention on learning man-to-man/halfcourt
>defense.  They've decided to put full attention on halfcourt defense
>until they've got it working well.  Simplifying is the key with a young
>team.  Keep it simple.  Use the press only in situations where other
>teams would use it, and bring it back as a weapon only after they've
>mastered the half court, which means at least a year from now, maybe
>more.
>
>Jon Mc
>
>