Cronin's Cincinatti's teams played a mix of man and zone defenses, but his UCLA teams played almost exclusively man defense because those recent teams had solid man defenders including Clark, Jaime, Bernard, Tyger, and even Juzang made significant improvement as a man defender in his 2 seasons at UCLA. This 2023 team has no-where near th…
Cronin's Cincinatti's teams played a mix of man and zone defenses, but his UCLA teams played almost exclusively man defense because those recent teams had solid man defenders including Clark, Jaime, Bernard, Tyger, and even Juzang made significant improvement as a man defender in his 2 seasons at UCLA. This 2023 team has no-where near the defensive ability of those past teams. It should be no surprise that Cronin put in a zone defense. Personally, I think it was a great move for the simple reason that learning to play zone helps create the skills and behaviors you need to run an effective man defense. And to do it now, while the team is still playing its non-conference schedule makes it the right time to do it. And it's worth mentioning that with all the European players on this team, they should have a lot more familiarity playing zone defense since that's the prevalent defense in Euro basketball.
Cronin should be taking a deep dive into running zone for the next several games to see what benefits he can draw from it. As I said, playing a zone defense does create behaviors the team needs to develop. In man defense, if you fall into the trap of playing up on your man chest to chest, you lose sight of the ball, the passing lanes, screens, and all the developing actions. In a zone, you're playing the ball, you're looking to take away the lanes, looking out for screeners, all while staying in contact with the players coming in your area of responsibility, and you learn how to work with teammates on how to neutralize actions.
Finally when you do have to play a man defense, these learned behaviors help greatly in becoming a great man defender because you don't have to stay glued to your man's chest to play effective defense.
If Cronin can get this team to get his 40 deflections a game, then maybe this team can rise up and become something special. I have no idea how this Bruin team is going to score points, but I do know they can be competitive sooner than later by making defense their #1 priority.
One last point - what the heck is going on with Dylan Andrews? I can understand leaving a game with cramps once, but twice now? I hope the team doctors are monitoring his nutrition and hydration rigorously because if it happens a third time, I'm going to be wondering about his health. It should not happen with today's sports medicine.
Cronin's Cincinatti's teams played a mix of man and zone defenses, but his UCLA teams played almost exclusively man defense because those recent teams had solid man defenders including Clark, Jaime, Bernard, Tyger, and even Juzang made significant improvement as a man defender in his 2 seasons at UCLA. This 2023 team has no-where near the defensive ability of those past teams. It should be no surprise that Cronin put in a zone defense. Personally, I think it was a great move for the simple reason that learning to play zone helps create the skills and behaviors you need to run an effective man defense. And to do it now, while the team is still playing its non-conference schedule makes it the right time to do it. And it's worth mentioning that with all the European players on this team, they should have a lot more familiarity playing zone defense since that's the prevalent defense in Euro basketball.
Cronin should be taking a deep dive into running zone for the next several games to see what benefits he can draw from it. As I said, playing a zone defense does create behaviors the team needs to develop. In man defense, if you fall into the trap of playing up on your man chest to chest, you lose sight of the ball, the passing lanes, screens, and all the developing actions. In a zone, you're playing the ball, you're looking to take away the lanes, looking out for screeners, all while staying in contact with the players coming in your area of responsibility, and you learn how to work with teammates on how to neutralize actions.
Finally when you do have to play a man defense, these learned behaviors help greatly in becoming a great man defender because you don't have to stay glued to your man's chest to play effective defense.
If Cronin can get this team to get his 40 deflections a game, then maybe this team can rise up and become something special. I have no idea how this Bruin team is going to score points, but I do know they can be competitive sooner than later by making defense their #1 priority.
One last point - what the heck is going on with Dylan Andrews? I can understand leaving a game with cramps once, but twice now? I hope the team doctors are monitoring his nutrition and hydration rigorously because if it happens a third time, I'm going to be wondering about his health. It should not happen with today's sports medicine.