2023 Men's Basketball Atlantic Regional Tournament THREAD

[Ship69]

The pressing game can be effective now because it is something of a novelty. It's sort of like D1 schools playing the service academies in football and going against the triple option. It's something they don't see these days and even when they can win due to superior athleticism it drives coaches at the bigger schools nuts.

Press offenses tend to come and go at the college level. Prior to the shot clock era, the press was often used to force tempo. I'm old enough to remember Wooden's first championship team at UCLA before the Abdul-Jabbar and Walton eras. That was actually a smallish press-and-run team led by guards Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich. Hard as it is to believe now, the Big 10 actually was something of a run-and-gun league in the late '60s. Purdue in 1969 and Iowa in 1970 averaged almost 100 points a game with no shot clock or three-point basket. Rick Mount at Purdue and Freddie Brown at Iowa probably would have had several hundred more career points if the three-pointer had been in use then. The B1G started to slow when Knight came in at Indiana and dominated with his halfcourt defensive style.

Pressing is especially effective if the pressing team has more athleticism or if the opposing team has inexperienced or subpar players at guard. Teams with talented guards are not easy to press, but they still might not be used to the tempo of an effective pressing team. In my view, one of the most effective aspects of full-court pressure is not necessarily in getting turnovers, but in forcing the other team to take 6-7 extra seconds to get the ball upcourt, leaving less time to get into an offensive flow. I do shudder when I hear some guys talk of knocking the 30-second college clock down to 24 seconds like the NBA. I see enough wild end-of-possession stuff at the college level now — really don't need any more.

West Liberty does seem to have the athletic depth to be successful in most types of games this season. It'll be interesting see how they fare as they do deeper into the tournament. Good luck to them.

[Columbuseer]

I will say that I’m impressed that they embraced the running game when so many are going the other way and playing slower.

This link has some quotes from Crutchfield into his philosophy.
they also practice quite differently than other teams.

https://basketballimmersion.com/the-...m-crutchfield/

[Columbuseer]

The pressing game can be effective now because it is something of a novelty. It's sort of like D1 schools playing the service academies in football and going against the triple option. It's something they don't see these days and even when they can win due to superior athleticism it drives coaches at the bigger schools nuts.

Press offenses tend to come and go at the college level. Prior to the shot clock era, the press was often used to force tempo. I'm old enough to remember Wooden's first championship team at UCLA before the Abdul-Jabbar and Walton eras. That was actually a smallish press-and-run team led by guards Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich. Hard as it is to believe now, the Big 10 actually was something of a run-and-gun league in the late '60s. Purdue in 1969 and Iowa in 1970 averaged almost 100 points a game with no shot clock or three-point basket. Rick Mount at Purdue and Freddie Brown at Iowa probably would have had several hundred more career points if the three-pointer had been in use then. The B1G started to slow when Knight came in at Indiana and dominated with his halfcourt defensive style.

Pressing is especially effective if the pressing team has more athleticism or if the opposing team has inexperienced or subpar players at guard. Teams with talented guards are not easy to press, but they still might not be used to the tempo of an effective pressing team. In my view, one of the most effective aspects of full-court pressure is not necessarily in getting turnovers, but in forcing the other team to take 6-7 extra seconds to get the ball upcourt, leaving less time to get into an offensive flow. I do shudder when I hear some guys talk of knocking the 30-second college clock down to 24 seconds like the NBA. I see enough wild end-of-possession stuff at the college level now — really don't need any more.

West Liberty does seem to have the athletic depth to be successful in most types of games this season. It'll be interesting see how they fare as they do deeper into the tournament. Good luck to them.

Your points generally are applicable for d1 pressing teams. Wlu style is much more than just a pressing game.
Far from a novelty, wlu has been playing their pressure style since circa 2004 when Crutch became head coach.

Opposing team strategy options:
1) play slow half court game, starting offense with < 15 secs on shot clock.
2) choose one of 2 options after breaking press:
A) attack the rim in transition
B) Instead of attacking rim after breaking press, pull the ball out and wait to start half court offense.

The trouble with the slow down game is if wlu gets ahead by 10+, it is not conducive to catching up quickly.
Teams that run with wlu get into a track meet, where they score 100 points but wlu scores 120+, as a 2018 Glenville team, who wlu defeated 158-106, with wlu scoring 87 points in the first half.

One way a team can win is to have a dominant big that forces a double team inside and have a deadly 3 pt shooter get a kick out pass from the big, along with a below avg shooting % from wlu.
Shippensburg with Dustin Sleva was successful with this approach several years ago.

