I don't read the forums often, but I check in from time to time to see what is being discussed. It seems like every once in a while someone brings up whether or not combo defenses can work or even make sense to use. I wanted to offer up my Maryland team in Rupp as a possible success story, although the story is a bit incomplete since we are only 13 games into the season.

The reason it is a success story is not because we are #10 in the top 25 or have a 10 RPI, it is because we are doing it with pure smoke and mirrors and the flexibility of the combo defense is a big part of that in my opinion.

If you look at my roster (link below), I think everyone would agree that it is an average talented team at best. Yet our ability to adjust our defense based on the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents has allowed us to overachieve.

I figured I better post this now before we have to play Duke, UNC and Boston College, where we will probably get hammered because when the talent disparity is that great, smoke and mirrors or combo defenses really don't matter.

Anyway, just wanted to offer this example for anyone wondering if it is worth it to play a combo defense. I would argue my team would be a PIT team if I just played Man or Zone straight up.


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Shoe just got to the final four with the combo defense...another success story

Nice. We are a long way from that level at Maryland. I know there have been teams that have had success with it, but I assume those teams were super talented. I really just wanted to highlight how it can help you will games you have no business winning. I suck at recruiting, so it really helps me stay competitive with less than super talent.

I tried a combo defense (FCP/3-2 Zone) this year at Manhattan and liked the results -- I think we outperformed, relative to our talent. I think that specific combo defense works well together because each of those defenses has specific weaknesses that the combo helps minimize. You can run the press with a shorter bench if you play the combo (we went 20-8 with only 9 guys playing) and we forced more turnovers than a pure zone would.

shoe made that Final Four run without a single player on the Big Board, too.

Can you get preference bumps for both defenses?

Good for both, if you regularly play combo.

i've been doing a mix of press/man, man, and press at Arizona in Smith for the last couple seasons and have had some success with it too.

Posted by jt2xTTU on 1/6/2018 8:29:00 AM (view original):
Can you get preference bumps for both defenses?

When you play a combo you get "good" preferences for both types of defense, as opposed to a "very good" if you played either one by itself.