What defense will Creighton play against us?

[Harry]

I'm guessing 2-3 zone but I was interested in what the braintrust is thinking!

[GreenBat]

Box and 1 with the chaser on Tony.

[UNT90]

Box and 1 with the chaser on Tony.

Doubtful.

They will play whatever standard defense they played last year. If their base defense was a 2-3, they will start out in that. They won't adjust until UNT forces them to adjust.

If I was defending this team, I would 2-3 UNT all day long until UNT proved they could shoot (which was a problem last year and could be this year). Clog the lane and the post and make UNT hit the jumper.

Bigger question. What defense will we play and how will we defend McDermott?

[Harry]

I would think you have to put either Coleman or Tony on McDermott. I might suggest Coleman because McDermott is good at getting fouls and will try to foul Tony out.

[NT03]

I think We will see a lot of zone this year unless we can consistently hit the outside shot. Walton & Ovelander will be counted on to do so

[MeanGreenTexan]

I think We will see a lot of zone this year unless we can consistently hit the outside shot. Walton & Ovelander will be counted on to do so

Apparently Jordan is more reliable outside as well? And, if Mitchell hangs outside, he will hurt opposing zones as well by either shooting, or blowing by his defender.

[foutsrouts]

I'm guessing 2-3 zone but I was interested in what the braintrust is thinking!

Yes, as previously stated, I bet they're going to try and make us prove that we can shoot from the outside. We've got to play tenacious defense and get plenty of buckets in transition if we're not hitting. I suspect that's a big part of Tony B's plan.

[section202jay]

Hi guys,

Creighton fan here. I see most of you are guessing we'll play a zone against you. I believe this to be false because we rarely have played zone under our current coach and when we have played a zone or anything of that nature, we are even worse on defense. That's not to say we won't play it for a possession to confuse a team or what have you, but it's rare we go to a zone. We usually just matchup man to man and give it our best effort. Defense is our biggest weakness and question mark going into the season so I am sure this game against UNT will be high scoring regardless of who wins. If we play zone for any extended period of time, I would be surprised. Now I'll let some other Jays fan come on here and say probably the exact opposite of me as this was just my opinion.

Edited November 5, 2012 by section202jay

[UNT90]

I would think you have to put either Coleman or Tony on McDermott. I might suggest Coleman because McDermott is good at getting fouls and will try to foul Tony out.

Coleman can't cover McDermott on the perimeter. I think you see us run multiple players at him, with the main combo being J Williams and Holman. Keeping Tony on the off side allows him to help on weakside defense of McDermott, hopefully generating 3 or 4 blocks, which gets in McDermott's head.

Keeps TM outta foul trouble and allows him to help with weakside defense.

That's what I would do, but what do I know (rhetorical question, smart a$$es).

[Harry]

Hi guys,

Creighton fan here. I see most of you are guessing we'll play a zone against you. I believe this to be false because we rarely have played zone under our current coach and when we have played a zone or anything of that nature, we are even worse on defense. That's not to say we won't play it for a possession to confuse a team or what have you, but it's rare we go to a zone. We usually just matchup man to man and give it our best effort. Defense is our biggest weakness and question mark going into the season so I am sure this game against UNT will be high scoring regardless of who wins. If we play zone for any extended period of time, I would be surprised. Now I'll let some other Jays fan come on here and say probably the exact opposite of me as this was just my opinion.

Do you have a thought of who they will put on Tony? Echenique? Thank for your input.

[section202jay]

Do you have a thought of who they will put on Tony? Echenique? Thank for your input.

I was just thinking about that. I would guess Echenique simply because he's our best overall defender and matches up size-wise, but I would also expect to see others thrown at him. Our backup center, Artino, has some real positives but unfortunately for us, defense isn't one of those yet. Ethan Wragge usually plays the 4 spot when he's on the floor but is not known to play much down low and prefers the perimeter but he can be tough on occassion. But I can't imagine him being nearly quick enough to come close to guarding Mitchell. Our 7 foot center, Groselle, is kind of a raw talent at this point and is dealing with injury issues.

We are very deep in our front court. I don't expect Doug McD to guard Mitchell because of possible foul trouble. Plus Doug is not a good defender.

I'm solely anticipating Mitchell to have 35+ points. The other team's best player always tears us up. It rarely fails.

From a Creighton point of view, this is the way we are and we'll gladly take high scoring wins.

Edited November 5, 2012 by section202jay

[All About UNT]

I was just thinking about that. I would guess Echenique simply because he's our best overall defender and matches up size-wise, but I would also expect to see others thrown at him. Our backup center, Artino, has some real positives but unfortunately for us, defense isn't one of those yet. Ethan Wragge usually plays the 4 spot when he's on the floor but is not known to play much down low and prefers the perimeter but he can be tough on occassion. But I can't imagine him being nearly quick enough to come close to guarding Mitchell. Our 7 foot center, Groselle, is kind of a raw talent at this point and is dealing with injury issues.

We are very deep in our front court. I don't expect Doug McD to guard Mitchell because of possible foul trouble. Plus Doug is not a good defender.