[Ship69]

Your points generally are applicable for d1 pressing teams. Wlu style is much more than just a pressing game.
Far from a novelty, wlu has been playing their pressure style since circa 2004 when Crutch became head coach.

Opposing team strategy options:
1) play slow half court game, starting offense with < 15 secs on shot clock.
2) choose one of 2 options after breaking press:
A) attack the rim in transition
B) Instead of attacking rim after breaking press, pull the ball out and wait to start half court offense.

The trouble with the slow down game is if wlu gets ahead by 10+, it is not conducive to catching up quickly.
Teams that run with wlu get into a track meet, where they score 100 points but wlu scores 120+, as a 2018 Glenville team, who wlu defeated 158-106, with wlu scoring 87 points in the first half.

One way a team can win is to have a dominant big that forces a double team inside and have a deadly 3 pt shooter get a kick out pass from the big, along with a below avg shooting % from wlu.
Shippensburg with Dustin Sleva was successful with this approach several years ago.

While the style is not a novelty for WLU, it is not a commonly played one at most schools, so it is a relative novelty to your opponents, which can be one thing in your favor. Good shooting is important to beating any system. The Shippensburg teams with Dustin Sleva a couple of years back could shoot with anybody on a given night. I believe they shot 80 percent as a team from the free-throw line one season. If you have a guy who can go inside along with tough outside shooters you can beat any system, as evidence in Penn State's recent beatdown of Texas A&M.

IUP actually got West Liberty down to what should have been a favorable tempo for them, but as IUP posters and others have observed their shooting hasn't been good for weeks. To their credit they squeaked out a number of wins over the past few weeks with strong defense. They beat Mercyhurst by a point in low-scoring PSAC title game and were hanging on by their fingernails at the end of that one. It was pretty obvious that they weren't going to hold West Liberty to 55-60 points, so the handwriting was on the wall.

I don't think it was the West Liberty system that beat IUP this year. It wasn't as if IUP has been scoring much against any other team recently. West Liberty simply had a better offensive team this year and probably would have won at any tempo. It's a mystery to some of us who've seen Shawndale Jones, Dave Morris, and other other IUP players hit shots in the past as to why they couldn't get it together this year, but that's the way it was.

West Liberty plays its system well and likely continue to be successful with it as strong guard play is required to beat it and a lot of D2 teams won't match up in quality depth. I'm also surprised at how many players commit basic mistakes against a press these days — throwing or dribbling constantly into double teams in the backcourt corner or failing to run toward the passer when inbounding.

New Haven would seem to be a matchup that West Liberty should handle in the first Elite Eight game. We'll see how that goes. Good luck.

[Columbuseer]

While the style is not a novelty for WLU, it is not a commonly played one at most schools, so it is a relative novelty to your opponents, which can be one thing in your favor. Good shooting is important to beating any system. The Shippensburg teams with Dustin Sleva a couple of years back could shoot with anybody on a given night. I believe they shot 80 percent as a team from the free-throw line one season. If you have a guy who can go inside along with tough outside shooters you can beat any system, as evidence in Penn State's recent beatdown of Texas A&M.

IUP actually got West Liberty down to what should have been a favorable tempo for them, but as IUP posters and others have observed their shooting hasn't been good for weeks. To their credit they squeaked out a number of wins over the past few weeks with strong defense. They beat Mercyhurst by a point in low-scoring PSAC title game and were hanging on by their fingernails at the end of that one. It was pretty obvious that they weren't going to hold West Liberty to 55-60 points, so the handwriting was on the wall.

I don't think it was the West Liberty system that beat IUP this year. It wasn't as if IUP has been scoring much against any other team recently. West Liberty simply had a better offensive team this year and probably would have won at any tempo. It's a mystery to some of us who've seen Shawndale Jones, Dave Morris, and other other IUP players hit shots in the past as to why they couldn't get it together this year, but that's the way it was.

West Liberty plays its system well and likely continue to be successful with it as strong guard play is required to beat it and a lot of D2 teams won't match up in quality depth. I'm also surprised at how many players commit basic mistakes against a press these days — throwing or dribbling constantly into double teams in the backcourt corner or failing to run toward the passer when inbounding.

New Haven would seem to be a matchup that West Liberty should handle in the first Elite Eight game. We'll see how that goes. Good luck.

i misintrepeted the term novelty as meaning a short-term fad. Thanks for the clarification.

New haven has a week to prepare, which is a big plus.
Their big man could give wlu problems along with their great guards.

IUP fans know more about their offensive woes than I.
However, as an outsider, I was surprised that their outstanding guards chose not to attack the rim in transition after breaking the press. Also, I was surprised by the ball sticking on offense and the shot difficulty.