Sunday afternoon, the USA Men’s Basketball team ended a weekend celebration of basketball with an 86-55 win over the French National team. In the game, viewers saw a lot of “Orange” — the 2-3 matchup zone made famous by Jim Boeheim at Syracuse and will more than likely continue to see it, as Coach K realizes that this team doesn’t have a lot of bulk in the middle but does have elite athleticism and is very long.
You used a zone defense again today. Is that sort of an attempt to mitigate the damage?
No. To mitigate damage? We don’t have – - the zone will not be a mitigation – type defense. It will be a defense that we think will have an impact to stop somebody. The zone is good for this team because we have lateral quickness, and we don’t have the bulk. JaVale is really good; he didn’t have bulk either.The center spot is pretty good for us with Tyson and Lamar. But the zone will be used because we think it’s good. That it’s really good for this team and we have one of the best teachers of it in the world in Jim Boeheim to teach it. It’s been a good – - we used a little bit of it today. But we could use a lot of it, especially against a very physical team.
The USA team also won a 3 quarter scrimmage against China on Saturday and the entire 5 boroughs were alive with basketball fever.
Duke Hoop Blog’s Christine (@chrisalyss on Twitter) was in attendance for most of the events this weekend and has some pictures to share after the jump. There are two links below, click and enjoy.
