Re: This game owns my soul.
In my WKU legacy I just had one of the best games I've ever played from a tactical standpoint. I was on the road in North Texas. My WKU is a 81 overall and North Texas is a 79. On a sidenote, their floor/arena is beautiful. If you've never played their go check it out!
My team is comprised of mostly Juniors and Freshmen (my starting 5 consists of 3 Jr's, 1 Soph, and 1 freshman), but my depth is solid...for a mid-major. I have 8 players rated 70 or higher and none of them are above 79. The 79 is a freshman who I just nabbed. He was a HS AA and the Mr. BB for So. Carolina.
North Texas has 2 monsters: a 7-foot Center @ 84 and a 6-foot-8 SF@ 87. The rest of their rotation was a PF who was a low/mid 70 and a bunch of high 60's and even some 50's.
From the jump their center was killing me. He was grabbing every offensive rebound and when I doubled him they'd find the SF and he'd just rip me up with dribble drive and jumpers from all over. I had to go to a 2-3 zone and their SF still killed me, but now exclusively with 3's. Also my team couldn't rebound defensivley so the 2-3 zone wasn't helping that at all. I was down by as much as 14 in the first half, but luckily their bench is awful and I was able to close the gap. I cut the lead down and ended up being down by 8 at the half after a few 3's in the last minute.
Second half I decided to pressure-up on their SF, play man to man and always guard him myself as much as possible. Whenever they got the ball inside to their center I quickly switched to who was guarding him and then called for a double team then immediately switched back to their SF so he wouldn't get left open, basically making their scrub supporting cast beat me. Whenever their SF came out of the game for a rest I moved to a 2-3 zone and that shut down their center for the most part. But still, they were getting second chance points because my starting front court couldn't rebound.
When I was making my mid-half subs at around the 12 min mark I decided to let my starting PF run until his wheels fell off. He's only a 79 Def Reb rating (overall he's a 73), and his back up, a JuCo recruit I brought in to be a career reserve, has a surprising 87 Def Reb rating but he's only a 70 overall. This moved paid of big time!! because my starter was able to score on the NT second unit, and the reserve gave me a huge lift down the stretch.
During the last 5 min, I had my 4 starters and my reserve who rebounds like Ben Wallace in his prime. The computer went cold with my defensive strategy, and my reserve PF was grabbing everything in sight. I ended up taking a 3-point lead in the last 2 min on a put-back, and-1. Next trip down N. Texas' crappy PG tries to force a in-traffic pass to their star SF. the same guy I've been guarding all second half. My High School All American SF deflects the pass to my PG and the race is on
....on the 2-on-1 my PG throws a super high lob to my 6-foot-6 freshman SF (86 dunk rating)...he catches and crushes on the same PG who turned the ball over. Whistle blows, free-throw made. 3-Point Play (second and-1 in as many trips). Up 6 with about 1:20 to play the computer became undone. Bad shots, bad passing, dropped defensive assignments. Even the crowd after that alley-opp went dead. 
This was one of the most satisfying wins I've ever played. Winning on the road in a packed gym playing for the top spot in the conference is one thing. But making tactical changes to shut down a great 1-2 duo with a young team with not much team unity awas so gratifying. I checked some of my stats at the end of the game.
- My bench scored 23 points total
- My reserve PF ended up with 9 rebounds
- I had 4 players in double figures
- Their two stars C=21p-11r, SF=17p w/ 4 3's
I love how in this game the better "team" can overcome a couple of stars, but it doesn't come easy. If I wasn't into this particular game v. NT and not made changes to solidify my rebounding/defensive struggles I probably lose by at least 12. A part of me is dreading a probable re-match in the Conf. tourney, but then again... It would be fun to see how it'd turn out next time around
In my WKU legacy I just had one of the best games I've ever played from a tactical standpoint. I was on the road in North Texas. My WKU is a 81 overall and North Texas is a 79. On a sidenote, their floor/arena is beautiful. If you've never played their go check it out!
My team is comprised of mostly Juniors and Freshmen (my starting 5 consists of 3 Jr's, 1 Soph, and 1 freshman), but my depth is solid...for a mid-major. I have 8 players rated 70 or higher and none of them are above 79. The 79 is a freshman who I just nabbed. He was a HS AA and the Mr. BB for So. Carolina.
North Texas has 2 monsters: a 7-foot Center @ 84 and a 6-foot-8 SF@ 87. The rest of their rotation was a PF who was a low/mid 70 and a bunch of high 60's and even some 50's.
From the jump their center was killing me. He was grabbing every offensive rebound and when I doubled him they'd find the SF and he'd just rip me up with dribble drive and jumpers from all over. I had to go to a 2-3 zone and their SF still killed me, but now exclusively with 3's. Also my team couldn't rebound defensivley so the 2-3 zone wasn't helping that at all. I was down by as much as 14 in the first half, but luckily their bench is awful and I was able to close the gap. I cut the lead down and ended up being down by 8 at the half after a few 3's in the last minute.
Second half I decided to pressure-up on their SF, play man to man and always guard him myself as much as possible. Whenever they got the ball inside to their center I quickly switched to who was guarding him and then called for a double team then immediately switched back to their SF so he wouldn't get left open, basically making their scrub supporting cast beat me. Whenever their SF came out of the game for a rest I moved to a 2-3 zone and that shut down their center for the most part. But still, they were getting second chance points because my starting front court couldn't rebound.
When I was making my mid-half subs at around the 12 min mark I decided to let my starting PF run until his wheels fell off. He's only a 79 Def Reb rating (overall he's a 73), and his back up, a JuCo recruit I brought in to be a career reserve, has a surprising 87 Def Reb rating but he's only a 70 overall. This moved paid of big time!! because my starter was able to score on the NT second unit, and the reserve gave me a huge lift down the stretch.
During the last 5 min, I had my 4 starters and my reserve who rebounds like Ben Wallace in his prime. The computer went cold with my defensive strategy, and my reserve PF was grabbing everything in sight. I ended up taking a 3-point lead in the last 2 min on a put-back, and-1. Next trip down N. Texas' crappy PG tries to force a in-traffic pass to their star SF. the same guy I've been guarding all second half. My High School All American SF deflects the pass to my PG and the race is on
....on the 2-on-1 my PG throws a super high lob to my 6-foot-6 freshman SF (86 dunk rating)...he catches and crushes on the same PG who turned the ball over. Whistle blows, free-throw made. 3-Point Play (second and-1 in as many trips). Up 6 with about 1:20 to play the computer became undone. Bad shots, bad passing, dropped defensive assignments. Even the crowd after that alley-opp went dead. This was one of the most satisfying wins I've ever played. Winning on the road in a packed gym playing for the top spot in the conference is one thing. But making tactical changes to shut down a great 1-2 duo with a young team with not much team unity awas so gratifying. I checked some of my stats at the end of the game.
- My bench scored 23 points total
- My reserve PF ended up with 9 rebounds
- I had 4 players in double figures
- Their two stars C=21p-11r, SF=17p w/ 4 3's
I love how in this game the better "team" can overcome a couple of stars, but it doesn't come easy. If I wasn't into this particular game v. NT and not made changes to solidify my rebounding/defensive struggles I probably lose by at least 12. A part of me is dreading a probable re-match in the Conf. tourney, but then again... It would be fun to see how it'd turn out next time around
Comment