VCU Vs. Akron

[odhgibo]

Telling stat lines from back-to-back VCU games:

Name Min / FG / 3Pt / FT / Off / Reb / Ast / TO / Stl / Blk / PF / Pts

C. Betancourt 31 0-5 0-3 3-4 0 6 4 5 0 0 2 3

T. Burke 37 6-14 2-6 4-4 0 2 7 7 2 0 2 18

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Z. Marshall 32 4-7 0-0 3-5 3 5 0 1 0 4 3 11

M. McGary 34 10-11 0-0 1-1 4 14 1 2 1 0 1 21

Never would have predicted that Betancourt would out-rebound Zeke.

Never would have predicted that Betancourt would have fewer turnovers than Burke.

Never would have predicted that McGary would outplay Zeke, let alone by so much.

[LZIp]

Telling stat lines from back-to-back VCU games:

Name Min / FG / 3Pt / FT / Off / Reb / Ast / TO / Stl / Blk / PF / Pts

C. Betancourt 31 0-5 0-3 3-4 0 6 4 5 0 0 2 3

T. Burke 37 6-14 2-6 4-4 0 2 7 7 2 0 2 18

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Z. Marshall 32 4-7 0-0 3-5 3 5 0 1 0 4 3 11

M. McGary 34 10-11 0-0 1-1 4 14 1 2 1 0 1 21

Never would have predicted that Betancourt would out-rebound Zeke.

Never would have predicted that Betancourt would have fewer turnovers than Burke.

Never would have predicted that McGary would outplay Zeke, let alone by so much.

Zeke played fine, its just that McGary played the game of his life.

[Dave in Green]

@HS Stripes, wish you had seen both games as there's disagreement over whether or not the officials took VCU out of their defensive game with early fouls in the Michigan game but not the Zips game. This is not reflected in the timing and frequency of fouls in the two play-by-play summaries. The freshman McGary, who had only started a couple of games all season, was not seen as much of a threat going into this game and was ignored a lot while VCU was focused on Michigan's ball handlers away from the basket. McGary did a good job of breaking for the basket and Michigan ball handlers did a good job of hitting him for wide open layup after layup.

[odhgibo]

@HS Stripes, wish you had seen both games as there's disagreement over whether or not the officials took VCU out of their defensive game with early fouls in the Michigan game but not the Zips game.

I'll see whether I can find replays of each on the cbssports.com site and watch to the 3rd TV timeout of each. (Given where the Akron game was when I picked it up, I had no desire to go back to see how they got there.)

[The Hip Zip]

Quite simply, if we wish to compete at a higher level then we must get much quicker in the backcourt.

[odhgibo]

@HS Stripes, wish you had seen both games as there's disagreement over whether or not the officials took VCU out of their defensive game with early fouls in the Michigan game but not the Zips game.

I watched both games to the 3rd TV timeout. I watched them in reverse order, to get a sense of what some saw as VCU being taken out of its game which I then could use as a baseline for the Akron game.

No, no, no, a thousand times no.

VCU had at most 3 fouls by the 8-minute timeout in the Michigan game. Granted, Theus had two of them, but he deserved both.

Michigan had a far better gameplan on how to attack the press, and executed it far better as well. Michigan kept pushing the ball all the way to the basket or as far as VCU's backline players would allow penetration. UM wanted to score every time it entered the frontcourt. When it didn't score immediately, it had 3 players who could handle the ball plus an open lane area to facilitate drives and cutting.

Akron wanted to follow its regular season script -- get the ball into the frontcourt, pound it inside and take advantage of its size advantage. Wrong thing to do. VCU had no fear of Akron's outside shooting, so they used off ball players to come and double the entry of the off-ball post player. They had 4 or 5 guys in the lane for rebounding as well while, inexplicably, Akron often pulled 4 (or all 5) back for defense, i.e., no chance of offensive rebounds.

To make matters worse, Tree looked lost on defense at the outset, and Kretzer looked like the ball was burning his hands.

VCU was on fire at the outset in the Akron game, and the Akron gameplan was such that big runs were highly unlikely.

[RACER]

in one game anything can happen. last year they beat us in overtime. take 4 out of their ten guys off their team. play us with everyone, and see what would happen.

our talent level is good enough to win an ncaa game.if Michigan is so superior to vcu/akron how did they lose to penn state.the same penn state we beat by 25.

the akron team in the ncaa tourney was not even close to the one in the regular season. injuries, and suspensions finally took it's toal.

the good thing for us the mac is horrible. I don't see anyone beating us next year. we just need to stay healthy, and keep guys from getting in trouble.

their is no reason we can't get back to the ncaa tourney.

[ZachTheZip]

I watched both games to the 3rd TV timeout. I watched them in reverse order, to get a sense of what some saw as VCU being taken out of its game which I then could use as a baseline for the Akron game.

No, no, no, a thousand times no.

VCU had at most 3 fouls by the 8-minute timeout in the Michigan game. Granted, Theus had two of them, but he deserved both.

