The 1-3-1 wait is this an old northwestern thread?

[march madness]

The dreaded 1-3-1 has reared it's head. Now back when we had only 1 3pt shooter in our starting lineup years ago I understood this.

We go 5-9, 6-1, and a skinny 6-5 maybe on the perimeter. We start no one who could punish a team for playing the 1-3-1 on the boards. Smart move by Michigan. Elinates Mo posting up. Not that this team cannot beat a 1-3-1 as Dre has the quickness, we have 4 shooters on the floor. Lots of bonehead plays, bad passes, and just a feeling of unpreparedness.

 

[Bad Gopher]

I love trapping zone defenses. They put pressure on the offense in a different way than man to man.

 

[ruppertflywheel]

Northwestern gave Tubby all sorts of problems with it.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

While we had our fits in the very beginning I felt that Pitino had the right offensive mindset for the 1-3-1. People expecting any unique offense to solve that defense are like those who expect to read the meaning of life in a book, you're not going to find it. Thats why the 1-3-1 is effective, because there isn't really a "set" that will break it other than hitting wide open shots. Hitting middle and looking opposite, or dumping the ball over the top to a corner, or hitting the corner and looking for a diving middle guy are the general rules of cracking the 1-3-1. We missed numerous wide open 3s, missed a couple layups as well. Hit those threes or convert on a dump down to the low post a couple times and boom they are out of it and look like idiots for running it.

Instead, we dribbled into the throat of the zone, missed a three or two, threw a ball over a guards head and boom we are losing by 2 points. Beating zones is all about making wide open shots. You're a genius if you hit em, an idiot if you dont.

Edit: Contrast that to what I remember from Tubby which was a standard 2 1 2 with guards that constantly tried to throw over a top defender for the first 15 to 20 seconds of the possession.... Madness.