This entry is cross-posted on TNR's blog, Posting Up:
Richard makes a number of good observations on Georgetown's adaptation of the "Princeton offense."
John Thompson III has taken the principles of what he learned at Princeton, both as a player and coach, and has shown that he will allow flexibility within the 'system' to take advantage of the skills of his individual players (e.g., Will Venable at Princeton, son of former MLB player Max Venable; Jeff Green at Georgetown). The result has been a team that is fun to watch and is very efficient at scoring (#1 in Adjusted Efficiency according to stat maven Ken Pomeroy). (Full disclosure: I have known JTIII for close to 20 years; when I was freshman, he was a senior, and I spent of most of that year's practices chasing him around.)
As far as playing zone, it does make the motion part of the offense more difficult to run. However, long shots produce long rebounds, and if Roy Hibbert and/or DaJuan Summers get on the offensive boards, my guess is that Coach Skinner won't stay in a zone for long.
A few other thoughts from Day One:
-- Although we were warned about Texas Tech, I was surprised at how meekly they went out yesterday. The key play was with BC leading, 72-70, Tyrese Rice got loose on a backdoor, blew the layup, chased down the rebound (despite three red jerseys), and then laid the ball back in, without anyone 'putting a helmet' on him. Is Bob Knight still coaching the Red Raiders?
-- Two huge runs by big underdogs: #14 Penn had a 21-6 run to open the second half and briefly take the lead over #3 Texas A&M at 39-37; and #16 Eastern Kentucky closed a 27 point deficit to 4 with just over 16 minutes left against #1 UNC. Both favorites won, but not impressively, especially for those of you who have both teams going to the Final Four.
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