The answer is in HD.
Alright, for the middle 100, I know that SIU will playing normal tempo. I also know that SIU only plays 10 and has worse overall team stamina than my team which can play 11. Since Drury has the homecourt advantage and I know SIU won't play slowdown, that means that I can get into those post freshmen on the bench by playing uptempo against the normal.
As you mentioned, SIU gets the lion's share of its scoring from its perimeter players; shooting about 19+ 3 point shots per game. Although it will hurt on rebounding, Drury should play +1 3-2 zone which should control the scoring by your guard, somewhat negate SIU's speed advantage on the perimeter and, hopefully, give Drury the foul margin that it will need to win. Knowing that stratagem opens up the interior, Cook will always be double teamed and Schram will be set to "leading scorer". The doubleteaming should not prove to be a disaster too often as it is only Cook and Schram that can do any damage on the interior, Drury has more post depth*, and Cook is a terrible passer and should turn it over a few extra times per game. *Holder is Drury's 5th post, a RS freshman, versus the 4th & 5th for SIU playing post that are true freshman on which I am placing the bullseye.
Byron Jones is starting at SF with poor IQs and a step slow. I can't quite target him in a press, but, all the same, Yates is going to get a bunch of distro set at zero (25-28). Drury needs a perimeter threat and that has to be Smith with a high teens distro at +1 (he'll only be effective if that -3 or -4 defense shows up, but has to do that). The bullseye is on the bench. So, most of the rest of the distro goes evenly to Miles, Duque and Holder at -2. Once Orr is fatigued, then I've got into Spilski, Malone & Schram and the fouls should start to tick down. Olivares and Naccarato cannot compete with your guards on the offensive end, their job is only to distribute the rock (zero distro).
To be sure, it is possible that, when SIU wins, it may be by a big number and would actually score significantly more, in aggregate, than Drury. However, I do believe that the press played with only 10 at inferior stamina, should break down about half the time and I'll pick up that 51st game by random luck (read: injury). My big picture suggestion is that just the threat of SIU playing slowdown, makes the proposition impossible. With SIU at slowdown and fairly fresh, Drury cannot get into SIU's bench consistently enough to be effective with this strategy. My feeling, however, is that, to properly simulate the amount of effort it would take to effectively run a FCP defense well, running slowdown should not have as steep a curve on fatigue "savings" as I have noticed over many games in the past few months or more.
This tactic once worked very effectively for me, but doesn't any more as other players more frequently run that slowdown press and, to my dismay, it seems to work very, very well. That forces most of my teams (all either man or zone) to play slowdown and work from the other direction.
8/11/2012 11:01 PM (edited)