2-3 Zone

Rambob

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Did anyone else notice that when we made our last run at the end of the game, we had pulled out of the press and out of our usual man defense and had dropped back into a 2-3 zone? Rhode Island had no answer for that tactic and had a real hard time even getting a good shot off. I thought that was a brilliant piece of coaching.
 
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It was 11 fouls to 4 against at that point, and Shaka really had no choice. That said, it was the right move and worked well except for a couple of unacceptable offensive rebounds we gave up. The zone was aggressive, and we made them take heavily contested shots.
 

VCU Finance 2008

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I am not putting Grant down, because he had one of the most successful coaching runs in VCU history, but it seems like Smart does a lot more coaching. More adjustments are made during the game and particularly at the end of games regarding defense and substitutions. Has any one else noticed this as well or am I just seeing things?
 
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VCU Finance 2008 said:
I am not putting Grant down, because he had one of the most successful coaching runs in VCU history, but it seems like Smart does a lot more coaching. More adjustments are made during the game and particularly at the end of games regarding defense and substitutions. Has any one else noticed this as well or am I just seeing things?
I think Shaka learned alot after the WMU game and since then I have only seen positive things from him. I want a little more spark from him, but I have no complaints.
 
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Smart is good but you gotta believe Coach Rhodes has a lot of influence. All the games I've seen, Coach Rhodes is out there coaching along side Smart.

IMO, we don't zone but considering RI shoots poorly and Larry in the middle the game wouldn't have been close.
 
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MADRAM said:
Smart is good but you gotta believe Coach Rhodes has a lot of influence. All the games I've seen, Coach Rhodes is out there coaching along side Smart.

I agree. Looks like Coach Smart assembled one h.ell of a staff.
 

VCU Finance 2008

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Yes, I should have made the comparison between the two staffs rather than just the individual head coaches.
 
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Wouldn't this make sense though since Rhodes has more college level head coaching experience, even though it's just D-III? Which is more valued, D-III head coaching experience or D-I assistant coaching experience?

I'm very impressed with the whole lot of them!

MADRAM said:
Smart is good but you gotta believe Coach Rhodes has a lot of influence. All the games I've seen, Coach Rhodes is out there coaching along side Smart.
 
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The one thing that really impressed me with the staff last night was that they played the hot hand. Which means they coached to win not just make guys happy with the amount of minutes they get. Jay was having an off night and was pulled in favor of Brandon who responded with a career high. Yes Jay is a starter but heck everyone is going to have an off night, no big deal, he sat for a while, the team won and he will get his chance to light up W & M on Saturday.

As easy as that may sound too many coaches would have stuck by their starters through heck or high water. Also the switch to 2-3 was the right call. RI can't shoot 3's and they were getting into the paint. If we had done a better job of getting DEF rebounds we could have stayed in the 2-3 and crushed them.

Can't wait to get Jamie and Big T involved. Right now the only thing we are very pour at is rebounding and that is a big part of the game.

But our guards are incredible. Their play alone will get us in the 20 something win area this year.
 

ViCtorioUs

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I really liked
1.The timing and effectivenes of the 2-3 zone.
2.That our press wore them down in the second half.
3.The energy off the bench especially from Brandon and Ed.
4.The smallish but energetic crowd.

I didn't like
1.The poor rebounding outside of Larry.
2.The high number of turnovers.
3.The poor foul shooting down the stretch.
 
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