The 1-3-1 Zone Defense
March 02, 2009 06:23 PM | General
(6:20 pm)
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| Bob Huggins |
It looks like Bob Huggins has pulled a wild card out of the deck with the 1-3-1 zone defense that he has been using intermittently since the Notre Dame victory Feb. 18.
The 3-zone has been a staple for former WVU coach John Beilein, and Huggins has inherited from Beilein several players suited to play that defense.
“The strength of the 1-3-1 is our length,” Huggins said Sunday.
The most effective lineup to play the 1-3-1 appears to be Devin Ebanks at the top with Da’Sean Butler, Kevin Jones and either Wellington Smith or John Flowers on the wings, with Alex Ruoff playing back along the baseline.
“We just started doing it a week ago and Alex knows so much back there and he can direct things so much better from back there,” Huggins said.
The way MSN radio analyst Jay Jacobs explained it to me this afternoon, with Ebanks out on top in the 3-zone that eliminates the lob pass down inside and makes 3-point shots from the wing much more difficult to attempt. The soft spots are in the corners and weakside rebounding becomes a concern.
“West Virginia has had trouble containing the dribble drive,” Jacobs said.
If anything else, the 3-zone is one more thing that teams must spend time preparing for when they put their West Virginia scouting reports together.
“He was much, much better,” Huggins said of Bryant. “He was a little more assertive offensively and I thought he was better defensively. He did a much better job of keeping people in front of him against South Florida.”
Real Time RPI.com has West Virginia No. 20 with a strength-of-schedule rating of 16th. WVU’s two remaining games are against No. 203 DePaul on Wednesday and No. 10 Louisville on Saturday.
The Cardinals could be playing for the Big East regular season title when they come to Morgantown Saturday night.
He is also 20th in career scoring with 1,339 career points.
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| Da'Sean Butler |
If he plays in 35 games as a senior, to reach 2,000 he will need to average a little more than 17 points per game - which is right around what he is averaging this season.
Only two players have passed the coveted 2,000-point mark in school history: Jerry West (2,309 points) and Hot Rod Hundley (2,180), and both accomplished the feat in three seasons.
Butler is presently 19th in career scoring and he needs just five more points to pass Russel Todd for 18th place with 1,350 points.
To reach WVU’s Top 10 Butler must pass P.G. Greene with 1,655 career points.
West Virginia coach Bill Stewart and his assistant coaches will hold a media luncheon Thursday afternoon at the Milan Puskar Center to talk about Stewart's second spring practice.
All three of WVU’s losses were against quality opponents – Minnesota and Illinois from the Big Ten, and No. 18 Coastal Carolina on the road.
Warren Nolan.com has the Mountaineers 91st in this week’s baseball RPI.
West Virginia opens at home on Friday afternoon against New Jersey Tech at 3 pm. Friday’s game and Sunday’s noon contest against New Jersey Tech will air live on U-92. A link to U-92’s online web stream will available.
U-92 is planning to air 30 regular season WVU baseball games this year, including trips to Charleston for the WVU-Kentucky game March 24, at Notre Dame for a three-game series April 17-19, and at South Florida April 24-26.
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| Judy Thomas |
The West Virginia men are trying to avoid the Tuesday game, and can do so with victories over DePaul and Louisville to close out the regular season.
Four of the school’s ten-most attended women's basketball games have occurred this season.
That's a great job by the Sports Marketing office getting the word out, and also by the fans in the Morgantown-Fairmont-Clarksburg area for coming out and supporting the WVU women's program.
