Originally Posted by
Troublemaker
I like using a football analogy for this stuff. Duke's aggressive overplaying man defense is like an aggressive blitzing man defense in football. Early in a football season, an aggressive blitzing defense can force a lot of turnovers and sacks if offenses aren't in sync yet. So, just by the very nature of playing that aggressive style, a defense can receive results above its talent level and be successful early in the season. But as the season progresses, the offense becomes more in sync, the pass protection schemes start to pick up the blitzes, the QB and receivers get their timing down on patterns and start to complete passes downfield, etc etc. Now, if the defense has shutdown corners, a great defensive line, and great all-around talent, then it'll continue to play great regardless of opposing offenses becoming more in-sync. But if there are some pieces missing, then playing defense becomes more of a tradeoff on a play-to-play basis; sometimes the blitzes will work, sometimes the defense gets burnt.
The same thing's happening basketball-wise. Early in the season, offenses weren't in sync enough to properly attack Duke; our aggressive defense was getting the turnovers without getting burnt. Now, later in the season, offenses have defined their roles, point guards are comfortable running the team and penetrating, players know how to move off the ball when the PG penetrates to get into position for a dumpoff or offensive rebound, the PG knows exactly which spot on the floor to get to for the dumpoff angle, etc etc. If Duke were to have Amaker on the ball and Shane rotating on the inside, then it wouldn't even matter that the offenses are more in sync. But we don't so we're experiencing a tradeoff.