re: Josh LeBlanc with a terrific debut

quote:

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That press will be a flat out weapon come SEC play.

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I agree the press, especially with this team, can be very effective. But I would like to see Wade, at least for one game prior to SEC, have the players commit to it a little more and ratchet up the pressure on traps. Too many times I see our players approach a trap very half heartedly and either allow the offensive player to step through or dribble through it, or have enough room to pass over it.

Generally when a team approaches a press that way it can have some downside, more namely in the form of fouls or when it still gets broken you can have more of a runout and unbalanced numbers on the other end. However, we are already seeing that. There has been a number of times in many games where the ball makes it to the middle or down the sideline and we have 3 defenders behind the ball trying to play catch up. I just think trapping harder will pay off more dividends than what it hurts.

I definitely like when they throw the 1-3-1 half court defense out this year though. This team has so much length and athleticism that they should do well in a defense like that and can make it very frustrating for the other team when used properly and timely.