Why doesn't ISU press much?

bawbie

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 17, 2006
54,372
47,074
113
Cedar Rapids, IA
Yeah, the running game worked so well last night huh? Wouldn't have wanted to expel any energy on a press. LOL

UNI took ISU out of their running game. So why not try a press?

The real answer is because Fred didn't call for it. Call into the call-in show next week and ask him if you really want an answer, because only he knows for sure.

Or maybe you think we should fire him and make you coach so we can press?
 

Dryburn

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2006
10,033
517
113
Somewhere in the U.S.
The real answer is because Fred didn't call for it. Call into the call-in show next week and ask him if you really want an answer, because only he knows for sure.

Or maybe you think we should fire him and make you coach so we can press?

Wow, another smart-*** answer. Of course I would expect that from you.
 

CyJack13

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2010
12,666
1,665
113
I think he OP answered his own question with the line "with the guards we have". I'm a little confused as to why people say we don't have the depth to press but yet have we have depth to play a fast paced offense? Pressing can actually help hide problems with depth by forcing the opponent to be more deliberate with the ball. Dana Altman used this method to perfection at Creighton, his bench routinely went 8-10 deep even though he probably didn't have much quality in the depth he was able to get good minutes out of his bench. He didn't press the entire game but would throw it on after a time out or some subs, it causes your opponent to use more of the shot clock, thus gaining extra rest for your starters.Pressing, if only for a few minutes is a great way to force your opponent to make adjustments and slow down what they are doing and buy extra rest time for your starters. IMO any decent coach has 4 or 5 different presses they can throw on at various times during the game. Maybe those are things that Freddie will add over time.

Because it's true. Playing an uptempo style does not tire you out near as much as pressing does. It's a lot easier to just run than it is to be in a defensive position while you're trying to press. We had no B12 quality back up guards last night, and no I don't Palo is B12 quality maybe some day but not now. Our starters played 38, 38 and 36 minutes. Asking them to press too, would be ridiculous. Pressing just once or twice isn't going to speed up UNI. UNI is extremely disciplined at playing at their pace, and it works great for them, they're not going to get into an up and down game just because you press them a couple times.
 

dualthreat

Well-Known Member
Oct 8, 2008
11,013
3,882
113
too tired? Dear god

the game gets stopped for a timeout or a foul or an out of bounds once every minute anyway
 

BooneCy

Well-Known Member
May 30, 2006
1,469
345
83
Lutz was on record saying that we will be pressing more next year, but with the amount of players that we have to rotate, it is worth the risk of tiring these guys out and then forcing ourselves to play to our weakness, the half court offense. The answer to the question is depth. The coaches want to, but have decided to not take the risk. You might not like their decision, but that is the answer.
 

heitclone

Well-Known Member
Jun 21, 2009
16,627
14,429
113
45
Way up there
Because it's true. Playing an uptempo style does not tire you out near as much as pressing does. It's a lot easier to just run than it is to be in a defensive position while you're trying to press. We had no B12 quality back up guards last night, and no I don't Palo is B12 quality maybe some day but not now. Our starters played 38, 38 and 36 minutes. Asking them to press too, would be ridiculous. Pressing just once or twice isn't going to speed up UNI. UNI is extremely disciplined at playing at their pace, and it works great for them, they're not going to get into an up and down game just because you press them a couple times.

I get what your'e saying but I think people on here aren't getting that the Missouri style of press isn't the only type of press. You can get a slow tempo team out of their rythm with the press. If you would have read anything after the sentence you quoted you'd have seen I wasn't calling for a Nolan Richardson 90 feet of hell. UNI being a disciplined team is excatly why you would press them, periodically throw something at them they aren't used to just to get them out of their comfort zone. Even if its only for a few trips up the court it forces them to adjust. This should be done every game atleast a few times, it can also give future opponents other things to get ready for. Why be predictable? Why let your opponent be comfortable?
 

CyJack13

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2010
12,666
1,665
113
I get what your'e saying but I think people on here aren't getting that the Missouri style of press isn't the only type of press. You can get a slow tempo team out of their rythm with the press. If you would have read anything after the sentence you quoted you'd have seen I wasn't calling for a Nolan Richardson 90 feet of hell. UNI being a disciplined team is excatly why you would press them, periodically throw something at them they aren't used to just to get them out of their comfort zone. Even if its only for a few trips up the court it forces them to adjust. This should be done every game atleast a few times, it can also give future opponents other things to get ready for. Why be predictable? Why let your opponent be comfortable?

