It is stubborn. I like Marty Pocious but since he can’t play defense Coach K never puts him in. If Duke played zone they could hide him on D and then have the benefit of his shooting on offense. But since K doesn’t play zone, Marty will ride the pine until he gets better on defense. Like I said, it is stubborn.

And the only way that K’s stubborness won’t clash with the NBA player’s stubborness is if their stubborn about the same things. Otherwise, the players would insist upon their own ways and Coach K would insist upon his and the team would fall apart.

As I’ve said, I’m a Duke fan and I love coach K, but even I can admit that he is stubborn as hell. And that is why he should never coach in the NBA and why this Olympic team has to match K’s inflexability on certain issues.

I don’t mind the arrogance part of the team as long as it doesn’t become over-bearing. Some arrogance is good for the soul of the team and they should be arrogant, they’re superior to every other team and there’s simply no good reason why they should lose, only bad reasons.

But coaches overlooking the value of a zone defense can be annoying and it’s so common in the NBA too. It’s not just one case we’re seeing, it’s common place in the NBA game.

Another example of zone being valuable in the NBA is the 2003 Finals between New Jersey and San Antonio. PJ Carlesimo designed a zone defense specifically for the Nets and it derailed the Nets offense as intended. It was a big factor in the Spurs winning that matchup.

Be interesting to see if that stigma goes away and if so how quickly. Changes have been slow since the rule changes a few years ago.

Hey. Thanks for the comment. I realize that I’m being a bit of an armchair athlete by stating that Coach K is arrogant for sticking with man-to-man.
The fact that Coach K wouldn’t even say “maybe we’ll play zone” tells me that there’s an underlying feeling of superiority amongst the American players. It’s clear that there’s a bit of cultural stigma associated with zone…

MAO:

…which brings me to your Coach K quote. I actually thought about including your referenced K quote in the “Fear the Zone” post but I decided against it at the last minute.

Prior to that “there was no showing off” line, a Chinese reporter asked K why the Americans were dunking it so much. The response from the Americans showed a reluctance to compromise. To some cultures, the dunk is a somewhat “barbaric,” “uncouth” and “excessive” way to score two points. Some countries have much more highly contextualized cultures.

Dunking with the game at hand is much like going to Tokyo and flippantly tossing your business card at a Japanese businessman. Or it’s like using your left hand to give your business card to someone in India. In some instances, a cultural understanding is needed and being unyielding, while draping it as solidfying self-concept, comes off as arrogance or even ignorance.

Those are my thoughts on the zone, which was more of a symptom of the program’s thought rather than a true critique of not playing the 2-3. Thanks for your thoughts, guys.

“There was no showing off. When you dunk, you have to dunk. [China] had three 7-footers. It all depends on what your definition of showing off is. What you saw is hard basketball. We play very hard, and we took it to the basket hard.”

Depends on your definition? Sounds very Clintonian to me.

Coach K’s attitude isn’t surprising. I’d guess that every player on his roster feels the same way.

It’ll be interesting to see what Dean Demopoulos can do with Greg Oden and company in those zones he loves using up in Portland. Dean’s zones might change a few minds in the NBA.

Flip Saunders has probably been the best NBA coach at using zone defenses well over the past few years. His Pistons teams always wanted to play man defense though. The Wolves with Garnett at the head of that zone, that was interesting.

The bottom line is I love Coach K, but he does things his way and doesn’t change it. Maybe it’s the Army background. Whatever it is, that’s how he operates and why he’s perfect for college where you can force players into your system. These NBA guys don’t want to buy into a system and he doesn’t what to deal with their shit. So I that is where the weird statements from Coach K come from and why he is coaching the team the way he is.