|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 6, 2012Jeff BzdelikQ. Last year you played Virginia, and they didn't have Mike Scott. Now he's playing excellent basketball for them. Wonder how tough it is to prepare for his presence in the lineup? COACH BZDELIK: Well, he's a real tough match‑up, he really is. He'll post up mid range. He can shoot over the top of you. You put length on him, and he scores in a variety of ways. He can take bigger guys out. It's hard. You can't double on him, because he does catch it off the block in that mid range area and score. He's got great bulk, great size. He's cagey. He understands even if you try to double him where the double team is coming from and they're prepared for that. He's playing at a very high level, and really just gives that team a lot of confidence. Q. Does that mid range game that he has make him different from other big men that you face? COACH BZDELIK: Without question. I think that mid range game in many ways has been lost in the game of basketball. You either have big guys that have to catch it very deep to score, or you have guys that want to shoot the three or take it all the way to the hole. So he's got really good foot work. He'll set good screens. That's another thing he does really well. He sets really good screens. Who is going to be most open often? The screener by setting a good screen, causing a stun, causing your defender to lose your position on the ball and guarding him. Then he can establish a deep, low post position or a position off the block and catching the ball. He does a great job of screening. He's skilled. He's smart. He's strong, and he's very mature as a fifth‑year senior. So that mid range game is something that you don't see that a whole lot anymore in the game of basketball. Q. Tony Bennett said a little while ago that they're essentially playing six players now. Are there advantages to that? Because obviously there are some disadvantages. COACH BZDELIK: Well, I think the way they play, they limit their possessions. I'm sure Tony is keeping his players fresh. He's got some experience there, so probably doesn't have to go as long in practice. But they're a well‑oiled machine is the way I would phrase it right now. They run their offense very well. It's not overly complicated. They just do what they do very, very well. They read screens and use screens very effectively. They defend well as a team and also individually. This is a very, very good basketball team and Tony has done a great job with them. I think that you can have a little bit of a shorter bench when you have some experienced players. I think as freshmen, if you don't have a lot of depth with real young players, that becomes more of a problem, because they're just still getting used to the college game, the physicality of the game, the length of the concentration necessary and the amount of games. It's more of a problem if you have an inexperienced and young team. Q. Coach, Virginia's strength has probably been their defense, obviously. Florida State is another team you played that's renowned for their defense but they seem to do different things. Can you talk about Virginia's defense and what makes it unique as opposed to say, Florida State? COACH BZDELIK: I think Virginia's defense, yeah, there are philosophies. Virginia's defense is more of a packed kind of defense where they're putting really good ball pressure on you, but their players off the ball are in gaps. So you really don't have any space to drive. Whereas, some other defenses everybody's more tied into their own man and not allowing you to catch it. Virginia does a great job of, like I said, you get nothing easy with Virginia. Their offense helps their defense. I think that's a key phrase. Their offense helps their defense because they don't turn it over. If they do turn it over, they're good turnovers. Turnovers that they can get back, set their defense up, get it set and defend. Whereas bad turnovers are turnovers out there out on the perimeter where the defense steals the ball and goes in for a dunk, and you can't defend that. So their offense helps their defense by controlling the ball, manufacturing high‑percentage shots, not turning the ball over in a bad way. Then they get back quickly in transition. They get their defense set, and they don't allow you to get to the rim easily. So it's more of a pack defense where they really plug holes, so to speak. Q. Is there one specific thing you emphasize to try to attack that or exploit that? COACH BZDELIK: When you get into gaps, you have to play off two feet and kick it, and get that ball moving from one side of the court to the other side and make their defense move. Good defensive teams have all five guys moving on every pass. Well, sound offense would be to get that ball from one side of the court to the other with great spacing and player involved movements to keep them moving, so that they're not quite set into the gaps where they want to protect the rim with. That's really important. Of course, getting stops and getting defensive rebounds and getting the ball down in transition, and swinging that ball quickly before the defense can get set and organized is sound offense as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|