Deacon Offense Back Up and Running
Oliver Purnell is all right by me. He takes his job far more seriously than he takes himself, and he knows what he’s doing. In my limited dealings with him, I’ve found him to be straight forward and insightful. And he’s really good basketball coach.
But in one respect, he might be the most predictable coach in the ACC. His teams are going to come get you defensively and they’re going to the basket when they get the ball. That’s the way he does things. That’s how his teams play.
Tonight Purnell’s Tigers played a Wake Forest team going through all kinds of throes trying to score in a half-court game. Last time out the Deacons allowed FSU to score only four second-half field goals, out of 19 heaves, and still lost because they couldn’t score more than 22 points in the second half against the Seminoles’ set defenses. So I asked Purnell if he had any apprehensions about opening the court with pressure defense against a team that has been going though such rough sledding in the half court.
I knew his answer before he gave it.
He declined, in effect, to comment on any problems Wake might be having in the half-court offense, but did say that pressing a player as fast as Ish Smith could be problematic. He also said that, apprehension or no apprehension, Clemson is going to press on defense.
“There’s always apprehension,’’ Purnell said. “But that’s what you do.’‘
The press got to Wake enough to cause problems, and obviously contributed to the Deacons’ less-than-grand total of 18 turnovers. Ish was really shaky early with five first-half turnovers, before settling down to commit just one the rest of the way. And Al-Farouq Aminu, handling the ball at times like it was a wet bar of soap, also piled up six. So it’s not like the Tiger press was useless.
But what it did was open up the court and let the Deacons loose. Aminu dunked off the fast break about four minutes into the game and said later it was a basket he really needed. “It had been awhile since I scored,’’ he said. For pretty much every turnover, there was an easy basket—something that had been mighty hard to come these last couple of weeks. The Deacons scored 18 points off fast breaks and 19 on the offensive boards, at times because the first charge at the basket had opened up the rebounding lanes.
The Deacons look better when they run. Most teams do. And on this day they can thank Oliver Purnell for giving them a chance to.
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By Dan Collins on 03/08/2010 (1:05 am)
Comments
I get it…up and running…because it was an uptempo game….haha, clever.
NC on 03/09/2010 (6:13 pm)
Dan,
You nailed it better than any I know. Those who support the Deacs should thank the Clemson coach for his stype of defense and offense, because Deacs can run faster than most, or Ish can lead the parade faster than any around, Deacs defend pretty good against 3s and a big person usually. Yep, hopefully team re-gained a bit of confidence, too.
Bobby
bobby h griffin on 03/08/2010 (5:41 pm)
Absolute joke that Aminu wasn’t named 1st Team All-ACC. He led all major conferences in rebounding and had 18 double-doubles.
Paul on 03/08/2010 (5:16 pm)
I didn’t see much of a difference from the previous 4 games other than the gift Clemson gave us in trying to press Ish and creating pseudo-fast break opportunities for us.
Our half court offense was still nonexistant. We still had far too many TO’s (12 between Ish and Aminu alone!!). LD still couldn’t shoot. Ari still sat on the bench for the majority of the game. Chas still spent more effort trying to get under the skin of the other team’s players than posting them up (this actually entertains me, so I’m ok with it as long as we win). Aminu was absolutely atrocious if he was more than 2 feet away from the basket on offense. If I had a parrot (I don’t and never will) the first thing it would learn to say is “give it up!” when Aminu is leading a fast break. The second thing would be “don’t even think about that shot!” when LD/Ish/Chas/Aminu pump fakes a three pointer. Why would any defender do anything but smirk when those 4 act as if a 3 pointer was a possibility?
Had Clemson sat back in a 2-3 zone, we’d be 8-8 and (still) calling for Dino’s head. We still couldn’t beat Cleveland State’s zone.
John on 03/08/2010 (4:26 pm)
Great win, lots of intensity, lots of effort, lots of turnovers. But, like you said, for selfish reasons, an afternoon start is better than playing at 10 PM. It is also nice to see the players relaxed; nice to know that Dino is loved once again; great call of his on the CJ three point bank shot as time expired; nice to know that love extends to the foul line; nice to know that love extends to controlling the boards; nice to know that love extends to a full house: nice to know that love extends to optimism going into Greensboro.
However, I do not feel the love coming from SC to Coach OP. I am willing to bet that the Tigers are in full roar wanting to know why he did not zone Wake into submission. Regardless of “that’s how his team plays”, an up-tempo game is not a good game plan for an Ish Smith controlled offense. If he could have forced Aminu to handle the ball more, he might have had a chance. Watching the Wake/State game we allowed that Sidney had to be the dumbest coach in the land because he was playing us man to man, surely he must have a scouting report telling him that we cannot handle a zone offense, so he switched to a pressure zone and that was that. Purcell should have called Lowe and asked for advice, forget “who we are”, slap a zone defense consisting of the team trainer, a bearded sports writer, and three guys from the Y, and you could give Wake all sorts of problems with a half court offense. As we play later in March, against a foe that relies on scouting reports, expect to see zones, and we need to answer. And best of all, we will love Dino when he calls for CJ to hit that shot again.
Nice to be on track, looking forward to the tournament.
EJ on 03/08/2010 (12:04 pm)
Good win for us last night. Congratulations to the team for entering the postseason on the right foot, and especially to the seniors for ending their final regular season with a win.
I was particularly pleased to see that we went eighteen for twenty-two at the line last night. That is the type of focus we are going to need from here on out.
DC on 03/08/2010 (9:28 am)
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