I just don't think the risks would outweigh the rewards with the personnel we had last night. Our entire bench was made up of freshman, I don't like the odds of us successfully executing a press and flipping back and forth between pressing and halfcourt d compared to us giving UNI easy baskets.

As we get more depth, I'd be all for it. But again on a team with really no B12 quality back up guards, it just wouldn't make sense.
 

clone52

Well-Known Member
Jun 27, 2006
8,326
4,467
113
There is a huge difference between running a lot and playing defense. Defense requires good defensive position. I guarentee you its much easy to run up and down the floor 20 times than it is to do a defensive slide up and down the floor 20 times. It is soooo much harder on your legs.

I agree with the idea that in a game like last night, IDEALLY we'd throw on the press to push the tempo. Even if it meant we gave up a few easy buckets, the added tempo should help. But for a team with only 4 guards, its not going to happen. Just don't have the depth.

Another problem with last night, we had massive post foul trouble and that was with a rediculously slow game. Throw on press and and you're going to add a significant number of positions to the game for which our post players to foul.
 

heitclone

Well-Known Member
Jun 21, 2009
16,627
14,429
113
45
Way up there
I just don't think the risks would outweigh the rewards with the personnel we had last night. Our entire bench was made up of freshman, I don't like the odds of us successfully executing a press and flipping back and forth between pressing and halfcourt d compared to us giving UNI easy baskets.

As we get more depth, I'd be all for it. But again on a team with really no B12 quality back up guards, it just wouldn't make sense.

I couldn't agree with you more and maybe last night wasn't the night to do it but we've played 6 cupcakes before that. I just don't think our guards can hold up playing that many minutes in big 12 play. We're going to have find some way to keep them fresh. Like I said in my original post I think Freddie will implement some of these things when he thinks they are necessary. Sometimes I forget that he's learing as he goes and the game is sped up about 100 mph for the head coach. It will probably take him a year or so to really feel like he's seeing all of the game.
 

clone52

Well-Known Member
Jun 27, 2006
8,326
4,467
113
Because it's true. Playing an uptempo style does not tire you out near as much as pressing does. It's a lot easier to just run than it is to be in a defensive position while you're trying to press. We had no B12 quality back up guards last night, and no I don't Palo is B12 quality maybe some day but not now. Our starters played 38, 38 and 36 minutes. Asking them to press too, would be ridiculous. Pressing just once or twice isn't going to speed up UNI. UNI is extremely disciplined at playing at their pace, and it works great for them, they're not going to get into an up and down game just because you press them a couple times.


I agree. UNI has an experience backcourt, so I don't think throwing a press on for a handful of plays was going to mess them up.

The problem last night wasn't our defense. It wasn't really our offense (we missed a lot of shots we've been making all year). The problem last night was rebounding. A better job on the defensive boards would have more of an affect on the pace than a press would. Our offense is much better off a rebound than off a made basket. More defensive rebounds would have led to better shots and likely more made shots. We knew rebounding would be a problem and it likely will be all year.
 

clone52

Well-Known Member
Jun 27, 2006
8,326
4,467
113
I couldn't agree with you more and maybe last night wasn't the night to do it but we've played 6 cupcakes before that. I just don't think our guards can hold up playing that many minutes in big 12 play. We're going to have find some way to keep them fresh. Like I said in my original post I think Freddie will implement some of these things when he thinks they are necessary. Sometimes I forget that he's learing as he goes and the game is sped up about 100 mph for the head coach. It will probably take him a year or so to really feel like he's seeing all of the game.

Not pressing is one of those ways. Look at it this way, probably the best chance for a team with 9-10 players and really on 6 that get crunch time minutes to succeed is to limit possessions, both to ease the wear and tear on those players legs but to also shorten the game. Relying on 6 players is only 30 fouls and at a breakneck pace, you are likely to have foul trouble. Thats really the McDermott strategy.

On the opposite end, we could run a fast tempo and press like hell and just burn people out. It would hurt our shooting and we'd lose legs near the end of the year.

Our staff is taking a middle road approach.