I'm solely anticipating Mitchell to have 35+ points. The other team's best player always tears us up. It rarely fails.

From a Creighton point of view, this is the way we are and we'll gladly take high scoring wins.

Then you can expect that Jordan Williams will have 30 points. Jordan will be this team's leading scorer this year... I am all but convinced.

[untgeorge]

Only saw Creighton once last year but i believe their base defense is man. Interesting, though, in the NCAA game vs Alabama last spring they switched to a 2-3 zone in the 2nd half and held Bama to something like 25 pts in that half, coming from behind to win by one.

In other words, though their weakness is defense, they can use D to find a way to win.

[adman]

AAU - I think you are right.

[MeanMag]

Apparently Jordan is more reliable outside as well? And, if Mitchell hangs outside, he will hurt opposing zones as well by either shooting, or blowing by his defender.

Ideally, Jordan has learned how to use his athleticism to finish around the bucket and draw fouls. It's nice that he has an outside shot, but he's a bigger Tristan Thompson, and that's what we need from him.

[adman]

Hey Tony. Don't be mad about me agreeing with AAU. I think you are great. Glad you are here. But no need to ding me with the negs. I agree with AAU only because defensive attention will be focused on you due to your super-human abilities thereby opening things up for the mega-mortal J-Dub.

I still love you. But not quite in a Quoner way.

Yet.

signed,

Bony 2012

[NT03]

Hey Tony. Don't be mad about me agreeing with AAU. I think you are great. Glad you are here. But no need to ding me with the negs. I agree with AAU only because defensive attention will be focused on you due to your super-human abilities thereby opening things up for the mega-mortal J-Dub.

I still love you. But not quite in a Quoner way.

Yet.

signed,

Bony 2012

Don't worry I evened u out. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Jordan is our leading scorer this season

[golfingomez]

Doubtful.

They will play whatever standard defense they played last year. If their base defense was a 2-3, they will start out in that. They won't adjust until UNT forces them to adjust.

If I was defending this team, I would 2-3 UNT all day long until UNT proved they could shoot (which was a problem last year and could be this year). Clog the lane and the post and make UNT hit the jumper.

Bigger question. What defense will we play and how will we defend McDermott?

But I thought we all agreed last year that the 2-3 zone was designed to stop the three....

Heheh, but seriously, I figure creighton will play '40 Minutes of well, that didn't work...'

Ok, now back to my beers and countdown to halo

[greenminer]

How about a prediction thread? I'll throw out some stats that I think we need for the victory:

JWill 25pts/5 - 8 boards

Tony 15 points/12 boards/5 blocks+assists

CJ 8 - 10 points/3 - 5 boards/7 assists+steals/3 Gatorades

Coleman 10 points/10 boards/Straight As

Alzee 7 points/5 boards+steals

Best thing that can happen to us is Keith, CJ and Tony staying out of foul trouble. I love JWill, but losing him might not be as bad as some might think. I don't want it to be CJ and in a position where we need PJ/Alzee to carry us through.

Edited November 6, 2012 by greenminer

[Bluejaysfan]

We play man. When the man-to-man D is sucking, the coaches get on the player's cases, send them back out there, and play more man-to-man.

It has to be a looming disaster to get us to go to a zone, like, say, potentially getting blown out by Alabama in the NCAAs. That got us into a zone. But apart from that, it'll be man, even if you're having decent success solving it - the attitude is (or at least was last year), we'll just outscore the opponent anyway. Much more important to CU's philosophy is limiting trips to the foul line, and maximizing our defensive rebounding percentage, than things like field goal percentage - and we were good at both of those things last year. Plus that philosophy kept us out of foul trouble, which helped us big late in games.

I will say that greatly improving the defense was an overarching mantra this offseason. So I'd imagine it'll be better than what we have on tape, but how much better remains to be seen.

Oh and section 202jay has it right, if things go like they have been, one of your shooters will just BLOW UP. It happened all the time last year - career highs every other game for someone. I've never seen guys get into zones the way individual players did last season. Drew Crawford of Northwestern and Colt Ryan from Evansville just went nuts.

[MeanGreenTexan]

We play man. When the man-to-man D is sucking, the coaches get on the player's cases, send them back out there, and play more man-to-man.

It has to be a looming disaster to get us to go to a zone, like, say, potentially getting blown out by Alabama in the NCAAs. That got us into a zone. But apart from that, it'll be man, even if you're having decent success solving it - the attitude is (or at least was last year), we'll just outscore the opponent anyway. Much more important to CU's philosophy is limiting trips to the foul line, and maximizing our defensive rebounding percentage, than things like field goal percentage - and we were good at both of those things last year. Plus that philosophy kept us out of foul trouble, which helped us big late in games.

I will say that greatly improving the defense was an overarching mantra this offseason. So I'd imagine it'll be better than what we have on tape, but how much better remains to be seen.

Oh and section 202jay has it right, if things go like they have been, one of your shooters will just BLOW UP. It happened all the time last year - career highs every other game for someone. I've never seen guys get into zones the way individual players did last season. Drew Crawford of Northwestern and Colt Ryan from Evansville just went nuts.