Michigan had a far better gameplan on how to attack the press, and executed it far better as well. Michigan kept pushing the ball all the way to the basket or as far as VCU's backline players would allow penetration. UM wanted to score every time it entered the frontcourt. When it didn't score immediately, it had 3 players who could handle the ball plus an open lane area to facilitate drives and cutting.

Akron wanted to follow its regular season script -- get the ball into the frontcourt, pound it inside and take advantage of its size advantage. Wrong thing to do. VCU had no fear of Akron's outside shooting, so they used off ball players to come and double the entry of the off-ball post player. They had 4 or 5 guys in the lane for rebounding as well while, inexplicably, Akron often pulled 4 (or all 5) back for defense, i.e., no chance of offensive rebounds.

To make matters worse, Tree looked lost on defense at the outset, and Kretzer looked like the ball was burning his hands.

VCU was on fire at the outset in the Akron game, and the Akron gameplan was such that big runs were highly unlikely.

So, to simplify: Akron should have worked on passing more and ball handling less. I was screaming that very thing at the game. How many times did we have players try to dribble around the press only to get caught in a trap?

[Dave in Green]

@HS Stripes, thanks for the nice game analysis. Not having either Abreu or Walsh was obviously disruptive for the Zips' offense against such a tough and unique defense. The fact that every shot VCU threw up was dropping exaggerated the gap between the two teams.

[odhgibo]

So, to simplify: Akron should have worked on passing more and ball handling less.

Sorta true. Michigan was beating the press both off the dribble and the pass. The passes, however, weren't stationary and point-to-point; the guy receiving the ball was moving toward the basket (i.e., full head of steam) and used the dribble to maintain that momentum.

Had Akron done its standard throw-over-the-top-to-a-stationary-big-guy, the trap would have been just as successful. To be honest, though, I'm not sure what Akron did would have changed the outcome. VCU played what had to be one of its 3 best (offensive) games of the year. Everything was dropping ... teardrops, three pointers, backdowns, etc.

Very few times did Michigan show a desire to cross the timeline with the intent of running a set offense; that was a fallback position if its first 2-3 (fullcourt) options didn't pan out. In the halfcourt, it helped that VCU respected Michigan's wing players' ability to shoot. That left the lane open for McGary to cut and/or drive one-on-one.

[Dr Z]

Akron wanted to follow its regular season script -- get the ball into the frontcourt, pound it inside and take advantage of its size advantage. Wrong thing to do. VCU had no fear of Akron's outside shooting, so they used off ball players to come and double the entry of the off-ball post player.

Nice overall analysis HS. I don't mind the original "script", KD announced to every media outlet during the week that he was going to do just that. I'm miffed over the lack of game time adjustment when it was not successful. This continues to be a weakness.

[Zipgrad01]

I watched both games to the 3rd TV timeout. I watched them in reverse order, to get a sense of what some saw as VCU being taken out of its game which I then could use as a baseline for the Akron game.

No, no, no, a thousand times no.

VCU had at most 3 fouls by the 8-minute timeout in the Michigan game. Granted, Theus had two of them, but he deserved both.

Michigan had a far better gameplan on how to attack the press, and executed it far better as well. Michigan kept pushing the ball all the way to the basket or as far as VCU's backline players would allow penetration. UM wanted to score every time it entered the frontcourt. When it didn't score immediately, it had 3 players who could handle the ball plus an open lane area to facilitate drives and cutting.

Akron wanted to follow its regular season script -- get the ball into the frontcourt, pound it inside and take advantage of its size advantage. Wrong thing to do. VCU had no fear of Akron's outside shooting, so they used off ball players to come and double the entry of the off-ball post player. They had 4 or 5 guys in the lane for rebounding as well while, inexplicably, Akron often pulled 4 (or all 5) back for defense, i.e., no chance of offensive rebounds.

To make matters worse, Tree looked lost on defense at the outset, and Kretzer looked like the ball was burning his hands.

VCU was on fire at the outset in the Akron game, and the Akron gameplan was such that big runs were highly unlikely.

Nice analysis. The thing Michigan did that we should have done was keep the ball in the middle of the floor. One of the keys to beating VCU's press is to not let the initial defender turn you to the sideline. The primary plan of their press is to turn you to the sideline so they have another defender (the sideline) to trap you with or they make you turn back into the 2nd defender waiting to jump you. Michigans guards didn't allow this and took the ball right at the VCU defender, which reduced the effectiveness of the trap, but also allowed them to push the ball to the basket as you explained above.

Akron did the exact opposite. We inbounded to the sidelines and then tried to beat the press up the sideline and got trapped or we reversed the ball to the other sideline and got trapped. We went sideways and not right at the press. If that wasn't enough, we kept 2 ball handlers in the back court and then stuck Zeke at center court further clogging the area with more defenders and making things even worse. Basically, we had a horrible plan to attack the press.