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View Full Version : The D against Curry?



cascadedevil
01-07-2009, 11:53 PM
I went to the game in Cameron with a buddy. We both ended up confused on the Duke defensive assignments on Curry. At the beginning of the game it appeared it would primarily fall on Nolan, with lots of switching on the perimeter. However, quickly a different Duke player would start on Curry each time down the floor (some times Kyle, Jon, Nolan, Dave, Greg and even Lance). I understand changing things up during the game to keep a great player off balance, but it looked like Duke was somehow changing this on the fly on each time down the court.

Any help from more discerning eyes?

wisteria
01-07-2009, 11:56 PM
I think everyone guarded Curry on the perimeter, except Zoubek. Maybe everyone just sees this as a great challenge and they all want to have a go. So K was like...heck, everyone gets a try! :D

Ders24
01-08-2009, 12:04 AM
I think a lot of it was just that every screen was switched, which essentially ended up being everyone guarding Curry at some point.

OZZIE4DUKE
01-08-2009, 01:24 AM
I think a lot of it was just that every screen was switched, which essentially ended up being everyone guarding Curry at some point.

That's my take. It was very effective for 25 minutes, and then we forgot how to guard him at all, and we started missing shots and forgot how to run our offense, and .... got lucky that we remembered all this with about 3 minutes left in the game.

pfrduke
01-08-2009, 02:26 AM
I think a lot of it was just that every screen was switched, which essentially ended up being everyone guarding Curry at some point.

That was part of it, but it started earlier than that when Davidson would come up off of a missed shot. It looked like whoever was closest to him would take him every time. Sometimes it was a guard, sometimes it was a forward, but it guaranteed that someone was always in his face (and that he never knew who to expect).

CDu
01-08-2009, 08:32 AM
That was part of it, but it started earlier than that when Davidson would come up off of a missed shot. It looked like whoever was closest to him would take him every time. Sometimes it was a guard, sometimes it was a forward, but it guaranteed that someone was always in his face (and that he never knew who to expect).

Exactly. Duke made it an emphasis to have someone pick Curry up on every missed shot. It didn't matter whether it was Smith or Scheyer or Singler or McClure or Thomas. Somebody had the responsibility of finding Curry in transition. And that person stayed on him until time for a switch on a high screen.

And of course, Davidson did set a lot of high screens resulting in a switch from Smith or Scheyer to Singler or Thomas.

That's just the way Duke plays defense. A lot of man-to-man with a lot of switching on screens and a lot of communication in transition. The matchups become very fluid as a result.

Channing
01-08-2009, 08:43 AM
Something I was very happy to see last night was how we defended the back door cut. It seems to me that the last few years our aggresiveness in the passing lane has left us vulnerable to back door cut after back door cut. However, I noticed good defense on that play time and time again last night.

CDu
01-08-2009, 08:52 AM
Something I was very happy to see last night was how we defended the back door cut. It seems to me that the last few years our aggresiveness in the passing lane has left us vulnerable to back door cut after back door cut. However, I noticed good defense on that play time and time again last night.

We got burned several times by it (especially early). But for the most part we did okay against it, especially in the second half. Of course, the defense as a collective was not as good in the second half, as Davidson scored 43.

tbyers11
01-08-2009, 09:20 AM
I went to the game in Cameron with a buddy. We both ended up confused on the Duke defensive assignments on Curry. At the beginning of the game it appeared it would primarily fall on Nolan, with lots of switching on the perimeter. However, quickly a different Duke player would start on Curry each time down the floor (some times Kyle, Jon, Nolan, Dave, Greg and even Lance). I understand changing things up during the game to keep a great player off balance, but it looked like Duke was somehow changing this on the fly on each time down the court.

Any help from more discerning eyes?

I agree with others on matching up with him as quickly as possible after a missed shot.

After a deadball or made shot it seemed to me that whoever was defending the man that inbounded the ball to Curry (usually Kyle, Lance or Dave because the Davidson inbounder was a "4" man) as he brought it up court would "soft" double Curry as soon as he got to half court and then whichever way Curry went (left or right) the defender on that side would pick him up. It seemed that Nolan, Greg or John were frequently his "primary" defender in this situation but that Kyle, Lance or Dave often picked Curry up as soon as he got into the front court because he dribbled the ball toward them out of the "soft" double team.

ArnieMc
01-08-2009, 10:25 AM
I agree with others on matching up with him as quickly as possible after a missed shot.

After a deadball or made shot it seemed to me that whoever was defending the man that inbounded the ball to Curry (usually Kyle, Lance or Dave because the Davidson inbounder was a "4" man) as he brought it up court would "soft" double Curry as soon as he got to half court and then whichever way Curry went (left or right) the defender on that side would pick him up. It seemed that Nolan, Greg or John were frequently his "primary" defender in this situation but that Kyle, Lance or Dave often picked Curry up as soon as he got into the front court because he dribbled the ball toward them out of the "soft" double team.The "soft" double would continue until the Davidson inbounder caught up with the play, and then whoever was on his side would peel off to cover him leaving the other defender on Curry.