Our best bet to push the pace is to be solid on the defensive glass and to generate turnovers. Against a good team, both of those are going to be tough. Look at last night, we struggled on the defensive glass, we didn't generate turnovers (because of UNI's experience) and we missed open shots. A triple whammy. We still had a chance to win the game. UNI's not as good as last year, but they'll still be a decent team.
 

enisthemenace

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2009
13,970
10,175
113
Runnells, IA
I get what your'e saying but I think people on here aren't getting that the Missouri style of press isn't the only type of press. You can get a slow tempo team out of their rythm with the press. If you would have read anything after the sentence you quoted you'd have seen I wasn't calling for a Nolan Richardson 90 feet of hell. UNI being a disciplined team is excatly why you would press them, periodically throw something at them they aren't used to just to get them out of their comfort zone. Even if its only for a few trips up the court it forces them to adjust. This should be done every game atleast a few times, it can also give future opponents other things to get ready for. Why be predictable? Why let your opponent be comfortable?

You (and others) are right. The Missouri style press isn't the only kind, but damn if it isn't the best.

Before reading the whole thread, I was going to suggest an in depth compare of the athletes for the two teams (Iowa State and Missouri). I'm talking height, weight, wingspan, average mins per game per player, etc.

I would love to someday have that kind of press, but would settle for a really good 3/4 court, trapping press.
 

price26

Well-Known Member
Sep 1, 2006
2,026
47
48
Ames, IA
Pressing wouldn't have changed the tempo of last nights game. UNI would have patiently worked the ball into the frontcourt and continued to use most of the shot clock.

Not losing the rebounding battle (as FH said after the game), affected tempo more than the press ever would have.

The press could have changed the tempo, yes, but with no depth we can't run a hard core press, that is what it takes to change the tempo.
 

Clone9

Well-Known Member
Nov 12, 2006
3,266
1,177
113
Boston, MA
Maybe Fred has tried it and our guys just aren't very good at it yet. Learning to press well is difficult, and it takes a lot of practice. If you're not good at it, you will get shredded for easy baskets.

In principle, I agree with the OP that a press could have gotten UNI out of their rhythm and given us an advantage. Probably a combination of lack of practice and lack of depth (especially with foul trouble) kept us from doing it. I'm certainly not going to second guess Freddy at this stage of his tenure.

Maybe this team could get good enough at some sort of pressure half-court defense (1-3-1?) to utilize against teams that try and slow us down. This may be somewhat of a compromise between pressure and effort, although a 1-3-1 is still pretty demanding. However, I'd LOVE to see Ejim up top getting in the way of a few passes and getting some easy dunks. Didn't Wayne use Rashon and his long arms and crazy hops this way from time-to-time?
 

CycloneErik

Well-Known Member
Jan 31, 2008
108,169
53,424
113
Jamerica
rememberingdoria.wordpress.com
I get what your'e saying but I think people on here aren't getting that the Missouri style of press isn't the only type of press. You can get a slow tempo team out of their rythm with the press. If you would have read anything after the sentence you quoted you'd have seen I wasn't calling for a Nolan Richardson 90 feet of hell. UNI being a disciplined team is excatly why you would press them, periodically throw something at them they aren't used to just to get them out of their comfort zone. Even if its only for a few trips up the court it forces them to adjust. This should be done every game atleast a few times, it can also give future opponents other things to get ready for. Why be predictable? Why let your opponent be comfortable?

Right. It doesn't have to be all-frenetic all the time.

Plenty of ways to press.
I'm not angry or offended that we don't do it.

I don't think depth is the answer. Tennessee will press full court no matter how many players they have, and they can do it effectively. Even with Bruce Pearl's son in there as one link.

I don't think pressing all the time would be the answer for us. I do think the idea of throwing something in there to throw UNI (or some other team) off for a little bit is interesting, and it could be a good discussion if we let it be.
 

Cyforce

Well-Known Member
Nov 24, 2009
17,268
13,077
113
Des Moines
I think he OP answered his own question with the line "with the guards we have". I'm a little confused as to why people say we don't have the depth to press but yet have we have depth to play a fast paced offense? Pressing can actually help hide problems with depth by forcing the opponent to be more deliberate with the ball. Dana Altman used this method to perfection at Creighton, his bench routinely went 8-10 deep even though he probably didn't have much quality in the depth he was able to get good minutes out of his bench. He didn't press the entire game but would throw it on after a time out or some subs, it causes your opponent to use more of the shot clock, thus gaining extra rest for your starters.Pressing, if only for a few minutes is a great way to force your opponent to make adjustments and slow down what they are doing and buy extra rest time for your starters. IMO any decent coach has 4 or 5 different presses they can throw on at various times during the game. Maybe those are things that Freddie will add over time.

This is a good point. DP and Palo are both better defenders than offensive
players. If those two combined for about 30 minutes at the head
of the press wearing down our opponent those become quality minutes out of our bench.