This is certainly good news, and I do like our chances if we get into a scoring match as that gives Mitchell a chance to take over a game and get his name out there even more than it already is.

[section202jay]

We play man. When the man-to-man D is sucking, the coaches get on the player's cases, send them back out there, and play more man-to-man.

It has to be a looming disaster to get us to go to a zone, like, say, potentially getting blown out by Alabama in the NCAAs. That got us into a zone. But apart from that, it'll be man, even if you're having decent success solving it - the attitude is (or at least was last year), we'll just outscore the opponent anyway. Much more important to CU's philosophy is limiting trips to the foul line, and maximizing our defensive rebounding percentage, than things like field goal percentage - and we were good at both of those things last year. Plus that philosophy kept us out of foul trouble, which helped us big late in games.

I will say that greatly improving the defense was an overarching mantra this offseason. So I'd imagine it'll be better than what we have on tape, but how much better remains to be seen.

Oh and section 202jay has it right, if things go like they have been, one of your shooters will just BLOW UP. It happened all the time last year - career highs every other game for someone. I've never seen guys get into zones the way individual players did last season. Drew Crawford of Northwestern and Colt Ryan from Evansville just went nuts.

You can add probably 8 players to those two names. But perhaps the most infuriating one was Bryant Allen of Illinois State. Also, Anthony Downing at Missouri State. One of the things I will say to you UNT fans is that we generally have better success defending against big guys. I wouldn't say we shut down big men but Gregory Echenique is good to great defender. It's the guards that generally destroy us and have career days.

[Harry]

I think Creighton's scoring percentage, ie the number of times the convert a possession into points is VERY high compared to us. We have to hope that our defense cuts that down and we can get McDermott into foul trouble early through penetrations to make this a game on their home court. Whoever McDermott is guarding has to take him to the hole early and often.

[MeanGreenTexan]

You can add probably 8 players to those two names. But perhaps the most infuriating one was Bryant Allen of Illinois State. Also, Anthony Downing at Missouri State. One of the things I will say to you UNT fans is that we generally have better success defending against big guys. I wouldn't say we shut down big men but Gregory Echenique is good to great defender. It's the guards that generally destroy us and have career days.

Although Mitchell is a big, he doesn't really play like a big (of course, he CAN, but it's not his game). He's projected to be a wing in the NBA, that's why he returned to school this year... to develop that skill set. He often likes to compare himself to Shawn Marion.

So, he may post up sometimes, but expect a lot of movement from him. I think Echenique will be a nice barometer for Coleman. I hope Coleman can hold his own against him.

You guys have a healthy respect for Mitchell, as you should. I'm sure he sees this as an opportunity to shine against a premier opponent, but the guy who could emerge from the shadow to be one of those guys to add to your frustrating list may be Jordan Williams. He's a scorer. However, in his limited time last year, he showed that he can get frustrated and throw up some horrible shots. We hope he's a better player than that now.

You guys will like our PG Jones. He's an exciting player.

Chatman and Groselle are from our neck of the woods, so our guys know them well. As a matter of fact, Chatman and Williams were on the same high school team for a while.

[Bluejaysfan]

I think Creighton's scoring percentage, ie the number of times the convert a possession into points is VERY high compared to us. We have to hope that our defense cuts that down and we can get McDermott into foul trouble early through penetrations to make this a game on their home court. Whoever McDermott is guarding has to take him to the hole early and often.

This is a very astute comment. The first sentence is basically our whole plan (at least it was last season): we score efficiently and do pretty well on the offensive glass, magnifying that. On D, we try to hit the glass hard and not foul; that led to some less-than-impressive defensive stats (and unfortunately some standing around, waiting for them to hurry up and take their one shot) since intense pressure wasn't what was necessary. Even with the increased FG% other teams got, it wasn't enough, since we were getting 4-6 more offensive rebounds while shooting 50%, and getting to the line more than they were. That was our whole MO.

Getting McD into foul trouble isn't the path you should take IMO. Doug doesn't play much D. He's under the Jimmer rule: DONT GET INTO FOUL TROUBLE, you're too important on O. He'll mix it up a little in the first half until he picks up his first foul, at which point he plays D stationary, with his arms extended but little lateral movement, and for the rest of the first half. No slapping, no reaching, just space occupation. How can you get another foul that way? I can only remember two games when Doug got two first half fouls, one of which was the Northwestern game where he was given two absolutely BS calls.

It's too bad Doug gets such a bad defensive rap, because one of the reasons we take a giant step forward defensively in the last 10 minutes of games is he takes off the brakes on his defense at about the 10 minute mark, where he usually has only one (or sometimes zero) fouls accumulated at that point and can really body it up more. He CAN do it; he just...doesn't. Or at least he hasn't. Maybe that'll change with the new season some.

Echenique, on the other hand, is the guy you should attack. He's as strong as an ox and a lot of ticky tack fouls get called on him just due to his size and general bruising nature, and he acts as Doug's enforcer when McD is playing the oak tree D. He'll help out a lot and hide McDermott on defense - but only if he's in there.

If he's on the bench and Artino is in, and Doug has a first half foul, well, you could have 45 at halftime.