BearDownU - The #1 Arizona Wildcats Sports Source!

Just watched on replay...and looking at box score...this was an even game. Almost identical shooting percentages from everywhere, rebounds, steals, TO's, assists, fouls were all virtually even...and the score was only 2 points different.

HOWEVER...

Duke is better coached and has better athletes and they shot SLIGHTLY better form 3 point range (17.6% vs. 14.3%) and they won. MOST critically, Tre Jones, likely the most important starter for Duke and their PG..was out.

A good shooting 3 point team with decent athletes would have beaten Duke by 20...(see: UNRANKED Syracuse, not really a team loaded with talent but very athletic, 1 game before, beat Duke by 4 when Tre Jones when down 6 minutes into the game).

THE PACK LINE DOES NOT WORK in the modern game against elite athletic teams that have a good coach. Virginia will, once again, choke in the tournament once they run into an Oregon, Tennessee or Michigan State type team.

When played as it was designed, the Pack-Line is designed to limited penetration, which it does well, but it consciously ignores three point shooters (in the corner, especially), and allows only the defender on the ball to extend beyond the 16' line. It was created to compensate for teams with less height (good for us this year) and less athleticism (NEVER the case at AZ). It is a defense designed not to loose rather than to win and that is exactly what it has done for most every team that plays it, including us. Virginia and AZ have two of the best over all records over the past 5-10 years and but for our respective rankings, conference championships and winning %'s, we both have a HORRIBLE tournament record given our peer group that has similar regular season performances (Kentucky, Duke, Michigan State, Kansas...)

NO PACK line D has ever won Final Four game. EVER. Only Virginia reached the Final Four playing it and did so only because of major upsets in their bracket that year.

Do we expect every pack-line defense to go undefeated throughout the year?  They lost (on the road) to a team that will likely be in the Top-3 until the season ends.

Despite only having 6 players drafted into the NBA & coaching at schools (Wazzu/UVA) that should be dominated by their conference opponents, Tony Bennett has a 71% winning percentage...only 2% less than Lute's career.  NOTE: that includes a 4-5 year "rebuilding period" at Virginia because their program was pretty bad prior to his arrival.

He's a young coach that beat out UNC/Dook to win the ACC in 3 of the last 5 years.  If you ask me...the Pack-line works for him.